'With Christ as the cornerstone, we are all living stones, vital in the construct that is the church of Christ.  However weird we may be, however misshapen we might feel we are, we all fit perfectly into the church God is building... The world at its worse needs the church at its best... so that we may become a channel for God’s love and grace in the world.' Andrew M continues our series on Living in Difficult Times and explores 1 Peter 2:2-10. He first preached this sermon at St Denys in May 2026

Survival Skills

At the 18 weeks stage of pregnancy the foetus starts to suck and swallow.  It is extraordinary to think that already he or she has been created with the only skill that they can contribute to their survival at birth..  For everything else they will be utterly dependent on other people, primarily their mother.  We are going to look today at how we can survive and thrive in difficult times, starting with our feeding habits and our lives as social beings.

On Sunday mornings we have started looking at what the Bible has to say about living through tough times – specifically what Peter, one of Jesus’s disciples, says in a letter written to Christians in the early churches who were scattered and facing persecution.  Last week Robert helped us see how trials have a purpose, testing us, revealing what real faith is and purifying it.  We are shielded and being held by God’s power.  And I loved it when he said that we may not see Jesus in the storm but know that he is in the boat with us.

So, if we know tough times are a given, how do we prepare; how do we become more resilient?… and this is what we see Peter explaining in chapter 2.  I love it that I have been given a passage which is about prevention rather than cure, which is what my career in public health has been all about and there are two things that Peter says are just so important – good nutrition and being in community.  De-coding this:  feeding on God’s word, the Bible and being part of church.

Nourishment for Growth

In verse 8 we see that Peter is concerned about those that stumble because they disobey the message, what they were destined for … and are now missing out on all the good things that God has in store for them.  This is a complete and utter tragedy and to be avoided at all cost so at the beginning of the chapter we see an important “Therefore”.  Therefore, rid yourselves of evil, don’t go back to those bad and sinful ways of living before you started your life as a friend and follower of Jesus, and verse 2  … so … “like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk so that you may grow up in your salvation now that you have tasted that the Lord is good”.

Children want to grow up, to be like their big brother or sister or like their parents.  We start out as Christians like new born babies, with the natural instinct to desire nourishment that will lead to growth.

Peter says we should have an appetite for the bible - an unquenchable appetite.  Like the appetite a newborn baby has for its mother's milk.  Babies scream for milk until that wonderful moment when they get to their mother's breast or the bottle touches their lips then instantly there's peace and quiet.  It's amazing isn't it.  Babies have one desire - it's to have food.  And Peter says that that craving, that hunger should mark God's people.  It should mark our love for scripture.  It should mark us as we get up in the morning and our day includes reading God’s word. It’s not a craving for success or for status or reputation or experience.  It's a craving for God's word, for relationship with our creator through His word as He speaks to us each day.  The point of the analogy here is not the newness of birth … but the hunger for food.  So there should be in all of us this childlike longing for God's word.

Once we see our need for God’s word and find our nourishment in Christ, our spiritual appetite will increase and we will start to mature, to grow up in our salvation.  Paul, writing to the Colossians, says that his ultimate goal is to present every believer mature in Christ.  This maturity is described as being “complete” or “full-grown” (teleios in Greek), rather than remaining infants in faith , vulnerable to false teaching.

Living Stones with Purpose

In the second part of our passage today Peter comes to our purpose and urges us to be fully part of the church, being built into the body of believers.

He describes us as living stones and we're being built into a spiritual house (verse 5).  Peter describes Jesus as the Living Stone rejected by humans but chosen by God before the beginning of time and precious to him.  And the point is this: Jesus was rejected by men but that didn't mean that he was rejected by God.  No, he was chosen by God and precious to him and Peter says what is true of Jesus is true of us.  There's a connection between Jesus's identity and our identity as Christians.  He's the Living Stone and we're living stones.  He was chosen by God and we are chosen and precious.  He was rejected by men - we too will be rejected by men.

But … Jesus’s rejection by men did not mean he was abandoned by God.  Quite the opposite.  He's the Living Stone chosen by God and precious to him so we are living stones even though we're rejected by the world around us.  We've got to get our identity and purpose clear, and what we are as living stones - we're being built into a spiritual house. 

Peter is using Old Testament language here of the temple which is the place where you met god.  Of course, in the New Testament Jesus is the temple.  He's where you meet god.  Meet Jesus and I'm meeting God.

But there's a secondary fulfilment of the word temple here in verse 5 .  We too, the people of God, are living stones being built into a spiritual house so each time a person trusts in Christ it’s as if another stone is quarried out of the pit of sin and death and cemented by grace into the Temple of God.  For as we gather where the Temple of God is and as others come among us, we / they meet the creator of the Universe.

We are living stones together and we are the place where people come and meet God.  We are not just a club or a community group or a bunch of people that offer support and friendship, though we do all that and more.  We are the most significant thing going on in the universe.  As we come together we are the place where we meet God.  If people want to find God they come to us as we open the scriptures and follow God together.  So there is nothing more important that we can do with our time than being part of church.

• The church is a Spiritual House: Christians are "living stones" being built into a spiritual house, with Christ as the Cornerstone.
• It is a Holy Priesthood: believers have direct access to God and are called to offer "spiritual sacrifices," removing the need for a human mediator priesthood.
• And we are a Chosen People: There is security and also responsibilities of being a "chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession".

Feed on the Bible

Peter longs for his readers to be able to stand firm in challenging times.  And there are important lessons for us today, or as I described them earlier, preventive measures we can be taking.

Craving God’s word, finding it to be the vital source of nourishment that enables us to grow up and become mature is essential if we are to stand firm in challenging times.  So that is why we encourage each other here at St Denys to do this.  We can study and pray on our own and there are study notes that can help us do this but, more and more, people are finding huge value in being part of the groups we have at St Denys where we do this together.  Paul our curate organises these, so do chat to him or make contact with him if you are not yet part of a group – don’t miss out on the feeding opportunity that our groups are!

Be Built Together As Church 

When we lived in Malawi, one of our Christian friends moved to a different part of the country and started a new church.  I misheard him when he told me that they had decided to call it Living Stones Church, and thought that they were naming it after the explorer missionary Dr David Lingstone.  It was Living Stones in the 1 Peter 2:5 sense.

And I have come to love this particular image over the past week.  With Christ as the cornerstone, we are all living stones, vital in the construct that is the church of Christ.  However weird we may be, however misshapen we might feel we are, we all fit perfectly into the church God is building.  Today we have seen more of what this means, and why who we are and what we do together matters.  The world at its worse needs the church at its best.  That’s why I said earlier on that Church is the most significant thing going on in the universe.

A cold church has been described as being like cold butter – it never spreads very easily.  When we joined St Denys we found it to be a cold church building but a warm church, which is spreading!  It is not about the building, it’s about Jesus being at the heart of all we are and do.  And so the encouragement today is to be fully built into the church.  Verse 9:  we have been called out of darkness into light.  God has shown us mercy and given us a new identity.  We are the “people of God”.  Together we discover the joys of being followers of Jesus, well fed, secure in the knowledge that we are chosen and loved, and called to declare God’s praises.

I like this description of the church  … as being “God’s ultimate achievement - a community; a centre of warm pulsating effervescent, outreaching Christian love: a place with all its components united in order to become a force in the world … rather than a farce”.   My prayer is that we, all of us, prioritise church, and embrace wholeheartedly being part of God’s ultimate, costly achievement … that we may become a channel for God’s love and grace in the world.  Amen.