Dear Friends,
As you know, every Sunday, there are four Lectionary readings. For this, the Fifth Sunday of Easter, I’ve selected the Epistle Lesson, I Peter 2:2-10, as the focus for this occasional note.
Before you read today’s scripture, please pray the following prayer of illumination, knowing that as you pray in your home, you are not alone; you are joined by everyone in the congregation despite our being apart:
Faithful God, we are grateful that you reveal your marvelous light to us. Explain to us now what is necessary for us to know. Show us the way you would have us go, that your will may be accomplished among us.
As we examine today’s scripture reading, we are eager to receive your word. Thank you for nurturing our understanding and insight. May they equip us to do the greater work to which you call us, that the world may see you and believe. Amen.
This epistle, or letter, was most likely written in the last decade of the first century, making it one of the last epistles included in our Biblical canon. It is honorifically named I Peter, but we don’t know the name of the actual writer. The letter combines the theological perspectives of Paul and Peter into a unified witness to Jesus Christ at a time of deadly persecution of Christian communities. At the end of the first century, when this letter is thought to have been written, Emperor Domitian was the authoritarian ruler of the Roman Empire. He was a cruel despot who officially encouraged and promoted the brutal destruction of the Christian communities that were emerging throughout the empire. This epistle was written to a deeply suffering people to comfort and encourage them to hold onto their faith despite the anxiety of their times.
Looking beyond today’s reading to the end of this epistle, we find a further clue that the letter was written during the depths of Domitian’s reign of terror on Christians where it says, “Your sister church in Babylon, chosen together with you, sends you greetings.” (I Peter 5:13) Babylon was a cryptic code name for Rome, and Christians of that time would have known that the letter had arrived, not from the east, which would have been Babylon, but from the west, in Rome. This would have assured them that they were not alone; they had sisters and brothers in Rome who had not forgotten them in the midst of Domitian’s persecution.
The letter addresses Christians who were living in five areas – Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynoia – in Asia Minor, now known as Turkey, as specified in I Peter 1:1. In that verse, these early Christians are called “the exiles of the Dispersion,” echoing the image of Israel during its Babylonian exile. This theme of being exiles – of being separate and cut off – is continued in the verse immediately after our reading for today, where those for whom this letter is written are called “aliens and exiles” in verse 11. What a lonely image that is!
In the six short decades after Jesus’s resurrection, the growth in the number of believers was extraordinary, and the new Christian church had expanded throughout the vast Roman Empire. The call in I Peter 2:1 to “rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice, and all guile, insincerity, envy, and all slander” was a mandate for these new Christian communities to live differently from the Romans, who didn’t worship the God of the Christians and Jews. The clear implication is that malice, guile, insincerity, etc. were the hallmarks of the polytheistic world. So, too, are we called today to live as God nurtures us and calls us, rather than as the dominant culture might promote and even honor.
Today’s scriptural passage continues by likening Christians to “newborn infants, [who] long for the pure, spiritual milk.” (I Peter 2:2) This metaphor envisions God as a nursing mother who nurtures and sustains her infant. For us today, the idea of “spiritual milk” encourages us to recognize that as Christians, we are fed by God, and, as the verse goes on to say, “the Lord is good.” Our call is not just to become more of who we already are, not simply to grow from newborn infants into adults. By receiving the spiritual nourishment that God provides, our call is to “grow into salvation,” to become a people whose faith is grounded in the commandment to love one another. Our call is to find security in God’s love, even when we feel exiled from God, even when we may be living through anxious and forbidding times, as indeed, we are today.
And then the writer shifts the metaphor the rather mysterious concept of “living stones.” What, exactly is a “living stone”? A stone is “living” if it is uncut and still in its natural place. The epistle writer calls Jesus and all of us living stones. “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, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (I Peter 2: 4-5)
The writer confounds us a bit as he continues, “See, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” (I Peter 2: 6b) Here, Jesus is also the cornerstone, which is quite different from a living stone. A cornerstone must be accurately cut and chiseled, and it must be laid precisely in place. The cornerstone gives both support and orientation for the entire building. Within normal construction, it would be impossible for a living stone to also be a cornerstone. But the construction built by Jesus is not normal; it is a spiritual house.
The epistle writer then pushes the metaphor even further. He includes us as part of the actual structure of the spiritual house of God. We are first called to “come to him,” to Christ, who is a “living stone.” (I Peter 2:4) Then we, the followers of Christ, are called to be like the living stone that is Jesus; we are called to “let [our]selves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” That’s quite a mandate.
In verses 6-8, we find references to Jesus as the cornerstone that recall numerous passages from the Old Testament. For example, verse 6 echoes Isaiah 28:16, where the coming messiah is called “a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation.” In I Peter 2:7, when the writer proclaims, “To you then who believe, he is precious, but for those who do not believe ‘the stone that the builders rejected has become the very head of the corner,’” we hear the proclamation from Psalm 118:22 that “The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.” The concept of the cornerstone is echoed in the gospels as well, and the writer of I Peter would have had access to those gospels. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all recall the words of the Old Testament when referring to Jesus as the cornerstone (see Matthew 21:42, Mark 12:10, Luke 20:17, Acts 4:11). Another epistle, Ephesians 2:19-20 carries it further: “You are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone.”
Together, we living stones are the spiritual house that relies on Christ as the cornerstone, giving us both support and orientation. This is the working definition of the church in I Peter.
This “spiritual house” is boundless. It is more than any single people; it is more than any single location. In I Peter 2:10, the author loosely quotes Hosea 2:23, saying, “Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people.” I Peter reminds us that as a people, Christians are closer to the experience of Israel than of any people defined by nation or city-state. The passage we’re reading today is a masterful interweaving of the prophesies of the Old Testament and the witness of the gospels.
Though we have no boundaries, though we’re not limited by geography, we are called a “holy nation.” “But 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.” (I Peter 2:9) For I Peter, holiness is obedience to God. Since the “spiritual house” is the church, and we are God’s people, we must recognize the communal nature of this new life we have in Christ. We are a new people, though I am not a new person. Holiness is not any individual’s own possession: it exists in community when we love one another. Let us live faithfully in that community together. Even in times like these, of self-isolation and, often, despair, we are together in community with one another and with God. As we worship by reading the Bible, by praying, by reading these notes, by caring for one another, and by protecting one another even as we distance ourselves from them, we are living stones in the new household of God, built on the foundation of apostles and prophets, whose cornerstone is Jesus Christ.
Let us pray together:
*Gracious God who dances in our lives and hearts as Holy Spirit, you are always present, always abundant and always calling us to yourself. We are humble in our gratitude for your presence. Awaken us today to what can be. Encourage us in the vision you have created for Scottsville Presbyterian Church. We long to be faithful, to be pleasing, to give back to you what you so generously give us. Rain down upon us, God, like the nurturing rains of spring. Drench us in your dreams and your breath that is life. In all things, may what we do, be for you.
Today we give thanks for mothers – for those who have given life and birth to us, for those who have cared for us and nurtured us, for those who stand by our side and raise us up when we are low – whether they bear the formal title of mother or are called sister, aunt, friend, grandmother; all who care for the helpless and nurture them into strength are fit to be called mother.
We ask your blessed embrace on those who are missing their mothers today, for those who long to be mothers, and for those who have no women to serve as role models in their lives.
The scriptures say you care for us as a mother hen does her chicks. We need you, God, and your wings of grace – sometimes for protection and sometimes to soar through the skies.
With tender compassion and transforming power, you come among us, O God, making us members of your household and part of the very structure of your house. Strengthen us in faith; expand our vision, and fill us with the hope of your Spirit, so that together, we may build up your dwelling place and become its “living stones.”
In the name of the cornerstone of our faith, Christ Jesus, we pray. Amen*