BLESSING THE NOBODIES

I Peter 2:1-10

Preached at Belmont Baptist Church of Broomall on Feb. 5, 2012

Just this past week, Sheryl (my wife) and I rehashed a conversation we have had many times before. What started the conversation was something that she saw on television: a young couple taking on a big mortgage. That led her to ask: “how can they afford to do that?” It was a rhetorical question and she didn’t want an answer—she already knew the answer. But like a clueless husband, I gave one anyway: “well, if you are not giving a tenth or more of your income to the church, you have a lot more money to spend on other things.” This started a discussion about the differences between living as followers of Jesus Christ and those who follow the ways of the world. Sheryl and I have had such conversations before…many times. We understand: to the world, we look like fools. We don’t do things like the rest of the world. We don’t think like other people. In many ways, we really don’t fit into this world… which is the point that Peter is making in this part of his letter. Let’s look at what Peter has to say.

Peter starts with the word “therefore.” Based on what he has written to this point, he admonishes us to be different by making a complete break with the ways of the world. After all, we have heard some really good news: Jesus’ death on the cross made it possible for all who believe to have a brand new life. We pass from death to life—a new life in Jesus in which we leave the old life behind. We are called to live very different lives. The list of actions and habits and attitudes in our scripture passage are not pretty. Since most of us are good people, we may not see where any item on this list applies to us. We may not do any of those things. However, there are many things we continue to practice that really don’t belong to our new life in Jesus. When we follow Jesus, God calls us to make a clear break with things that don’t please Him.

In the early church, their baptism was a good picture of what they were doing. As the person being baptized would come to one side of a stream, they would strip off their outer clothes and leave them behind. Often other Christians would take these clothes and immediately burn them…so the people realized that they could not go back to the old ways any more. After their baptism, they would exit the other side of the stream where other Christians would have new clothes for the new believer to put on. That is the kind of picture that Peter is using: strip off the old…anything that doesn’t belong to living as a child of God, and take on the new…live as God wants you to live.

Peter then abruptly shifts the imagery. He begins to talk about stones. First of all, Jesus is a “living” stone. Unlike an inanimate object, Jesus is full of life. So this is an interesting image—living stone. Of all the people who have studied this letter, no one gives me a satisfactory answer about where Peter may have gotten this image. What comes to my mind is something that is taught in chemistry. There are many elements that, when combined just sit there. They don’t interact. However, when you add a catalyst, these elements then begin to interact. That’s a good image of Jesus as a living stone. Jesus is that living stone, that catalyst that enables God and man to interact and relate properly.

But he doesn’t end there. When we put our trust in Jesus, we become like him. And Peter says that we too are living stones—stones that are full of life. And God can use us in the lives of people all around us to enable them to relate to God as well. In God’s hands, we are life-giving, living stones…just like Jesus.

Peter moves on immediately to a more common image of stone as a building block. He says that God has used Jesus as the crucial stone, the cornerstone on which to create a brand new, spiritual house. This spiritual house exists for God’s purposes. It works in ways that please God. It exists for the glory of God. He says that this house is composed of all the people who put their trust in Jesus. They realize how precious Jesus is and what God has done in Jesus. Those who know who Jesus is build their lives on Him. If you see Jesus for who he really is, you become part of God’s household, God’s people. Jesus is the one on whom the whole plan of God is built.

We who have faith are being built up into a spiritual house for the glory of God. What is it like being part of a spiritual house? Whether we want to admit it or not, the process of making a decision on renovating the sanctuary is testing us, to see if we really are a part of a spiritual house or not. Are we going to think and act as those who are in the world? Or are we going to think and act as if we belong to God? For the first few centuries after Jesus, Christians had no buildings, no special designs (like “Colonial” or Gothic) and no sacred spaces. They experienced the presence of God in the presence of each other as they gathered and became a spiritual house. You see, it is not the style of the building, or whether we paint this color or that, or put down this carpet or another, or use pews or use chairs. It is how we listen to and love each other as we make decisions that will reveal whether we are a spiritual house. Remember: it is not this building that is sacred but our relationship to God and with each other. Are we going to act like the spiritual house we are called to be?

Peter ends this part of his letter with a series of images drawn from the Old Testament. These believers are struggling because the unbelievers around them see them as fools, rejecting them and scoffing at their faith. The unbelieving world promotes self. They say: look out for #1, put self first. Instead, Christians lift up Jesus, consider the needs of others, help others and lift them up instead of promoting self. God turns the world upside down. The ones that the world despises are the very ones that God chooses, that God blesses, that God takes as his very own people. These nobodies in the eyes of the world are the ones that are holy, blessed and royal.

In this sense, believers are just like Jesus their Lord. Jesus was rejected and scoffed at. But God chose the foolishness of the cross to confound the wisdom of this world and God has made the one who was rejected to be the centerpiece of his plan. Jesus showed us that this is what God is about. The tax collectors and other sinners were written off as being nobodies. In the minds of many people, God wouldn’t be interested in them let alone care for them. And then, along comes Jesus…he talks with a woman whom many in the village would shun…he goes to eat at the home of a tax collector…he cares for the sick and the poor and the weak and the outsiders. (Story about a Christian serving needy people—sense of “this is what God means for us to do.”)

Here is what the people who read Peter’s letter needed to realize. In the eyes of the world as far as status is concerned, Christians are nobodies, fools, lowly nothings that are not worth considering. As far as the world is concerned, Christians can be used, abused, mistreated, shamed…and it is only what they deserve. But in the eyes of God, Christians are blessed, they are special, they are experiencing the fullness of life that God intended. The world sees Christians as outsiders who don’t belong. God sees Christians as insiders who are being made into the image of Jesus. The world may see Christians as deceived or worse…but those who refuse to put their trust in Jesus are only deceiving themselves. In the end, they are the ones who will stumble and fall. They trip on the simple truth of who Jesus is and what He did in dying on the cross. Jesus is the one on whom the whole plan of God is built.

Because of what God has done, we have been called out of darkness into light; we nobodies are now God’s somebodies; we who had not experienced mercy have received mercy. Listen to this prayer based on this passage: “We did not choose You; You chose us. We are humbled by your mercy which You have lavished upon us. It was not enough for you to forgive us; it was not enough for You to rescue us—You had so much more in mind. You have done immeasurably more than we could possibly have asked or imagined. We are amazed at Your boundless love. What honor to be Your priesthood, what security to be Your cherished possession; what grace to be made holy.” That my friend is what God has done for us nobodies—blessed us beyond what we could ever imagine. I would rather be God’s nobody than a somebody in the eyes of the world. Wouldn’t you?