1 Peter 2:1-10
Third Sunday after
Pentecost/ 14th June 2015
“Come to
him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in
God’s sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual
house, to be a holy priesthood…” (1 Pet. 2:4-5). This is such a rich text, full of vivid images. But it’s these two words, “living stones,”
which, I think are particularly striking.
Jesus as
cornerstone, we get that. Jesus as chief cornerstone, that makes sense. But what does it mean to say that Jesus is a “living
stone”? And, more, what does Peter mean
when he refers to us as “living stones?”
It’s rich, poetic. But what does
it really mean?
The Greek text
doesn’t really help us; it only complicates matters. The Greek reads: lithoi zontes. Lithoi,
plural of lithon, meaning “stone.” Zontes
means “living,” from the Greek zoe,
meaning “life.” Not just any kind of
life, however. There are two words for “life”
in Greek: bios and zoe. Bios
refers to natural life; zoe means
life that is creative, productive. Bios means simply existing; zoe means thriving. So what does it means to say that we are
thriving stones? This is why it’s such a
provocative image. If you think about
it, what could be more lifeless than a stone? Yet, the image Peter offers us is
full of life and purpose. That’s the
tension here.
Living
stones. That was the theme chosen by the Church of Scotland for this year’s
General Assembly, which took place in Edinburgh in mid-May. I was the
Presbyterian Church (USA)’s ecumenical delegate to the Assembly this year. It was an honor, a privilege, and a joy to
represent the PC(USA) in the Mother Kirk. (I will give a report after worship
on Sunday, June 28.) There were sermons
preached on this text, reflections offered. But I don’t think I heard anyone
dwell on the apparent contradiction embedded in this image.
As I
reflected on this text and my experience over the last couple of weeks away, it
struck me that I was surrounded by a lot of stone. If you’ve ever been to Edinburgh you know
that it’s a city of stone—stone cobbles in the streets of both the Old and New
Towns, all kinds of stone used for building homes and churches and castles and
fortresses and palaces–stone on top of very old stone, basalt, millions of
years old. All over Scotland, for
centuries, the primary material used for building was stone. In St. Andrews, you have the stone ruins of
the old cathedral. In the glens of
Scotland you find the remains of cottages built of stone, three hundred years
old or more. There are stone walls
dividing fields. Stone everywhere. I attended a seminar in Athens for part of my
time away—there you have even older buildings made of stone. The stone of the Parthenon on top of the
Acropolis, the remains of stone temples in Eleusis, temples built to other
gods, former gods. Temples built of
marble. Marble, from the Greek, marmaron, means “shining stone.”
Throughout
Scotland you will find piles of stones at the top of the highest mountain peaks. These stone piles are called cairns. Originally, a cairn was a memorial to the dead. When the Scots prepared for battle each
warrior picked up a stone and added it to the pile. When the battle was over, if you survived,
you chose a stone and removed it from the pile.
The remaining stones became a memorial to those that died in battle. Near where I grew up, in Kearny, New Jersey, a
Scottish immigrant community, there is a modern-day cairn, built as a memorial
for the Scots that left for America and for the Scots that left Kearny. These
are stones that represent the living and the dead. Memorial cairns are found all over the world,
especially on the top of countless mountains.
But Peter
is not talking about “memorials” here.
He’s talking about something else.
Not dead stones, but living stones.
To state the obvious, stones are not alive. Technically speaking, they’re
not even dead, because death implies they were once living and breathing. They’re cold.
They’re lifeless. Why use such a
metaphor to describe the Church, to describe followers of Christ?
There are
plenty of cold Christians. There are
plenty of cold churches. There are
plenty of lifeless Christians. There are plenty of lifeless churches. It’s true.
But Peter wants us to know that that’s not who we really are. It’s not
who we’re supposed to be. We are
something else. We are meant to be alive!
“There is a
famous story from Sparta, in ancient Greece.
A Spartan king boasted to a visiting monarch about the walls of Sparta.
The visiting monarch looked around and could see no walls. He said to the Spartan king, ‘Where are
these walls about which you boast so much?’
His host pointed to his bodyguard of magnificent troops. 'These,' he said, 'are the walls of Sparta,
every man a brick,'" every man a stone.[1]
So, too,
the Church. You are the stones of
Christ!
There are
churches made of brick and stone all over the world. You will find ruins to ancient temples and
churches all over the Middle East and Europe.
It’s easy for Christians to boast about their churches and temples and
buildings. But to put our attention
there is to completely miss the message of the gospel.
Jesus is
the cornerstone, a living stone. To be a
follower of him, to be baptized in his name, means that we, too, share in the
life of that “stone,” which means that we, too, become “living stones” like him. We come to see that we share in the same life
of Christ. And when we share in his life
God will use us and do something amazing with us.
Living
stones: flesh and blood and spirit,
being used by God, for God’s glory. That’s
who we are. God is trying to build something with us and we are asked to
submit, to yield, allow ourselves to be used for the sake of God’s glory, so
that we can be added, stone by stone, to what God is trying to build in the
world today. Not a physical temple, but
a spiritual temple, a community of people.
A temple is
the place where God dwells. Every god/God
needs a place to dwell. Every god/God
needs a temple. The God of Israel had a
temple in Jerusalem, but then God did something very new and different. God decided
to dwell not in a temple made of stone, but one made of flesh and blood and
spirit, in Jesus Christ. And we discover that God is still doing something similar
in us. We discover that God really wants
to dwell in our hearts and minds and
bodies and spirits. We realize that we are the dwelling place of the Most
High. We are being formed and reformed
into the dwelling place of God. This, too, is part of the good news!
It is
incumbent upon the church, every single one of us to remember who we are and
what we are and what we’re called to do.
God is trying to build something good and beautiful and redemptive and
holy with us. God is building something good and beautiful
and redemptive and holy through
us. God is building something good and
beautiful and redemptive and holy for us—and
not for us alone, but for the world.
This, too, is what it means to be a “chosen” race and a royal
priesthood. Israel was/is God’s chosen,
not because they were better than every other group, but because God chose that
particular people to serve the world.
The same
goes for us. This is the work we’re called to share in.
One of the
pillars of the church that helped form me was James Loebell. He loved this text from 1 Peter. It must have
been one of his favorite verses because he was always reminding us to remember
who we are. “Don’t you know who you are?” he would say. “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a
holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts
of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Pet. 2:9). You
are a royal priesthood. And what does a
priest do? A priest mediates the grace
of God. A priest is the conduit of God’s
grace. That’s what we are called to
do. That’s who we are.
Do you know
who you are? Do we, as the church, know
who we are? These are timely questions
as we consider how the Envision Fund will deepen and expand the ministry of
this church, as we consider what God is calling us to do and be. Do we realize that God is at work here in us,
doing something in us?
We are
being called to something infinitely greater than ourselves. We are each a
single “stone”; however, stone after stone after stone is being gathered together
to form something new—a dwelling place for God, a temple, in you and me and all
of us together. Amazing. Simply amazing!
[1] Told by William
Barclay, The Letters of James and Peter
(Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1976), 195-196.
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