A Easter 5 – May 18, 2014
Text: 1 Peter 2:2-10
Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Grand Prairie, Texas
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Grace and peace be with you, from
God our Father, and his beloved Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
One of the first people we met on
our trip to the Holy Land in February was a young woman named Angel. Imagine –
a woman named Angel, from the town of Bethlehem. She spent the better part of a
day with us, showing us around a local university. We were still getting our
bearings – still dealing with jet lag – still trying to sort out where we were
and what we were doing exactly. And for me, the moment it all hit me was when
Angel began to talk about her identity.
Angel is a Palestinian. And she’s a
Palestinian Christian. (A Palestinian Christian, named Angel, from Bethlehem,
no less!) And because of her ethnicity and her religion, and because she’s from
Bethlehem, she officially has no status whatsoever. She explained to us: she is
officially a citizen of no country. She may reside in Bethlehem, but if someone
asks her what her citizenship is, she has none.
Try to wrap your mind around that.
It’s a challenge. And standing
there, in the library of the university, listening to her try to explain her
status to us – it all hit me between the eyes: how much of my identity is tied
up in being a United States citizen, a resident of the State of Texas, a
resident of Mansfield. If someone needs proof of my identity, I can provide a
drivers’ license, a passport, a passport card, Social Security Card, birth
certificate, marriage certificate, proof that I changed my name when I got
married, and on and on. These are markers of my identity.
This particular lack of identity
for Angel was unsettling for us, the big group of Americans. Not because we
blamed her – it’s not her fault – that much is very clear. She is kept from
having citizenship by those in power. Her situation was unsettling because it
stood in sharp contrast to our own situations – our identities being so clear
to both our own government and the governments of foreign countries.
But Angel’s story didn’t stop
there. She didn’t dwell there as she talked with us. She instead began to talk
with us about another identity she has – one she knows she has – one that
cannot be taken away from her: her identity as a Christian, as a beloved child
of God. That is the part of her identity that she clings to.
Our time with Angel taught me to
cling to that part of my identity, too. To cling to it – to hold it fast – to
never, ever let it go. Because I know and trust that God certainly is never,
ever going to let me go.
“…like living stones, let
yourselves be built into a spiritual house…” Peter writes in today’s epistle.
He’s writing, of course, in the years right after Jesus lived and breathed and
walked on the earth. He’s writing in the years right after Jesus died, rose,
and ascended into heaven. He’s writing to a group of brand-new Christians,
still trying to figure out what their identity in Christ is. “What does this
mean?” as Luther would ask. What does identity in Christ mean?
So Peter uses a picture that most
anyone will understand: that of a stone. And not just any stone, but a stone
used for building. And not just any building stone, but a living stone. A living stone, put together with other living stones
to form a spiritual house. Does this imagery remind you of anything?
This is our identity, too! Called
to be living stones, not stones that sit around and collect dust, but living
stones – stones that are used for building. Stones that God uses for building
up his church – stones that God uses to bring love and peace and healing into
his world. That’s us – the group of living stones.
[Passed out tags in picture above...]
Let’s read these together…
Let yourselves be built into a
spiritual house. So, who is the builder?
And it is God the Holy Spirit who
calls us through the gospel, enlightens us with gifts, makes us holy, and keeps
us in the true faith, just as the Spirit calls, gathers, enlightens, and makes
holy the whole Christian church on earth – all of us! – and keeps it with Jesus
Christ in the one common, true faith.
This is our identity as the living
stones of God: called, enlightened, made holy. And we are called, enlightened,
and made holy for the glory of God and to do the work of God, not just here at
Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, but in our workplaces, our schools, our homes and
neighborhoods, and on and on. Our identity in Christ is washed over us at baptism
and so we cling to it, certainly, but – here’s the good news – that water
clings to us too. And God never, ever lets us go.
You now have a tangible reminder of
another part of your identity: you are living stones, brothers and sisters. You
are living stones built into a spiritual house. Take these reminders home – use
them as bookmarks as you read your Bible (in 90 days or whatever time period!),
hang them on your rearview mirror or your bathroom mirror. And remember that
you are living stones, beloved by God and called by God.
Amen.
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There are several circumstances in my ministry in which I
place crosses on people’s foreheads. The first is when I baptize someone –
after the water has been poured over them, I mark them with the cross of
Christ. I also mark a cross on the foreheads of people during times of prayer
or when we are asking God’s blessing upon someone. I’ve marked crosses on the
foreheads of people near death. And each year, on Ash Wednesday, I mark crosses
of ash on your foreheads, and I say the ancient words: “Remember that you are
dust, and to dust you shall return.”
