Thoughts for the Day

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’,

(Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

My two sons are both in the middle of remodelling their houses, so conversations are often about "weight-bearing loads" and "foundations". Today's reading from 1 Peter is about something similar, for the writer uses the term "corner stone" when he refers to Jesus as the basis of our faith. So it was that I was immediately reminded of my writing shack in Pembrokeshire. The garden shed was in a desperate state - a gust of wind and it would collapse. One son and a friend offered to repair it as a birthday present, and I returned home to find a very large new post standing vertically in a metal-post "shoe". Eight more followed with wooden slats attached, all resting on the first large timber post. Suddenly it was a box with a flat roof. Two days later the old shed was on top of the box (with a new side), and there was an internal ladder to get up to my bolt hole with a new shed underneath, all of it resting on that first post.

Today's letter from Peter was sent to persecuted christians living in Asia Minor. He draws wonderful pictures in words, though mixing up all his metaphors (one moment Christians are babies wanting spiritual milk, then a holy priesthood and then a royal nation), but the one metaphor that has spoken to us over the centuries is about Jesus. Peter says He is the "cornerstone", the first stone upon which all the others rest, and we are like living stones in this house.

We use the word 'Church' today as meaning a building, but the other important meaning refers to the 'people of God'. We must not forget that we live in community, not as isolated beings, and while all of us are held together by Jesus, we are also held together by one another as living stones in His spiritual house. My shack is long gone, but Christ's Church will stand the test of time if we continue to rely on our corner 'post'!

Lord God,
when we feel lost or alone
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 the weakest
of this family at all times,
and the fact that we rest on You,
our foundation stone.
Amen.