I'm interrupting my series of 25 reflections to share a sermon I preached today. I thought the message is applicable to the whole of the church, thus I am sharing it on my blog.
Scripture readings: Acts 7:55-60 & 1 Peter 2:2-10
Let me take you back to a scene from my childhood... it was shortly after moving into our newly constructed house - Dad was building a retaining wall for the driveway, but he and Mom wanted something a little more fancy than a simple concrete wall. So on a number of occasions we jumped in the station wagon, bringing with us a large sledge hammer and headed out to the countryside. I remember driving slowly down the road looking out the windows of the car to the surrounding prairie flat land for stones, big stones. When a promising one was spotted Dad would get out of the car grab the sledge hammer and walk purposefully up to the stone. After a moment of assessment the heavy hammer would swing high in the air and come down with a mighty crack. Sometimes it would take multiple hits but eventually the stone would split open and we would then gather around to examine the colours and patterns revealed inside the stone. If the colour and pattern was to our liking the stone was hauled over to the car and piled in the back. When we had a load full we drove back home and proceeded to top the concrete wall will this assortment of split stones. Thus began my love of stones.
This love of stones has continued throughout my life. In my days working for the County of Newell as a young man I was thrilled when in the course of working with test gravel pits I came across stones that were almost perfectly round. When I found one it would go in my lunch box and be brought home to add to my collection - I still have some of those stones (see the picture above). Today if you were to look in the garden in front of our house, the one under the large spruce tree, there are a number of stones scattered purposefully about. Each stone coming from somewhere significant to our family history - from Christopher Lake where my in-laws have had a cabin for years, from a farm near Tilley, Alberta where my grandparents lived and worked when I was little, and so forth. To me the stones have meaning - in a sense they ground me in the past, in my heritage and history.
In our scripture readings today we hear of stones twice, and these stones also have meaning. The stones found in our readings today remind us that stones can be used to knock down or to build up.
In the first reading a young man, Stephen, is preaching about Jesus. This is causing frustration and anger amongst some of the religious leaders of that day. When these religious people have heard enough they pick up stones and begin to hurl them at Stephen. This communal execution involved the whole crowd, it was the majority against a minority, a mob against a single unarmed man. It was fear and anger against truth and love. The stones fly at Stephen, their damage is frightfully quick. Sensing his death Stephen prays to God, a prayer much like the one Stephen's Lord prayed from the cross: "Don't hold this sin against them."
Stones can damage, they can knock down, they can kill.
Why then would the writer of First Peter encourage his listeners to be living stones? What did this image suggest to them? What might it mean for us? What are these living stones to be used for? For knocking down? For hurting? For destroying?
Quite the opposite! These living stones are to be used in building up a spiritual house. All who follow Jesus are being called to a special purpose in this passage - one that is life giving rather than death inflicting.
One of the central themes in this passage from First Peter is the idea of being chosen. First this passage notes that Jesus was the living stone who was rejected by humans but was chosen as precious by God. That phrase makes me think of driving around the countryside with my Dad looking for just the right stone for our building project back home. I knew that farmers complained about stones and rocks - they made it difficult to farm the land, they wished all those stones in the fields would disappear. But for our family, those stones in the fields could hold great beauty and strength to enhance our wall back home. So we looked carefully at what many simply rejected or passed by.
A little lesson on ancient middle-eastern construction techniques might help the image make more sense. Houses in that region and era used stone as the main building material. Some wood was used for things like door frames and roof beams, but mostly houses were made with stones. The builder would first find a large strong stone to function as the cornerstone. This foundational item was most important, for everything would be built out from it. If the cornerstone was flawed or cracked this could lead to problems in the future - unwanted shifting or slipping that would weaken the whole structure. So the cornerstone was very important and thus chosen carefully.
After this other stones were chosen to build up the walls. These were not uniform bricks, but stones of various shapes and sizes gathered from the local area. Some stone cutting would have been done, but primarily the builder looked for stones that were the right size and shape to fit in properly with the other stones already in the wall, making a stable and strong structure. Stones were chosen to fit into a specific spot - their value was not in being the same as other stones but rather in their unique size and shape. It took all kinds of stones to build a house. Thus when the writer of First Peter refers to the followers of Jesus as living stones being built into a spiritual house he is implying some noteworthy characteristics.
First - Christians are not all alike, we are different in many ways - but we are all chosen to fit into the spiritual house being built. If the builder has chosen us, then no one can say we don't belong. We each have a calling, we each have a purpose, we each have a place. This is similar to the Apostle Paul's image of the body of Christ being made up of many parts, yet all needing each other.
Second - we are called to build up, not to knock down. Our calling is the exact opposite of the stones thrown at Stephen. As living stones we are called to work together regardless of how we might differ from others, to become a place of safety and shelter for others. The stones do not build the walls for themselves, but for the sake of others who will be sheltered within. To put another way, we are to protect, not condemn; we are to love, not judge; we are to be stones that build up, not stones that knock down.
Third - we are chosen to work together in such a way that we help connect people with God. We are called to become a spiritual house, a temple - a building that in ancient times was the place the people went to be reconciled to God. This connection to the ancient temple is seen in some of the other images in First Peter: "You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation". Each of these titles warrants a brief comment.
Chosen people - once again the idea of being chosen is named. It echoes the covenant of God with Abraham and Sarah and their descendants. God chose them to be the beginning of a great nation that would be a blessing for all nations. Christians are now part of that great promise through our cornerstone, Jesus. Through baptism we enter into this covenant relationship with God who chose us - no one can say we don't belong, or that we have no purpose.
Royal priesthood - this title looks back to the Levites, the ancient tribe of priests whose calling was to dedicate themselves to the reconciliation of God and his chosen people. They offered sacrifices and prayers on behalf of the people, they were chosen to serve, both God and the people. Now we too have been given this great privilege, this important task - we too are chosen to serve God and others, we are to help people be reconciled with God through our actions, our words and our prayers.
Holy nation - the word holy literally means set apart. We are a people set apart for a special purpose - God has chosen us to bring the good news to all the nations, news of love and forgiveness, of acceptance, and of justice. As a group of people we are called to live out our baptismal covenant with God - by the way we act and talk we are to be a means of grace to all, to be a blessing for all around us, for all around the world.
First Peter reminds us "Once you were not God's people, but now you are." We have been chosen by a loving God who then calls us to work together to help others know that they too have been chosen, they too have been called. We are to "tell about the excellent qualities of God" which clearly means we are to focus our message on God's love, mercy and grace. This is a message we are given to share not only with words, but with our very being - after all we are called not just to talk about a spiritual house, but to be a living part of that spiritual house, to be an integral part within the structure. We are chosen, unique as we are, to add to the strength and integrity of this spiritual house with all that we are.
What kind of stones have we been to this point? Ones that build up, or ones that knock down? Stones that protect, or stones that hurt? God has chosen us to be part of something wonderful, we have been called to a holy task - to build up and support one another, to be people who help each other connect with God, to provide sanctuary for those who need shelter from a world filled with hatred and injustice. With Christ as our cornerstone, with God as the provider of good materials and with the Holy Spirit as the master builder this image from First Peter will continue to come true - the spiritual house continues to be built, continues to be expanded. God has chosen you and me to be part of this building project - what kind of stones will we choose to be?
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