The living stones

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 marvellous 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.

- 1 Peter 2:2-10

St. Peter's letter is quite marvelous in its imagery of believers as "living stones." He calls upon all those who have tasted that the Lord is good to make themselves into "a holy priesthood" - to "offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." He also says that we should long for pure spiritual milk like newborn infants, so that we grow into salvation.

The imagery of the living stones - building a spiritual house based on that stone that the builders rejected, that becomes the head of the corner - becomes more poignant when we consider that it is Peter himself who was named "Rock" by Jesus. In this sense, Peter is sharing with us this naming of himself as rock. And we remember, also, that Jesus said in naming Peter, that it was the rock upon which His church would be built. So, by extension, St. Peter tells us here that we all share in that work of building this church. We are all to be living stones. Just as throughout the gospel of John we have seen expounded the theology of an increasing embrace of man through faith to Father, Son and Spirit, so St. Peter here is also offering us sharing. He is extending his own role as "rock" to each of us. He calls upon each of us to become living stones.

We are to build a spiritual temple, through spiritual sacrifice acceptable to God. I think it's significant that he speaks in the first verse about growing into salvation - like newborn babes drinking spiritual milk - because he indicates the nature of this "living" stone. We are not to be dead weight. We are to grow in salvation day by day. There is work and growth involved in being this living stone that can be a part of a spiritual house. If our salvation does not grow day by day, then we are not "living" any longer. So salvation here, and the building of the temple, is a daily, growing practice. To offer spiritual sacrifice is to offer the sacrifices acceptable to the Lord: this is the circumcision of the heart, in this case shaped and offered in faith, in order to grow in salvation.

Psalm 51 states:

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart,
O God, you will not despise.

St. Peter is asking us here to grow as living stones, to become a people, a spiritual house, through salvation in this daily act of giving ourselves to faith, and allowing faith to shape who we are as we grow in salvation. We have been called through mercy to become a people, called out of the darkness into the light. A living stone grows daily through the practice of receiving that light, and allowing oneself to be shaped in it. Just as Peter himself would be transformed through Spirit and faith into the "Rock" as Jesus named him, so Peter calls upon each of us to undergo the same transformation as living stones called to the light, chosen and precious.