April 20, 2008

1 Peter 2:2-10 “Living Stones”

The last two Sundays, there has been this common thread in my messages –what it means to be a follower of Jesus the Christ. Two weeks ago, in his letter to a Christian community that was struggling to establish its sense of identity and commitment, the Apostle Peter spoke of accepting a ‘new life’ given us without price and the necessary investment in that life. Last Sunday, he challenged his readers – as well as us - to think about what it might mean to follow Jesus ‘for real.’ And now, today’s text from 1 Peter seems to be about where we are to go from here – having become ‘ for real’ followers of Jesus. So, what happens when we do?

Does everything go smoothly for us from then on? Probably not, as many of you well know. Even for Christians there are times when things don’t go well. Maybe now is one of those times. So, where do we go? John 14 gives us the answer.

Jesus says, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled.” And he tells his followers, “Don’t worry. Trust me, believe in God.” God’s great love for us is more than enough – there is room for us all, no matter what he trouble is. Jesus says, “I go to be with the Father.” When things aren’t going as you would like them to go and times are tough, that’s where we are also to go – to God the Father.
Peter connects Christ with the rejected cornerstone – the very ‘living’ stone on which these early Christians were to build their faith and community. He says, “As followers of Jesus, you are called to be "living stones." Whoa! Stones are the opposite of something living - like in Christ's death we are given the opportunity to become fully alive, through the power of the resurrection. So, what DOES it mean when he says a ‘living’ stone? Perhaps it is as simple as: in life there is growth – and that should be our expectation.

A first-grader came home one day and announced he had a substitute teacher. His mother asked, "Was she a young woman or an older woman?" The boy thought for a second, then said, "I don't know. She looked brand new to me." (Country Magazine, June/July 1990)

Does it matter if we are young or old? Or brand new – ever growing, a ‘living stone.’ Some of us are old, some are young, but all of us are to be ‘living stones.’ And when we are there is life there is growth.

Growth happens when new life begins.
Peter first tells his readers what they must do. He says, “Be like newborn babies who are thirsty for the pure spiritual milk that will help you grow and be saved. Peter suggests that each believer's natural longing should be for "pure spiritual milk." You are followers of the Lord. You are chosen. You are a holy group representing God. And so you must tell others about God by telling them about the one you follow.

Not only is Jesus the ‘living stone,’ he is the solid rock on which to build one’s faith in God. Peter says, “You are living stones.” Just as Jesus was chosen by God to bring about the kingdom (and all that means), so are to be living stones on which God’s kingdom can be built. We are to be the building blocks as God builds up the community of faith, the church.

Might Peter be saying then that as followers of Christ there is growth in store for us? John Wesley once said, “I am not yet what I am to become” (or something like that). Perhaps he was somehow thinking of what it means to be a living stone as well. To grow into what we are to become – a living stone like Jesus.

Mark Ellingsen in his book, Preparation and Manifestation, writes: “On our own we cannot know who God is; we need Jesus to make God known.” I might add ‘and we need ourselves to make God known as well.” Perhaps this is what Peter means in the followers of Christ becoming ‘living stones’ – making God known to others through the love of Christ in us.

Growth takes place when living a life of Christ – a life of loving others.
A love that can be experienced, as Martin Luther once said, not by “hearing God's name, or of his will, his works, his grace, or his displeasure,... but we must nestle and cuddle on the lap of Christ, like dear children on their mother's lap or in her arms, and close our eyes and ears to everything but him and his words."

We are thirsty, aren’t we, even like the ‘newborn baby’ Peter speaks of. We want to be nourished - sometimes. We would like to grow- sometimes. Growth in Christ is important to us - sometimes. That is a part of following Christ, anyway as Peter sees it. It’s also what the people, who call themselves United Methodists, believe is required of us. It’s part of what we say we will do when someone receives baptism. As a congregation receiving someone into the church, don’t we promise, to “increase their faith, confirm their hope, and perfect them in love.” Increase means growth, doesn’t it? And growth in our faith comes by living a life of Christ.

Growth can also take place when we are involved in intentional study together.
It’s necessary as a church, and as ‘living stones,’ to be involved in intentional faith development - including all of us. Bishop Robert Schnase in his book, Five Practices of a Fruitful Congregation, says, “ the transformation of hearts and minds is God’s work through the Holy Spirit, and intentional learning in community is our way of placing ourselves in the hands of God so God can sculpt our souls and recreate us in the image of Christ.” He goes on to say, “Christians learning together engrafts us onto the body of Christ and becomes a means of grace by which God awakens a heightened desire to love our neighbors… as following Christ becomes a way of life.”

As "newborn infants" – and brand new members of the Christian community of faith – Peter suggests that each believer's natural longing should be for this “spiritual milk."
Thus nourished by this spiritual milk, we are formed together into a close-knit community through the spiritual power of the "living stone," undergoing a miraculous transformation, and becoming “God's own people."

I guess one could say there are two kinds of stones, at least in Peter’s mind. There are ‘living stones’ following in Christ’s footsteps and stones with no life at all. Some stones are growing, and some are not. Some stones are living the life of Christ, and some are not. Some stones are growing together though study, and some are not. Some stones are being transformed, and sadly, some are not.

May we all find our life in Christ – the living stone – today! Amen