1 Peter 2:4-10
Called to Be a Stone

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,"

and

"A stone that makes them stumble,
and a rock that makes them fall."

They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Once you were not a people,
but now you are God's people;
once you had not received mercy,
but now you have received mercy.

New Revised Standard Version

The letter of 1 Peter was written by Simon Peter, the Apostle, to Christians who were being persecuted, encouraging them to stand firm in their faith and serve God boldly, even though they would face all kinds of difficulties and challenges when they did.

Identifying Simon Peter as the author of the letter adds so much to his encouragement. After all, this is the disciple who tried to pull Jesus aside and explain how the Messiah could best overthrow the Romans, prompting Jesus to rebuke him for trying to do Satan's work. This is the disciple that resorted to profanity in the outside courts of Pilate's palace when he denied knowing Jesus for the third time.

But this is also the disciple that three years before had been just Simon the fisherman. Jesus came to the shore to meet a hot-headed, foul-mouthed country boy, and said "I'm changing your name. I will call you Peter, the Rock, because I'm going to bui ld my church on you."

What did Jesus see in Simon that made him the right person to be the spokesman for the disciples and the lead preacher in the early church on Pentecost? It can't have been anything that we would recognize! Simon the fisherman would fail every one of our interviews at every church if he had applied for the position of pastor. Jesus saw what God was going to do, even knowing how Simon Peter would fail, and it was God in Simon Peter that made him a rock.

Early on, I'm certain that Simon often bragged that Jesus had named him the Rock. It even might have been Simon's arrogance that caused James and John to pressure Jesus into letting them, instead of Simon Peter, sit in the positions of power in the new kingdom.

For the Simon Peter writing this letter, though, that was many years and many, many spiritual lessons ago. Here, Peter acknowledges and uses the name Jesus gave him, but praises the Cornerstone, Jesus, and encourages all of us to grow into our calling to be the rocks that make up the church. He emphasizes the role of Christ, and by implication, our roles as Christians, "little Christs," by quoting first from Isaiah 28, then Psalm 118, then Isaiah 8.

He put special emphasis on his last scripture quote, possibly because it spoke to him more personally about his Christian journey. The quote is paraphrased from Hosea 2, Hosea being the prophet that God called to warn rebellious Israel by acting out God's love. Hosea obeyed God and took a prostitute, Gomer, to be his wife. It was no surprise that as Gomer bore three children, it was evident these were not Hosea's children, and finally Gomer ran away back to her life of prostitution. When Hosea heard that Gomer had hit bottom and was being sold at a slave market, he humiliated himself and bought her, so he could again made her his wife.

Peter wants us to see that God has paid to redeem us, even when we stand in a courtyard and deny knowing Jesus with curses, even when we run away into a life of prostitution, even when we are ashamed of our sins and our rebelliousness. Peter wants us to see that our calling as the church, the bride of Jesus, and our calling as stones in the spiritual House of God, is not because of who we are, but because of the limitless power and love that God has for us and wants to use through us.

All we do is answer the call.