Living Stones
Sunday, 18 May 2014 - 1 Peter 2:2-10
Rev. Bruce Skelton, Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Highlands Ranch, Colorado ☩ www.hclchr.org
Legend has it that the King of Sparta was always boasting about the magnificent walls of his city. Well, one day a neighboring ruler came to visit, and as they were touring the city the king kept bragging about how insurmountable and impregnable the walls were. But the visiting ruler was a little bit puzzled, because as he looked around he could see no trace of walls anywhere. And so he asked the King where these tremendous walls were located. The King replied: “Why, they’re right in front of you.” The visiting ruler shook his head and said: “I don’t see any walls.” Then the King pointed to his soldiers who were standing nearby and answered: “These are the walls of Sparta – every man is a brick!”
Whether or not that tale is true, it comes surprisingly close to the message that St. Peter was writing about in our Epistle lesson for today. He, too, was talking about how Christians are like bricks or stones. He says that each individual believer in Christ is a living stone. And when you put all of these ‘living stones’ together they form, not a wall, but a temple, a beautiful temple, in which the Spirit of God dwells.
In a picturesque way, then, Peter was writing about the Church. You see, the Church is not a physical building, but a spiritual one. It is the communion of all those who have faith in Jesus Christ. We are all joined together to make a spiritual house built upon Christ who is the cornerstone. We are His and members of God’s own family, just as little Jane was made earlier this morning in the Sacrament of Holy Baptism. She is now a living stone added to God temple a chip off the old block if you will. And as such she like we are called to strengthen and support one another.
But the question comes, “Do we really do that?” When was the last time we prayed for someone else’s needs? When was the last time we volunteered our time and abilities to serve on a board of the congregation, or to lend a helping hand with some needed project? Have we done enough to help build up God’s house here at Holy Cross? That is what St. Peter is getting at here in our text.
It reminds me of the story of a little girl who got lost in a corn field many years ago. Rescuers searched for her for hours, but to no avail. Finally, someone suggested that the group hold hands and walk through the field systematically. After doing this a short time, they found the little girl, safe and sound, and her father, his eyes filled with tears of joy asked, “Why didn’t we join hands sooner?!”
My dear friends in Christ, that is a very pertinent question. As members of our Lord’s church, why don’t we join hands? If there is someone who has hurt you, don’t hold a grudge against them, instead forgive them as you have been forgiven. Don’t raise up your hand in anger, but reach out your hand in friendship. If there is some problem between you and a brother or sister in Christ, don’t keep it bottled up inside, talk it over with them today and work it out in love.
Beloved this is what we are called to do as Christians. That is what it means to be living stones, in Christ’s church.
The unfortunate truth, however, is that we don’t always do that. We don’t always join hands together. And the reason we don’t , of course, is because we are sinners. Because of our sinful nature, we are more like a run-down shack than a glorious temple of God. And the Law of God states that the penalty for our sin is quite severe. Namely, that if we persist in it God will tear us down, demolish us stone by stone and relegate us to that pile of rubble called hell. Indeed, that is what you and I deserve for our selfishness and loveless sin.
But St. Peter has a delightfully different twist on that message. He says that instead of destroying us, God has made us His ‘chosen race.’ In fact, in the Greek text the word chosen actually means: ‘to call out’ and that’s exactly what God has done for us through Jesus Christ. Our text tells us that He has: “called you out of darkness & into his marvelous light.”
You see, at one time you and I were in darkness – the darkness of sin. We were trapped as it were in the cold, clammy, confining darkness of a tomb – a tomb of our own making, fashioned by our own iniquity. But thanks to the glorious Easter Gospel, the good news of Jesus resurrection from the dead, God has brought us out of that darkness and into the light.
In John 5:28 Jesus told His disciples: “For an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear [the voice of the Son of Man] and come out…” Jesus was of course pointing to the final resurrection of the dead at the end of time, but in a sense for you and me as believers, this has already begun. When Jesus rose from the grave, He was granted the power to call us out from our graves. And He is what he has done and is doing. He has called us out of the dark tomb of our sin and iniquity and brought us into the marvelous light of His love and forgiveness.
In other words, instead of tearing us down and demolishing us, He is building us up and restoring us with life and salvation. That’s why Peter calls us, “God’s chosen people.” For by faith in Jesus we have been chose for something better. All our sins are erased and we have a chosen spot in God’s heavenly kingdom.
It reminds me about the story of a man who was very much interested in old books. One day he ran into a friend of his, who had just thrown away an old Bible, which had been stored in his attic. The friend happened to mention that somebody named “Guten-something-or-other” had printed it. “Oh no,” groaned the man, “not Guttenberg. You fool! You’ve just thrown away one of the first books ever printed. A copy like that recently sold at an auction for more than a half a million dollars.” But his friend was unmoved. “Nah, my copy wouldn’t have been worth a dime,” he said. “How do you know,” asked the man. “Because,” said the friend, “some guy named Martin Luther scribbled all over it.”
Okay that was a groaner, but you get the point, under normal circumstances, an ordinary item like a book, even a Bible, is worth very little monetarily. But under the right circumstances, when it belongs to someone famous, it can be priceless. So it is with you and me. We are priceless to God. We are His own chosen possession. Jesus poured out his life’s blood to purchase us for heaven, to redeem us and obtain for us all the treasures of forgiveness and salvation.
And what should be our response to that? Very simply, to share it with others. As Peter says in our text we are to: “proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”
Simply put, we are to witness the Gospel of Jesus Christ to as many people as possible. That’s why Peter calls us God’s royal priests. We know that in the Old Testament, the priest served two important functions: to intercede for the people and to tell them God’s Word. My friends, that is our job as well. We are to pray not only for one another, but for unbelievers as well. We should pray for and support the spread of the Gospel, through our pastors and missionaries. We should also pray for those who don’t know Christ, that they might hear the Good News and be saved. On top of all that, we need to personally look for opportunities to witness and pass the Gospel along, for that is how we serve as God’s royal priests. That is how we are living stones, being built up in the cornerstone who is Jesus Christ.
Whenever I read this text I cannot help but think of all the beautiful cathedrals in Europe that I have seen pictures of and someday hope to visit. I always am struck by the fact that the people who laid the foundations of those magnificent buildings, knew they would never live to see them completed, but they began building in faith, in faith that God, in His good providence, would see to it that those structures would be completed and their children would worship in them one day.
Beloved, whether we understand it or not, we are doing the same thing today. Whether it is with our structures or our service, or with our families and our relationships, as Christians we always build in faith, knowing that we will not see much of what we have done come to fruition in our lifetimes, but trusting that God will bring it all to the good. As the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews states it so eloquently in the eleventh chapter of his epistle when he speaks of the saints of the Old Testament:
These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.
Beloved so it is with us. We too are just passing through as strangers in a strange land, headed toward the promised land, the promised city, the new Jerusalem, to live in God’s house, which is built with us as living stones, as bricks in the marvelous wall of His Holy Temple, with Christ as our cornerstone. And temple like God’s steadfast love, will endure forever. In Jesus Name. Amen.