May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (1 Peter 2:9,10)

In Christ's name and to his glory, dear friends: Today the Apostle Peter speaks to us about life as part of God's family-how it is that we find ourselves part of God's family...how it is that we are to act since we are part of God's family. He calls us the people of God We sang in the opening hymn about our Savior, Jesus Christ: Who else unites us one with God the Father? Borrowing that thought of oneness we have as our central thought: One PEOPLE...One Purpose.

As we look at the inspired words of the Apostle Peter we notice that he is using a picture or an object lesson to teach us something very important and precious. The picture is this-just as a builder takes piles and piles of stones or bricks and puts them all together into one building so that they are no longer individual, separate bricks but now one compete building; just so the Lord takes countless individuals and binds them all together into his house, his church, his family, his people so that they are no longer individual, separate people but now one complete unified family. "One People." What Peter speaks about here we call in the Apostle's Creed The Holy Christian Church, the Communion of Saints.

This one family, this one people of God, is build on Jesus Christ whom the Apostle calls "The Living Stone." Just as a footing or foundation gives a good, solid place for all the bricks to rest on, so Christ gives a solid, safe place for the many individuals of God's one family. Oh how much we need Christ to make us part of this one people, God's house, his temple! The individual stones of God's house are to be perfect, square, level. God cannot tolerate deviations from his holy will in the blocks that make up his house. Christ surely belongs in God's one family. He's perfect, level, smooth, plain-no sin. We, on the other hand, are chips off the old blocks of Adam and Eve. We are full of imperfections, uneven, rough-full of sin. So Christ has taken us, rough and imperfect stones and by his work ground us smooth; made us even; taken away our sin. This was not a process of gradual improvement, but rather a divine and immediate act of God. In the life, death and resurrection of his Son, Jesus Christ, he has justified us, declared us to be holy and pure in his sight. Now we fit in perfectly in God's one family, because Christ has made us holy by his blood. Take note of the passive verbs that give all credit to God. We are being built (by God). We are chosen (by God). We have received mercy (from God).

We have a saying about preparing to die. Actually, the saying is biblical. When good King Hezekiah of Judah was ill and on his death bed, the Lord sent the Prophet Isaiah to him to tell him, "Put your house in order; you are about to die." How terrible it would be to have to stand before the Almighty to inspect our house, our life, on the last day if all we had to present is what we have accomplished! Our lack of persistent love for God and selfish devotion to our own affairs would be unpresentable and unacceptable. These houses could never fit into God's heavenly community. That is why these words of Peter are so precious to us. For they speak of the gracious work of God in making us part of his family, his temple, his house. May we appreciate is all the more today! You, me, we are God's one people! When you pass a construction sight and see the mud, the messy chaos of piles of building material, it's hard to imagine that this could be put together into a house. But then we return later to see a beautifully, completed structure. It's hard now to imagine what it was like before. All we see is the completed work. That's the kind of wonder we have everyday-we are the God's workmanship. And we are not merely watching it happen in front of us; we, this soul and body, is the project!

And the Lord has a high and royal purpose in making us his one house, his temple, his one people. This too the Apostle Peter speaks about

There is a double picture or object lesson in this reading. One is that we, the many individuals, are built into God's one family. The picture has to do the activity, the lives, of those built into God's one family. A building like the one we are in is not alive; it is inanimate. But God's house is not dead, inanimate material. Christ is the Living Stone, and all God's children are living stones. The picture is not just of God's one family, his one temple; it is also the activity, the work, the goings on of that temple. Who worked at God's Old Testament Temple? It was abuzz with priests working. And so God house, his family, his temple is abuzz with priests working. And you are those priests. Peter tells us you are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood...and...you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood. We, the one family of God have one purpose-to serve him as priests.

In Old Testament times the priests were involved with animal sacrifices and all the duties of running the temple and carrying on the worship and keeping the place running, clean and functioning. We, God's one family, his one temple, his house, are not busy with animal sacrifices. Rather today we are to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Peter explains what that means later when he says: we are a holy priesthood that we may declare the praises of him who called us out of darkness into this wonderful light. Here is our one purpose-to declare God's praises.

It may be church things-like worship, Bible study, teaching Sunday school, serving on some committee. But it isn't limited to that. The Apostle Paul said, Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving (Colossians 3:23,24). In every task of our lives we declare God's praises when we act out of love for God and according to the 10 commandments. Satan doesn't want us to declare God's praises. He wants us to live for self, and rely on self. But in all we do, let us praise our Lord. Again this day the Lord reminds us who we are-his people-that we might have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16) and serve him as his holy priesthood. To this, dear Lord, take us.      Amen