Read 1 Peter 2:1-10
“Milk”. What do you think of? A plastic PET bottle with a blue cap? A pasteurised, homogenised, refrigerated drink? Or UHT-treated? We’ve become used to that different taste for the sake of a long shelf life.
Peter’s text doesn’t point us there. On this Mother’s Day, he takes us to a newborn baby. And reminds us of the single-minded desire of a baby for its mother’s milk. They say humans have only one instinct at birth – only one thing they already know. And that’s to suck. To drink mother’s milk.
That’s how we should be in our desire for God. God the Father, yes – but God whom we want with all the desire and love that we have for a mother. God who provides for us with all the love and intimacy that a mother has for her child. God provides living milk. Living spiritual milk.
God is not limited by maleness and femaleness. We can go out to the construction site, which we used to think of as a man’s world. It’s still largely so – it can be hard for women in construction. But times are changing. With machines to assist most things, physical strength matters less. A woman with a mind for materials and a thick skin can find a job in building.
There can be barriers, though. You can find yourself up against a brick wall. You can be stonewalled. Think of a big stone and you think of an obstacle.
Peter’s letter asks us to think positively about stones. Remember – his name means ‘rock’ – Jesus said to the apostle Peter that he would build his church upon that rock. Rocks and stones are strong and solid – the things that we build houses on in preference to sand.
But we can have our stone and have grace, too. Milk needn’t be cold and refrigerated; it can be warm and supplied directly by a living being. Stones needn’t be cold and abrasive; they can be made of something special. 1 Peter tells us about living stones.
Living stones are special, and they’re for building something special. They build a different kind of house. You could say that they build a kind of temple – but not the kind of temple that stood in Jerusalem. The magnificent temple of the Jews was destroyed, more than once. There is a deception in the strength of conventional stones. They seem to be invincible, but cold, rigid stones are not the only way. Some managers depend 100% on cold, hard facts but forget the human stories behind them. People who won’t listen to personal stories or opinions make poorer decisions.
The temple in Jerusalem was impressive, but the house of Jesus doesn’t attract by showing off. Living stones are strong in an invisible way. If you’re hard-hearted and cold-minded, you may trip over a living stone. You may curse it because it doesn’t follow your idea of how the world should work.
And yes, we as living stones may be hurt and suffer abuse when an angry engineer stumbles over us and kicks us.
But that’s where 1 Peter has more encouragement. If we are drinking God’s life-giving milk with the eagerness of a baby at its mother’s breast, then as living stones we are also a royal priesthood. We are not only the temple but its high priests, too. Yet humble priests – priests who drink like babies at our mother’s breast. People connected to each other and to our foundation stone: Jesus. In these days when we can’t meet together in a building made of solid stones, we know more than ever the need to connect with our real cornerstone, and the other bricks that matter: our fellow companions in faith.
Humble Rocks (UK). © Copyright Nigel Mykura and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
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