A Note from Dean; Be Pure like a New Born
Dear Friends,
The month of February ends with this Epistle Lesson in our lectionary:
The Living Stone and a Chosen People First Peter 2: 1-9
2 Rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice and all guile, insincerity, envy, and all slander. 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 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,”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 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.
What wonderful images are given here to us: “pure, spiritual milk” that nourishes us to grow in faith, “living stones” as the body of Christ, “cornerstone” Jesus himself, and “royal priesthood” as heirs of all the covenants up through the one we finally receive through the life, death and resurrection of Christ.
Scholars tell us that the writer was probably not Peter himself, but an Elder in Rome. He’s writing to the diaspora of churches in Asia Minor, made up of Gentiles, foreigners in the land, and household slaves. The author accomplishes something not easy to do: he lectures them on how they are to behave as new believers, yet he isn’t condescending for he reminds them that they are a chosen people; God’s own people.” His words of encourage them to live into being the true heirs of God’s covenant by rejecting the sinful ways of the world like ill-will, covetousness, and defamation of character. No matter if they are a slave, an immigrant, or new to the faith in Jesus, they are all members of God’s new commonwealth.
During Lent when we may begin to feel bowed down by thinking of all our short-comings and sins – as individuals and the church – this passage brings hope.
We are not to think of ourselves as bad, sinful people with bad self-images, but as God’s beloved children, growing in righteousness: “Whoever believes in Jesus, will not be put to shame…for Jesus has called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.” (v.6, 9)
Lenten blessings,
Dean