Building

What are you building day-by-day through your faith? This passage urges us to build using our very selves - all that we are and all that we have - as 'living stones'. We cannot do this work of building alone. We need Jesus, the cornerstone. We also need others around us to join in.

1 Peter 2 expresses an expansive vision of what is possible if we build together. We have been called into God's 'marvellous light'. God is with us and there is nothing we cannot do.

Your experience of trying to build something in your own community may seem more faltering or uncertain. Projects and ideas come and go and successes we hope for do not always arrive. But this passage does not say that the work of building will be straightforward. What these words promise is that, if we are willing to be the 'living stones,' then God will sustain us in our efforts to construct a house that will last.

And what will this house be like? A place of welcome and hospitality for those who are excluded, forgotten, or marginalised. A place of healing for those who have been hurt and abused. A place of justice for those who long for inequality to end.

What could you do with Christian Aid to help our work of building a more just world?

Make something - construct, build, create with your hands. Use whatever you have around you. You could make a prayer card, a holding cross, a gift for someone in your community. 

An activity you could try with your church or community is making a 'prayer person' as part of Christian Aid's Loss and Damage campaign. Find out more by following the link below.

Jesus, you are the cornerstone. Without you we can do nothing. With you all things are possible.

Help us to build spaces and places that are open to all. May we welcome in those who are shut out by injustice.

Give us courage when our projects falter or fail, that we may keep building and trusting in you.

Transform us into living stones so that all we are and all we do contributes to the building of your kingdom.

Amen.

Today's contributor is Dr Frances Clemson, Christian Aid's Faith Communications and Just Scripture Specialist.