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5th Sunday of Easter
Constructing a Living Church by Lay Pastor William Schuler Jr.
Old Testament Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16 New Testament I Peter 2:2-10
In our reading from Psalm 31 by David, he tells us that God is our strong fortress which saves us. In verses 15-16 he notes that his time is in God’s hands to deliver him from his enemies and he asks the Lord to save him with His unfailing love.
Our focus this morning is on our lesson from I Peter where the Apostle speaks about Jesus, the cornerstone upon which the Church is built. Peter notes that Christ brings us into His body the Church where He makes us into a royal priesthood, a chosen race and a holy nation as His witnesses here on earth.
During my childhood, I received a box of what was called Lincoln Logs which could me made into log cabins, fences, barns. It was fun to build them into many different things. These types of toys have sort of gone out of style today, but I still think about them because this is the way our God thinks about the church. God stacks one block upon another until his creation of the Church is completed. Each of us are blocks or logs in the Church universal that God is building.
We as Christians are nurtured by God’s Word. Scripture is what gives us life and hope. By reading and meditating on the Bible we are transformed into holy people as we get a taste of Jesus and want to learn more and more of Him. Many Americans conclude that since reading the Scriptures by our selves can bring us closer to the Lord God there is no need to be in corporate worship. They think it is possible to develop our spirituality without going to Church. While we see Church attendance and membership declining, we see the sales of Bibles and Christian books increasing as people try to find God in solitary reading rather than being a part of the community of faith.
But Peter tells us that the Father has a different idea. God wants to use the people the folks to whom he has given new life to build a spiritual temple on the foundation of Jesus Christ. Peter is not talking about a church building made of brick and concrete. Rather that God is building this spiritual house of all the believers in the world with Jesus Christ as the head and cornerstone. We are the living stones that are the building blacks of used by God to create the Church of Jesus Christ.
We are the priests of this spiritual temple who lift up the sacrifices of praise, prayer and thanksgiving unto our Lord God. This what we call worship as we find Jesus in God’s Word and respond to Him with prayers of joy and praise. Since it is not practical to have all the believers in our world to worship and praise the Lord in the same place, we join together in neighborhood congregations of living stones as spiritual temples where we taste Jesus in Scripture and sing praises to our God through worship.
But what happens to the people who do not believe in the resurrection of Jesus and who reject Him as their Lord and Savior? The Apostle Peter says that anyone who does not believe in the risen Christ and have not received new life will not be part of the spiritual edifice erected by the Lord God. A belief in Jesus Christ is required for new life and participation in the spiritual temple built by God.
Here in the USA, we live in a pluralistic country where folks have the freedom to worship as they choose and have the right to reject the message of the Risen Christ and worship on their own manner and choose to believe whatever. Many times, we Christians are called intolerant of others, but we are not we are just exercising our right to believe in the historical fact of Jesus’ resurrection.
As God’s chosen priests who are set aside to give the Good News of the Risen Lord Jesus and invite other people to share in Christ’s earthly church and have them become brothers and sisters in this new life of following Jesus the Christ each day. Come join with us as we walk in the light of our Lord Jesus and enjoy fellowship with Him each day. A-men.
Let us pray: Father we come to you as believers in your Son. We have tasted the spiritual milk that you have provided in your Holy Word and found that it is good. Transform into new lives and build us into a spiritual temple where we can worship and glorify you through prayer and praise. We pray in the glorious name of Jesus. A-men