Hiraeth

1 Peter 1:3-5

Born Again to a Living Hope

[3] Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, [4] to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, [5] who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

We are born again through the resurrection of Jesus, and have the hope of eternity with him through God’s power. We are in this world, but not of this world. Our home is heaven.

“Early in the twentieth century there was a young Welsh boy by the name of Jones. In search of a better education, his parents sent him away to boarding school — far from home. Years later the boy, Martyn, would reflect on his experience:

I must add that I suffered at that time from a — sickness — which has remained with me all along life’s path — and that was hiraeth [the Welsh word for longing or homesickness]. — Hiraeth is an awful thing, as also is the feeling of loneliness, of being destitute and unhappy which stem from it. It is difficult to define hiraeth, but to me it means the consciousness of [a person] being out of his home area and that which is dear to him. —My three years at [boarding school] were very unhappy and that was only because of this longing. I had bosom companions there — and I enjoyed the lessons . . . but! I remember as if it were yesterday sitting in [church on Sunday night when I had come home for the weekend] and suddenly being hit by the thought — “This time tomorrow night I shall be in my lodgings [at school]” — and all at once I would be down in the depths.1

Every Christian experiences something analogous to what Jones called hiraeth . In fact, hiraeth might be the perfect word to describe the spiritual constitution of Peter’s early readers. The metaphor in the opening verse that likened them to “elect exiles of the dispersion” gave us a hint of this very thing. For everyone unfamiliar with Old Testament history, the “elect exiles of the dispersion” were by nature a scattered and conflicted people. As God’s elect they wrestled with what it meant to be the object of his affections, yet seemingly abandoned to out-of-the-way places. As exiles they struggled with questions of cultural engagement — of what it meant to conduct themselves as God’s people living under an ungodly rule.” Preaching the Word Commentary - 1 Peter