1 Peter 2:2-10

On the cover of John O'Donohue's (1956-2008) first edition of the book Eternal Echoes there is a line of cracked stones that signifies our broken sense of belonging. He writes, "The word 'home' has a wonderful resonance. Home is where you belong. It is your shelter and place of rest, the place where you can be yourself."

Peter likens us to "living stones," part of a spiritual house with a holy purpose. Everyone who belongs to this household has a place. With Jesus as our "cornerstone" we are named part of his priesthood, his merciful family, coming out of darkness and shining his "marvelous light."

This world may not be our true home and it may even reject us, but while we are here it is our place to show mercy and to fill the cracks that separate our brothers and sisters from God.

Home-loving Lord, may your Spirit shelter us from the fractures that seek to break us apart from you. May we be obedient to your word and not stumble. Hold us secure by your Cornerstone, Jesus the Christ. Amen.

Devotion for 4/16/2008 by:
Mark Tanis
Elizabeth City, N.C.
U.S. Navy Chaplain
Master of Divinity, 2000

2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation -
3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
4 Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God's sight, and
5 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.
6 For it stands in scripture: "See, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame."
7 To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe, "The stone that the builders rejected has become the very head of the corner,"
8 and, "A stone that makes them stumble, and a rock that makes them fall." They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.