Today, we’re going to take a little detour in the New Testament, all the way over to 1 Peter. It’s one of the shorter letters, so it’s toward the back of our Bibles.
Your fun fact for the day is that the letters in the New Testament – everything between Acts and Revelation – aren’t arranged by theme, or date, or even by author. They are arranged by length. The longest one is Romans, so it goes first. The shortest is Jude, so it goes last. And everything in between is arranged by length.
We haven’t encountered 1 Peter together in a while, so before we dive in to what it says, let’s go over some background.
As its name suggests, the letter is supposedly written by the Apostle Peter to Christians in Asia Minor (approximately where Turkey is today). Based on the language, scholars believe that it was written in Peter’s name, but not necessarily by the disciple himself. This was a common practice in the ancient world, to write something in a particular style, with particular ideas, and attribute it to someone well-known who could’ve written that, but didn’t put the ideas on paper. For simplicity’s sake, we’re going to call the author Peter anyway.
This letter was not written to a particular church, to address particular issues in a specific congregation. In Corinthians, for example, you get a lot of specific references to people and their questions and squabbles – not so much with this letter. It’s much more general, and reads a little bit more like a sermon than a correspondence between friends.
Nevertheless, Peter does have some specific ideas he wants to communicate – he writes to encourage fledgling communities of faith that are struggling to find a common identity in the midst of theological and political upheaval. Many of these communities were mixed, made up of Jews and Gentiles, and they struggled to find ways to unite amidst their differences. They were also persecuted by the empire, so much of the letter is Peter reminding them that Jesus also suffered, and they are not alone.
So let’s hear what Peter has to say in chapter two, verses 1-10.
Scripture: 1 Peter 2:1-10
Rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice and all guile, insincerity, envy, and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
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.”
This honor, then, is for you who believe, 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 people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the excellence 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.
This part of Peter’s letter encourages these newly planted, fledgling communities to continue growing into the holy life that they’ve begun in Christ, and to view themselves as one community, a family even, chosen and called by God to be bearers of this good news, the gospel of Jesus.
He reminds them of how far they’ve come, saying ‘once you had no claim to this promise, but now you do. Once you were scattered, now you are in this together.’ He reminds them to drink their ‘spiritual milk’, like children who need to grow strong bones, so they will be nourished and strong and capable of doing what God is asking of them. He uses the metaphor of stones, saying ‘once you didn’t have a home, and now you are living stones, making up God’s house, with Christ himself as the cornerstone.’
All of this is great. It’s encouragement and unity and hope in Christ and rah-rah-go-get-‘em.
And.
I chose this passage for this week because I think it’s a great example of the ways we—and by we I mean humans in general—can get ourselves into trouble with the Bible.
Because what I just told you about this passage is the best-case scenario – the most loving and kind interpretation of what Peter says.
But there is an undertone to this letter that can take us to some not-so-great places unless we pay attention.
Peter is encouraging these people to form a coherent identity in the name of Jesus, encouraging them by saying that they have been chosen by God. But in order to do this, he removes Judaism from the equation altogether. One of the strategies that the early church used to distinguish themselves, to create a new identity, was to put down Judaism and Jews in order to lift up the movement that would become Christianity. Judaism was heavily criticized in often exaggerated ways in order to say ‘see, Christianity is so much better!’
If you look at history, we see this same pattern play out over and over and over again. The Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches have been doing this to each other for millennia. The Protestant Reformation did this to the Roman Catholic church. The Baptists did this to the Protestants. The Methodists did this to the Anglicans. The Christian Reformed Church did this to the Reformed Church. The innumerable splinter groups from every denomination under the sun continue to do this to each other. Individual congregations do this to our neighbors.
Our religious family tree is a hot mess, because we continue to say “see, THOSE people are the worst. But we’re not like those guys. We really understand God and God’s plan.”
I will admit that as I was writing this sermon, I was tempted to do that exact thing and say “see how OTHER PEOPLE are so wrong about what this passage means?” I had a whole thing typed up about what it means to be a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation – and how all those other people get it so wrong.
And here’s the hard part: I still think I’m right about that. But that’s not the point.
This passage can encourage us. We are God’s beloved people, and we can and should own that–so long as we remember that we are not God’s only people. We are the church, and we are not the whole Church.
1 Peter gives us the opportunity to say ‘yes’ to our identity in Christ, to believe that we have been claimed and called by God to share this grace and love with the world.
And it also offers us the temptation to put ourselves on a theological pedestal, to create our community identity at the expense of our relationships with our neighbors, to feed our ego instead of our empathy.
How many of us have cherished recipes – something that you make often, that you look forward to, that you make the same way every time?
I’m going to use meatloaf as an easy example. You have this amazing meatloaf recipe with a beautiful homemade tomato sauce on top. People ask you for it. You make it at least twice a month. You’ve made it the same way for decades, and it is perfect – just the way you like it.
Then you go to dinner at a friend’s house, and they make meatloaf. It’s their family recipe. It’s their star dish, and they’re so excited to share it with you.
You take a bite, and it’s…wrong. Your taste buds immediately go ‘THIS IS NOT MEATLOAF.’ The flavors are completely different. There might be teriyaki sauce involved? Your brain short-circuits a little bit and you’re thinking ‘what is this?!’
Now, you have to decide how to respond. Do you eat it, and then go home and tell your spouse that ‘THAT WAS NOT MEATLOAF’ and critique everything that they did differently? Do you tell them their meatloaf is wrong? Do you passive-aggressively offer to share your own recipe? Do you challenge them to a meatloaf showdown?
OR, do you take another bite, ask about the recipe, and simply enjoy the meal in front of you for what it is? Can two very different meatloaf recipes exist side-by-side in your recipe box?
The remedy here is not to say ‘well thank goodness I’m not one of those mean Christians!’, because then we have fallen into the same trap. Instead, Christ calls us to move toward one another, to invest in our neighbors, to feed our curiosity, to deepen our relationships even with the people we think get it wrong in one way or another.
This is not an easy calling for anyone, and it’s especially difficult in West Michigan, where even Christian churches who are [this far apart] theologically tend to think of each other as competitors at best, and heretics at worst.
But friends, there is good news to be had. Jesus Christ, our cornerstone, calls ALL of us together as a community of God’s beloved people. Here, we worship the living God. Here, together, we are nourished at Christ’s table. Here, together, our wounds are bound, our struggles are shared, our joy is doubled, our hope is renewed. We are God’s beloved people, chosen and called to proclaim God’s love and grace to the world – one day, one conversation, one prayer, one connection at a time.
Thanks be to God.