Written to the people nobody wrote to

Hear how Peter's letter opens, because it's easy to skim past. It isn't sent to Jerusalem or to a famous church, but "to the elect who are exiles of the Dispersion" across five provinces: believers pushed out to the edges and meeting in homes. Before he says a word about suffering or holiness, Peter tells them who they are. Chosen comes first.

In the first Scattered session, Jeff Reed explained why that address is so unlikely. The letter isn't written to the Christians in Jerusalem or the big city churches, he said. "They're just written to people that are meeting in homes. They're written to nobody." And Peter calls those nobodies the elect. They weren't shut out for being outside the building. They were sent.

That matters for anyone serving people they rarely or never see in person. Ministry in a Discord server, a Twitch chat or a WhatsApp group can feel like ministry at the edge of the map, off the record, not quite counted. WordiGirl, who has hosted a Discord server since 2020, put it this way: "sometimes you should feel called to be in the space because you might be the only Jesus that anybody sees in that space." First Peter says the edge of the map is an address God writes to. Distance from the centre is not distance from God's choosing.

Verse 2 explains how these exiles were chosen: "according to the foreknowledge of God the Father and sanctified by the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ." None of that depends on where they live or who notices them. If you're doing ministry where nobody else sees it, apply this first: you were known before you were scattered, and you were chosen for the place you are.