Americans are prone to think of "salvation" as an intensely personal, Yes-or-No thing, but today's verses from 1 Peter call us to "grow into salvation..." to "like living stones... be built into a spiritual house." Yet too often our unity is not in Christ but in other commonalities such as race, income, politics, etc. And so our unity in Christ is threatened by our personal differences, such as the recent PC(USA) decision to permit the ordination of gays and lesbians.