Sermon Title: “As Living Stones”
The sky was so beautiful one day and I was standing out on my front porch
staring up just admiring it all as I often do, and a flock of geese flew right
over me. There were so many of them that they were in 4 separate V
formations. Then just as they went over my house all 4 V formations
merged into one Giant V! It was so seamless, they just integrated
beautifully, like how did they not crash into each other. I was just besides
myself, things I see in nature are often profound to me. I had to know more.
So I looked up this V formation logic and actually learned a lot. The head
bird has the hardest job, he has to fly against the most wind, and each bird
behind him is placed slightly higher than the one in front of them, which
reduces wind resistance, so the geese can use less energy to fly long
distances.They constantly rotate positions so as to not tire out the lead bird.
It’s also harder to get lost when you’re flying in V formation. And it was such
a good analogy to how we should be functioning as a church, and how I
think we are functioning actually.
First Peter chapter 2 talks about how the church is like a building, but of
living stones, of people, of believers, a living breathing building. A structure
that’s constantly moving and shifting, like the birds. In addition to the
building being alive, it also has a Living Stone as its cornerstone. In
architecture, a cornerstone is defined as the very first stone laid for a
monumental building and it often marks the exact location of the building on
the property as well as the direction that it faces. Peter says this
cornerstone is the “Living Stone which men rejected and threw away,” and
we can see he’s talking about Jesus, who is the cornerstone of the living
church. We, “as living stones,” abide in this living structure, rely on the
Living Cornerstone, and are constantly moving, shifting, changing, some
slight changes, some pretty major. How do we get through these major
shifts as a living unit, how does our building not crash? How do we
continue to move without completely tumbling down. How is there not a
major collision here and there? The geese knew exactly what they had to
do, do we? Yes, we do.
First of all, we have Jesus as our Chief Cornerstone, who literally orients
our direction in everything we do as a congregation, with all the shifting and
direction changes and roadblocks and challenging cliffs to scale, he's
always seen us through. We’ve seen it with our own eyes. It’s brilliant how
the Lord has worked in our congregation. Isaiah 41:10 reminds us of God’s
character, “‘Do not fear [anything], for I am with you; Do not be afraid, for I
am your God. I will strengthen you, be assured I will help you; I will
certainly take hold of you with My righteous right hand.” Our Cornerstone
will continue to carry our shifting lives as he always has. And then in
response, we as living stones, will bring glory to his name.
The second thing we have, just like that great big flock, is each other! We
are created for this community, just like all of creation is created for various
communities that help them thrive, so we help each other thrive. When we
stick together in our respective communities, we are strong, and scripture
gives us many images of the strength and wisdom that living in community
offers.
For example, in John 15 Jesus says, “I AM the vine, and YOU are the
branches.” He didn’t say “you are the branch” no he meant you, collectively,
are the branches. We are many branches, living together in community. He
goes on to say that every branch that does not bear fruit he will take away,
and every branch that does bear fruit he repeatedly prunes. He prunes us
to help us grow in relationship with Him, our Savior, right? But His pruning
is so intricate, so careful, and so multifaceted, that it also helps us to live in
better relationship with each other. That’s the reason Jesus uses this
specific imagery of a vine. A healthy vine has branches intermingling and
crossing paths and weaving in and out of each other's lives, and properly
pruned that plant bears much fruit. Right next to you is a fellow branch, to
lean on, to share nutrients with, to weather storms with and grow and
change, and sometimes house a sweet little nest of baby birds with, and
together we are a magnificent, deeply rooted, connected-to-the-vine, living
community! In this way, there is growth in community.
Solomon says, “A cord of many strands is not easily broken...” (Ecc. 4:12)
and “Just as iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another...” (Prov
27:17). There is strength in a cord of many strands, there is strength in
having brothers and sisters to sharpen our understanding of who God is.
When I first started my path working with the youth, probably about 5 years
ago, God gave me Ephesians 3:17, and it quickly became one of my most
favorite verses during this season of my life. It's helped me understand
more about the community we should strive to have, how children and
youth and parents and elders all can thrive when they live together in
community. In the verse that stuck with me Paul prays that the Ephesians
“may have power, together with all the saints, to understand how wide and
long and high and deep is God’s love.” Isn't it beautiful, that it's “together
with all the saints” that we get to experience the deepest understanding of
God’s love. In this way, there is wisdom in community.
The early church of Acts met regularly, praying and singing songs and
sharing meals and ministering. When I think of ministering my brain
immediately goes outside the church. But in fact our accountability and
affection is mostly to each other, Galatians 6:10 says “While we have the
opportunity, let us do good to all people and especially to those of the
household of faith.” That’s how it was in the early church of Acts. The
author of Acts says, “When they had entered the city, they went upstairs to
the upper room where they were staying [indefinitely]; that is, Peter, and
John and [his brother] James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas,
Bartholomew (Nathanael) and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and
Simon the Zealot, and Judas (Thaddaeus) the son of James. All these with
one mind and one purpose were continually devoting themselves to prayer,
[waiting together] along with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus,
and with His brothers” (Acts 1:13-14). Together, the early church was a
like-minded community, who loved being together, who supported one
another, and look at how far they flew together.
In our scripture today, Peter ends by calling us out of the darkness and into
God’s marvelous light, but he calls us by four very specific names. Peter
says we are a “chosen race, a royal priesthood, a consecrated nation, a
[special] people for God’s own possession.” A race, a priesthood, a nation,
a people. We are huge!!! Imagine the distance we can travel. Peter is
reminding us that God has called us to be His living church, whether this
church or that church or a church across the world, Christ is the
cornerstone, and we are living large.
Today let us remember, we as living stones, worship together, and pray
together, and suffer together, and eat together, and grow together, and
have fun together – and we won’t get lost, we will fly straight, we will give
one another energy and we will fly far, we will shift more seamlessly, we will
understand more of God’s love, and we will together proclaim the
excellencies of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light.
Amen
Jen D'Esposito