Untitled Sermon

Dry Stone construction

Last forever – walls in Ireland and Britain that are possibly thousands of years old

o Last forever – walls in Ireland and Britain that are possibly thousands of years old

But Pieces have to fit well

o But Pieces have to fit well

This is the image that Peter is using to describe the construction of the “spiritual house” that is the church

o The church is built out of us

o Jesus in the corner stone

§ Rejected

o Like the temple before it, this spiritual house is to be the place where God dwells, but unlike the temple, it is made up of living stones, carefully chosen and placed where they are needed to construct the house.

But how are we to be these “living stones,” a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession?

o Especially in the light of the world in which we live, a world that seeks to pull us away from god and His purposes.

While we can feel out of place in the world around us all too often, the same was true for the early church

o Values of the Church were not the values of Rome

o Way women were treated

o Christians staying in cities when plagues hit

o This is, of course, prior to persecution which was starting to heat up around the time Peter wrote the letter.

§ Peter was to die in 68 at the hands of Nero

o All that to say that the church wasn’t really in step with the Roman way of doing things.

§ Way of Christ and Way of Rome were at cross purposes

Peter reaches for an image that the church would be familiar with: Exile

o He calls the people to whom he is writing, members of the churches of Asia minor, “Exiles”

§ First in 1:1

§ Then again here in 2:11 where he adds “sojourners”

o Image from the exile of the Kingdom of Judea to Babylon.

§ In fact, in the conclusion of the letter, Peter states that he is writing from “Babylon”

§ Of course not really Babylon, but this is an image of the early church for Rome.

§ Exiles live in a place, for a while, might even, be instructed to: “5 “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6 Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. 7 Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”[1]”

But exiles are not OF a place, never really fit if being faithful

· Daniel

· This advice, to “16 Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves. 17 Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor.” [2] () is addressed to the Church. Yes churches to Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, and other places in Asia Minor, but also to us, to the church today

· We are still in exile,

o we are still struggling to figure out how to live in Babylon

§ At least we should be

§ If it’s too easy maybe we aren’t as much a part of God’s Kingdom as we think we are

· We are not, as Christians called to be good Babylonians, good Romans, even good Americans, we are called to be living stones, stones worthy of being including in a spiritual house the corner stone of which is Jesus Christ

o To do this, we might have to surrender our Babylonian-ness, our Roman-ness, our American-ness

o The kingdom of God must come first.

o Yes, we are to honor the emperor, but first we must Fear God

o The exile was hard. It would have been much easier for Daniel to bow to Darius or for those early Christians to bow to and offer sacrifices to the emperor, but they didn’t. They feared God.

o It may be hard for us to give whatever it is, whatever identity that is holding us back from God, our national identity, our political identity, our sexual identity, our regional identity, but to be included in the spiritual house, we must become living stones. Only then can God take us and place us exactly where he needs us in the wall.

§ God is our master

[1] The New International Version. (2011). (). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[2] The New International Version. (2011). (). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.