Pebbles and Priests

1 Peter 2:1-10

I grew up in Niagara Falls, New York.  The waterfall connects Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.  Our family spent many summer days enjoying picnics and swimming on the beach near Old Fort Niagara on Lake Ontario.  The beach wasn't sandy, it was rocky.  As kids, we spent lots of time walking along the shore looking at the rocks and picking out unusually shaped and colored rocks to take home.  Most of them could easy fit in our pockets.  This fun pastime carried into my adult life as my husband and I collected rocks along with our boys on beaches at Cape Cod, Lake Superior in the Upper Peninsula, and babbling streams in the Rocky Mountains.  Most of them have found homes in my garden or on bookshelves.

Google will tell you where the oldest rocks are in the world and about some famous rocks, such as the Rock of Gibralter, Stonehenge, Plymouth Rock, and the Blarney stone.

Jewish believers would have been familiar with the many references to God as "the Rock."

Deuteronomy 32:13 says, "He is the Rock, His works are perfect, and all His ways are just."  Psalms 18:2 says, "The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock in whom I take refuge."  Psalms 18:31 asks, "Who is God besides the Lord? And who is the Rock except our God?"  One of my Mom's favorite verses was Exodus 33:21 where God says, "Behold, there is a place by Me, and you shall stand there on the rock."

Peter also was familiar with the metaphor of rocks.  In Matthew 16, Jesus asks the disciples, "Who do you say that I am?"  Peter answers, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God."  Jesus blesses Peter and confirms that God revealed this to him.  Then Jesus says, "You are Peter (Petros, meaning small stone) and upon this Petra (Large foundational rock) I will build my church.  It is the confession of Christ as the Son of God upon which the church is built.

Here in Peter's letter he tells believers about several new identities that they have in Christ Jesus.  Believers have been called the "Body of Christ" and the "Temple of the Holy Spirit."  Now Peter refers to them as "living stones" being built up as a "spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ."  The foundation or chief cornerstone for this building is The Rock, Christ Jesus!

In verse 9, Peter tells us, "you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession.  Chosen, royal, holy, words that we are so unworthy of except that Christ has made us worthy and given us these new identities.  Now we belong.  Have you ever felt left out?  Well now you belong to a chosen race, a royal priesthood, and a holy nation so that you may proclaim with all believers "the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light."

"The wise man built his house upon the rock, and the rains came tumbling down.  The rains came down and the floods came up, but the house on the rock stood firm!"  (Did you just sing that with me?)

May we put aside sin and get into the Word.  Build your life on the Rock, Christ Jesus.

With living hope,

Jo