I Peter 2:4-10 (NIV) 4As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him— 5you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6For in Scripture it says: "See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame." 7Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, "The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone," 8and, "A stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall." They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for. 9But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Picture it. That is what Peter does as he writes the church and uses pictures of belonging rooted in the Hebrew Scriptures and in his experiences of Jesus. Come to the Living Stone, you are chosen stones, precious stones, living stones being built into a magnificent temple, becoming a special group of priests to serve God.
We are stones, of little value by ourselves, but together we make an indestructible temple with Jesus as the Cornerstone, the one Person on whom we can absolutely depend. That is the picture. No explanation, just pictures. A picture of belonging.
In the midst of increased trivia, people long to feel that they are part of others who are part of something important. We want close connections with other people, connections that go deeper than superficial friendships. We want relationships that have grown strong through the fires of difficulties.
But, here is the catch. Here is the bind. We long to belong and we resist it. It is as if we want to be on good terms with God while reserving the right to live the way we want to. We want to belong, as long as it does not limit our freedom.
I had resisted a sense of belonging to the North Alabama Presbytery. When serving as a minister in Cullman, Alabama, I used the excuse that the Presbytery was some distance away in Huntsville. When I came to Huntsville to serve as minister I had to think up some other excuses. Then I had to face the real problem. I was not sure I wanted to belong. I wondered if the Presbytery even did anything that was worth the time I was duty bound to give it. Then, when I went to drug rehabilitation in 1991 I realized I belonged because I needed the Presbytery. If Presbytery did nothing else, it helped God rule over some of my self-willed ways. And at even another level, I belonged because I was chosen to belong.
Come, come to Him, that Living Stone rejected by men, come to that Living Stone and build your life on the foundation of faith and obedience to the Stone of Jesus. Come to that Living Stone that reaches out to us, not with a mighty arm but with a pierced hand. Come all who are heavy laden by the burden of an independent, do it my way kind of life.
Come to that Living Stone because Jesus died to call you into this special relationship of being a son or daughter of God. Jesus reaches out from the cross to call us into a sense of belonging. Please, accept it with all the limitations that belonging to God and to His people brings. Come, come to the Living Stone.
From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope
© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles
No comments:
Post a Comment