May 3 ~ I am the way, the truth and the life

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Acts 7:55-60

Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16

1 Peter 2:2-10

John 14:1-14

Sermon by Bishop Halmarson

In the second lesson we hear an invitation: “Come to him, to that living stone, rejected by people but in God’s sight chosen and precious; and like living stones be yourselves built into a spiritual house…”

Our Easter celebration continues today with another baptism today at St Peter’s. Today Henry joins Kevin and Clara and George, and all of us, joins us in the household of God through baptism. And a proper thing, it is, for baptisms to happen during the Easter season, because it’s a season of new life. The baptismal font is readied to wash a new little brother, a new youngest member, not just of the St Peter’s congregation, but of all the congregations, all the churches, the whole church of Christ on earth. Because baptism is our initiation into the community of Christ, joining us to Christ and to one another as the people of God. So, we celebrate with Henry and his family, as we all affirm our belonging in Christ and Christ belonging to us in this spiritual house we know to be the church.

Where I grew up in New England there are long walls between farms built of stone. The New England poet Robert Frost wrote a poem called “Mending Wall” with images just like the ones in the reading from First Peter today. In the poem two neighbors walk on either side of the stone wall dividing their property. They do this every spring replacing the stones that have fallen or been removed during the past year. Listen to a section of the poem:

I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;

And on a day we meet to walk the line

And set the wall between us once again.

We keep the wall between us as we go.

To each the boulders that have fallen to each.

And some are loaves and some so nearly balls

We have to use a spell to make them balance:

‘Stay where you are until our backs are turned!’

We wear our fingers rough with handling them…

Down in New England, stone walls are made of materials at hand, not hewn rocks held together by mortar and finished to a neat, straight property marker. Instead they are made of field rock piled on top of each other, just high enough to keep the cows in the pasture, just sturdy enough to stay in place for a season or more. Then the neighbors repair the wall once again.

The church is built in a similar way, taking the materials at hand, living stones, people like you and me, and bringing us together so that a body for worship and service is created.

But, of course there’s a difference between a stone wall and the church. We are not the builders of the church, God is. The stones are not field rock but ‘living stones’, the purpose is not for division but for witnessing to the wonderful deeds of God, and the thing that holds the church together, the cornerstone, is Christ our Lord.

In the time since the first Easter, God has been building the church. God first gathers those rag-tag, misfit disciples and shapes them into a believing and witnessing community, fits them for the task of telling the world about Jesus and the new life they receive in following him. God acts through the Holy Spirit to send out apostles like Paul and Silas and Timothy who risk their safety and freedom so that the good news of the gospel can be heard. Over time God uses other witnesses to draw more people into the community of faith, to bring people into the marvelous light of God’s way and truth and life.

And as the church grows God continues to take the materials at hand, ordinary people in need of love and belonging, and shapes a church out of us, a church to proclaim the wonderful deeds God has done, not only for us, but for all of creation.

It’s a fact, the materials that make up the church are not finely hewn or polished or neatly matched. God doesn’t take only the straightest two-by-fours or the most uniform rocks. The materials that make up the church are living stones, people taken as we are, and brought together in such a way that a community in faith is formed. God doesn’t pick over and reject stones that don’t fit a pre-determined pattern, doesn’t pass by the people who don’t measure up to what some might think of as ‘church material’.

Instead, God chooses exactly those rejected ones, the ones who don’t measure up, who don’t fit the image, who would be passed over by any other builder who was more concerned with aesthetics and less concerned with including any and all.

The materials that make up the church are living stones, people like you and me who are rough around the edges, who don’t fit the requirements of perfect and pleasing proportions, who often enough fail to live in ways that are pleasing to God. The good news of the gospel is that God accepts all, and includes all, and wants all people to know they are welcome just as they are. Each one of us brought into the community of believers is a chosen and loved child of God no matter how rough our edges may be. As living stones built together by God into the church, we can appreciate the unique contribution that each member makes toward the community called out of darkness into God’s marvelous light.

God is the builder. We are the living stones, chosen to be a community God builds for the purpose of proclaiming the wonderful deeds God has done for all people.

As a church it’s possible to lose that central purpose for our existence. We can get caught up and make other things more important by the amount of time or energy or money we put into them. As a church we can get too closely focused on our own community of faith and forget that we are part of a larger purpose. Sometimes congregations become preoccupied with enshrining the church as we know it, forgetting that God is the builder, that it is living stones that make up the church, and that the purpose of the church is to tell and show all people about God’s great goodness.

God forgives our preoccupations, our well-intentioned but ungrounded activities, our narrow view of the church. We know this through the cross. God forgives and accepts us, and also guides and directs us because we are living stones, able to grow and change, able to work together as a unity because of the one in whom we have our life and salvation.

The unity that keeps this church of living, breathing, moving, changing stones together is the one called the ‘head of the corner’, the cornerstone, Jesus the Christ. He shows us how God receives all and welcomes all people into the community of believers.

Jesus is the living stone that was rejected by humankind, but was chosen by God to be the salvation of the world. Through Jesus, God offers life to all who would receive it. By his humanity Jesus joins with us in our birth, our life, our joy and our suffering. In his death Jesus joins us in our dying and by his rising Jesus draws us all into life with God. In him we are gathered into one church, one body, one faith, one God who chooses and claims us for a holy people. Without him we are lifeless as field rocks, purposeless as a wall that won’t stand, hopeless as the neighbor who tries to balance one round rock on another. But with him we are made living stones and built into the holy dwelling of God.

God built this church with the faith instilled in the founders who established it over 125/ 40 years ago. God gave the early church leaders the desire to meet in worship and gave them the generosity and commitment to build a congregation.

As God’s church we are called to imitate the way God takes all the stones, all the living stones, every curious character and misfit individual, and makes a place for us in God’s beloved community in faith. As people of faith we have the assurance that we are accepted by God just as we are, and we can witness with confidence that God’s love is big enough to encompass everyone. As living stones ourselves we are given the ability to change and adapt to new circumstances so that the church continues to be a vibrant witness in the communities where we live and serve. As agents of God’s love we can take the good news of grace and mercy into our daily lives so that others will see by our actions and hear in our words that they too have value in God’s eyes.

So, today we celebrate our unity in Christ in worship, in singing, in prayer and in the communion meal. When we leave this place today, we leave renewed in our faith that we belong in God’s love, belong to one another and belong to God. As you go into this week, take with you the good news of God’s love, the joy and comfort of living in God’s marvelous light, and in your words and actions, let your friends and neighbors and co-workers know that there is light and life for them in the love of God in Christ Jesus.

Amen