Constructing Rules for Christian Living

Thursday 4 June 2009 Cheddington

Reading 1 Peter 2 TNIV

The Living Stone and a Chosen People

⁴ As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by human beings but chosen by God and precious to him— ⁵ you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. ⁶ For in Scripture it says:
       "See, I lay a stone in Zion,
       a chosen and precious cornerstone,
       and the one who trusts in him
       will never be put to shame."

⁷ Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,
       "The stone the builders rejected
       has become the cornerstone,"

⁸ and,
       "A stone that causes people to stumble
       and a rock that makes them fall."
       They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.

⁹ But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. ¹⁰ Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

¹¹ Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. ¹² Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

Gospel Mark 12 TNIV

The Greatest Commandment

²⁸ One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?"

²⁹ "The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. ³⁰ Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' ³¹ The second is this: 'Love your neighbour as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."

³² "Well said, teacher," the man replied. "You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. ³³ To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbour as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices."

³⁴ When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.

Sermon

1^st letter of Peter probably not written by a Galilean fisherman. Uses sophisticated Greek language, and is familiar with rhetoric and Greek thought. Still very important authentic writing. Unlikely to be by Paul as it does not use any of the familiar Pauline theology or phrases. Probably penned quite late in the 1^st century.

This reading from 1 Peter 2 is headed “God’s Chosen People.” It uses the analogy of building. The word stone occurs again and again.

Christ, it says, is the living stone. He was rejected by human beings in general – that is the builders – but God selected Jesus as the cornerstone. That is of course the most important and vital stone in the entire building, without which the whole edifice will come crashing down.

What, then, is this building? It’s like the Temple, but not the Jerusalem temple. That had probably been destroyed before this letter was written. No, the temple is the spiritual house rather than any physical one. We ourselves are living stones in that building – the construction in which Christ is the cornerstone. The building may be the church, or the body of Christians.

Christians in the early church were being persecuted and reviled, yet in this building they are chosen and honoured by God. They are precious, it says, just as the cornerstone that was rejected by the builders is chosen and honoured by God.

Here the metaphor gets a bit mixed: as God’s chosen people we are called out of darkness into his wonderful light, and so must behave accordingly. The early Christians lived in a pagan society, but God’s glory shone out through their good deeds. Arguably we also increasingly live in a purely secular society, where the rule is not honour and truth, but rules and how much they can be bent, or how much people can get away with.

The letter then goes on to expand on this message – the principles of good conduct in human society – submitting to one another, and submitting to God. And I suppose there is the link to today’s Gospel, The Greatest Commandment – the golden rule of loving God and one another, from which all Christian conduct stems. Sounds easy, doesn’t it – but simple straightforward commands are so much harder to follow than complex rules. Maybe our MPs might think on that?