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.
If you are reading this then Harold Camping, the odd biblical calculator who predicted the Rapture for May 21, either got his end time calculations wrong or you got left behind. Unless you noticed a much shorter, more grumpy, line at Starbucks this morning, it is probably the former. Not to worry. I'm sure Harold will be quick to point out where his calculations were off and issue another date for the Rapture. It's tricky work predicting the apocalypse. One can't expect infallibility.
It's not end time predictions that have bugged me about Camping. When I've seen him on TV, I've found those kind of amusing. Rather, it is his encouragement to Christians to leave their churches. It seems his primary proclamation is that the Church is corrupt, and that good Christians should leave it. Stands to reason I'd be offended by this since I'm a pastor.
His message makes no sense in light of 1 Peter 2:2-10, where the Christian community of believers--the church--is said to be the new temple (the Jerusalem temple had been destroyed by the Romans), which is built on Christ the cornerstone and is home to the very presence of God. Now, I'm quite aware that the Church is not perfect, but it still in some mysterious sense houses the presence of God.
When in your community of faith do you most sense God's presence? In worship? In serving the homeless a meal? Playing frisbee at a church picnic?
How would your church change if it really, really understood itself to be God's temple on earth?
