To speak on the topic of your dissertation is a dubious proposition. The temptations are legion: to be long, detailed, rambling, and - perhaps most egregious - downright boring. So it's with appropriate trepidation that this week's sermon is based on one of two passages I explored (albeit many years ago) for my dissertation.
Nobody knows with certainty who wrote I Peter. Most think these chapters were written far later than even the most generous estimate of Peter's life span. Yet they speak to issues of identity and purpose, much as Jesus did with the disciple Peter when renaming him from Simon to Peter (Petros, rock) on whom Christ would build his church.
It's not surprising, then, that
our passage uses metaphors of rock to speak to issues of faith and identity. I encourage you to read it and to consider especially Verse Four: "Like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, which is your salvation."
Not knowing a lot about stones, how they're shaped and crafted, I spent some time with LC Lynch of Stone by Lynch, a master stone mason who built our Fellowship Hall and is now building our Welcome Center, to ask him about the process of shaping stone. We'll hear from him in worship this weekend, but I so enjoyed my time with him, I thought I'd offer a brief look at what he had to say.
This weekend in worship, we'll explore this notion of being refined, shaped and sculpted by a God who longs to build us into a spiritual house, and in the process, bring us salvation.
Come, and bring a friend.
