"Under Construction"  San Williams, UPC

1 Peter 2:2-10

The lower level of our building is under construction.  The foundation for the new mechanical building was poured on Friday. Plumbing hook-ups have been installed. The new cooling tower has arrived.  Inside, new restrooms are starting to take shape.  In some places, walls have come down; in other places new walls are going up.  Old pipes are being removed as new pipes are being installed.  Five days a week there is hammering at UPC, and drilling and sawing as the construction advances.  Well, our reading today from I Peter is also about a construction project.  But in this case, the focus is not on a physical building, but on a community of disciples who are being built into a spiritual house. 

Think for a moment about the nature of these communities to whom this letter was originally addressed.  They probably felt like useless stones that were scattered about, unwanted and in danger of being tossed aside.  Remember that these were small communities widely scattered throughout five provinces at the eastern extremity of the Roman Empire.  These were not well-established churches, but fledging communities made up mostly of Gentile converts who were new to the faith.  We heard them described in our reading as “like new-born infants.”  These followers of Jesus were identified in the society by the name, Christian, and that name brought ugly stares, discrimination and isolation.  As Christians, they were outsiders. Resident aliens is the term this letter uses to describe them. They were made to feel like ill-fitting stones that had no place in that society.  How could these dispersed Christian communities survive in such a hostile environment, much less be built into anything of significance in the world?

Now if we continue using this stone image, how do we picture the church today? With 2,000 years of church history behind us, it’s tempting to imagine the church today as old stones, chipped and cracked, maybe even crumbling. Pope Benedict XVI has been visiting our nation this week, and a significant part of his time has been given to picking up the pieces of damaged lives caused by wide-spread abuse in the church. This morning in the adult lecture class we talked about what kind of church is emerging in this post-modern age. Many are saying that the old structures don’t serve any longer and that the church needs to be renovated from top to bottom.  Brian McClaren, one of the key figures in the Emergent Church movement, recently wrote a book called Everything Must Change.  He charges that the church must be re-assembled into more authentic and intentional communities that are able to confront the global crises that are threatening the planet.  So while today’s church is different in many ways from the one originally addressed by this letter, we’re similar in that we, too, are experiencing a kind of identity crisis.  We sense that something new is emerging, even if we don’t yet have a complete rendering or a clear blueprint.  

But what we do have is an invitation.  “Come to him, a living stone, rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and, like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house.”  We’re being invited to see ourselves together not as a random pile of rocks or as individual stones isolated and disconnected.  Rather this image invites us to imagine ourselves as living stones belonging to a structure built on Christ.  It is a wonderful image of belonging to a community that is composed of all kinds of stones--stones that are old, young, brittle, strong, shiny, fractured, solid, large, small, differently shaped and oriented.  Our ritual of belonging this morning was a beautiful illustration of a spiritual community that welcomes infants through the sacrament of baptism, but also children, college students and adults.  In the structure built on Christ there’s room for everyone.

And this image of living stones being built into a spiritual house expands to describe a community that is reflecting to the world God’s purpose for all creation.  That’s why this letter of I Peter describes the community with grand metaphors:  a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people.  The church is called a spiritual house because it is a place where the love and life of God are made clear to the entire world.

Of course, you may be thinking, that’s impossible.  How can a community made up of fragile, sharp edged, rough-hewn, crumbly, ill-fitting stones represent the love and life of God to the world?   But notice that our scripture didn’t say, “Build yourselves into a spiritual house.” That would be impossible.  If we depend on our own efforts, the church will never be more than a veneer of religiosity. Rather our scripture said, “Let yourselves be built into a spiritual house.”  God has already laid the cornerstone and is constantly pouring out the love of Christ, binding us together and empowering us to represent the love and justice that God yearns to give the whole world.  This is a house not made with human hands.  As the psalmist declared in our Call to Worship this morning, “It is the Lord’s doing and it is marvelous in our eyes.” 

In his commentary on I Peter, Fred Craddock offers a parable:  A certain person decided to build a church.  To ensure strength and durability, the builder carefully selected stones that were exactly alike:  same size, shape and color.  They were put in place with pride and confidence, but when the wind blew and the storm rose, the church was destroyed.  Another builder decided to construct a church.  Stones of different sizes, shapes, and colors were gathered.  How could such a church survive?  Strong cement was mixed and applied between the stones.  When the wind blew and storm rose, the church stood firm.  Such is the power of mutual love.

Let me show you something. (Hold up the stone).  This is a piece of wall from downstairs that was recently drilled out.  It’s composed of stones of many sizes, colors and shapes. Of course, what holds the stones together is the cement between the stones.  Just so, friends, we are held together and we are being built up by the presence of God’s love in Jesus Christ--a love that binds us together and sends us out. 

May God give us the grace to claim our identity and to let God continue shaping us into God’s very own people.