Letters
Formed for God's Family 1 Peter 2: 4-12
by Jane Cowan
'The christian journey was always intended as a corporate
adventure, not a heroic individual pursuit.'
That comment by New Zealander, Mike Riddell, accords with
today's theme - the second of God's
purposes for our lives, - that we have
been formed for God's family. Faith begins with a personal encounter with the
living God, but must be expressed and
nurtured in community. Our personal
walk day by day with the Lord is important but needs to be balanced by
involvement in the life of the family of believers. If you think about it, the Bible, our guide book for the
christian journey is a collection of stories and liturgy, letters and laws
written by and for communities. Genesis
begins with God being concerned about Adam being alone - he saw that as not
good - and what follows are accounts of intimate family life.
The christian church highlights the same point in the wording
of the Baptism service. Sermon subjects
are usually planned long before baptisms are arranged but it is very
appropriate that this morning two little people have been 'welcomed
into the fellowship of faith by the people of God.' For both families it is a special day of
celebration for the newest member, but it is also a happy day for the christian
church as believing parents mark the start of their child's journey of faith
and promise to encourage them to 'take
their place in the life and worship
of Christ's church'. The words
spoken today emphasise that all who have been baptised, need each other because
that is how God means it to be - he's
formed us for his family.
The particular Bible
passage we are looking at is from a letter written by the apostle Peter to
churches in part of Asia Minor. In it
he majors on the importance of christians being members of the church as a
means of survival in a hostile world.
Some of these verses are about being in God's family - about what we are - our
status - our role in the big picture.
Others are about doing - what we are to do as members of God's family - our purpose in
His plan.
So first ....What does
God want for us?.....He wants us to be 'built together'
Peter's using picture language. Once you have 'come to Christ' you are to be
'like living
stones....being built into a spiritual house' v 5
God's purpose for us is to be built together . Not to lie around in a heap - scattered
about as so much rubble and ineffective on our own. God has a grand design and his architecture is biological -
living stones may seem a paradox but not in God's economy. His structures continue to grow and develop
but always with Christ holding them together
- pictured here as 'the capstone' - the vital stone at the top of an
arch - without which the building would
not stand. Each person who comes to
Christ is another living stone ready to be built in to the design. The spiritual house in OT times was the temple and it was here and only here
that people understood God dwelt. But now things are different - Christ dwells
in our hearts by faith - each of us made alive by his Spirit - Hence living
stones.
Taking the image a
little further we might think about how God can make something beautiful and
useful out of our collective lives - as individuals we may have rough corners
or think we are small and ineffective living stones - but he has a special
position for each of us in his spiritual house. And the very act of being built together and having to rub along
with each other will knock off the sharp corners - it's in the life of the family
that we learn to love and forgive.
Of course it's about
much more than just 'showing up at services.' It is about 'experiencing life together'. We can do that in different ways ...... with lots of folk at the Centenary
Banquet.....in a smaller team cleaning the church centre at half term.....or
one to one, taking an older member shopping.
Being involved with each other in some way ....living stones built
together. We are to be one of these (a stone) - something buildable - not one of these (a marble). You can't build anything with marbles! How about this amusing but very perceptive
quote ?
"Individualism has ripped the guts out of the Western
church. 'Doing church' as an assemly of
disconnected Christian believers can feel like trying to build a tower with
glass marbles. You end up frustrated, with nothing but a dangerous mess on the
floor. "
Marbles of course just bump into one another now and again.
What else does God want for us....
He wants us to belong....v
9....'You are .....a people belonging to God.'
We do not worship idols - solid, unthinking, unfeeling
objects - we worship God who is love, and names himself in family terms as
Father, Son and Holy Spirit. His desire is that people would become
members of his family - that he would be our Father and we would be his
children. Entrance to his family is by
being born into it. That doesn't happen
automatically when we are born to our earthly parents but when we born again as
a result of trusting in Christ's death for our salvation. When that happens we not only become
children of God but we gain a vast family of brothers and sisters - blood
relatives - joined by the blood of Christ to one another. As christians we have a spiritual ethnicity.
'A people belonging to God' - do you find that a thrilling
and comforting description? Our lives
may contain many insecurities - our experience of family life may have been
difficult or disappointing - but God's great purpose for each of us is that we
should belong to his family. How
privileged is that? To have Almighty God as our Father.
Peter reminds us in verse 10 that we were not always in that
position - there was a time when we were not a people. He is quoting words from a bleak little
passage at the beginning of the book of Hosea.
The message God wanted his prophet Hosea to proclaim, was to be
illustrated through his family life.
God's people had become unfaithful to him just like Hosea's unfaithful wife, - and their children were to be given names with a special
significance. The third child's name
meant 'you are not my people and I am not your God'.
But God promised that one day the relationship with his
people would be restored - and that possibility was ultimately fulfilled by
Christ's sacrifice.
'No people' are lost people...they have no allegiance to
anyone and they have no one to look after their interests. We see how heartbreaking it is when the
latest group of refugees are filmed trekking off into the unknown, away from
all that is familiar. Surely God feels like that when he looks on his world
and the millions who choose to live outside his family when he has provided a
way for them to belong to him
v 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are
the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received
mercy.
There's a pretty clear dividing line here and it's important
that we know we've crossed it if we want real meaning and purpose to our
lives.
There is a dividing line but there is also a great promise in
John's Gospel..... To all who received Jesus, to those who believed in his name, he gave
the right to become children of God.
Entrance into God's family is open to all who believe in
Jesus as Saviour, receive his forgiveness for their sins and receive his Spirit
into their lives. That makes for a life-changing experience - and we would love
to talk with you if you want to know more about it. Baptism symbolises that turning to Jesus, but Hayden, Erin - all of us need to make it our own decision and not rely
on something our parents did for us.
Something else God
wants for us is .......to have free access to his presence.
That is part of what Peter is getting at with this strange
suggestion that his family are a 'Royal priesthood' (v 9). Once again it helps to look back into the
OT. In those times it was the priest's
role to enter the holy of hoies in the temple where God dwelt. He was allowed to go there on behalf of the
people and offer sacrifices for their sins.
But since Jesus sacrificed himself on our behalf he has made it possible
for us all to have access into the presence of Almighty God.
The priest couldn't just walk into God's presence, there were
set times and special rituals, but the Bible says we have confidence to enter
the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus.
We have an invitation to draw near at any time. Another family privilege! We are children of a Heavenly Father who
wants us to approach him as freely as children would approach a parent. We can pray alone , we can pray with
and for one another - we do not need a specially set apart person to do
this. Last week at our Growth group we
were talking about how special and helpful it is to be prayed for by others at
the end of our meetings - that can be a real bonding experience - one of the
blessings of being in God's family.
'You are a chosen
people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God'
How do you react to being described like that? Something like 'surely not me Lord' - you
know me inside out -you know my failings -
I'm not worthy of titles like that' -
The amazing grace of God has always been like that –
Peter is in fact picking up on words from Exodus. When the unpromising rabble of Israelites
were wandering in the desert, having escaped from Egypt, God spoke to them like
this.......
If you obey me fully and
keep my covenant, then out of all nations, you will be my treasured
possession. Although the whole earth is
mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
He had a collective purpose for this collection of probably
difficult individuals who would grumble about their leaders and their living
conditions.
Fifteen hundred years later,
Jesus chose to work with a community of very different and sometimes
difficult individuals - the disciples.
That suggests, that not really liking some of those who God has called
into the Holy Trinity branch of his family, is not an excuse to opt out.
Did you spot the suggestion in chapter 21 of 'The purpose
driven life'....' every church could put out a sign - No perfect people need apply.
This is a place only for those who admit they are sinners, need grace,
and want to grow' '
God wants us to be built
together - to belong - to have free
access so that we can point to his goodness.......first....by talking about
him.
v 9......declare the
praises fo him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light'.
We thought last Sunday about how worship is not just to be a part
of our lives - it involves all of our lives - the sacrifice we are to offer in
our priestly role is - to offer our
whole selves. The core of our worship
is to give not receive, and to
recognise again and again our indebtedness to Christ for calling us out of
darkness into his wonderful light. The
Greek word for church - ekklesia- in fact means called out - we are a group of
'called out' people, whose lives have been changed because we have received
God's mercy in Christ. He has become
precious to us and so someone we should
to want to talk about. That's
not aways easy if we are surrounded by those who don't share our faith, but
it's here in the family that we can learn to do that and especially in our
small groups. If we begin by praising
Jesus together and get used to expressing what he means to us in friendly company
we will strengthen and encourage one another and find it easier to declare our
faith in more hostile situations.
God wants us to point to his goodness ....declare his
praises.....by talking about him but also by the way we live......Look at
verses 9, 11 and 12.
We are called to be 'a holy
nation'..........'as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful
desires'.......to 'live such good lives among the pagans that...they may see
your good deeds and glorify God'
A holy nation, is to reflect the character of their holy God
- lives are to be lived differently - so much so that they may seem like
strangers and aliens. Aliens are marked
people - they stand out. It doesn't
suggest we should appear weird and odd in an unhelpful way - rather our lives
are to be attractive - full of good deeds and glorifying to God. It's alway good to hear that people have
found us a welcoming and attractive community - on closer investigation do they
find us a loving and forgiving one too because that is how Jesus said we would
show others we belong to Him and bring Him glory. That's something to discuss in our groups this coming week.
So then we are certainly missing out on God's plan if we
believe we can be christians without going to church.....but also if we come,
but keep ourselves to ourselves rather like shiny marbles. He wants to build us together to be
effective witnesses to his goodness.
People who know they belong to him, and to each other, because they share
the privilege of access to the same Heavenly Father.