It’s one thing to know that we fit with God and that we have perfect standing before him. That’s one of the central truths that we cling to on a daily basis and it’s the only way that we can relate to God. We stand righteous, innocent, holy, and sanctified before him. We have such a sufficiency, enoughness, and competence before God through Jesus. Before God and through Jesus, we measure up, fully, completely, all the way. We are lacking nothing as we stand before God. That’s how we stack up before God. (We looked at this last weekend; you can watch or listen again here.)
But like I said, it’s one thing to know that we stack up perfectly before God, but how do we stack up against and with other people? That’s when we really start to feel like we don’t fit. When you put me next to him or her, the measuring stick seems to change. My abilities are different. Our strengths aren’t the same. When you stand in a line up with other Christians, the measuring stick seems to change. Then you don’t seem to fit in. Then you feel more and more like a misfit, like an oddball, like you don’t fit. You don’t seem to stack up next to other people.
But that’s just the thing. We’re comparing now. We’re counting the way that God has gifted us and counting the way that God made them and it can feel like we’re lacking something. But here too God has done an incredible thing. He has taken all of these oddly shaped (yet still fully sufficient) people and is building all of us into a perfectly formed spiritual house. That’s right, God has taken you - oddball and misfit that you are - and is building you together with me - oddball and misfit that I am - into a perfectly formed spiritual house.
And that’s what I get to fix my gaze on each Sunday. Each Sunday I get to look into the pews and see a motley crew of stones that God is building into a spiritual house. All these weirdos happen to be one church. This Sunday, look around at the weirdos on every side and know this: God is building each one of us and all of us together into one spiritual house.
This Sunday, we’ll be looking at 1 Peter 2:4-8 and we’ll unpack more fully what sort of house this is and what sorts of offerings the priests of this house offer.
For other news and notes, check out “the Mount Weekly.”