Sermon for May 3, 2026: Chosen and Precious based upon 1 Peter 2:2-10

1 Peter 2:2-10 (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)

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.”

This honor, then, is for you who believe, 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 people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the excellence 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.

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      Some parts of the Bible are credited to people who wrote them. Like, the book of Romans was written by the Apostle Paul. Some books, like the Gospels and like the book where we found today’s reading, have been traditionally understood by one person, but now we’re pretty sure they weren’t written by that person. But, they are still important and holy books for us and we learn things about how to be a Christian from them. Also, some things we call “books” in the Bible were really letters written to either one person or a group of people. The letters were usually shared between people and churches if the readers found them particularly helpful. That’s how they ended up being gathered up into the Bible. People thought these letters were filled with Wisdom and guided by the Spirit.

     Today’s reading was credited to Peter, the apostle, though his co-worker and traveling companion Silvanus was said to do the actual writing down of things. A scholar named Eugene Boring says the letter was probably written after Peter had died. The way it’s written and many of the points in the letter make more sense to have been written later, like around the year 90, than just a few years after Jesus and Peter’s lifetimes. The letter is written, Boring said, to help churches that were struggling in a challenging social situation. When they decided to follow Jesus, their neighbors began to mistrust them, with some people even thinking they were dangerous. The government wasn’t targeting them in an organized way, but they also were increasingly being treated poorly in the communities where they had always lived.

     It is usually easier to survive something hard if you aren’t trying to do it all by yourself. This letter reminds people that Jesus’ Spirit is with them and that they can build a community of support for one another. The scholar Jimmy Hoke says that today’s reading in particular is about rooting your identity in your community of faith so that you can live out your faith bolstered by God and by one another. “Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people,” verse 10 says. How do you become God’s people? You build your house on the Rock.

     One of the ways the person who wrote this letter describes Jesus is as a living stone or a cornerstone. Now, I know when I last preached on this passage, I asked this question. But I’m going to ask it again. Who here has heard of a “cornerstone" before? It’s a block or stone that is set in the corner of a building, often the first corner to be built. While people have been building things in all manner of ways for a very long time, we figured out a long time ago that having a strong and stable stone in to help guide construction. Our reading for the day quotes an even older scripture from Isaiah 28:16: “See I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” The idea of a cornerstone is old! And, it became an important way to describe Jesus, especially for people who weren’t experiencing a lot of stability in their lives.

     In older parts of the Bible, when books use the metaphor of a cornerstone to be about a particular person, they are talking about a leader who will be strong and stable and guide the direction of a nation. God builds the community starting with the cornerstone that will set the direction for the nation. While I don’t think Jesus’ earliest followers were especially interested in starting a nation. They were mostly trying to survive in Rome, which wasn’t always easy. They needed something to draw them together. That would be their faith in Christ.

     They also needed assurance that their suffering wasn’t a sign that they were on the wrong track. Jesus became an inspiration for surviving unjust suffering, too. Verse 7 quotes Psalm 118:22: “To you who then 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.” Christ suffered, too. But, he was still the Messiah. Shively Smith, in her commentary on the text, talks about how the people are encouraged to identify with Jesus, not simply as Messiah, but also as one who was rejected but also as one who was “honored in resurrection by God.” As any of us who have come out know, making changes in how we function in community, how we engage with accepted social practice, and with common behavior in a community comes with a risk. The author of this text wants to encourage this church in Rome to understand that the risk is worth it. “Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” Remembering this will help them maintain their faith.

     We are in a challenging moment for talking about persecuted Christians. There is a long history of Christians, even when a powerful majority in a nation, using stories of our abused and marginalized ancestors to prop up stories about Christians being treated poorly in the present moment. There’s a report that’s been commissioned by the federal government that claims giving civil rights to LGBTQ people is an example of anti-Christian bias. It does not acknowledge at all that many Christian churches affirm the lives and leadership of LGBTQ people. With the way they’ve written this report, it sure seems like the Government is deciding what a “real Christian” is and has decided to leave a lot of people out.

     It’s good to remember that the Christians described in this letter were actually, really a religious minority and actually, really dealing with persecution. They weren’t simply being asked to treat a small group people fairly. We should remember these ancestors as people who figured out how to remain faithful at great personal risk. Perhaps they can show us a way to worry less about meeting societal expectations and worry more about aligning our actions with Christ, even if we risk angering powerful people. I pray that Christ is building a strong church with us, strong enough to withstand the forces that would punish us for daring to love as broadly and foolishly and justly as he did. May we take our place as stones laid upon the cornerstone, building the spiritual house we’re called to be. Let Christ’s love be our cornerstone and justice be our guide.

Resources consulted while writing this sermon:
Carolyn Brown: http://worshipingwithchildren.blogspot.com/2014/03/year-the-fifth-sunday-of-easter-may-18.html
The entry on "cornerstone," written by Robert A. Wild in the Harper Collins Bible Dictionary, Paul Achetemeier, ed. (New York: HarperCollins, 1996)
Shively Smith: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/fifth-sunday-of-easter/commentary-on-1-peter-22-10-3
M. Eugene Boring’s, intro to 1 Peter in The New Oxford Annotated Bible: The New Revised Standard Version with Apocrypha, ed. Michael Coogan (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001)
Jimmy Hoke: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/fifth-sunday-of-easter/commentary-on-1-peter-22-10-7