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Morning Meditation
November 26, 2025
Reading: 1 Peter 2:1-4
Rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice, and all guile, insincerity, envy, and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Meditation-Rebecca Northington
In a way these paragraphs are two separate thoughts entirely, but when considered together they lead us to a very holistic understanding of what it means to be a Christian. When we truly orient ourselves towards God, without envy, without expectation, without an agenda, but with hope and gratitude we are like a babe turning toward its’ parent with that same kind of humble and loving faith. Faith that parents will give us what we need; not what we want necessarily, but what we actually need to be healthy and happy. Babies do this in total surrender, because in their innocence they understand that only through the parent can their needs be met. There is profound trust in this metaphor. Trust that the parent will build a strong and loving house. Trust that the parent will develop a loving and nurturing community; with an absence of the desire to usurp the power of the parent – which is the ultimate human struggle, as the story of Adam and Eve displays.
When our hearts are thus situated it is so much easier to be at the will of a loving God. We can be a living stone contributing to the building of a spiritual house, as the second paragraph hopes. We can be vehicles for God’s love. Christ was the cornerstone of this spiritual temple, with countless stones to follow, building a metaphorical house that continues to grow today. We all contribute to the ongoing building process; in our own time, in our own place. This includes the kind of families that we cultivate, ones that are hopeful and deferential to a loving God; the kind of communities that we try to build, ones that rid themselves of malice and guile, envy and slander. Too easily we can all become victims to the carnal instincts of our very human nature. Fear and covetousness can overwhelm our commitment to God. It takes focus, discipline and time to be sure that love is at the center of our world, not ego.
I love considering our parish and our congregation within this text. Have we attempted to build this kind of temple among us? I think about the kind of community the youth group is trying to build, with loving leaders and open and hopeful kids, having hard conversations and being deliberate about developing their best selves as potential building stones for this very temple of which we speak. I think of the Christmas Village and the time, effort and love that countless volunteers with incredible leadership committed to this community and to the larger world in need. I think of Sunday after Sunday and the attention and heart that goes into each service, each liturgical decision. It is discipline and discipleship, two words directly related to learning and self control. We cannot be leaves floating down the river, going where the current takes us. We must choose to humbly surrender ourselves to this formula of receiving our lives freely given, and offering this same kind of grace to anyone and everyone we encounter.
As we go into the Thanksgiving Holiday I am so incredibly grateful for the community that is The Redeemer. I have felt it from my earliest memories as a child. It was the home I felt most comfortable in, and taught me to seek and build like homes in every chapter of my life. I believe it nurtures the best parts of me, I believe it loves and accepts all people. I have felt this expressed in the music, in the staff, and in the congregants of all types and backgrounds. It is a remarkable place and one that I miss when I am away from it. It warms my soul when I drive by it at night, lit up like an ocean liner. I feel it during the day when I see the beauty of the graveyard. And every time I walk into that sanctuary I am immersed in a feeling of being closer to God. As you all break bread with loved ones this week and give thanks for all the gifts and bounty in your life, I hope you say a prayer of Thanksgiving for the temple that we are building together.
The man who desires to see
The Living God face-to-face
Does not seek God in the
Empty firmament of his mind
But in human love.
Dostoyevsky
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