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.
1 Peter 2
There are several ways in which the word for stone in Greek has been translated for us in English. The word lithos, often translated as stone, actually connotes gemstone. I like the idea of living stone as gemstone.
A gemstone is multi-faceted and able to reflect light as well as absorb it. A stone which has been cut away to reveal its inner beauty is highly valued. From it come depths of color and shimmer—a representative of the hidden core of heat within the earth.
But stones, in the Biblical tradition, have other meanings. Stones were used as markers of events where God interacted with human beings. A stoning of a sinner often created a pile of stones which later might become an altar. Sacrifice and sanctity are not strangers in a stoney landscape.
When we are invited to become living stones, we are invited to both sacrifice and sanctity. We are asked to share our deep beauty with one another even as we embrace the sacrifice required of the Christian spiritual life.
We become one in worship, even as we jostle against one another in the tumbler called the Church.
And our tumbling will polish us into brighter realities of the Living God-if we allow ourselves to be shaped by Divinity and community.
Come as living stones.
Come as precious gems of God.
Come and be formed.
Blessings,
Debra
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