Monday, 19 May 2014

SERMON 40 - SUNDAY 18 MAY 2014


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

 

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