A People With A Purpose
a sermon based on 1 Peter 2:2-10
by Rev. Richard Thompson

     Imagine you’ve just been handed a brick.  A brick approximately 4” deep, 8” long, 2” high.  Maybe it’s a brick similar to the ones used to build this church building.

     What will you do with it?  What can a person do with one brick?  Use it as a doorstop or paperweight?  Put it in the garage because you’ll find a use for it someday?  There’s not much a person could do with one brick—at least, not much that’s useful—is there!

     Now, think about this: there are several hundred people gathering here to worship and learn this weekend.  And all  of us have bricks.

     What would happen if we put those bricks together?  Maybe we could do something significant then!  We might be able to build an attractive wishing well to decorate a lawn, or a short walkway for the yard, or a piece of a wall.  We could do something constructive and useful if we put those hundreds of bricks together, along with our abilities and our ideas and our determination.

     A single brick isn’t worth much; it’s practically useless.  But put all of our bricks together, and then you’ve got something!  Then you’ve got possibilities, strength, and hope!

     As it is with bricks, so it is with people. 

     Alone, we struggle.  We often feel useless.  Alone, we a hard time discovering any purpose to our living, any joy, any hope.

     But together—ah, that’s another story!  Together we can support the one who is hurting, or celebrate with the one who is joyful.  Together, we can do something, be something, make a difference.  When we live in community, grow and share life together, life is good and joyful and real and vital!

     Years ago, there was a commercial on the radio.  On this Earth Sunday, it would be good for us to hear it again, to remind us of our call to care for the earth.  Have we honored God’s command to till and keep it for future generations?  The commercial I’m remembering was about the simple matter of recycling.  One person begins, contemplating the incredible amount of waste we humans generate and dump into the ground or the water or the air.  “I’m only one person—what can I do?”  the person laments.  Then several more voices join in: “I’m only one person; what can I do?”  And, before long, there is a strong and sturdy chorus of voices shouting together, “I’m only one person, what can I do?”  And the listener gets the clear impression that, together, they can do an awful lot to care for God’s good earth!

     So it is with life in the church.  Along, we can only do a little.  But when we’re joined to a worshiping, growing, serving, outreaching community, we are valuable, and, together, we can make a tremendous difference!

     That’s what Peter wants us to remember today.  In his letter, he reminds us that, in our baptisms, we are joined to just such a community.  Now, we belong to Jesus Christ!  And, in Christ, we are not just a collection of individuals, but a community of faith—GOD’S OWN PEOPLE!

     Did you hear what Peter said about us?  He said we—the church—are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people”.  He said that once—before we belonged to Christ—we were no people, but now we are God’s people.” 

     We are God’s own people!

     Isn’t that good news—indeed, wonderful, earth-shattering news!  In Christ, in his life and death and resurrection, God has claimed us as God’s own.  God has taken our individual lives and placed them on a solid foundation, a cornerstone worthy of the name: God is building us, together, onto the foundation that is Christ, and, in Christ, God is making us sturdy and strong and formidable.  But only in Christ is this true.  It’s not because of anything we’ve done, or how wonderful we are: it’s in Christ that we are made a people!

     And that’s a good thing.  That’s a wonderful thing!  We are joined to Christ, joined to a community that is meant to pulsate with the life and energy of the risen Lord Jesus Christ!

     God CHOOSES us!  God chooses us to be God’s won.  In our Baptism, God takes us into God’s own loving arms, giving us an identity—“child of God”—and joining us to all of God’s children, inviting us to grow together as God’s children so that, together, we are the “people of God”.

     What good news that is!  What good news it is that we don’t have to fumble our way through life, striving to make our own meaning.  That’s why we gather again this weekend—to acknowledge that there is a sure and certain foundation for our life together, and that foundation is Jesus Christ!

     Yes, that’s wonderful news!  It’s wonderful to be called, in Christ, “a chosen race, a holy and royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people”.  Yes, that’s wonderful news.

     But, if all we do in the church is sit around and congratulate ourselves and each other on how wonderful we are in God’s eyes, how special we are, how highly God thinks of us, we are not fulfilling our purpose.

     God didn’t claim us in Christ, and join us to the people of God, for that reason.  Peter makes that clear.  God called us to life in Christ so that we can “offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God.”  God called us to life in Christ so that we can “proclaim the mighty acts of the God, who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

     Yes, we are God’s own people.  And, in Christ, we are people with a purpose!

     Our purpose is to serve and reach out, joyfully, to all, in the name of Jesus Christ.  Our purpose is to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ, in word and deed!

     Now, that’s not such an easy thing for Lutherans—to reach out in the name of Christ.  We’re conditioned, from our first 300 years in Europe and 150 years in the United State, to being part of a church, part of a world that was overwhelmingly Christian, much like us.  We didn’t sense any compulsion to reach out.

     But now, that has changed.  The world around us is profoundly different, incredibly diverse, and we can no longer assume that everyone has heard, let alone believes, the Christian story.  We need to embrace God’s purpose for us: “to proclaim the mighty acts of God.” 

     That’s why we’ve been gathered into the community of God’s people.  That’s why we worship and grow together—so that we can be equipped and strengthened and empowered to fulfill the church’s purpose in the world.

     As our Natural Church Development visioning team reviews the thoughts gathered at recent small group conversations, themes are emerging.  And one that is coming through very strongly is this one: “We don't know how to tell our faith stories.  And we want to learn!”

     I like that attitude!  I like that attitude which says, “Teach us to reach out!  Teach us to proclaim the good news!”

     And that’s what we’re going to do.

     Meanwhile, let me give you just a couple examples of how each of us, in our own way, can proclaim the good news of God’s mighty acts.

     The new girl at school got left sitting by herself.  She was from a different part of the world, a different culture, and her first language was different from the language of other students, too.  She hardly ever spoke in class, and when she did, the other students had a terrible time understanding her broken, heavily-accented English.

     So when Alexis left her group to go sit with the new girl, people looked up and noticed.  “What you doin’ actin’ so nice to that weird new girl?” one of her friends asked.  Alexis replied, “It just seemed like the right thing for me to do.”

    “Why?” her friend persisted.

     “I’m trying…I’m just trying to be a Christian!” Alexis insisted.

     An older woman could no longer get out and about like she used to, but she was still eager to serve Christ.  She prayed about how she might serve, and she talked to her Christian friends.  Through that process of discernment, she realized that she could be a blessing to others by playing piano.  So she placed an ad in the Oakland Tribune: “Pianist will play hymns by phone daily for those who are sick and discouraged.  This service is free.”  She included her phone number.  When people called, she would ask, “What hymn would you like to hear?”  Within a few months, her playing had cheered up several hundred people.  Many of them poured out their hearts to her, and in this way she helped and encouraged many, and they, in turn, encouraged her.

     That woman had been faithful to her God-given purpose!

     I believe this congregation will be as well.  I believe God has called us together, and blessed us abundantly, and reminded us persistently that we are God’s own people.

     And I believe that we will always remember that, and act on that truth: Yes, indeed, we ARE God’s people!  We are God’s people, and we have a high and holy purpose—to proclaim the mighty acts of God.

     May God grant it!

                                                                                                AMEN.