Students, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house
On the first day of school, I like to welcome our new and returning students at the door. Redeemer has 57 new students, forty-four in grade nine and thirteen in grades 10, 11, and 12. We are excited to have three new staff members join us as well. At our opening assembly of the 2019-2020 school year, I noted we come from many different areas, experiences, former schools, and backgrounds. Yet, it is our hope that everyone soon feels comfortable in our school community. Our theme verses for this year from 1 Peter 2: 4-5, help us explore what it means to be in community. During our opening chapels, we looked at the analogy of believers being stones and how that relates to us here. When you encounter stones and rocks in nature, they are scattered about. Their location is random and there is no pattern. Think of rocks edging a shoreline, dotting a field, or jutting out along a hiking path. It is only when someone picks them up and moves them that they become something more than what they were. They can be designed with purpose, built into something, collectively taking on a greater form and shape.
“As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” – 1 Peter 2: 4-5 NIV
In this passage, Peter talks about how believers, like stones, are built together to be a house. A spiritual house made for the glory of God and to do his work. No longer are they separate and alone—but together they have a new identity and a greater purpose. We are like gathered stones waiting for the builder to start to assemble us—building his vision with expertise and creativity. As a group of students and teachers, we can be more and do more together than we could if we were all separate. We can speculate about what our spiritual building will look like. However, we must trust the builder. As time passes, we will see ourselves less as individual stones who were once alone and scattered in a field and more like chosen stones placed with care into a great house with others.