Gospel

John 14:1-14

Jesus said, "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."

Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied." Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, `Show us the Father'? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it."

Sermon

Sermon
The Rev. Jack Zamboni

Come to Christ, a living stone ... chosen and precious in God's sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house. (I Peter 2:4-5)

One of my New Testament professors back in seminary was fond of saying that whenever you found an anomaly in a Biblical text, it was worth paying attention to. Barbara taught that by investigating something that didn't seem to make sense, you had a good chance to learn something interesting.

I noticed such an anomaly in today's reading from 1st Peter -- the oxymoronic phrase, "living stone." "Living stone". Think about it -- stones are, by definition, inanimate. They are not biological entities. They are not alive. So what could "living stone" mean?

I looked at my commentaries, which were not much help. The best I found was a scholar who said that "living" was a favorite adjective of the author, who had decided to stick it in front of the unmodified "stone" in the Hebrew Scriptures he quotes - but the scholar had no wisdom as to what this strange combination might mean.

I googled "living stone" and found that there is a succulent plant native to South Africa and one or two rock groups called by that name. Of more interest were the numbers of churches with the name, Living Stone. But still I found little to help me make sense of what this strange phrase might mean when applied to Jesus and then to us -- only one site I found even seemed to notice that the phrase self-contradictory.

So I went to work on each piece of the phrase myself. Stone. Stone is solid -- so solid, in fact, that you can build on it. Building foundations are made of stone. Builders of sky-scrapers drive piles deep underground until they find bedrock to support the building. The Old Testament texts the author of 1st Peter quotes speak of the solidity of stone as a foundational building material:

"I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious;"

"The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone."

As Jesus says at the end of the Sermon on the Mount stone is the strong, solid base on which to build a house that will last. (Matthew 7:24-27).

Today's Psalm illustrates a different gift that stone can be -- stone can be protective:

Be my strong rock, a castle to keep me safe,
for you are my crag and my stronghold.

In Biblical times and for centuries thereafter, castles, fortresses and city walls were built of stone whenever it was possible. The strength of stone made it the best material to protect human communities from outside threat. I've sometimes thought the stone of this pillbox like pulpit is there to protect the preacher from Prayer Books being thrown his or her way in response to some particularly annoying sermon.

Stone can be a foundation that can support life and community. Stone can be the protector of life and community. But the stone itself is not living.

The problem is movement. Living things move. As I said about Jesus' image "living water" back in Lent, "living water" means running water, moving water. Even creatures like corals, which build stone-like structure within which to live, move with the motion of the seawater. Living things move.

Stone doesn't move. It is fixed, motionless. When a living creature dies, what happens? It stops moving, it becomes like stone . which why we use the phrase, "stone dead."

But here, finally, I thought, was a clue to what "living stone" might mean when applied to Jesus. Jesus was stone dead. He was laid inside a stone tomb with a large stone at the door for protection. No one was ever more stone dead than Jesus.

And then... he was alive, moving in resurrection; turning to speak to Mary Magdalene in the Garden; appearing to frightened disciples in an upper room; walking with two disciples on the road to Emmaus. The one who had been stone dead was now living. He was - and is - the Living Stone.

Jesus is the Living Stone that provides a foundation for community and life; the protecting stone that provides safety for community and life. But more than that, he is the Living Stone - not stuck in one place; free to move; free to come be with people wherever they are;

able not only to support and protect life, but to give life, for he is alive.

And that tells us what being living stones might mean for us. We have times of being stone dead - even when we are alive; times of being fixed, stuck, rigid and immovable; of being buried; trapped and held captive so that we cannot move forward in our lives. To us who can be stone dead, Jesus offers new life to raise us from our deaths, to be made ourselves into living stones, people who have been dead but are alive by God's act; solid, but free to move; able to love, to support and protect life, and even to give life to others God's grace. And, as the author of 1st Peter writes, living stones that are able to move together with one another and with Christ to be built into a spiritual house, a community of living stones, at once both solid and mobile, to offer service to God.

It is, I think, not an accident that my on-line search found so many churches named, "Living Stone." To name a Church "Living Stone" shows a vision of a Christian community built into the solidity and strength of Christ while at the same time alive and able to move with Christ.

That, I submit, is a good image for you at Grace-St. Paul's in the time of transition ahead: to see yourselves as a Church of the Living Stone, made up of living stones, solid and moving at once. Solidity will be important for you. You will need to stand on the foundations of the many good things that have been part of the life of this parish for many years: the mutual care you have for one another; the tradition of service to those in need; the life of worship which is at heart of all you are in Christ.

At the same time, you will need to be living -- flexible, ready to grow, move and change; open to the co-creative energy of Christ's Spirit which so often is seeking to make something new, to make dead stones into living stones.

To live into the paradox of being living stones, you will need to pay heed to the first thing today's writer says in the passage I quoted. Come to Christ.

Come to Christ, the Living Stone, and the one who can make you into living stones.

Come to Christ in the Eucharist.

Come to Christ in prayer, alone and together;

Come to Christ in sharing your needs;

Come to Christ in giving your substance;

Come to Christ in serving others.

Come to Christ, a living stone ... chosen and precious in God's sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house.

Come to Christ, the Living Stone, solid and moving, that you, too, may be living stones, solid and moving, and together with Christ be built into a spiritual house to serve God in the days, months and years to come.