“Got Milk?” – 1 Peter 2:1-10 (Year A, Fifth Sunday of Easter)

Do you remember the old “Got Milk?” ads?

Launched in the early 1990s, they featured celebrities from every corner of culture—athletes, actors, musicians—all proudly wearing those famous milk mustaches. The message was simple and unforgettable: Got Milk?

It worked. People smiled. People remembered. And apparently, people drank more milk.

Now, here’s the surprising part: that question didn’t start in a marketing boardroom.

The apostle Peter asked it first.

Well… maybe not exactly in those words—but pretty close.

About thirty or forty years after the death of Jesus, Christianity had spread across the Roman world. People were discovering new life in Christ—hope, forgiveness, purpose. They were living in a new kind of kingdom, one not built on power or politics, but on love, grace, and transformation.

But let’s not romanticize it.

It was messy.

Christians still had problems. They still sinned. They still had family drama—yes, even in the first century. (Turns out “dysfunctional family” is not a modern invention.) They lived in a culture that didn’t share their values. They struggled. They failed. They got discouraged.

Sound familiar?

So the question becomes:
How do you live faithfully in a world like that?
How do you stay grounded when everything feels uncertain?

Peter answers with a question of his own:

Got milk?

Listen to his words:

“Rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation… now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.”

There it is.

The “milk” Peter is talking about isn’t something you pour over cereal. It’s the essential nourishment of the Christian life.

And what is that milk?

It’s this simple, foundational truth:

God is good.

Now, that may sound basic. Almost too basic.

But don’t underestimate it.

This is the first confession of Scripture. In Genesis 1, after creating the heavens and the earth, after forming humanity in His image, God steps back and declares, “It is very good.”

That’s the starting point.

God is good—and therefore, what God creates has goodness in it.

That’s the milk.

Drink it in.

And yet… we struggle with that, don’t we?

It’s much easier to focus on what’s wrong—with the world, with other people, with the person sitting across the aisle… or riding our bumper on the interstate.

We are very skilled at spotting flaws.

Some of us could probably turn it into a spiritual gift.

But Peter says: if you’re going to grow, you need something deeper than criticism. You need nourishment.

You need milk.

Let me put it this way:

You can live your life asking,
“What’s wrong with them?”

Or you can live your life grounded in,
“What is God doing through His goodness?”

Those are two very different ways to see the world.

There was a church once that, after the death of Pope John Paul II, put a message on its sign suggesting that following the Pope would lead you straight to hell.

That caused quite a stir. (As you might imagine… not exactly a Hallmark moment.)

But here’s the deeper issue: that kind of thinking misses the milk.

Because when you believe that God is good, you begin to see people differently. Even people you disagree with. Even people you don’t understand.

If God is good, then every person bears some imprint of that goodness—however hidden, however broken.

And that changes how we respond.

It also changes how we see the world.

If God is good, then creation is good.
The earth matters. (Yes—even on Earth Day.)
Our bodies matter.
Material things matter—not as idols, but as gifts entrusted to us.

And people matter.

All people.

Even the difficult ones.

Especially the difficult ones.

Now let’s be clear—this doesn’t mean people always act good.

Just turn on the news for five minutes.

Or, honestly, just check your own heart on a bad day.

Sin is real. Brokenness is real.

But here’s the miracle:

God’s goodness doesn’t disappear in the presence of human failure.

It persists.

It pursues.

It redeems.

So if we are nourished by this “milk”—if we truly believe God is good—then Peter says something has to change in us.

We have to put away malice.
And deceit.
And hypocrisy.
And envy.
And slander.

Why?

Because those things contradict the goodness of God.

They choke off the very life we’re meant to grow into.

And then we’re called to do something more.

Jesus says it this way:

“I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”

If God is good, then our calling is to participate in that goodness.

To bring life.

To bring healing.

To bring hope.

That means, as a church—and as individuals—we become people who:

• Welcome others, even when it’s uncomfortable
• Extend grace, even when it’s undeserved
• Choose love, even when it’s inconvenient

It means we plant:

Love where there is hatred
Hope where there is despair
Light where there is darkness
Joy where there is sorrow

In other words—we don’t just believe God is good.

We live like God is good.

Now, I’ll be honest.

I don’t have everything figured out theologically.

There are plenty of questions I still wrestle with.

And if there were a “righteousness leaderboard,” I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be in the top ten. (Maybe not even top hundred on a good day.)

But in the end, that’s not the most important question.

The most important question is much simpler.

It’s the one Peter asks.

It’s the one we’re still answering today.

Got milk?