Living Stones
How does it feel to be friends with someone all your peers reject?
How does it feel to be the one they reject?
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. - Peter 2:4-5
In today's reading, Peter invites us to be friends with the one who is rejected by God's people, the one who is the least likely to be valued in society, the one who is a true example of how God works, how God chooses the best from the least.
He wants us to be living stones.
Perhaps it is no surprise that he uses that term, since Jesus called him the rock, the one on whom he rested the responsibility for carrying on the work of his ministry.
Together, we can be rocks, Peter says to us, rocks that are alive in Christ, alive in the true purpose of God on earth.
And what is that purpose for us?
What is so important for us to do differently that God would change everything and become one of us in order to make it happen?
Yes, I know, there are many who don't believe He did become one of us, and many who say we are lost, astray, and reject us.
Peter said that would happen, didn't he?
When I was young, I so wanted to be accepted. When the most popular kids in school became friends with me, I was on a high.
But as I progressed, not so much in age, but in experience, I realized being accepted is not all that I thought it was.
Instead, I sought to do what was acceptable, rejecting those who were rejecting the traditional way of life, work, raise a family, be respectable.
I continue to be supportive of the values of working hard, earning my own way, taking care of my family, being successful in all I do.
Lately, though, I have realized that there is more that I want for my grandsons, more than a good life. I want a full life, with a true spiritual understanding of the nature and purpose of their lives as children of God.
That's a lot to ask, I know, but what else really matters?
Perhaps that was the reason Jesus came among us, to shake us awake, to point us toward the truth, to give us purpose and meaning while we are still alive, rather than wait until the end, when we see clearly what we missed.
Peter calls us to be solid and alive, to be living stones. We can do that. We just have to stop working so hard at being accepted, and make sure we are not the ones doing the rejecting.
Will we change the world?
We will change ours.
More to come...
Image Copyright: / 123RF Stock Photo