1 Peter 2:2–10

5^th Sunday of Easter

²Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up to salvation- ³if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. ⁴As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, ⁵you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. ⁶For it stands in Scripture: "Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame." ⁷So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, "The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone," ⁸and "A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense." They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. ⁹But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. ¹⁰Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

"Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk." A baby longs for the milk of his mother. The milk gives him life. He desires it, he seeks it. It nourishes him, it comforts him. When he is hungry or upset or feeling lonely or afraid he yearns the milk and is comforted. He finds peace and rest in it. The milk of the infant is his life; morning, noon evening, night, he passes his time feeding on the pure milk.

So God, through the Apostle Peter, tells us to yearn for the pure spiritual milk. In it we find our nourishment, our comfort and our peace. What is this milk? It is the word of God. With the same yearning a baby has for the milk of his mother, the believer yearns for the Word of God; the very word that gives us life. The word that nourishes us, comforts us, and gives us peace. The Word of God is our life; morning, noon, evening, and night we feed on the Word of God. It is the word that makes us the people of God.

God tells us that by his word he creates a people for himself. A holy nation, a chosen race. But what does this mean? In order to understand what St. Peter writes here we must first understand the Old Testament. For when St. Peter tells us to long for the pure spiritual milk of God's Word, the only Scriptures he knew was our Old Testament. The Apostles never heard of the New Testament. For them the Scriptures were the Old Testament. They didn't even know they were writing a New Testament. In their minds they were merely explaining the Old Testament. They were interpreting the Old Testament to people in light of what Jesus, the promised Messiah. In fact, even Jesus, when he talked about the Scriptures, was talking only about what we call the Old Testament. So, as it turns out, this text from I Peter is taken directly out of the Old Testament and can only be understood correctly in light of the Old Testament.

So let's get a brief overview of the Old Testament. There is one central focus of the Old Testament message: God present with his people. By being present with his people God is unique among the gods of other nations: God intervenes in his world; God has his own people; God is present with his people and lives among them. That is what makes God unique, different, set apart from all other gods. In fact the meaning of the word "holy" is "separated" "set apart". God is holy because he is set apart from other gods; and his people are holy because they are set apart from other peoples, set apart from the profane, set apart from the immorality and decadence of other nations. Unique, one of a kind, separated from the rest; that is "holy." God is holy.

And this holy God created a people for himself. But in order to have a people, they needed a place to live and a world in which they could be fed and nourished. So first God created a heaven and an earth for his people. But while the creation of the heavens and the earth are mighty acts of God, they are not his greatest act. His greatest act was making a people for himself.

He chose the descendents of Abraham for his own people. He came down into his creation and revealed himself to Abraham and made a covenant with Abraham, a legal, binding contract, if you will. Once again God is holy, because no other god ever made a contract with man and entered into a legally binding agreement with humans. God was set apart from other gods, a holy God, and Abraham was set apart too, being the only man with whom God had made a covenant. Over and over God renewed his covenant with Abraham and with Abraham's children, Isaac, and Jacob.

Then came the time when the children of Abraham were living in slavery in Egypt. They were in bonds, suffering under harsh taskmasters, cruelly mistreated and abused. Their life was one of hardship and shame.

But God was faithful to his covenant and faithful to his promise. He always limits the amount of hardship and suffering we experience. He saw the affliction of the fathers in Egypt and heard their cries by the Red Sea. On account of his covenant which he had made with Abraham, and Isaac and Jacob, he once again visited his creation. The God who acts in history intervened again in his world. With an outstretched hand, he delivered the children of Abraham from their bondage. By the death of the first born of Egypt, God freed them from Egypt. By the blood of a Lamb God redeemed them from slavery to Pharaoh. By signs and wonders he made a name for himself. He divided the sea before them and they passed through the midst of the sea on dry ground, and he smashed the Egyptian army and hurled them into the depths of the sea.

God personally led the people and lit they way they were to go and brought them to his holy mountain. That mountain was holy because it was there that the holy God came down to his people and revealed his word to them. It was holy because it was there that the holy God spoke to his people. God's presence in that place made it unique, set apart from other places. It was a holy place. There, on that holy mountain, God concluded his covenant. He gave them the law and ordinances which established a new nation. By his Word he created a new people, a people of his own possession, a holy nation, separated and set apart from the other nations and from their profanity. God himself was present on that holy mountain. God himself revealed his name to his people. No other people had this honor. No other people had the laws and ordinances of God. No other people could claim God as their very own and God claimed no other people as his own possession.

But they were hard-hearted and stiff-necked. They were a rebellious nation. God was furious with them and threatened to annihilate them, but he was faithful to his people and did not; he forgave them over and over because of his Word of promise. Even when they were not faithful to him, he remained faithful to them. God even established a priesthood to offer sacrifices for their sins and obtain atonement for the people. They priests placed their hands on the head of the sacrificial animals while they confessed the sins of the people, thus transferring the sins to the sacrifice. Then the blood of the animals was poured out and sprinkled on the altar and the flesh was burned in the holocaust. The priests were called by God to obtain forgiveness for their sins.

God led them through the wilderness; that great desert which to them was synonymous with death. The wilderness with its scorching sun by day and insufferable cold by night. That desert which no man could enter and come out alive. That wilderness where there was no food and no water. All who wandered there became delirious, lost their way and died of thirst on the rocky desert floor. The wilderness is a place of death. But God was faithful to his people and he personally led them in a pillar of cloud by day and a fire by night. He was present with them and dwelt in their midst in the tabernacle. He personally fed them with food from heaven and drew water out of the stones so they could drink. For forty years they wandered as God led them to a new land; a land flowing with milk and honey. The very opposite of a wilderness. It was a land of abundant food and crops. A land of plenty. A land of rest from their wandering. Their land of their own, a permanent home.

There God himself would be their foundation and build his people upon it. God was the chief cornerstone upon which the nation would stand.

Based on this story of God's acts in history and presence among his people, the Holy Spirit inspired St. Peter to write our text. For today we are that nation. We are the chosen people of God. As St. Paul tells us, "It is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of promise are the true descendents of Abraham." "for all who are being led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God." "for this reason it is by faith in accordance with grace in order that the promise may be certain to all the descendants who are of the faith of Abraham who is the father of us all." For those who "belong to Christ are Abraham's offspring," and "you, like Isaac, are children of promise."

Therefore, when our text talks about a "chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession," it is talking about us. We are the chosen race of God. We are the holy nation, set apart by God to be his own people, his own possession, his royal priesthood. We have been redeemed out of slavery and bondage of sin and death by the blood of the Lamb. The death of the firstborn, the firstborn Son of God delivered us out of the tyranny of Satan. To us God has spoken in his word and revealed his name. To us God comes down and is present on his holy mountain; this place where we gather for worship is holy ground for here in word and sacrament God is truly present personally with his people and here he speaks to us and reveals his holy name. Here we receive the Aaronic benediction at the end of the service in which God puts his name on us and claims us as his own people. We are his holy nation because he has set us apart from the rest of the people, set us apart from their profanity, set us apart from their immorality, set us apart as God's people.

We are the people of his covenant; his new covenant, which is Christ Jesus himself. He has called us out of bondage in to sin and led us across the waters of baptism, where the armies of the oppressor were drowned and we were set free. He has established his covenant with us, his new testament in his blood which is shed for us for the forgiveness of sins and which we receive in the Sacrament. He has established us as his people, a living temple on earth where God himself resides and Jesus Christ is the cornerstone. The stone that the builders rejected and hung on a cross has become the chief cornerstone upon which the church is built.

He is a living stone and we come to him as living stones to be built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. As a royal priesthood, we offer up spiritual sacrifices for all people. As his holy nation we proclaim the acts of him who called us out of the darkness to all those still living in darkness. As a royal priesthood, we are not to look inward at ourselves, but are to look outward at those still living in the darkness of sin and unbelief. As priests we are called to obtain and dispense forgiveness to those lost in their sin; calling them to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. It is our mission, our purpose, our calling to carry forgiveness to people who still have not believed the Gospel and make disciples by proclaiming the word which tells of God's act of forgiveness on the cross.

For we are Emmanuel, God with us. In us, his church, his living temple God is present in the world and his word is revealed to all nations. We were not a people, but are now God's people to proclaim his deeds as a light unto those who live in darkness in our world today.

Yes, we are Emmanuel; God with us. The people of God, a holy nation, a royal priesthood, a people for his own possession. And he leads us through the wilderness to the land flowing with milk and honey

Amen.