A little later posting today, have been out enjoying some ministerial privilege as a PAM mentor, meeting with the PAM entrusted to my, woefuilly inadequate, care.

Today's readings:

Psalm 19
Exodus 19:1-9a
1 Peter 2:4-10

Each of these is, I think, quite well known, and each is rich in metaphor and symbol - the comparison of the sun with an athlete, God with a mother eagle, believers with the stone blocks from which a building is constructed.  Each of them combines near poetry with some stern statements, each of them combine wonder with awe.

The 1 Peter is where I want to go today, partly because our Thursday afternoon Bible study group has spent some time reflecting on this letter, and partly because there are verses in it that confuse me...

Come to the Lord, the living stone rejected by people as worthless but chosen by God as valuable.
Come as living stones, and let yourselves be used in building the spiritual temple, where you will serve as holy priests to offer spiritual and acceptable sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ.
For the scripture says, "I chose a valuable stone, which I am placing as the cornerstone in Zion; and whoever believes in him will never be disappointed."  This stone is of great value for you that believe; but for those who do not believe: "The stone which the builders rejected as worthless turned out to be the most important of all."  And another scripture says, "This is the stone that will make people stumble, the rock that will make them fall." They stumbled because they did not believe in the word; such was God's will for them.  But you are the chosen race, the King's priests, the holy nation, God's own people, chosen to proclaim the wonderful acts of God, who called you out of darkness into his own marvelous light.  At one time you were not God's people, but now you are his people; at one time you did not know God's mercy, but now you have received his mercy.

1 Peter 2: 4 - 10 GNB

The bit that puzzles me, and I have never heard anyone attempt to explain is this "This is the stone that will make people stumble, the rock that will make them fall."  I find this more than a tad perplexing... the idea that Jesus Christ is a stumbling block, a means of tripping people up as they endeavour to draw nearer to God.  I find it perplexing because I can only hear it in conjunction with Jesus stern words in Matthew 18 regarding people who put stumbling blocks in the path of the 'little ones'

‘If any of you put a stumbling-block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were fastened around your neck and you were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe to the world because of stumbling-blocks! Occasions for stumbling are bound to come, but woe to the one by whom the stumbling-block comes!

Matthew 18:5 - 7 NRSV

There seems to me no easy way of holding these two together, without some serious mental and theological gymnastics... either being a stumbling block to another is a bad thing or it's not; either God predestined some people to unbelief, and that's somehow OK, or God did not.  I cannot make much sense of this.  Maybe some more spiritual or more theologically equipped reader can tell me how it all hangs together within the context of a belief in a God who is love (e.g. 1 John 4), who does not want any to be lost (2 Peter 3:9), and who entered our world with the purpose not of condemnation but salvation of the whole cosmos (John 3:16-17).

Twice in the past I have posted the hymn/poem stumbling blocks and stepping stones, so I won't repeat it  (but you can find it here and here).  I like the idea of transforming the things that make us stumble into stepping stones to new understanding, new believing, new ways of living and being. 

Might it just be, that when we feel that Jesus trips us up, it is because we have failed to notice the rut in the road or the tree trunk lying across it or the precipice for which we are headed?  I don't know.  I still don't 'get' the idea of Jesus causing people to stumble, of wilfully tripping them up.

Puzzled, God, I'm puzzled:

I don't understand these words

Canonised as inspired by you.

I don't understand how or why

Jesus becomes a stumbling block

An obstacle to understanding.

I don't mind being puzzled,

Don't mind being pulled up short and made to think

I don't mind the fact that it is beyond my intellect

To understand what it is that you are saying

I don't mind that it's all beyond me

But

I can't see how

You

Who are love

Whose purpose in incarnation

Was to redeem and restore

All things

Might trip us up in our quest for you

Might it be

That we are walking backwards,

Looking the wrong way,

And collide with you,

Lose our balance

And fall over?

Might it be

That once we have stumbled

You reach down

Take our muddy hand

Lift us up

Clean our grazed knees

Kiss away the tears from our eyes

Then,

Gently, if firmly,

Redirect our feet in your path?

I'd like to think so, God,

To hope so

To be assured that all is not lost

Nor can be lost

Lead me on,

Lead us on,

Hobbling and limping

Halt and lame

(as a former generation would express it)

Wounded walkers

Seeking to step forward

A day at a time

With you.

Amen.