1 Peter 2: 4,5
True confessions: I was one of those early Star Trek fans as a teenager or young adult. One of the episodes that captured my imagination was when our heroes landing on a planet and finding the life form was hostile. It was a common theme. They discovered the life form was carbon based, rock people, and the mother rock was protecting her babies. The laser gun had burned her and she was defensive. Once they realized, Bones did his healing magic and they lived to see another adventure. Life based on carbon! It was an epiphany that opened my imagination.
Our text today talks of Jesus as a “living stone” and we are to act like living stones and be built into a spiritual house.
“4 Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and 5 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”.
Jesus is al living stone. He is a different life form with feelings and powers just like the episode. Stone implies to me a solidness, a firmness upon which I can build my life and trust. It is not like a wave of the sea that James uses to picture doubt, a wave that tosses and turns and has tides and changes. Rocks are solid and dependable. Jesus is like a living stones and gifts us with living hope. Again there is the sense of growth, of life, of future potential.
Peter says Jesus was rejected by those who could not see the potential in the rock, who did not have vision for how to build with it, and perhaps by those who had no one to teach them its value. But God looks at Jesus and at us and we are precious in his sight. WOW! We are being built into a spiritual house and a holy priesthood. We are not just any ole rock. We have purpose and meaning. The priests hold the prayers and sacrifices to God even as the altar built of the rocks does.
So how are we “living rocks”? Think of ways that you are solid and reliable. Then think of ways you are living and giving life to others. Perhaps you can name someone who has been there for you in ways that have helped you grow. They were solid and dependable for you during a time of struggle. That is truly a blessing if you have a friend like that … or you are a friend like that to someone else. Thank God for that person or people. Blessings as you stand firm and do your part in the spiritual house God is building!
On the Way to Wonder 