Sermon at Winterslow Methodist
Church, - Sunday 18 May 2014
Acts 7:55-60; 1 Peter 2:2-10
May the words of my
mouth and the meditation of all our hearts be always acceptable to you, O
God. Amen
When I was at Secondary School, so many many years ago now, I
had a passion for geology and acquired, over a period of time, a massive
collection of rocks, stones and precious stones. Unfortunately, that collection has long since
disappeared. The specimens were
carefully labelled and placed in the trays of matchboxes stuck together on a
sheet of cardboard. It never ceased to
amaze me how rocks and stones could be so varied and how the geologist and
palaeontologist could tell so much about our Earth’s ancient history from a simple
examination of rock strata, minerals and fossils. A fascinating topic which captivated me in my
early days. With the passage of time and
erosion, jagged rocks can be smoothed to boulders or pebbles or stones. They can be used as aggregate in building
materials, as building blocks themselves or, as we see in our reading from
Acts, as instruments of death and destruction.
Stephen, in our reading in Acts became the first recorded
Christian martyr and like Christ called upon God to forgive his persecutors one
of whom, we read, was Saul (later Paul). The passage we heard read comes at the
very end of a long sermon preached by Stephen to the High Priest and Elders in
Jerusalem. Stephen had, up until this point not appeared to be an accomplished
preacher but a church administrator - which only goes to show that God can
often call any one of us to do something which we feel unprepared for. It is
God who prepares us, not we ourselves. In that sermon Stephen points out that
the long history of the Jewish faith, as taught in the synagogues, culminated
in the coming of Jesus and that the Jews in fact killed their long awaited
Messiah and betrayed their own faith by not keeping their own laws. It is no wonder that he enraged the authorities
so much that they felt compelled to execute him by stoning - stones being used
as a mode of death and destruction and not for building. Yet, as we read in the
scripture from 1 Peter, the very essence of Christ’s church is built upon the
living stones of its people and it is this I want to explore in a bit more
detail.
Simon Peter, more than any disciple, knew of the importance
of the rock/stone analogy. After all,
had his name not been changed by Jesus from Simon the Fisherman to Peter the
Disciple to signify the constructive use of rocks? Peter or Petra or Petrus
means rock or stone from which we get the word petrify – to turn into stone. It was Peter who when asked by Jesus
whom did people think Jesus was who replied “You
are the Christ, the son of the living God” . Peter was then told by Jesus “You are Peter, on this rock I will build my
church”. This must have resonated
with Peter all down the years, and he must have deeply regretted his denial of
Jesus that morning in the courtyard of the High Priest on Good Friday. He
probably even remembered Jesus’s parable about building a house on the rock and
not the sand. Peter must have felt
really bad that night when he collapsed just like the house built on sand. But
here, many years later, in his first epistle, Peter picks up on this theme again
by quoting from Isaiah (28.16) and
the Psalms (118.22) when he writes:
“See I am laying in
Zion a stone,
a cornerstone chosen
and precious;
and whoever believes in
him
will not be put to
shame”
In other words, Isaiah all those years ago prophesied that the
Messiah would be the cornerstone upon which our belief would be based. But, but
for those who do not believe in him:
“The stone that the
builders rejected
has become the very
head of the corner and a stone that makes them stumble and a rock that makes them
fall”
In other words, that self-same stone, Jesus Christ, if not
believed to be the cornerstone as prophesied will make those unbelievers
fall.
Peter is saying, quite simply, that those elders, scribes and
upholders of the law and preachers of the Old Testament have rejected those
same teachings from Isaiah and Psalms and not recognised that Jesus is the
cornerstone.
Traditionally, every building project, after digging the
foundations, begins with the laying of the cornerstone – usually in the north-east
corner of the project building. You
often see these cornerstones bearing inscriptions on buildings especially
constructed in the Victorian era. There are two famous hymns which take up this
theme:
“Christ is our
cornerstone
On Him alone we build”
and
“Christ is made the
sure foundation,
Christ the head the
cornerstone”
The cornerstone marks out the structure and it is from this
stone that the remaining building is constructed. But Peter goes on in his epistle to say more
– whilst Jesus might be the cornerstone a building requires further stones to
complete the whole. Here Peter describes not Jesus, but you and me – as the
living stones which complete the living church.
Peter is describing the church – the community of Christians,
as God intends it to be. In other words
this is what God wants you to know how he thinks of his church – a community of
believers in the cornerstone who themselves comprise the living stones making
up the rest of the church. Peter is
saying – God has built a building and it is as a church on one people. Look, see how great your calling is – you as
individual stones in the wall of the church are still individual and unique yet
you belong together.
As the church developed in the first centuries after Christ,
the stones often fragmented.
If you go up to Old Sarum you can see the footfall of the old
cathedral which is marked by some of the remaining infilled stones and mortar.
When Bishop Roger Poore built the new cathedral much of the material was taken
down from Old Sarum, and in particular from the old cathedral, to build, not
the new cathedral, but the wall around the Close. If you take a walk around the outside of the
Close following the wall you will find, inlaid in the wall, pieces of the old
cathedral, part of a pinnacle here, a gargoyle there, a headstone and so on.
As Christianity developed after the First Century AD so
denominations sprung up until today there are literally hundreds of different
denominations of Christianity. Even in
Winterslow we have four distinct churches with different theologies. Sometimes
the living stones detach themselves from the church they attend and go and try
to fit themselves into another church’s wall.
Then after a while, they move on to find another wall or maybe even
start their own new living wall with others. But Peter is saying, God’s church
is for all – this is not your church; but my church. My stone was rejected by many but it was my stone. I am the one who builds the church – its not
about you and it’s not about me – it’s about Jesus. The church is the bride of
Jesus.
Archbishop Temple is credited with having said that the
church is the only organisation which exists primarily for those who exist
outside it. In other words, it is most un-Christian like to make the church our
own members’ club. Each and every one of is part of it for the service of
others. And that means a sense of
togetherness.
Archbishop Tutu talks about the South African human spirit of
Ubuntu – which can be summarised as
meaning “a person is only a person through other persons” and it is this spirit
which keeps communities together within African villages. What is one person’s problem is a problem for
all the community. I think this, more
than anything, captures the essence of Peter’s thoughts of the church members
being living stones.
Peter goes on to say that as living stones we are constructed
into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood.
When the Temple veil was rent in two at the moment of Jesus’s
death on the cross so was the barrier destroyed between us, the ordinary
believer and God. We now had direct
access to God for the redemption of our sins.
This passage in Peter has been another stone – the stone upon which the Reformation
movement of Luther and Calvin was based and followed by more recent theologians
such as Bonhoeffer. Note, we are a Royal Priesthood, denoting a power from God
himself which, of course, flew in the face of the idea of priestly ontology –
the special position of priests. I am a
firm believer that in this piece of scripture, Peter is liberating us from the
restraints of ritual and the special position which the priests of Jerusalem
held. That is not to say that we should
ignore clergy! But it is my belief that
clergy are, like any other ministers, functional in their occupation.
In the same way, all living stones within the wider church,
all its members in all its denominations are themselves ministers – responsible
for the pastoral care of each other and those outside.
We are all a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy
nation. God’s own people called to
proclaim God’s mighty acts to evangelise how we were called from darkness into
light. To shine as beacon in the darkest
places – to illuminate the world with God’s love and grace.
Like lighthouses warning of danger and showing the way, we
need to be built on the solid rock which is Jesus’s church as understood by
Peter and to shine with a bright light into the gloom of our evermore secular
and materialistic world where “me” and “I” are often the main considerations. In the spirit of living stones in the church’s
wall, in the spirit of Desmond Tutu’s Ubuntu,
let us all act together, in thought word and deed as God’s royal priesthood
and proclaim the good news that is Christ Jesus our Lord to all we meet.
Let us pray:
Almighty God, as the living stones of your church
The royal priesthood of
all believers
We ask you to show us
today
How we can work together
with others
In proclaiming you gospel
in the ways we act, speak and think.
When so much time and
energy is given over by many to personal
ambitions and desires
Let us be the lighthouses,
built on the strong rock of Jesus’s church
Which show the way and
warn of the dangers of selfishness, pride and greed.
Through Jesus Christ your
only son and saviour
Amen
