Word for the day by Christian Education Forum
The House of Living Stones
“The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone” (v. 22)
Psalm 118, which was traditionally sung during the Jewish Passover, is
a scriptural portion that played a key role in Jewish history, in the life of
the early Church and alsoin the modern ecumenical movement. Jesus, during his
discourse with the religious authorities who plotted to kill him, quoted from
this psalm to prove that he himself is the “cornerstone”, the long awaited
Messiah(Mark 12: 10- 11).In Jesus
the stone that the builders rejected hadbecome the cornerstone (Ps 118:22; Luke
20:17-18; Acts 4:10-11).The apostles later
extended this imagery to argue that the Church, as the body of Christ, is
itself “the house of living stones”. As Peter put it, “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 Pet. 2: 4-5). We, as “a chosen people, a royal
priesthood” (1 Pet. 2:9), are members of the oikos (household) of God.
The oikos of God
Philip Potter, the former General Secretary of the World
Council of Churches argues that it was this image and understanding of “the
household of living stones”that has motivated the ecumenical movement. The
household of God is not confined to the framework of the institutional church
but extends to embrace “the whole inhabited earth” (oikoumene). According
to Potter, “the ecumenical movement is the means by which the churches which
form the house, the oikos of God, are seeking so to live and witness
before all peoples that the whole oikoumene may become the oikos
of God through the crucified and risen Christ in the power of the life-giving
Spirit.”
The Cost of Discipleship
Being a member of God’s household, no doubt, is our awesome
privilege but it is also a great responsibility. In recalling the life, death
and resurrection of Jesus, Peter says to the diaspora churches in Asia Minor
that confessing Jesus as the living stone involves sharing the Lord’s suffering
and the experience of resurrection. Members of the household of God, therefore,
are expected to overcome divisions of race, caste, gender, economic disparity
and sexual orientation. Jesus “himself is our peace, who has made the two
groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility” (Eph.
2: 14). By coming to Jesus the “living stone”, we ourselves become living
stones, in the process, sharing the Lord’s life and continuing his ministry of
reconciliation and sacrificial service in the whole inhabited earth.
Prayer: Our dear Parent God, help us to grow to our full stature
as members of the household of God.
Thought for the day: Does the household of God also includeall
people and the environment?
Jesudas Athyal, Carmel MTC, Boston