1 Peter chapter 2 - sermon series

1 Peter 2

“Building a Spiritual House”

            Last week, we entered into the first letter of Peter.  He is writing to people that have found themselves living in exile.  A people that desire a different way of life for themselves, a people longing to return to Israel.  Instead of raising their hopes that they will have a future promise of returning home, the writer of this letter instead encourages them to embrace their current reality.  Embrace living where they are, embrace the purpose God has for their present, instead of a focus on what God might be doing for their future.  Last week the focus was on how to be a Holy people, even in exile. 

            Today, the writer of this letter continues to help guide this group of people into defining what it means for them to be community with each other.  This part of the letter calls this gathering of people to think about their behavior, to think about their actions, to think about how they are treating each other.  They are told to rid themselves of:  all malice, and all guile, insincerity, envy, and all slander.  Before they can move forward as God’s people, before they can move forward to living out the purpose God is calling them into, they need to create peace within themselves.  They cannot just be a group of people gathering together, they must be a group of people gathering together for a Holy purpose. 

            This whole first section of 1 Peter, is directly connected to the Hebrew scriptures.  The writer is reaching back into their faith story and drawing on the scriptures as they are creating a new community in their present situation.  Taste that the Lord is good, is from the Psalms. 

            They are to prayerfully examine what in their lives connects them to God.  How do they taste God?  Is it through study?  Is it through prayer?  Is it through the kindness of another?  Something has impacted their life in such a way that they are being drawn to this new fledgling faith community.  Somehow they have been introduced to God’s work through Jesus, and they believe that in and through his life and teachings that he is indeed the Messiah.  In their current setting, this was not an easy decision to come to.  They are breaking from the cultural setting they are living within, they may even be breaking from their family heritage, alienating themselves from the family community with which they live. 

            And this is partly why, 1 Peter is guiding them on how to be community.  For some, the faith community might be the only community they now have.  Embracing the faith of the early Christian church was not the standard way of life.  The writer emphasizes this within the letter, “Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight…”  We usually understand this Hebrew scripture of the corner stone being rejected as a direct reference to Jesus being rejected by the religious authorities of his time.  But here, it is being used for all those that are a part of this community of faith.  Just as Jesus is the living stone, rejected by mortals, so are they.  They are living stones, yes, rejected, but living stones in God’s sight to be used by God for God’s holy purpose. 

            Rejection is one of the hardest emotional stresses people wrestle with.  Most people do not desire to be rejected.  Most people want to be liked.  They want to be a part of their community.  And yet, we know, there are people we like and people we just don’t seem to connect with.  Within the faith community, there is no room for this.  God calls us together, God has given each purpose within the community a purpose.  The outside world, the cultural around the church might be full of rejection, but within the faith community, God desires acceptance.  God desires each member of the community to be a living stone, to be built up into a spiritual house for the Lord.  The writer of 1^st Peter is calling them to understand that together they serve a purpose.  And together, they are the spiritual house for God. 

            Their time period was rather different than ours.  They did not have this independent individualistic society that we have today.  Community was absolutely the core of their everyday lives.  In our world today, we value independence.  We value being able to stand on our own; to support ourselves, to not have to depend on anyone but our self.  For many, we no longer live within our family communities.  We are transient, we are able to move from place to place and more often, it is our job that dictates where we live. 

            For many of us, we do not grow up going to school with our cousins, or spending weekends with the extended family.  Rather, we recreate family, we give close friends the title of aunt and uncle and develop new networks of familial community with those that live close by.  Even in our individualist culture, we still crave, desire, gravitate towards community. 

            This is one of the critical questions the church of the 21^st century must ask of itself as it seeks to remain relevant to people in today’s world.  What kind of community are we?  How are we tasting that God is good?  How can we share that spiritual milk with others?  How are we God’s living stones being built into a spiritual house for God?  How are we facing rejection and embracing love? 

            God has not called us together as a family of faith just to recharge our own batteries.  God has not called us together as a family of faith, for our own individual needs, but God calls us together to be a community.  A community with a purpose –   But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people,^[c] in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.  This text is part of our baptism liturgy.  It is essential that we embrace the understanding that together, our purpose and our very being is to proclaim that we believe God’s light of love is at the core of our own lives. 

            Being God’s living stones gathered together to build a spiritual house for the Lord changes from generation to generation and looks different depending on the cultural context.  We are living in a day and age where people proclaim they are spiritual but not religious.  We are living in a day and age where people no longer desire to be a part of a faith community because they are finding community in other places.  In a very real sense, the greater church is finding itself back in the day and age of 1^st Peter, living in a world that doesn’t really value us.  But we know those small gatherings of people kept the faith and found a way to make it relevant to the world around them and the church grew.  In the ebb and flow of life, in the changes of the seasons, God will continue to work through the church and through communities of people that gather, and God’s story will continue to transform people’s lives as we taste and know that the Lord is Good.  Amen.  

sermon: The Wedding is Ready

Matthew 22

“The Wedding is Ready”

            In today’s parable, Jesus uses the imagery of a wedding banquet to illustrate what the Kingdom of Heaven is like.  Throughout the scriptures, the prophets also used the imagery of marriage to speak of God and God’s people. At times, God is the groom and Israel is his wife.  At times, Israel is the groom and they have married away from God, as God calls them back from their idolatry. 

            So, as Jesus begins this parable, those that are familiar with the Hebrew scriptures are hearing an echo of their heritage.  They are hearing yet again, the voice of the prophet that asks: are you my bride?  Are you truly my people?  Except the imagery has changed, no longer is relationship that of groom and bride but now the people that Jesus speaks of are guests.  This too should catch the listeners attention.  If Jesus spoke of a parable about a wedding banquet where all was ready but the bride did not come, the Hebrew people would sit up and take notice.  They have always been the bride so who are these guests?  And why don’t they want to come to the wedding banquet?

            Most of us enjoy parties, especially weddings.  When it comes to a family member or a really good friend, to turn down a wedding invitation is usually not an option.  Seven years later, I am still disappointed that I was not able to attend a really good friend’s wedding, but I was pregnant with Andi and very sick.  I couldn’t muster up the energy to drive eight hours so I had to tell her, we just couldn’t make it.  And, for my own wedding, there were a few really good friends that could not come and I remember feeling rather disappointed that they were not able to be there.  When it comes to family and good friends, attending the wedding can be a reflection of the relationship.  Yes, you are truly a good friend, I will make sure I do everything I can to make sure I am there for you on this special day. 

            But then there are those invitations from friends, but not close friends.  And sometimes those are easier decisions to make.  Well, yes, we went to high school together but we haven’t really stayed involved for the past ten years and it is going to be expensive to get a hotel and travel expenses so I think that perhaps this is one wedding that I can easily say thank you for the invite but I am not able to attend.  And then, there is the rarer invite from someone that you are extremely surprised to get an invitation from.  Why in the world would this person invite me to their wedding?  

            So, what is going on in this parable?  The King, sends out an invite to a wedding banquet and no one shows up.  This is the King, does he not have any friends?  Does his son not have any friends?  Are there no relatives that want to be a part of this celebration?  There are very few royal weddings in our world today, but when there is one, people want to be invited.  Even if they don’t know the couple, they want to be a part of this special day.  In fact, they line up along the streets to just catch a glimpse of the couple, they get themselves as close to there as possible without actually being there.  And it becomes part of their story.  They go back and tell their friends, hey, I saw the royal couple, I saw them enter the church, I saw them leave the church, I saw them in their royal carriage, the bride, she waved at me.  But none of this is happening in today’s parable. 

            Why does the king and his son have no friends?  Why does no one want to come?  So he sends out his servants to bring the people to the wedding banquet.  And, just like last week’s parable, there are not good results.  Why won’t the guests come?  What is so hard about attending a party?  Being a guest involves very little obligation, doesn’t it?  Or does it?  What would coming to the banquet obligate these people to?  In a literal sense, it would involve a loss of a day’s work, it might involve purchasing a gift, it might involve having to buy the right clothes.  In a literal sense, there might be some financial obligations that the people just cannot meet. 

            In a spiritual sense, since this is a parable about the Kingdom of Heaven, what are the obligations for the guests?  They are not being asked to be the bride, but just come and attend and be a part of the celebration.  Why won’t they come?  Perhaps because this is something new and different.   The people are comfortable in the way they are living their lives and they are not seeking anything new and different in their faith, in their understanding of God.  By coming to the wedding banquet there is a sign of respect for the family members that are getting married.  Spiritually, there must be a response of respect for God and for Jesus.  Spiritually, there has to be a connection to this king, to God, to what he is doing in the world by presenting his son to the world.  If there is no connection, there is no need to attend.  If there is no relationship building there is no reason to attend.  If there is no respect, there is no reason to attend.  So, is the Kingdom of Heaven about the king or about the guests?  Who is at fault?  If the king was connected to the people wouldn’t they have come?  Or are the people just too busy to pay attention to the king? 

            So, the parable continues.  The first round of guests don’t come, so anyone and everyone on the streets are gathered in and brought to the feast.  And they come.  The wedding is ready.  Although this parable has some really rough edges, the spiritual message behind it is that God’s grace is extended to all.  Everyone is invited to the wedding, but, just like the people on the streets, perhaps not everyone knows they are welcomed.  God does not act alone, this parable illustrates that there are servants, there are loyal people connected to the king that go out into the streets. 

            This parable is a spiritual message of both/and.  I asked earlier, who are the guests?  But I didn’t ask, who are the servants?  The wedding feast is ready.  What does that mean for us?  Who are we in the parable?  Are we the first round of guests, are we the second round of guests, or are we the servants?  If we are the second round of guests, let us come and enjoy the wedding.  Let us feast on God’s word, and God’s love, and God’s grace in our lives.  Let us celebrate that God is good, that God loves us, and God desires us to be at the wedding.  Let us build our relationship with God so that we hold God as one of those dear friends that we would drop just about anything for in order to be there for him. 

            Do often think of God being there for us, but what would it look like to think about ourselves as the guests and being there for God and for the son?  Take a minute and think about one wedding that you have attended as a guest that was extremely meaningful for you.  I just did a wedding vow renewal for a couple that have been married almost fifty years.  At that celebration people shared how they were at the wedding almost fifty years ago and what a wonderful relationship they have had with that couple over the past fifty years.  God desires that of us.  God desires us to say, I am so glad to be a part of this spiritual wedding and what a wonderful relationship we have had over these past – ten, or twenty or eighty years. 

            But let’s take a second look, what if we see ourselves as the servants.  God sends those servants out to gather others in.  Do we feel called in any way, shape or sort to go out and bring people in?  And if we do, what does that look like?  Some people have invited friends to come to church.  Some people have invited friends to come to Bible Study.  Some people have invited friends to come to the community breakfast.  Some people have invited friends to come our events such as the Tea or Strawberry Festival and this is a great start. 

            I just heard a story about a church that was having a community breakfast with the agenda of bringing in families.  But families did not come, instead those that came were homeless or on the fringe of homelessness.  The congregation was surprised and didn’t know what to do.  They wanted families with children.  As I heard this story, it just reminded me of us.  Now, the difference between this other congregation and us was this, they held the breakfast on Saturday and when they had worked through what they wanted and what God had sent them, they decided to put together a very informal worship service during the breakfast.  Now, some of you have heard me mention wanting to do this with our breakfast, but I have not figured out the logistics.  Do I do it during the breakfast maybe at 9:30?  Is there an elder or two willing to lead this service?  If I lead the service would an elder or two lead our worship service upstairs?  How can we make this work?  I was so surprised to hear this story because it showed me that another church stopped asking the logistic questions and just did it, and it worked. 

            The servants went out, they offered a breakfast, and the people came, and they fed them with food and the word of God and new life emerged.  Nothing like what the people expected, but truly the Kingdom of Heaven in their midst. 

            Come, the wedding is ready, come and build a loving relationship with God, come and feast on God’s love and mercy and grace.  Come, and then go out and bring others in.  The wedding is ready and it has been prepared for all.  Amen.