Becoming Living Stones by The Rt. Rev. Andrew D. Smith
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Trinity Hartford 17 After Pentecost 22A October 5, 2014
I took the chance to go hiking this week on the section of the Metacomet Trail, in Farmington south of Route 6. Having climbed Rattlesnake Mountain, I found myself standing atop of a huge tumble of gigantic stones, some the size of a house, and the rock cliff, with vets to the North, South and East, from where I could see the tower of Trinity Church — stones which had been there since the last ice age — thousands of years. Magnificent rock.
Maybe that’s why “stones, rock” stood out for me in today’s readings.
In the gospel story today, Jesus also was standing on a mountaintop, in the Temple in Jerusalem, on Mount Zion. He also stood atop huge stones — not a prehistoric jumble of rock, but new, finely crafted stone ashlars which were a marvel of the world he lived in, and ours today too. The stones which had been worked and moved and finished in place were, some of them, they say, are 44 feet long, maybe fifteen feet thick, weighing an estimated 600 tons — that’s 120,000 pounds each — laid without mortar to build the foundation for the Temple. Each such ashlar had to be perfect; a fault, a crack, a softness in the stone meant the stone would have been passed over, rejected.
In Scripture, Stones, Rock are an image for the strength, permanent and enduring love and constancy of God year after year, generation to generation.
The Commandments given by God were written on stone (Ex 24:12-14) (Ex 32:15, 16) Moses came down from the mountain, carrying the two tablets of the covenant in his hands, tablets of stone that were written on both sides, on the front and on the back. The tablets were made by God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved in stone, meant to last for all time.
But remember the story? How Moses in his anger at the people threw the tablets down and broke them. (Ex 34) Later, Moses made two tablets of stone like the first ones, and (someone) either God or Moses wrote on them and Moses came down with the covenant, newly engraved, written in stone.
Rock also became an image for God. Psalm 18:2ff The LORD is my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, my rock in whom I take refuge, my stronghold.
And for God’s safekeeping of his faithful people: Psalm 27:5 In the day of trouble, the LORD will set me high on a rock.
And again, Psalm 40:2 (God) drew me up from the pit of tumult, out of the miry bog and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.
Then there are those verses that Jesus used in today’s confrontation with the chief priests and elders of the people. Psalm 118:22 The stone that the builders rejected has (in fact) become the chief cornerstone. This is the Lord’s doing and it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the LORD has made, let us rejoice and be glad in God.
The Temple, and the stones of which it was built, were the fame of all Judea. So Jesus, in his increasingly direct confrontations with the chief priests and elders, having told the story of how the wicked tenants rejected the owner’s son, (who was killed with stones?) referred to those ashlars,
21:42 Have you never read in the scriptures: 'The stone that the builders rejected has in fact become the foundation’s most important stone; this was the Lord's doing, and it is amazing in our eyes'? Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom.
What Jesus was telling his scoffers was that they had rejected the Messiah sent by God, God’s Son, whom God had sent to them; in fact they were plotting to kill him. In the same way, they had rejected the most important building stone God had given for building the entire Temple of God, again the image of not embracing God’s Messiah given as the foundation for the Realm of Heaven.
The Messiah, present among them — and among us — who is Jesus is the right foundation stone - maybe not by earthly standards — but born of God; it is Jesus who is the new stone, “like a rock” (to borrow a phrase from Chevy’s truck commercials): strong, permanent in love in God year after year, generation to generation.
Paul, in his writing to the Philippians, talked of how he gave up depending on the old rock, the law written on the stone tablets, and had come to the new rock, the living rock, who is Christ.
3:4b If anyone else has reason to be confident (in the old way, the law written on stone tablets), I have more: and he listed his credentials. (circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.)
Yet , he wrote, whatever gains I had (before), these I have come to regard of no account because of Christ, because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all former things, as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith.
Standing on the rock, knowing Christ, priceless.
Standing on the rock. Jesus, with another image recorded elsewhere in Matthew, put it this way: Mt7:24 A Wise man builds his house upon the rock; come rains, floods, wind, a coastal storm beating against that house, and it won’t wash away, because it had been founded not on sand (think back: we know what happens to those houses), but on rock. The rock who is Christ,
Too, the invitation to us, from Saint Peter. “Come to him, a living stone, rejected by mortals yet in God’s sight chosen and precious. and like him, living stones, let yourselves be built up into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
Sekai Elizabeth Tengatenga, your parents who know this living stone who is Jesus, who raises us up and keeps us safe, from generation to generation, they have brought you here today, so that you too can live in and come to know Christ Jesus, the new rock fashioned and given in God. Ngoni and Lindsey, and godparents, it takes some work to get onto that rock. You pledge today to be her guide, her mentor, to show her the way that leads to the rock, on high, to know and see the world differently. Sekai, we rejoice in your baptism. Stand on the rock, become with us another living stone, help us to be the Temple of God given for the health and blessing of the world.
“On the solid rock we stand, all other ground is shifting sand.” Thank God: Jesus is the New Stone, not a tablet, breakable, Not a jumble of rock, haphazard, but made by God to be the living foundation, in fact The Foundation Stone, permanent, for all time, in God. And for that we give thanks and praise today, and forever.