Living Stone(s)
As we near the climax of Holy Week, this verse from the First Letter of Peter speaks powerfully to who Christ is and who we are. Note how Peter connects Christ and us. He is the ‘”living stone” and we are “living stones.” An amazing metaphor indeed. But what is Peter saying in this passage?
Peter saw Jesus as the precious cornerstone of a new relationship with God, the “living stone” whom men rejected then and have continued to reject in the 2,000 years since then. Peter, of course, knew from his own personal experience how easy it is to reject Jesus. Didn’t Peter reject Jesus on the night that Jesus was arrested? Isn’t Jesus rejected today, when Christianity itself has become a religion of the marketplace?
And yet, consider the extraordinary calling of Christians that Peter describes. If Jesus is the living stone that God laid as the foundation and cornerstone of a new society, Christ’s people are the building blocks, “like living stones”. We are being built upon what Jesus accomplished. That is the calling of the church. The church is not to be an institution – “it shall not be so with you,” Jesus told his disciples. Not an institution, not a corporation, not a bully, not the bosom pal of governments and rulers – but a “spiritual house” where every living soul can find refuge from the evils of the world.
Let us strive to be a “spiritual house”. Not just a church building at the corner of Pleasant and Park Streets; but a living, breathing church, whom the Spirit of the Lord animates with love, joy and shared wisdom. I’m so amazed in these days of coronavirus physical separation how much dialogue is taking place among us in the spirit of Christ. Wonderful, deeply thought and expressed words of faith. Is this what a crisis does? Then I say God may just be building something wonderful in our midst, if we carry this spirit past the pandemic and the lockdown. I believe we can and we will. So I’m ready to welcome the end of lockdown and look with hope to the future of the “spiritual house” God is building among us. We will be worthy living stones! Let’s look forward together. Keep this verse handy to remind you who you are.