April 28, 2002
Fifth Sunday of Easeter
"Chosen And Precious"
(1 Peter 2:2-10)
Rev. Billy D. Strayhorn
[2] Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation--
[3] if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
[4] Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God's sight, and
[5] 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.
[6] 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."
[7] 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,"
[8] 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.
[9] 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.
[10] 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.
[NRSV]
A college sophomore who had spent most of the school year in one kind of trouble or another received the following card from his parents who were on vacation in Greece: "Dear Son, we are now standing high on a cliff from which the ancient Spartan women once hurled their defective children to the rocks below. Wish you were here." (1)
Today, Peter, the one Jesus renamed, the Rock, talks to us about rocks. He talks about the building process and he tells us we should become living stones.
I know all about "Living Stones." When we farmed, we had a field in which we grew two crops. It was one of the most fertile fields on the farm. One of those two crops was either wheat, rye or just plain old hay, depending on the year and what we needed. Every spring, though, we harvested a natural crop, the most plentiful crop of all. Every spring, after we plowed, we would go out and pick up rocks.
I swear. I really believe that field grew rocks. Every year we would haul off three or four wagon loads of rocks. I'm not talking about golf ball sized rocks. I'm talking about softball size and larger. I have no idea where they came from. We'd get finished, look over the field and think, there can't be another rock in it. And then the next spring, it would be filled with rocks again. They had to be a form of these "Living Rocks" Peter's talking about.
Have you ever noticed how important rocks are? We take them for granted until we need them for something or we have to pick them up out of a field. But they have a major influence in our lives.
Growing up I read comic books. One of the comic book heroes was Sergeant Rock. I watched movies starring Rock Hudson and cartoons with Rocky the flying squirrel. And watched my mother rock my little brothers in her rocking chair.
As a teenager I listened to Rock and Roll. And though they weren't my favorite, I listened to the Rolling Stones, and later the Stone Ponies. And at one time we all watched the Flintstones.
We've walked or driven on cobblestone. We all know our birthstone. We've experienced milestones in our lives and sharpened knives on a whetstone. We grew up, got a job and put our nose to the grindstone. And now we hope that the Rosetta Stone of our faith, Jesus, will help us avoid the brimstone.
Rocks and stones are a part of our lives. We can use them to build or we can use them to destroy. David used a small stone to defeat Goliath and deliver Israel. The Romans used boulders in their catapults to destroy. Certain offenses in the life and faith of early Israel called for death by stoning.
Our first tools and our first weapons were made out of rocks and stones. Stone axes and flint knives helped us gather food and protect ourselves. Flint arrowheads did the same. But they also allowed us to be more aggressive and to have the wherewithal to act upon our lust and greed for what someone else had, that we wanted.
But mainly, rocks and stones, have helped us build sturdy homes and protected cities. They have helped us build places of refuge, learning and worship. And those are the images Peter wants us to think about. The positive images of what stones can do for us.
In verses 4 & 5, Peter writes: "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." Today, I want us to look at two phrases from Peter's letter. "Chosen and Precious" and "Like Living Stones."
A. Peter tells us that Jesus was Chosen and Precious in God's sight. From the very beginning of time itself, Jesus was Chosen to be our Savior. Everything that was created was created for Him and through Him by God. And through Him, our Salvation would be bought as well.
We all know that. We know that because Jesus is Precious to Us as well. God called Jesus to be our Savior and Jesus said, "Yes!" And we know that Jesus could have refused, but He said, "Yes!" And that makes all the difference in the world to us.
Now, that's not the reason God loves Jesus. And that's not the reason Jesus was chosen. Or even the reason God says Jesus is Precious.
Jesus is Precious because Jesus is God's Son. And what better one to choose to carry out the most difficult task of all time, than one who fully knows your mind and heart and soul. Jesus was Chosen because He IS Precious in God's heart and in God's sight. But because Jesus chose to say, "Yes," to God, He became even more Precious to God.
And because Jesus said, "Yes." to God, Jesus became precious to us, as well.
B. But not only that. Through Jesus, you and I have been Chosen as well. Can you imagine that. God Chose You. I don't know about you, but it blows me away, that God Chose Me. Of all people, God Chose Me.
I feel a little bit like Mahalia Jackson when she was introduced to the Emperor of Japan, after a concert in Tokyo. The Emperor commented on Ms. Jackson's extraordinary voice. She in turn replied, "I can take you to over 200 of my people who have better voices. But one day God reached down his big hand and said, 'Mahalia, baby, I chooses you." (2)
Through the work that God did on the cross through His Son Jesus, to quote Mahalia Jackson: "God reached down his big hand and said, 'I chooses you."
We are a Chosen People as Peter says. We don't choose God. God chooses us. What we choose is simply to accept or reject God's choice in our lives. Through Christ Jesus, God's Chosen Son, God chooses us. And we become: "God's own people."
There was a little boy who just didn't have very much athletic ability. Every time he and his friends played any kind of game he was always the last one chosen. One day two older boys came to play with them and because they were older and better than ANY of the younger boys, they were made captains of the two teams.
Right off the bat, the first team captain chose the little boy who was always the one chosen last. But it didn't seem strange to any of the other boys. Do you know why? Because they were brothers, and the older brother loved his little brother, whether he had any talent or not.
And so it is with God. God chose us not because of our athletic abilities; not because we're the best; not because we're all above average. God chose us simply because God loves us. (3) And God sent His Son to be our Savior for the very same reason. Because God loves us.
C. That simply means that like Jesus, we are Precious in God's heart and sight. And that holds true for each and everyone of us. It holds true for every person in creation. Like the song says: "Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world." Jesus loves us like that because God love's us like that.
When we look out into the world, sometimes we see people that we just can't understand how God could love them. And yet, God does. We see these folks doing things and acting in ways that we know are contrary to what God wants. And we want to dismiss these folks as not being worthy of God's love. We want to look down our noses and think that we're better than they are.
But the truth is that we're not any better than they are. We just happen to sin differently. But sin is sin in God's eyes. And as a consequence, none of us deserve God's love. But that's what Grace is all about. It's about redeeming the unworthy. It's about loving the unlovable. It's not about what we do but what is done for us.
I know you've heard the phrase, "One man's junk is another man's treasure." It's the reason why garage sales work. We take the junk we don't want, and somebody actually pays us money for it. And they're happy they bought it. It almost ludicrous.
Not too many years ago, an 85 year old widow in Wisconsin died, and her only living relative, a niece had the responsibility of going through her possessions and taking what she wanted and selling the rest. Most of it was junk and so she decided to just have a garage sale and sell it for as cheap as she could just to have somebody haul it off.
Among the old ladies' possession was a box that had been sitting in the attic, untouched, for probably a good 50 years. The niece thought it was just a bunch of worthless old bubble gum cards. However, one visitor to the garage sale became the beneficiary of that ignorance. He purchased the whole box for $1.
Within that box were hundreds of mint condition baseball cards from the 20's, 30's and 40's. Rookie cards of baseball legends Babe Ruth and many others. The total collection, which was purchased for $1, was later estimated to have a value of over $475,000! One man's junk truly is another man's treasure. (4)
And that's the way it is in the Kingdom of God. What or who we see as worthless or at least of little or no value is often times, the most precious in God's eyes. God CAN and DOES take the junk of our lives and turn it into something Precious simply because we are Chosen and say "Yes!" to God.
A. And when that happens, when we are transformed into the Chosen and Precious people of God, then we become the Living Stones Peter is talking about.
So, what does that mean.
A couple of weeks ago, a group of us were able to take half a dozen buckets of smooth stones which had been wrapped in your prayers for this Church and its future. They all had at least one name on them. They all had been prayed over at least twice. They've been in our Sanctuary since the kick off of our Building Campaign. And now they are a part of the foundation of our new Worship Center.
They are buried in the concrete. But while we can't see them, they are still alive in our minds and in our hearts. They have become Living Stones because they add significant meaning to the Building. And we'll remember that the dreams of all those who have gone before us; those who had the same dreams we dream; who heard the same call of God which we've heard have added to their significance. We can't see these stones. But they ARE alive. We can't see Jesus. But He is alive. In us.
B. If we put it in building terms. We know that Jesus is called the Cornerstone. A Cornerstone is a very important stone, next to the foundation. It is the first stone to be put in place. Often times, the cornerstone holds special significance and is filled with certain objects or worship or symbols of the times. Once the Cornerstone is set into place, the rest of the walls can be put up.
A Cornerstone is the one stone form which all the others take their shape. It is an anchor of sorts. If it is put in crooked or out of true square, the walls will be crooked. Jesus, the perfect Son of God, is the Cornerstone of our faith. He has set the example.
Then in masonry, there is the Keystone. This is the central wedge-shaped stone of an arch that locks all its parts together. It is the one piece that allows the other stones to rest their entire weight upon it. It is the strongest stone and the most critical stone in an arch. If you were to remove the keystone, the arch would collapse.
Jesus is our Keystone. Our hopes and dreams, our salvation, our faith, our all rests upon Him. Without Him we would collapse and fall. Without Him we would be nothing. He is the strength of our lives and our faith. He is the one who holds us up and keeps us together.
Also in masonry, there is the Capstone. This is the row of stones at the top of a wall or another structure, the last stones to go on the building. It is the end. It too, adds extra support. It also closes the course so that no other bricks or stones can be added.
Jesus is our Capstone. His work on the cross is the final sacrifice. No longer do we need to make blood sacrifices as atonement for our sins. No longer do we need to try to fulfill every aspect of the law in order to be right with God. Jesus did all of that for us. His sacrifice put an end to all other sacrifices. His death and resurrection ushered in the age of Grace, not the Law.
Jesus said: "I am the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end." He could have said, "I am the Cornerstone and Capstone."
And Peter calls us to be like Jesus, Living Stones. People whose lives are built upon the foundation of faith in Christ. People who have Christ alive in their hearts. People who live as "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people."
I recently read about a woman who lived in a housing project in Dallas. The woman was a pain in the neck to everyone around her. She had broken her hip and the experience soured her toward everyone.
This grouchy lady complained about everything, and when she couldn't find anything to grumble about, she'd snarl at the Meals on Wheels driver to just leave the meal in the refrigerator. Marsh Bishop, who delivered the meals to this grumpy old lady, admits that sometimes it was hard to be nice to her.
One day, the Marsha Bishop did her Meals on Wheels rounds with her two young sons along. They were enjoying the visits, and as children do, turned it into a game. The 5-year-old picked out some magazines, and the 2-year-old picked a couple dandelions.
When Marsha knocked on the door, the cranky voice said, "You're late today. Come on in, it's unlocked."
The boys rushed in, and the 5-year-old said, "Look! I brought you some magazines!"
The little 2-year-old nearly fell into her lap as he gave her the two wilted dandelions.
As Marsha took her boys' hands to return to the car, she looked back. The woman had pulled herself up, and clutched the two dandelions in the hand that held onto her walker, and waved good-bye with the other. The bitter face had melted into a smile, and tears rolled down her face.
It doesn't take much to be that "chosen race, royal priesthood, holy nation, God's own people." All it takes is a heart that belongs to God. A heart and a faith built upon the foundation of Christ Jesus. A heart that is a Living Stone.
One day a drill sergeant came out and threw a hand grenade into a group of young soldiers. The men all ran and took cover from the grenade. Then the drill sergeant told them that the grenade was a dummy and he just did it to see their reaction.
The next day a new recruit joined the group. The drill sergeant told the other soldiers not to tell the new recruit what was going to happen. When the drill sergeant came out and threw the grenade into the crowd of soldiers, the new recruit, not knowing it wasn't going to explode, threw himself on top of the grenade to prevent it from killing the other men. That year the young man was awarded the only medal for courage and bravery that hadn't been awarded and won during battle. (5)
Here was a new recruit who took the basic qualities of bravery and courage in the face of danger to a higher level, one which included being willing to die for his fellow soldiers. His act of self-sacrifice modeled bravery and courage for the other soldiers.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not asking anyone to jump on a grenade. Neither is Jesus. But He is challenging us to do what that soldier did, model our beliefs and our core values for everyone else to see.
We are Precious in the eyes of the Lord. We are invaluable. We are cherished. And we are Chosen. God wants us to be Living Stones, Living Reminders of just how Precious we are to God.
1. Parables, Etc. (Saratoga Press, P.O. Box 8, Platteville, CO, 80651; 970-785-2990), November 1983
2. Told in an Emmaus Clergy Talk by Ruth Huber Rohlfs
3. The Autoillustrator, (Greeley, CO, 1993) 970.330.1925 (Autoill@AOL.com)
4. Adapted from a story told by Evan D. Baltz at www.deaconsil.com
5. Adapted from Marsha Bishop, in a sermon, "Blinded by a Log". Bread Afresh, Wine Anew:Sermons by Disciples Women, Joan Campbell and David Polk, ed. (St. Louis, Mo: Chalice Press, 1991) 122.
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