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“Living Stones” 1 Peter 2:2-10 *Click for Audio* Pastor Kevin Vogts Trinity Lutheran Church Paola, Kansas Fifth Sunday of Easter–Mother’s Day—May 3, 2020 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. There is a figure of speech called an oxymoron, a combination of words that inherently contradict each other, or at least seem to contradict each other, often in an amusing and ironic way. Examples of amusing oxymorons are “government efficiency” and “military intelligence.” I mentioned in a sermon a few years ago that an online survey voted the #1 oxymoron: “Microsoft Works.” Of course, some people would say “short sermon” is an oxymoron too! Those are UNintentional oxymorons. See if you can detect St. Peter’s INTENTIONAL oxymoron in our text, from today’s Epistle Reading: “You also, like LIVING STONES, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” The intentional oxymoron in that verse is “living stones.” With that intentional oxymoron, St. Peter makes a powerful point: Like the stones of a building built together to be a temple, we are built together like “living stones” to form a SPIRITUAL temple for the worship and service of God. It is believed that the First Epistle of Peter is actually the longest record of an early Christian SERMON. For, it seems as though the first part of this Epistle was a sermon that St. Peter preached on the occasion of Christian Baptism. Perhaps, as the leader of the Apostles, he would go from congregation to congregation, the special guest preacher when new Christians were being baptized, maybe preaching this same sermon many times. At the end of the Epistle, St. Peter says, “With the help of Silas, whom I regard as a faithful brother, I have written to you briefly, encouraging you and testifying that this is the true grace of God.” It seems that Silas was St. Peter’s assistant, who copied down this sermon, which Silas himself had probably heard many times. That’s actually how we got most of our writings of Martin Luther. In my study at the parsonage I have the American Edition of Luther’s Works, currently 69 volumes and being expanded to 83 volumes. We also have nearly a full set in the library of our church’s Heritage Room. These volumes are themselves just a small fraction of the much longer German edition. But, Luther himself actually WROTE DOWN very little of this. Instead, for decades there were scribes who would follow him and take down in shorthand his sermons and lectures and even offhand comments. So, today’s Epistle Reading was probably not first READ, but HEARD, as part of a sermon. I’m sure that everyone in those early Christian congregations was already enthralled to actually hear the Apostle Peter, who was an eyewitness of Jesus’ life and ministry. But, putting ourselves “into the ears” of those first-century hearers, at the point in his sermon when St. Peter came to this phrase “living stones,” that REALLY got everyone’s attention. That’s probably the #1 part of the sermon everyone took home that day, sticking in their minds. For this oxymoron was particularly POWERFUL and MEMORABLE and STRIKING for those who first heard it. St. Peter used this oxymoron on purpose, to really get their attention, and make it stick in their minds. The image of a stone was often used in their day, but not to represent something LIVING, but for something DEAD. The phrase “living stones” would be so striking for them because if you were a Greek or Roman there could be nothing deader than a stone. We ourselves still have the expression, “stone cold DEAD.” St. Paul says in Ephesians, “As for you, you were DEAD in your trespasses and sins.” In the Garden of Eden, the Lord had warned not to disobey him, “or you will surely die.” St. Paul tells us the result of the sin of Adam in Romans, “Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men.” Because of the original sin we inherited, and because of our own trespasses and sins, we are by nature spiritually “stone cold DEAD.” “As for you, you were DEAD in your trespasses and sins.” That’s the bad news; but St. Paul goes on in Ephesians to tell us the Good News of salvation: “But, because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us ALIVE with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions.” “LIVING stones.” Not really an oxymoron after all, but a wonderful way of summing up, and putting into a picture, what God has done for you. Nothing could be deader than a stone. You could take a stone statue and administer to it oxygen and medicine and CPR and it would never come to life. In the same way, there is nothing you or any mere human could do to make you spiritually alive and bring you salvation. But, though by nature you are spiritually dead as a stone, spiritually dead in your trespasses and sins, because of his great love for you, GOD, who is rich in mercy, made you ALIVE with Christ. St. Paul puts it this way in Colossians, “When you were dead in your sins. . . God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins . . . he took it away, nailing it to the cross.” “As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” In the Old Testament the glory of God was present among the worshippers in the temple at Jerusalem. But, Jesus told the woman at the well, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. . . [but] the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.” In the Christian Church we do not go TO the temple to find the glory of God; we ARE the temple where his glory dwells. “Do you not know,” St. Paul asks in 1 Corinthians, “that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?” “For wherever two or three are gathered together in my name,” Jesus says, “there I am among them.” We have been powerfully reminded of this truth during the present crisis. For, it is not gathering inside a church that makes us worshippers. It is our gathering together in Christ’s name that makes anywhere we worship, even a parking lot, a holy temple in the Lord. “You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house.” Christian Church buildings are wonderful testimonies to our faith, and can be beautiful and inspiring. We have recently added some wonderful new features to this house of worship, and, Lord willing, one day soon we will be worshipping in it once again. But, all the outward beauty of such temples of wood and stone only has meaning if gathered there are worshippers in spirit and in truth, come together in his name. As St. Paul says in 2nd Corinthians, “For we are the temple of the living God.” As we gather for worship, the true temple in which God’s glory dwells is right here, in your heart. It is only the personal faith of the worshippers in spirit and in truth, gathered together here in his name, which make this truly a house of God. Jesus put it another way, “For the kingdom of God is within you.” “You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” In the Old Testament, only the special class of priests was able to offer sacrifices to God. These were physical sacrifices of slaughtered animals or wine or grain. But, those all pointed forward, picture prophecies of the ultimate sacrifice that was to come. As John the Baptizer said of Jesus, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” His final sacrifice put an end to the sacrificial system and the priesthood of the Old Testament, as Hebrews says, “He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. . . we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” The Old Testament sacrificial system and priesthood have been replaced in the New Testament, not with me, or with this building, but with YOU, and your heart, and your daily life. As St. Peter says at the end of today’s Epistle Reading, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” You are now a priest offering daily spiritual sacrifices to God in the spiritual temple of your own heart and life. Sacrifices not to earn God’s favor, but sacrifices of thanksgiving to God for his favor and blessing and forgiveness and salvation, showered down upon you on account of Christ. St. Paul puts it this way in Romans, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.” The New Testament gives several specific examples of the living sacrifices you will bring before God in your daily life. Hebrews says, “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name.” Our worship together is primarily God coming to us with the blessings of his Word and Sacraments, to strengthen us in the true faith unto life everlasting. But, our worship is also us coming to God, laying before him our sacrifices of praise. And this sacrifice of praise takes place not only here in worship, but throughout the week in your own actions and attitude of praise and thanksgiving and devotion in your daily life. Hebrews continues, “And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.” Acts of kindness and charity and love, in your own family, in your church and community, and in the nation and world, are also sacrifices pleasing to God. As St. Paul tells the Philippians, “I have received . . . the gifts you sent. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God.” Jesus put it this way, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” In ancient times one of the common sacrifices was incense burning on the altar. The book of Revelation describes the PRAYERS of Christians this way: “The prayers of all the saints [are] on the golden altar that is before the throne, and the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints. . . went up before God.” Your prayers are a sacrifice ascending before the throne of God and pleasing in his sight. Summing it all up, St. Paul says in Colossians, “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. . . Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.” All your work and service, in your job, your church, your community, your family, has special meaning, because through these various callings in life you are actually serving God himself and giving to him in word and deed the sacrifice of your life lived for him. That brings us to the final two points in the symbolism of “living stones.” First of all, in English it’s hard for us to see that St. Peter is talking in the plural. Since we’re in SOUTHERN Kansas, we could translate it in a southern dialect, “Y’ALL, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house.” Not just you, but “Y’ALL.” If we had a bunch of miscellaneous, unconnected individual stones scattered around, that would not build a sanctuary. In the same way, God does not want his “living stones” to separate and detach themselves, but, as St. Peter says, “Y’ALL, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house.” St. Paul puts it this way in Ephesians, “You are being built TOGETHER to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” All alone, in your own heart and life you, are indeed God’s temple; but God doesn’t want you to be alone, just one stone off by yourself. Because, if you separate yourself that way from the other living stones in his spiritual temple, you will eventually cease to be a living stone and go back to being spiritually “stone cold dead.” That is why God calls us together into his Church, and into this congregation. “For wherever two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am among them.” As Hebrew says, “Let us not give up meeting together.” The final significance of the imagery of “living stones” is that it takes all kinds of different stones to build God’s spiritual temple. The Lego company makes tens of thousands of different kinds of Lego pieces. Buying your child a thousand pieces of the exact same size and type and color wouldn’t be much fun. That’s why they come in all shapes and sizes and colors. In the same way, to build his spiritual temple, God uses “living stones” with all sorts of different gifts and talents and abilities. As St. Paul says in Romans, “We have different gifts, according to the grace given us.” You are a unique “living stone,” a unique building block in God’s spiritual temple of the Holy Christian Church, and specifically in this congregation. St. Paul says in Ephesians, “In Christ the whole building is fitted together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.” One of the great mysteries of archaeology is how the ancients were able to fit so perfectly together stones of different sizes and shapes. The best masons today can’t duplicate what they did. In the same way, God has perfectly fitted together YOU as a part of his Church and this congregation, giving you unique gifts and talents and abilities as a “living stone” in his temple. And today we remember and celebrate the unique role that mothers have. They are especially precious stones within the Lord’s holy temple. As St. Peter writes at the end of this Epistle, “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.” “As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. . . You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” Like the stones of a building built together to be a temple, we are built together like “living stones” to form a SPIRITUAL temple for the worship and service of God. Amen. Return to Top \| Return to Sermons \| Home \| Email Church Office

“Living Stones”
1 Peter 2:2-10

Pastor Kevin Vogts
Trinity Lutheran Church
Paola, Kansas
Fifth Sunday of Easter–Mother’s Day—May 3, 2020

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

There is a figure of speech called an oxymoron, a combination of words that inherently contradict each other, or at least seem to contradict each other, often in an amusing and ironic way. Examples of amusing oxymorons are “government efficiency” and “military intelligence.” I mentioned in a sermon a few years ago that an online survey voted the #1 oxymoron: “Microsoft Works.” Of course, some people would say “short sermon” is an oxymoron too!

Those are UNintentional oxymorons. See if you can detect St. Peter’s INTENTIONAL oxymoron in our text, from today’s Epistle Reading: “You also, like LIVING STONES, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

The intentional oxymoron in that verse is “living stones.” With that intentional oxymoron, St. Peter makes a powerful point: Like the stones of a building built together to be a temple, we are built together like “living stones” to form a SPIRITUAL temple for the worship and service of God.

It is believed that the First Epistle of Peter is actually the longest record of an early Christian SERMON. For, it seems as though the first part of this Epistle was a sermon that St. Peter preached on the occasion of Christian Baptism. Perhaps, as the leader of the Apostles, he would go from congregation to congregation, the special guest preacher when new Christians were being baptized, maybe preaching this same sermon many times.

At the end of the Epistle, St. Peter says, “With the help of Silas, whom I regard as a faithful brother, I have written to you briefly, encouraging you and testifying that this is the true grace of God.” It seems that Silas was St. Peter’s assistant, who copied down this sermon, which Silas himself had probably heard many times.

That’s actually how we got most of our writings of Martin Luther. In my study at the parsonage I have the American Edition of Luther’s Works, currently 69 volumes and being expanded to 83 volumes. We also have nearly a full set in the library of our church’s Heritage Room. These volumes are themselves just a small fraction of the much longer German edition. But, Luther himself actually WROTE DOWN very little of this. Instead, for decades there were scribes who would follow him and take down in shorthand his sermons and lectures and even offhand comments.

So, today’s Epistle Reading was probably not first READ, but HEARD, as part of a sermon. I’m sure that everyone in those early Christian congregations was already enthralled to actually hear the Apostle Peter, who was an eyewitness of Jesus’ life and ministry. But, putting ourselves “into the ears” of those first-century hearers, at the point in his sermon when St. Peter came to this phrase “living stones,” that REALLY got everyone’s attention.

That’s probably the #1 part of the sermon everyone took home that day, sticking in their minds. For this oxymoron was particularly POWERFUL and MEMORABLE and STRIKING for those who first heard it. St. Peter used this oxymoron on purpose, to really get their attention, and make it stick in their minds. The image of a stone was often used in their day, but not to represent something LIVING, but for something DEAD. The phrase “living stones” would be so striking for them because if you were a Greek or Roman there could be nothing deader than a stone. We ourselves still have the expression, “stone cold DEAD.”

St. Paul says in Ephesians, “As for you, you were DEAD in your trespasses and sins.” In the Garden of Eden, the Lord had warned not to disobey him, “or you will surely die.” St. Paul tells us the result of the sin of Adam in Romans, “Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men.” Because of the original sin we inherited, and because of our own trespasses and sins, we are by nature spiritually “stone cold DEAD.”

“As for you, you were DEAD in your trespasses and sins.” That’s the bad news; but St. Paul goes on in Ephesians to tell us the Good News of salvation: “But, because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us ALIVE with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions.”

“LIVING stones.” Not really an oxymoron after all, but a wonderful way of summing up, and putting into a picture, what God has done for you. Nothing could be deader than a stone. You could take a stone statue and administer to it oxygen and medicine and CPR and it would never come to life. In the same way, there is nothing you or any mere human could do to make you spiritually alive and bring you salvation. But, though by nature you are spiritually dead as a stone, spiritually dead in your trespasses and sins, because of his great love for you, GOD, who is rich in mercy, made you ALIVE with Christ.

St. Paul puts it this way in Colossians, “When you were dead in your sins. . . God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins . . . he took it away, nailing it to the cross.”

“As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” In the Old Testament the glory of God was present among the worshippers in the temple at Jerusalem. But, Jesus told the woman at the well, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. . . [but] the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.”

In the Christian Church we do not go TO the temple to find the glory of God; we ARE the temple where his glory dwells. “Do you not know,” St. Paul asks in 1 Corinthians, “that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?” “For wherever two or three are gathered together in my name,” Jesus says, “there I am among them.”

We have been powerfully reminded of this truth during the present crisis. For, it is not gathering inside a church that makes us worshippers. It is our gathering together in Christ’s name that makes anywhere we worship, even a parking lot, a holy temple in the Lord.

“You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house.” Christian Church buildings are wonderful testimonies to our faith, and can be beautiful and inspiring. We have recently added some wonderful new features to this house of worship, and, Lord willing, one day soon we will be worshipping in it once again. But, all the outward beauty of such temples of wood and stone only has meaning if gathered there are worshippers in spirit and in truth, come together in his name. As St. Paul says in 2nd Corinthians, “For we are the temple of the living God.” As we gather for worship, the true temple in which God’s glory dwells is right here, in your heart. It is only the personal faith of the worshippers in spirit and in truth, gathered together here in his name, which make this truly a house of God. Jesus put it another way, “For the kingdom of God is within you.”

“You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” In the Old Testament, only the special class of priests was able to offer sacrifices to God. These were physical sacrifices of slaughtered animals or wine or grain. But, those all pointed forward, picture prophecies of the ultimate sacrifice that was to come. As John the Baptizer said of Jesus, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” His final sacrifice put an end to the sacrificial system and the priesthood of the Old Testament, as Hebrews says, “He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. . . we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”

The Old Testament sacrificial system and priesthood have been replaced in the New Testament, not with me, or with this building, but with YOU, and your heart, and your daily life. As St. Peter says at the end of today’s Epistle Reading, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”

You are now a priest offering daily spiritual sacrifices to God in the spiritual temple of your own heart and life. Sacrifices not to earn God’s favor, but sacrifices of thanksgiving to God for his favor and blessing and forgiveness and salvation, showered down upon you on account of Christ. St. Paul puts it this way in Romans, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.”

The New Testament gives several specific examples of the living sacrifices you will bring before God in your daily life. Hebrews says, “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name.” Our worship together is primarily God coming to us with the blessings of his Word and Sacraments, to strengthen us in the true faith unto life everlasting. But, our worship is also us coming to God, laying before him our sacrifices of praise. And this sacrifice of praise takes place not only here in worship, but throughout the week in your own actions and attitude of praise and thanksgiving and devotion in your daily life.

Hebrews continues, “And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.” Acts of kindness and charity and love, in your own family, in your church and community, and in the nation and world, are also sacrifices pleasing to God. As St. Paul tells the Philippians, “I have received . . . the gifts you sent. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God.” Jesus put it this way, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”

In ancient times one of the common sacrifices was incense burning on the altar. The book of Revelation describes the PRAYERS of Christians this way: “The prayers of all the saints [are] on the golden altar that is before the throne, and the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints. . . went up before God.” Your prayers are a sacrifice ascending before the throne of God and pleasing in his sight.

Summing it all up, St. Paul says in Colossians, “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. . . Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.” All your work and service, in your job, your church, your community, your family, has special meaning, because through these various callings in life you are actually serving God himself and giving to him in word and deed the sacrifice of your life lived for him.

That brings us to the final two points in the symbolism of “living stones.” First of all, in English it’s hard for us to see that St. Peter is talking in the plural. Since we’re in SOUTHERN Kansas, we could translate it in a southern dialect, “Y’ALL, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house.” Not just you, but “Y’ALL.” If we had a bunch of miscellaneous, unconnected individual stones scattered around, that would not build a sanctuary. In the same way, God does not want his “living stones” to separate and detach themselves, but, as St. Peter says, “Y’ALL, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house.” St. Paul puts it this way in Ephesians, “You are being built TOGETHER to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.”

All alone, in your own heart and life you, are indeed God’s temple; but God doesn’t want you to be alone, just one stone off by yourself. Because, if you separate yourself that way from the other living stones in his spiritual temple, you will eventually cease to be a living stone and go back to being spiritually “stone cold dead.” That is why God calls us together into his Church, and into this congregation. “For wherever two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am among them.” As Hebrew says, “Let us not give up meeting together.”

The final significance of the imagery of “living stones” is that it takes all kinds of different stones to build God’s spiritual temple. The Lego company makes tens of thousands of different kinds of Lego pieces. Buying your child a thousand pieces of the exact same size and type and color wouldn’t be much fun. That’s why they come in all shapes and sizes and colors. In the same way, to build his spiritual temple, God uses “living stones” with all sorts of different gifts and talents and abilities. As St. Paul says in Romans, “We have different gifts, according to the grace given us.” You are a unique “living stone,” a unique building block in God’s spiritual temple of the Holy Christian Church, and specifically in this congregation.

St. Paul says in Ephesians, “In Christ the whole building is fitted together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.” One of the great mysteries of archaeology is how the ancients were able to fit so perfectly together stones of different sizes and shapes. The best masons today can’t duplicate what they did. In the same way, God has perfectly fitted together YOU as a part of his Church and this congregation, giving you unique gifts and talents and abilities as a “living stone” in his temple. And today we remember and celebrate the unique role that mothers have. They are especially precious stones within the Lord’s holy temple. As St. Peter writes at the end of this Epistle, “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.”

“As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. . . You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” Like the stones of a building built together to be a temple, we are built together like “living stones” to form a SPIRITUAL temple for the worship and service of God.

Amen.

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