At the commencement of the building of any large building or
edifice it is always the first, or cornerstone which is placed at the
north-east corner of the proposed structure from which the whole building finds
its strength and sustainability.
Likewise, Christ is our cornerstone — the living Rock upon which our
faith is set, especially when trials and opposition come.
We heard, from each of our three readings this morning how
Scripture has let these passages shape our understanding: Stephen’s dying
witness in Acts 7:55–60, Peter’s call to spiritual growth in 1 Peter 2:2–10,
and our Lord’s comforting promise in John 14:1–14. Together they teach us how
the cornerstone holds us steady, forms us into a living house of faith, and
sends us into the world with courage.
First, let’s look at Acts 7:55–60.
Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, sees the glory of God and Jesus
standing at the right hand of God. As stones are hurled at him and his life
ebbs away, Stephen prays not for vengeance but for mercy: “Lord Jesus, receive
my spirit,” and “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” In that moment of
violent rejection, Stephen’s faith is not a fragile thing; it is anchored. He
has met the cornerstone. Stephen stands with his eyes fixed on the risen
Christ, and that vision transforms how he faces death. The cornerstone does not
promise us exemption from suffering but it promises a horizon — the presence of
Christ — that makes suffering a stage for witness rather than the end of hope.
Stephen’s example teaches us two crucial lessons. One, when faith
is built on Christ, our responses in suffering reflect Christ’s character:
mercy, intercession, and trust. Two, the cornerstone is not a solitary refuge
but a public acclamation. Stephen’s last words point beyond himself to the
judgment and mercy of God; his death becomes a sermon that pierces the hearts
of onlookers (Acts tells us that a young man named Saul approved of his
execution). The cornerstone, met and confessed, reshapes not only the one who
clings to it but those who watch. That
same Saul, of course, later became the great Apostle Paul.
In our second reading, 1 Peter 2:2–10, Peter speaks to a scattered,
suffering people and uses the image of a spiritual house built of living stones
with Christ, again, as the cornerstone: “Like newborn infants, long for the
pure spiritual milk... As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but
in God’s sight chosen and precious— you yourselves like living stones are being
built up as a spiritual house.” Here Peter invites us into identity and
purpose. We are not isolated boulders but living stones, hammered and shaped
into place around the cornerstone, just in the same way buildings are
constructed. Just as our church, both
the physical building and the community within it, are meant to be.
This Scripture emphasises nourishment and growth.
Newborn babies crave milk; Christians must, also, crave the Word, the truth of
Christ, that we might grow. Growth happens in relation to the cornerstone. When
we read Scripture, pray, and gather together to worship, we are being set upon
the foundation that resists the storms (remember the parable of the man who
built his house on sandy foundations!). The cornerstone gives us both our worth
and our work. We are chosen and precious because Christ anchors us; we are
called to be a spiritual house, a priestly people offering spiritual
sacrifices. The cornerstone gives dignity: “You are a chosen race, a royal
priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people.” It also gives commission: as
living stones, we serve, intercede, and witness.
I particularly love the latter part of that passage –
the bit about being a royal priesthood.
It reminds us, or should remind us, that as Christ’s chosen, we as
Christians have both a Moral and Spiritual duty to take the gospel out, like
building materials, to all people so that they too, the non-believers, may have
the opportunity to be part of that great edifice of Christian love and faith of
which the Cornerstone is unshakeable and fixed for all eternity.
However, Peter’s image contains a warning as well as
a promise. He quotes Isaiah:
“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone... a cornerstone
and chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
But he also says about those who do not believe that
the cornerstone becomes “a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence.” The
cornerstone demands a response. Those who accept its claim find refuge,
identity, and purpose. Those who reject it find a mirror that exposes the
heart’s rebellion. Yet even in that hardness of heart, the cornerstone stands.
Its firmness is not a threat but a faithfully present remedy for our confusion
and rebellion. Something which I think
we need to be ever mindful of in this present state of the world. This cornerstone, unlike the instability of
the political world in which we live, is unchanging and it the true cornerstone
upon which we should build our lives and not the ever-changing populist
propaganda which confronts us daily.
Finally, let’s listen to Jesus in John 14:1–14. The
disciples are anxious; Thomas and Philip voice their worries. Jesus speaks
tenderly: “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in
me.” He promises that he goes to prepare a place and that he is the way, the
truth, and the life — no one comes to the Father except through him. When faith
is built on this, troubled hearts find rest. Jesus does not offer mere words of
comfort; he offers himself as the cornerstone that secures our path to the
Father. What Jesus promises is relational: abiding with the Father, and the
Father abiding with the Son, and with those who keep his word. The cornerstone
links us into the life of the Trinitarian God.
Jesus is the way and the only way.
Indeed, early Christians were not called or known as “Christians” but
rather “Followers of the Way”.
From John we also draw a promise of power and
presence. Jesus says that whoever believes in him will do the works he does and
even greater works because he goes to the Father. The cornerstone is not a
passive foundation; it sends forth living stones to act. Faith anchored in
Christ is a faith that moves outward: healing, teaching, serving, forgiving.
The presence of Christ enables us to live beyond our capacities and to resist
the pressures that would otherwise unhinge us.
When trials come — ridicule, persecution, grief,
inner doubt — and let’s be honest, who of us has not been in such situations or
had such thoughts and emotions – let us remember Jesus’s words in this passage
– that we can find refuge, strength, truth and honesty in The Way of Christ
with him as our Cornerstone; as “Followers of the Way”.
So let us always remember - this Cornerstone is not
distant or abstract. He is the Risen Christ who stood at God’s right hand, whom
Stephen saw and confessed. He is the living Stone whom Peter calls precious and
chosen. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life Jesus promised in John. When
storms come — and they will — we will not be moved because we are not built on
shifting sand but on this living Rock.
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