God Calls Us to Be
a Spiritual House
Sermon preached at
St. Mark’s,
by The Rev. Tom Pumphrey, April 20, 2008
Fifth Sunday after Easter, year A: 1 Peter 2:2-10
1 Peter 2:2-10 (NRSV): Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation-- if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. 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. 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." 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," 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. 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. 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.
One of the distinctive features of architecture in this part
of
Then a stone mason came and selected each stone, choosing just the right ones, large and small, to fit together for the wall of a new house. What became a random and loose pile of stones becomes a building that will last. Building a stone wall is detailed work. Imagine putting together a three dimensional puzzle without a picture and from pieces that were never put together in the first place! The wall is then stacked and held together by mortar, all set on a sturdy square cornerstone, and kept straight with a plumb line. Without that care—without fitting the stoens together well, without the mortar or the plumb line, and certainly without the cornerstone, the building will collapse. But with careful workmanship, a beautiful and lasting legacy is constructed.
In today’s reading from the first letter of Peter, we hear a call to faithfulness and a lasting legacy in the world. “Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation-- if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. 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. God calls us to be like living stones, built into a spiritual house.
When god came to us, he found us like all those field stones, scattered and buried in the earth. Then we were brought together, perhaps in a loose or random pile, but God chose us for this family—this Christian Community—God chose us and fit us together like a master mason. We are fit together, large and small (J) young and experienced, new and established, fit together to build up the body of Christ. This spiritual house is far more important and lasting than this stone building. For the church is not the stone walls, but the spiritual house built of living stones—you and I knit together in the body of Christ.
Like a master mason, God fits us together, keeping us straight with the plumb line of scripture. When a mason builds a wall, he takes care to keep the stones straight as he stacks them. The mason’s tool for this important task is a plumb line. A plumb line is made of a string or a line, with a weight on the bottom. The weight holds the line exactly straight up and down. The plumb line tells the mason where gravity is—and where the straight lines of the wall should be. Without the plumb line, it is easy for the wall to slightly curve. You can’t tell with your eyes while the stones are being laid, but eventually, the walls curve over too much, and they begin to crumble.
As we are built into a spiritual house, we could also get off track. Our priorities might curve away slightly from our mission. In our concern for financial strength, we could become preoccupied with money. In concern for our ministry, we could become inwardly focused. In concern for pleasant conversation, we might avoid important standards, or stray away from our Christian doctrine. So we have a plumb line as well.
You might say that scripture is our plumb line. We hear scripture read in worship on Sundays, and we hear sermons to elaborate on scripture. Scripture is in our hymns and in our prayers. We gather together in small groups to study and learn from the Bible so that as we grow in our relationships, as we build ministry and gather new disciples, that the walls of living stone being built here might be built straight and solid. Without the plumb line, the walls would collapse, but when built straight and true, the living structure will leave a lasting legacy and withstand the stress of tempest and time. God builds us as a living house, with the plumb line of scripture.
God knits us together, not just by our common reading of scripture, but with the mortar of prayer and care. We pray for one another each Sunday, and we also pray for each other when we gather to study together or when we meet to share ministry together. Prayer is the most basic element of our relationship with God. A church without prayer is like walls without mortar. Water seeps in and erodes the wall, and the freeze and thaw of the seasons bust apart the stones. But the mortar strengthens the bonds and holds out the weather. We are knit together to God and to each other as we pray, and as we hold one another in prayer. God builds us as a spiritual house with the plumb line of scripture and the mortar of prayer and care.
None of these fieldstone walls would stand without the proper foundation, however. When this building was built in 1835, they didn’t have giant concrete trucks and steel re-bar to pour footers for a smooth, flat, stable foundation. The builders of this building had to dig down to undisturbed soil, below the frost line. Then the base stones were laid—large quarried stones with square faces, set level in the ground. The cornerstone was the most important, setting straight and level and forming the strong base for the rest of the walls and roof.
Our foundation as a church is just as important. If our foundation is as a social club, then we will crumble and fall. If our foundation is as a historical society, then we will not last. The true spiritual house that will stand firm and strong, and bring blessing to the world around us is set on the cornerstone of Jesus Christ. The prophet writes "See, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame…The stone that the builders rejected has become the very head of the corner." We sometimes think of this church or this community as something we build. But ultimately, as the psalmist says, “Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.”
The process of this spiritual building-up is what theologians call sanctification. Sanctification means being made holy, being set apart. We are set apart by the Holy Spirit to be a blessing for the world and a witness to the source of that blessing.
Peter writes “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. 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.”
Once you were not a people. You were random rocks buried in the field, or piled in a heap. But now you are God’s people: strengthened by the plumb line of scripture, joined together with the mortar of prayer and care, and set on the firm foundation of Jesus Christ. Now we are God’s people, called out of darkness, into his marvelous light, called to be a spiritual house.