Nov. 1 - 1 Peter 2:1-10

Today our text in this week of reflections on how God works through our senses and perceptions comes from 1 Peter 2:1-10.  Today also marks "All Saints Day" in the church calendar and lectionary: a day to remember that we belong to a church that spans the ages, standing on the shoulders of the faith of the saints who have gone before us.  As the old hymn, "O for a Thousand Tongues" put it, "To God all glory, praise, and love be now and ever given by saints below and saints above, the Church in earth and heaven" May God bless you as you hear his word to the saints—even us—today. Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. 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. For in Scripture it says:     "See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame." Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,     "The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone," and,     "A stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall." They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for. But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.   As you journey on, go with the blessing of God:     Guide us waking, O Lord, and guard us sleeping, That awake we may watch with Christ, and asleep rest in his peace. May Almighty God bless, preserve, and keep us, this day and forevermore.  Amen.