May 10, 2020 Mother’s Day
Scripture 1 Peter 2: 2-10
Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and 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. 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.”
To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe,
“The stone that the builders rejected
has become the very head of the corner,” 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.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Once you were not a people,
but now you are God’s people;
once you had not received mercy,
but now you have received mercy.
I became an aunt on Mother’s Day when my older sister gave birth to her first child. Carie Anne was born on May 13. I was a mere 10 years old, but it was an exciting time to have a new baby in the family. Especially since I am the youngest. First time a precious baby grabbed my finger and would not let go. First time experiencing newborn smells; the good and not so good. First time of being in awe of the miracle of birth, the gift of new life.
During our quarantined time at home, I have been watching shows dealing with birth. Offspring, Call the Midwife, and most recently, William and Mary. William and Mary is about an undertaker finding love with a midwife in England. Interestingly these two jobs, at one point in history, were done by the same person. Ushering babies into the world and ushering adults into the next life. There is something poetic about that. Maybe that is why I find myself watching these light-hearted shows about birth. There is so much inconceivable death from COVID 19, my soul needs to be reminded of the miracle of birth.
Thankfully, a miracle that continues to happen every day. Once that baby is born, mother and child get to learn how to partner in breastfeeding. A mom must be relaxed enough for her milk to flow, attentive enough to help the baby latch on and care enough for herself to get the food, drink and rest needed to produce enough milk. Fortunately, the baby has a natural instinct to search for the breast, but still needs help. Any mother will tell you, in the first week of life, a mother and child partner together to find a rhythm to make this work. I was not really successful with this, but I longed for my children to have the wonderful goodness of mother’s milk, the immunities, as well as the health and emotional benefits. Mother’s milk is the gold standard.
So the author’s use of newborn babies longing for the pure spiritual milk resonates. Of course, this milk is the unadulterated nourishment supplied by the good news of the gospel, the love and care of Jesus Christ. A beautiful, life-giving, way of growing is afforded to every child who finds the breast, just like salvation is given to those who are saturated in the teachings of Christ. It is in getting to know Jesus, his work and sacrifice, that we get to taste the kindness, the goodness, of God.
Especially true for new Christians. Do you remember back to when you were new to the faith and every Bible story seemed amazing! The joy of discovering the love Jesus has for YOU, and for all people, from all stations of life, especially those on the sidelines. When that spiritual milk was tasted, it meant that no matter what you did, you received abundant grace, with your heavenly Father’s arms spread wide, welcoming you home.
Spiritual milk is like liquid love. God is love so the first thing God wants us to taste is the perfect and sustaining love of Jesus. Spiritual milk is God’s blessing and care that we can taste and trust. The truth about spiritual milk is that it is the foundation of all growth that follows. We all graduated to solid food and our moms taught us many other things, but we needed to start with mother’s milk, just like as Christians we needed to start with spiritual milk of God’s love.
God’s love sustains us when we stumble and stumble, we will. That is part of growing up. First we crawl, then we toddle and one day we run. Hopefully, your mother was there to pick you up when you fell, to kiss your scraped knee, and later to hold you when you had an epic fail. God wants to do the same thing. Teaching you how to find your way in God’s world. That is what the rest of the passage is about. Jesus is the living stone; the corner stone, and we are to become living stones that form a church.
Now stones might seem like a strange metaphor, but in the Bible, stones pop up often. Jacob used a stone as a pillow before dreaming of the ladder (Gen. 28:12), John the Baptist said God is able to raise up from stones children of Abraham (Mt. 3:9) and Jesus was even tempted to turn stones into bread (Mt. 4:3). Stones were also used to build temples.
Here Jesus is the chosen stone of Zion, perfect and foundational. Of course, he is not a stone to those who do not believe, who rejected him and his revelation of God’s love. For them, Jesus is like the rock that makes them stumble in their faith.
But for us, who have cut our teeth after being nourished on God’s spiritual milk, we are to be built into a spiritual house. Let’s be clear, a spiritual house is different from say our sanctuary. We are not to build a temple to God or a sanctuary for God. We are to become the living stones of the community who are faithful to God in Jesus Christ. That means you and I are the hands and feet of Christ; we do the work of the church and we are the support to each other that holds our church family together. We are living stones.
In biblical times, the stones had indeed come to life in Asia Minor. People trodden underfoot like stones are now honored as a royal priesthood. Without a temple, they will become a temple of living stones. That is the beauty of using stones in this metaphor. Just like we use stones from our garden, or our travels, to pray over at the beginning of worship, starting with something so common and turning them into a reminder of God’s love, helps us to become the living spiritual house of God. That means we are all included, everyone is welcome to become living stones. But we do not do this ourselves. Scriptures declares, “let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood…” (v. 5). Jesus is the builder, the one who transforms us into a living spiritual house. Our care and compassion for each other and our community, our devotion to God’s word, our fellowship with our church family transforms us into living stones, into the spiritual house of God.
Two closing thoughts- first have you noticed how the world seems brighter right now. The few times I go for a walk, I swear it feels like the light is shimmering, the world feels cleaner. I think this could be the earth breathes easier with so much less pollution- a gift of spiritual healing for mother earth. It reminds me of the “marvelous light” that emerges from the darkness. Our world is experiencing this marvelous light. A reminder of the light of Christ in our time of darkness.
Secondly, Christ builds us into a spiritual house. “Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people” that is the essence of Christ building us into a faithful community. We receive this gift; we are woven together by God’s mercy and Christ’s love. So let us be grateful as we become living stones and grateful for our mothers who brought us into the world and nurtured us with milk so that we could drink the spiritual milk God provides through the love of Christ. Amen.
