No Lonely Stones
Jan Wiersma
Community Presbyterian Church - Rochester, Minnesota
Fifth Sunday of Easter - May 7, 2023
Texts: Acts 7:55-60; Psalm 31:1-8, 1 Peter 2:2-10; John 14:1-7

SCRIPTURE READING 	Acts 7.55-60
Stephen was not only the first martyr but one of the first deacons in the early church. He is
described as being “a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, grace and power,” who did great
signs and wonders. But it was his unashamed preaching of the truth of Jesus that aroused the
wrath of his own people. Before his final sermon recounting the history of salvation, they saw
that “his face was like the face of an angel.” Filled with the Holy Spirit, Stephen gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. ‘Look,’ he said, ‘I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!’ But they covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him. Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him; and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them.’ When he had said this, he died.
RESPONSIVE READING	from Psalm 31
In you, O Beloved, I seek refuge; do not let me ever be put to shame;
   in your righteousness deliver me.
Incline your ear to me; rescue me speedily.
   Be a rock of refuge for me, a strong fortress to save me.
You are indeed my rock and my fortress;
   for your name’s sake lead me and guide me,
    take me out of the net that is hidden for me, for you are my refuge.
Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, my salvation, my faithful God.

SCRIPTURE READING 1 Peter 2 .2-10		
Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in scripture:
       ‘See, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious;
        and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.’
To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe,
        ‘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.’
        They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
        Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people;
        once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
GOSPEL READING 		John 14:1-7  
Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling-places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going.’ Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.’
If you were paying attention, you noticed that each of our readings, except the Gospel, share something in common. Did you pick it up? You should have. It’s what you picked up when you came in: Rocks. Stones. This should not be surprising. The Bible was born in a land of rock and stone. A Palestinian legend says that after the creation God sent the angel Gabriel to distribute rocks all over the world, but he tripped on entering Palestine and spilled most of his load over that country. 
Be that as it may, what biblical references to rock or stone can you think of?
●	Moses strikes the rock and water gushes out 
●	Old Testament altars were built of rough, unworked stone
●	Psalms: Rock of refuge, fortress, the Lord is my Rock (many)
●	Satan to Jesus: “Command this stone to become bread” (Luke 4:3)
●	Let the one who is without sin cast the first stone (at the “sinful” woman, John 8:1-11)
●	Jesus’ triumphal entry: Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, order your disciples to stop.’ He answered, ‘I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.’ (Luke 19: 39-40)
●	David and Goliath (1 Samuel 17)
○	Stone-throwing by Palestinians is a means of calling attention to the disparity between their situation and the heavily armed Israeli forces that respond; unarmed people defying a giant
●	Here is one of my favorites: “God nursed Israel with honey from the crags, with oil from flinty rock; but Israel abandoned God who made him, and scoffed at the Rock of his salvation. ‘You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you; you forgot the God who gave you birth.’” (Deuteronomy 32)
○	This presents one of the great Hebrew Bible references to God as nurturing female, or birth mother and Rock of respite or refuge at the same time.
So, are stones in the Bible helpful or hurtful? Maybe neither, or either depending on intention. Stones can harm, and they can heal.
With all this in mind, let’s look at the stones in our texts: Acts 7: The stoning of Stephen. From the time of ancient Israel, stoning was punishment for a multitude of sins, specifically those that endangered the community as a whole. Stoning, too, was a community act: no one could say whose stone had dealt the death blow. Maybe some people would change their minds about the death penalty if they had to participate actively in it that way. (Maybe some would enjoy it—a horrifying thought.) The “sin” of Stephen? Preaching that Jesus brought new life that would change the customs inherited from Moses, thus challenging the foundation of their faith (Acts 6:14). Is change so dangerous? Yes, to some. So is the messenger of change.

Contrast stones as instruments of death to Psalm 31, just one of many that refer to God as Rock, refuge, fortress, salvation. We understand this as metaphor, a figure of speech that, as you know, suggests a likeness or similarity but not identity. God is like but not literally a stone fortress. Fortresses of human construction all tumble down eventually as the conquerors of Jericho well knew. Or, as Jesus said of the great stone-built temple of Jerusalem, ‘Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.’ (Mark 13.2) Yes, stoners of Stephen, Jesus did come to change the customs. Not just those of their Jerusalem, but of any human-made tradition in any time and place, including those we have happily adopted as our own. For instance, the custom that church is always Sunday morning and consists of three hymns, three texts, a sermon and some prayers. Who said so? Who says worship even needs to happen in a church when the whole world is sacred? You take my point, I hope.

In 1 Peter, though, we meet some unexpected and intriguing stones: “Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. Come to the living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood.” The living stone is Jesus, the man crucified for preaching a gospel of repentance-–that is to say, a gospel of change—and life; but that stone is also the Christ, the Spirit of the living God let loose in the world. Again—we might easily miss it—here God takes on the image of the nursing mother, who gives birth to stones, bringing them to life. Christ is the living, breathing cornerstone and foundation of our faith, not made of inanimate stone but living Spirit, nurturing us like a mother nurturing her child, like manna in the wilderness, like honey and oil from flint rock, or the bread and wine of communion that turns our stony hearts into hearts of love. 

Does this make sense? When we are fed by the living rock that is Christ, we become living stones, and are built into a temple not of human construction. Even Notre Dame could burn, but the mother church of living stones built of you, all of you—you are the church, is a place of refuge and praise and nourishment and growth, the New Jerusalem, the eternal home that can never be destroyed. 
But what’s the point? We come back, as we always do, to the gospel. I mean the real Gospel–not the misleading message that you’ll have a private mansion all to yourself in heaven when you die (though this text remains precious as assurance of our eternal life with God), but the true good news: you have been chosen to share God’s radiant, precious life. You have been anointed to bring healing, forgiveness, and new beginnings, to bring life and love to lonely people. Is the church helpful, or hurtful? Like stones, the church can harm as well as heal. We have only to search history. But one thing is sure: in a changing world, the church of God must change, too. Buildings and movements come and go; the church of God is always changing and always the same. 

In John, we hear Jesus’ promise to prepare a place for us. It’s so often heard at funerals, we can hardly hear it in any other way. But what if we read it in light of all we’ve said today? Think of it this we: We are the dwelling places God is building from living stones on a foundation of faith in a living Christ. In the heaven that is the heart of God, there are no lonely stones, there are only temples of welcome. Amen. Thanks be to God.

Prayers
~God, you are the solid rock who gave us birth, who feeds us with spiritual milk, who loves us until our stony hearts break open and we become living stones of love, a temple of welcome.

~Thank you for the greening of the earth, the color sparking our gardens, the unfolding leaves and seeds crackling with life. May this awaken such gratitude that we open our hearts in praise.

~Thank you for the privilege of sharing you with others. May we show your love in ways that make a difference in the lives of people who are grieving, in despair, lonely, living in unsustainable conditions, or under attack. May we use our neglected gifts not in the form of missiles and bullets that only harm, but to build healing sanctuaries of living stone.

~For all those whose names we have mentioned, and more that we name in our hearts; for those especially dear to this gathering we pray; and for the new leaders of this congregation that they may be ready to take up the task to which you even now are calling them.

In Jesus name and as he taught us, we pray, Our Father and Mother in heaven….