Sounds like a tag line to a really bad horror movie, doesn’t it? The stones are alive!! Oh no!! Run!!! Aaaaaa ... ahem. Sorry about that. It’s been a odd day. And one too many Halloween commercials, perhaps. But odd because I’ve been at UIndy all day in the Course of Study. The Course of Study is the process by which local preachers complete their requirements for service as clergy in our denomination. Our newly appointed Associate Pastor Doug Shinkle is taking a course in the Course of Study. So, it is a good thing, a useful thing, and I am honored to be a part of the process. But it throws off my Saturday. Just saying. But even more odd for me is that this is a Saturday before a Sunday that I am not preaching. Talk about really throwing off a Saturday! I’ve been in this pattern for over 35 years, and the Saturdays I’m not gearing up to preach far out number the ones where I’m not. So I hardly know what to do with myself.
Just a warning, some weeks when I am not preaching I also don’t do this bible study, but I usually try to warn folks so that they aren’t expecting it, or wondering if I got hit by a bus or something. Since I didn’t warn you, I felt like I should do something in this space. Speaking of warnings, next week La Donna and I are heading to Chesterton on a Saturday to teach a UMW session on the Bible and Human Sexuality. Not sure whether I’ll be back to do this or not. The following week we are heading back to Fort Wayne to participate in a wedding for some dear friends that I promised to do before I left town this summer. Again, not sure whether you’ll find this gem in your inbox or not. Consider yourself warned!
You’d think I would be able to change my pattern. To not have to wait until Saturday to write this bible study. You’d think since my preaching weekend now starts on Thursday that I would be wanting to do this earlier and not wait for the old system. I’ve already preached the message once before I write, it only makes sense to do it sooner. I know all that. I’ve had the debate in my head about it. But it just doesn’t work. I’m stuck in my rut of long time thinking. And it’s hard to break out. It’s hard to change something you’ve done for at least 14 years. Even if it doesn’t quite fit the new reality. The new wineskin, you might say.
No, that’s not it. We’re not in Matthew or Luke. We’re tucked away in the back of the New Testament. Peter. You remember him, don’t you. The one who got it right, at least one time. The one who’s failures were predictable. The one who had to learn how to live his life all over again, before he gave it away. That Peter. Remember?
1 Peter 2:2-10 Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation– 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. 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. 6 For it stands in scripture: "See, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame." 7 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," 8 and "A stone that makes them stumble, and a rock that makes them fall." They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. 9 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. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
We’re still on our Discipleship Path – Connect, Grow, Service, Give, Go. We’re picking up Grow this week. Which implies change. Which calls for development. Which isn’t satisfied with status quo but wants more. From milk to ... um ... stone. Um, OK, maybe Peter isn’t that good with metaphors. He should have talked about milk as he started and then building to meat. That would have been better. But given all the struggle that the early church had with meat, I mean the clean and unclean controversy - sure Peter had a vision and bacon is now good (thank you Jesus) - but it still makes him uneasy; and then there’s the meat sacrificed to idols thing that Paul struggles with so much. It’s no wonder that he saw the slippery slope he was on and started with food, but then jumped to stone masonry.
Long for spiritual milk then come to the living stone. And why living stones? Wouldn’t stones that stay put be better? Wouldn’t stones that are inert be better for building? You don’t want your stone house to be all wobbly. Or worse yet, for the stones to come to life and wander about. Hardly a secure construction pattern, don’t you think.
Well, that’s why riding metaphors too long gets you into trouble. He’s not giving advice to stone masons, he is helping to build the church. He’s bought into this faith thing. God doesn’t want dead weight holding down the pew, God wants living stones who will live and move and grow in their faith. He doesn’t just want a stone who will come and hold up their corner and that’s it. He wants a stone that will look for other places to shore up the walls, will learn other methods for framing doorways and paving paths, will discover more opportunities to be a trail marker or respite giver. The uses of a stone, a living stone are beyond counting. That’s who Christ is calling for, that’s who Christ was.
A stumbling block. Now that’s something all good construction grade granite needs to aspire to, am I right? Sure, I want to be the one that stubs toes and bruises knees. Especially when they deserve it. At least that’s what Peter seems to imply. They stumble because they disobey. And they deserved it. Right? They were just bad, says Peter. We’re better. We’re royal. We’re part of God’s light show. We’re the ones who have received mercy. Even though we hadn’t before. Even though we were just bad. Even though we deserved it. Even though .... Hmmm.
What if Jesus didn’t come to be a stumbling block? But instead came to be a stone bridge that leads us from where we are to where we could be, where we’re called to be. Because people are clumsy, and sometimes don’t want to move, but get satisfied with ruts, the effect is that we stumble. A better way is before us, and we stumble because it might be better, but it definitely is different. And maybe destined means that as long as we follow our own inclinations we’re sunk, or limping with bruised and bloody toes. But when we receive the mercy of living differently, once we pledge allegiance to the king and not to the monuments of our own making - however good they may be or seem - then we learn to walk differently.
And Peter says, with, I believe, a certain amount of surprise and relief, that Christ chooses to let us be a part of the plan, a part of the structure to build a better kingdom. Come and be built. Come and be alive and yet participate in something bigger than just yourself. Come and grow into something more. More than we are. More than we imagined. To be a priest is to be a go between. We can help usher someone else into a new way of living. We are privileged to partner with the king - that’s why we’re royal priests, not because we are special, but because He is special. We’re just like the ones stubbing their toes and knocking their knees. We aren’t better than them, we’re just being used for a greater cause than we even knew was out there. It is His mercy that makes us worthy of being a living stone.
And the more we can learn about what that means, the more effective and the more complete we will be. The more alive we will be. The more we are willing to set aside our own preferences and patterns for the service of the King, the more we will grow as living stones.
So ... maybe look for this earlier next week? Maybe. I’m still growing. What about you?
Shalom,
Derek
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