Thoughts for the Day
Wednesday, 5th May 2021: The corner stone
God Jesus The corner stone 1 Peter 2
Reading : Verses from 1 Peter, Chapter 2
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’.
(Church in Wales Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)
Thoughts
A few year’s ago my garden shed was in a desperate state! One good push and the whole thing would collapse. The worst part was the door and the corner post. I have no idea how it had managed to stay upright!
My son offered to repair it with the help of a friend as a birthday present, and I returned at lunch to find a very large new post standing vertically in a metal post-shoe. By the end of the day there were eight more, and by the following day wooden slats were attached, all resting on the first large timber post. Next day the building had turned into a box with a flat roof. Very odd, I thought. However, two days later the old shed was on top of the box (with a new side), and had an internal ladder to get up to an upper room. I had a writing shack on top of a shed, all of it resting on that first large post.
The letter of Peter was sent to persecuted christians living in Asia Minor. He draws a picture in words, saying we Christians are like a spiritual house. Jesus is the corner stone and we are living stones of this spiritual house - we rest on Jesus, and we are held together by Him and by one another. We must never forget that we live in community, not as isolated beings - even in a pandemic!
Prayer
Lord God,
when we feel lonely in this pandemic,
may we remember that we are a community:
a holy race linked by bonds of love
to one another and to You.
Help us to keep these links strong,
remembering the strongest and weakest
of this family at all times.
Amen.
You might like to look at an overview of Peter's letter - you will need to scroll down until you find a blue arrow which leads into a cartoon explanation of the whole work. It's very good, but introduces subjects very fast, and so you might want to take it in bite size sections.