SERMON | 1 Peter 2:1-10 | "A Spiritual House" by Rev. Joseph Sanford at Grace United Methodist Church in Franklin, Indiana

SERMON | 1 Peter 2:1-10 | "A Spiritual House" by Rev. Joseph Sanford at Grace United Methodist Church in Franklin, IndianaA Temple is where God is present on the earth.That’s what a Temple is—the place where God’s reality overlaps with our reality.WE are that place—as a community of people WE are the place where God’s presence abides and is experienced on earth.We call this abiding presence “The Holy Spirit”Any questions?We are then called to be a royal priesthood—great, right?!Who doesn’t want to be a priest, amen?But…what is a priesthood?Priests do two things:They represent humanity to GodThey represent God to humanity.Priests traverse space both inside and outside of the Temple.They enter and leave—when the old dead-stone version of the Temple existed.They would prepare themselves…purify themselves…to enter into God’s presence.They would offer sacrifices to God on behalf of the entire people they represented.They would then leave the temple and come before the people as God’s representatives.They would be living examples of God’s goodness in such a way that people could see it and experience it for themselves.WE are a priesthood in the world today.We commune with God, but no longer in a stone building—not even this one.We commune together with the people of God, the Kingdom, the living stones of the spiritual house…We align our lives to the direction of The Cornerstone so that we are assembled in a way that brings grace, love, joy, truth, etc. to our shared life together WHILE ALSO bringing these things into the wider world so that ALL kingdoms and ALL people might come to understand the goodness of God through how we live.Simple!!This is our purposeThis is our identityWe are a spiritual house of living stones who are growing and learning while also allowing the presence of God to be experienced in the world today.This is God’s plan for the world, friends!! We are a part of it!!One last little part: purifying and preparing ourselves to be a priesthood and spiritual house.The priests of old would use blood of sacrificed animals to cover themselves with life.Blood = lifeIf you took the blood out of a living thing, it ceased to live.There were hundreds of rules on how to handle and deal with blood because it was regarded as so incredibly sacred because it was life itself.Priests would cover their imperfect selves with the blood from a perfect sacrifice.This entire symbol is what “the blood of Christ” and “purifying ourselves by the blood” comes from.Except…no more sacrifices need to be made for us to be purified.Purity and life no longer come through being covered in blood.Instead, we drink of the cup as a representation of our purification and cleansing—forgiveness, healing, reconciliation of Christ’s body (the church)…We all share of the one cup and bread to represent that Christ’s death was the ultimate sacrifice to end all sacrifices.We ingest the body just like people from the early temple days would ingest part of the sacrificed animal.We drink of the blood to participate in the receiving of Christ’s sacrifice to end all sacrifices. The blood is the symbol for our purification and cleansing…we remember that we don’t walk around impure and unclean. We are a forgiven people.All of this so that we can continue to grow in our understanding…To mature in our faith…To be built together into a spiritual house so that wherever we go and whatever we do we represent God to the world around us.We are now the place where God’s healing occurs for all of Creation.We remember all that’s been done at the Communion tableWe remember that every person who follows Jesus gathers at the table with us no matter where they are, who they are, or within what denomination or branch of our faith they belongWe remember what the bread and cup mean—all that’s been done and all that is before us to do as we carry on as the spiritual house.