Building with Bananas
1 Peter 2:4-12
This week a major report was published on the behaviour of teenagers in Britain and Europe. It found that young people are better rounded and more mature when they spend at least some of their time with adults, and don’t just socialise with kids their own age.
This is just one of the hundreds of benefits you get from being part of a church… the church is good for everyone. Here’s an example; my kids are actually very offended by racist behaviour and language, much more sensitive to this kind of anti-social behaviour than I am. This is because they grew up in a church. When Jonny was about three we had some international students for lunch. One of them was a big guy from Cameroon – as black as the ace of spades! He walked in our home and Jonny looked at him angrily and said, “You’re black!” – it was an embarrassing moment for his parents! The guy from Cameroon knelt down to Jonny’s height and pointed to touched my son’s skin – “Yes, Jonny, I am black”, he said, “And what colour are you?” Jonny looked at his hand, “I’m pink!” he said.
Somehow I don’t think a pink supremacy movement would get very far, do you? Church has done our kids so much good.
The moment you put your faith in Jesus two things happen; first, the Holy Spirit enters your body and begins to work in your life. Second, you become part of his church. The church is a great place to be because Jesus is there. He is the centre of the church's life, of our lives.
Our vision for Bethany City Church is this:
We are building a community whose aim is to live and love like Jesus and get the people of Sunderland into heaven
What does a church like this look like? Peter gives us the answer.
A portrait of Jesus (4-7)
Jesus dominates Peter’s portrait of the church.
Imagine a building site, long ago when stones were shaped individually by master masons. These huge tailor-made pieces would lie around the building site in orderly rows waiting to be placed in exactly the right place - each one was bespoke, it would not fit anywhere else (the word 'stone' in verse 4 means such a specially dressed building block).
In come the builders, looking round for the cornerstone, the coping stone at the head of the arch. There is only one, but the builders take one look at it and reject it. They blunder on and pick the wrong stone altogether; the result is disaster – a wonky building!
That's the picture, Jesus; rejected by humanity (4). Jesus was passed over by his generation. Jesus is being passed over by many on our generation, too. People are fascinated by Jesus, most have a great respect for Jesus, but we will do anything rather than let Jesus have pre-eminence in our lives. So we wander round building our lives on all sorts of things, and the result is a wonky life!
Whatever you think of Jesus, he is treasured by God (4). Let me point up two important things about this:
First, Jesus is the one-and-only Son of God. Imagine the intensity of the love you have for your own children and that is how God feels about Jesus. Hebrews 1:1-3 puts this powerfully; “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory, the exact representation of his being”. Do you see why the Father thinks highly of the Son?
Second, he is the keystone of what God is doing on earth today (6). God loves his world, and he loves the human race, he is engaged in a rescue plan to bring us back to himself. Jesus is spearheading that plan.
Whoever you are, Jesus is going to determine your future; or rather, your attitude to him will determine the future. Peter quotes two Old Testament poems that spell this out. The first is Isaiah 28:16 (in verse 6) the second is Isaiah 8:14 (in verse 8) … your attitude to him determines your future; you will be either rescued or destroyed. Peter's vision is stark. Jesus is either the solid foundation that secures you from disgrace, or a trip wire that will bring you to destruction in the end.
If you are not a Christian it is vital that you find out more about Jesus.
If you are a Christian, it is vital that you realise the actual majesty and glory of the person you worship! There is no room in Christian circles for a Jesus who dances to our tune… we are his servants!
A picture of the church - a building site
Jesus is the cornerstone, but you are part of the building too (5). There is a very useful portrait of the church here.
A little boy was being shown ‘round an Anglican church by the verger. He was full of questions and at one point he pointed to a war memorial plaque on the wall and said, “What’s that?” The verger read out some of the names on the memorial and explained, “These are all the people who died in the services…”
Most people think of a ‘church’ as a building made out of rock – but the church is a building made of people… living stones. Now, if you want to build anything, you absolutely vital to make sure that your materials are good and dead; rock, or brick or wood that has been felled and well seasoned. Building with living material means trouble. But that is what God is doing; he is using living stones like you and me. That is quite a challenge, building the church not with nice square blocks that are all the same (like Lego bricks) but with funny curved vegetables that are all different… it is like building with Bananas!
When you realise this, that you are a banana, I am a banana, everyone is a banana, it changes the way you see the church:
First, what is this building for? Peter tells us in verse 5 – ‘spiritual sacrifices’. In other words, the church is a community whose purpose is to do the things that please God – the New Testament mentions five such ‘sacrifices’:
Romans 12:1 Our bodies
Romans 15:16 The fruit of our evangelism
Philippians 4:18 Our giving
Hebrews 13:15 Our praise
Hebrews 13:16 Our good works and sharing with others
Now, because we are building with bananas people don’t see things the same way. Lego bricks are all the same, but bananas? There is no such thing as a standard banana! Some see praise as the important thing; some see that it is evangelism; some are committed to social action. You see how it is; bananas have a mind of their own, bananas are not good building materials!
But is meant to be this way! The church is a building made of living stones – everyone thinks differently. Think about this… if I see evangelism as the main reason for our existence, Peter sees praise and worship as the centre, and Norris is passionate about social action and changing society. Who is right?
Option one: I am right and everyone else is wrong! We have had two thousand years of this and look where it has got us! The church in the twenty-first century is a disgrace, really!
Option two: I am partly right, and everyone else is partly right, and we all need each other to keep one another on the straight and narrow. Does that sound better? You bet it does – every Christian you meet has something to teach you – don’t reject them because they don’t see things your way all the time. Be generous!
Second, what else are we meant to do? Look at verse 9; we are to show others the goodness of God. You get the same thought again in verse 12; people are meant to look at the church and say, “This is what ‘good’ looks like; we ought to have that”.
But sometimes the church fails to live up to this. The idea of the church is brilliant, but the reality? Well, bananas have a mind of their own, what do you expect when you re building with bananas?
This means that we have to be very generous towards each other in the church… look at this more closely. The key phrase in Peter's letter is (5); "you are being built". All the verbs in this passage are present continuous tense. That means it is still happening; we are living on a building site.
When Cathie was young her parents were always buying plots of land and building houses on them. She lived a significant part of her life in a four berth caravan parked on a building site. Around her everything was dirty, confusing and partly built… it was good preparation for life in the local church!
You need to have patience with the church, we are not finished yet! Be generous when we talk about each other and gentle when we deal with each other.
Third and last thing; if you have ever worked on a building site you will notice something else. The bricklayers think they are the kings of the hill. The joiners can’t stand the sparkies, the sparkies hate the plumbers, and everyone looks down on the labourers. As for the site foreman, everyone thinks he is an idiot. Oh, and the plasterer never turns up on time. This is a brilliant picture of what churches are like…
Everyone thinks that their ministry is the most vital one in the church, which is why there are so good at it!
Everyone feels that their ministry is not understood in the church.
Everyone, from time to time, feels that no-one really cares about what they do.
We need to have masses of patience with each other, we are not finished yet! That is why Peter warns us not to criticise (1-3). We need to discipline ourselves to be generous when we talk about each other and gentle when we deal with each other.
If you believe passionately, and some do, that Christians should be standardised clones that do exactly as you think they should then you are in for a disappointment. But if you realise that you are a banana, I am a banana and everyone else here is a banana… you heart softens, you get a little more generous, your attitudes change.
A vision for the church
For Peter's first readers, the pressure was on. Their neighbours and work colleagues were suspicious of their 'born again' Christianity and were starting to get hostile. Peter says, "Keep being the kind of people that God wants you to be because something wonderful is going to happen". God is going to visit them – look at the second half of verse 12, “… when he comes to judge the world” is a dumb translation, it really means, “… on the day when he visits us”.
Peter is telling them to expect a spiritual break through when a significant number of their sceptical friends will become believers. Peter sees a time when the people who reject Jesus will worship him! And I see that too… right here in Sunderland… can you see it?
In the meantime, we have work to do, God expects us to build his church, even if we have to do it with bananas! The way we see our mission at Bethany City Church:
We are building a community whose aim is to live and love like Jesus and get the people of Sunderland into heaven
By God’s grace, you can have a part in that, come and join us and find your part in this wonderful enterprise!