“a living stone” - 1 Peter 2:4

Stones figure prominently throughout the narrative of the Bible.  Noah, Abraham and Moses each build stone altars to God to commemorate God’s calling and deliverance.  Jacob erects stones to mark the place of God’s revelation and in witness to God’s covenant.  The torah – the wisdom and teachings of God – are inscribed on stone tablets; “chipped in stone,” forever.  Moses strikes a rock in the desert and life-giving water gushes forth.  Joshua calls the people to gather stones into a cairn to mark the crossing into the land of God’s promise.  A stone sits at the epicenter of both holiness and bitter conflict between the three monotheisms of the world.  Beneath the Dome of the Rock on the Temple mount in Jerusalem sits an expanse of stone … the rock upon which tradition holds Abraham prepared to slay Isaac; the rock from which Muhammad is said to have ascended to heaven; the place where the people believed God dwelt among them … the “Holy of Holies.”  The confession of Peter (petros = “rock”) is the foundation upon which Jesus will gather God’s church.  It is a stone, rolled away, that marks the threshold between death and life.  The Bible is full of stones.

In the Gospels, Jesus refers to himself as a stone:  one that the “builders rejected,” but which becomes the cornerstone – the foundation on which all else is aligned – or the keystone – the pinnacle that holds everything together (Matthew 21:42).  And we, too, are invited to understand ourselves a stones – “living stones,” Peter says – “built into a spiritual house.”

We have embarked on a mission:  Creating Space for Grace … in our church, in our world and in our own lives.  The image of stones provides a wonderful metaphor and emblem for our shared ministry.  Stones signify the revelation of God in Christ that invites us to live as Kingdom people in the midst of the world.  Stones mark the passage as we grow in faith.  Stones form the altar upon which we offer our gifts for the sake of the world.  And the grace of God is both the keystone which binds us together in love and the cornerstone which aligns our lives with God’s vision of unity.  Our traditional hymn affirms us as “God’s house of living stones, built for God’s own habitation.”  May God’s presence, in each of us and at the center of our community, inspire us to live boldly into this calling, to live sacrificially for the sake of justice and equality, and to live generously in serving and reaching out to a needful world.

Yours in God’s grace,

- Pastor Brad