October 5, 2014: May God’s words alone be spoken, may God’s words alone be heard. Amen.
Ahhh, those good ole Ten Commandments…they’re fun – aren’t they? Well, today’s reading from Exodus reminded me of when I was at Taize this summer, and a member of my bible study group, who was from Croatia, told me this story:
There was a young Vicar riding his bicycle down the path between towns where he would meet an older priest from another parish, and they would pause their bike riding to chat a bit. Then one day the old priest noticed the young Vicar walking instead of riding and asked him “What happened to your bicycle?” The Vicar explained that when he went out into the church yard, the bike was no longer there!
“Well, then”, the old priest said, “Next Sunday, do a sermon about the ten commandments and preach heavily on THOU SHALL NOT STEAL. Then you will surely get your bike back. It worked for my parish when someone was stealing food from the cupboards.” The Vicar agreed and went off.
The next week, the two met again and this time the Vicar was again riding his bicycle. “See what I meant!” the Old Priest said. “The power of the Word. The Ten Commandments, and Thou Shall not steal!” The Vicar responded, “Well, not exactly, Father. I was preaching about the Ten Commandments, and I was all ready to preach heavly on ‘Thou Shall Not Steal’, but when I got to ‘Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery, all of a sudden I remembered where my bike was!”
The commandments, while a rather stern list of don’ts that today are too often ignored, were really about how a newly freed Israel was to live as free people. They are focused on relationship – the first of the four are about relationship with God, the rest about relationship with our neighbor. Essentially, with freedom God is saying, comes responsibility – to our neighbor, and to God – and these became the cornerstone for a newly forming people.
In our Gospel today, Jesus is also speaking about cornerstones – and he uses a parable about vineyards again – his favorite thing. Remember, he is still in Jerusalem and speaking in front of crowds that include the temple elite. The story he tells makes them very uneasy because it is about tenant farmers of the vineyard who, when the owner of the vineyard sends people to collect his crop, they kill them. Finally, the owner sends his own son, and they kill him too.
Now, the temple elite know, as we do now, that Jesus is talking here about them – they are the tenants who are killing…and about himself as the son who would be killed. They are the ones who, after being given the vineyard – the people of Israel – to nurture and to grow that they might be brought into relationship with God – stand firmly between God and Israel, killing every prophet. Much has been given them, much was expected, little was returned. But in what some might think a foolish act, God tries one more time – and in Jesus seeks to change what has happened. And yet, as seems to happen when those in power try to silence the one who speaks truth, the very thing they hoped to accomplish by killing him, reaps the opposite.
Jesus reminds them of their scripture, saying, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” A quote from Psalm 118. In rejecting Jesus, his message, his life, death, and resurrection, became the cornerstone for a movement that could not be silenced through the centuries.
So what does that mean for us?
Christ is the cornerstone for us…setting us free in the world – and with freedom comes great responsibility. As the body of Christ – we are to be the cornerstone for others.
“Our mission today is to perceive that reality in ourselves. Certainly Jesus is speaking mainly about himself. But there is a fuller sense to this cornerstone. We who are continuing the work of Jesus are also called to be cornerstones. We can [do this], because of the flow of Christ within us [that gives us] purpose, meaning[… calling us to] be at the corner of [other’s lives – to] be there for them at their turning points.”
But often times, we find it difficult to imagine that God is at work in what we do. When someone notices the work we do in the world, we say, “I was going that way anyway,” or “It was nothing.” But it is something! A powerful something! Maybe we just have a hard time imagining how important our contribution of time and treasure is to God – that God is at work in and through us! Why is that?
“A major theme of Scripture is that God uses the unlikely. […] It can seem unlikely that a rejected stone would be at the corner of someone else’s life in any meaningful way. But that is what God does. [Does that mean we] are we rejected or refused? [Maybe] so, by others; ….but never by God.” [And] as we can see from many prophets of our faith, rejection is often a sign we are too close to the truth – too dangerous to those who reject us. We need only look at other cornerstones who were rejected in their time – from St. Stephen and Perpetua to Archbishop Oscar Romero and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
But, “More [often], the rejection comes from within. We do not see that we are God’s good harvest for a hungry world in need of love. It can be hard to imagine that we are beloved children of God – given gifts by God to work wonders in the world, and so we deny who we are. But worse than that, “When we think poorly of ourselves we are rejecting the stone that is destined to be the cornerstone.” By not recognizing who we are, we deny the role God has for us, and reject the importance that our lives have for God’s purpose in the world.
So how do we learn to accept what comes with our freedom in Christ? How do we learn to live fully into who we are? By looking to the example of others – the ones who were cornerstones in our own lives.
There are many people who serve as role models – cornerstones – by which we are then able to shape our own lives, by which we are given strength – a foundation on which to build the person we are. They may be a parent, or an aunt or uncle, a friend or a school teacher, or perhaps a well known prophet with words to live by. They inspire us – teach us – show us how to grow into the full stature of our potential. They are our cornerstones.
And we have those cornerstones in our church too. We have them in our communion of saints – those who came before, who witnessed to the faith, who grew the harvest of God, through the centuries. Here at Christ Church, we see their names all around us – our stained glass is filled with images of the saint of our faith. And they are inscribed with the names of other saints too, and we find other names on our pews and on plaques – all remembering the way in which these people opened their hearts to the God that wanted to work through them, and guided by the Holy Spirit, lived out their call of being the Body of Christ in the world – giving their time and treasure to bring others into the relationship with God, growing that harvest that is this community of faith we call Christ Church.
“Learning from them, [we are able to] note where and for whom we ourselves are cornerstones – not with self-righteous pride but with humble truth and divine sight.” Because it is from this that we are given an example of who we are as a people of God, and the great responsibility that comes with the freedom given each of us in Christ.
As the Body of Christ – we are the cornerstone for others – our work is to help others to be free. And Christ Church – our community of faith – is likewise a cornerstone for us, for our communities, and for the world.
Our very building – this beautiful neo-gothic structure, is itself a very real cornerstone wonderfully tying the two communities of Bloomfield and Glen Ridge together. I often think when I pause to look at our large stone presence on this corner that it is symbolic of the way in which we quite physically unite these communities, literally spreading ourselves across both. But we don’t stop at just symbolism, for that would be a fragile and weak foundation – not a cornerstone at all. In our ministries to the community – we are a very real cornerstone of life here in Bloomfield & Glen Ridge – lifting it and strengthening this community through our work with our Nursery School, our Youth Group fundraisers for those in need, women’s and men’s groups that offer support to each other and the community, collecting for food banks and for Paws, and for North Porch, opening up the church for Labyrinth walks that offer a peaceful moment in so many people’s hectic lives, and so much more.
And perhaps most importantly, you all are cornerstones for one another too – cornerstones for this community of faith. I have seen you reach out to one another in times of need – giving someone a ride to church or back home, taking time to help someone care for their loved one, calling on someone who is in grief or pain, offering a healing ministry, and very often providing a ministry of presence to others. You all have been at the corners – the turning points – of others lives.
But we don’t stop there – in our pledge to this parish, our parish pledge to the diocese, and our diocesan pledge to the Episcopal Church, each of us, through the ministries of this church, the diocese and the Episcopal Church as a whole, bring to our communities – locally and globally – the harvest of God’s all inclusive love. Our individual pledges, through the work of the diocese and the larger Church, become the cornerstone – not only here, but in a very real sense, like a stone tossed into a lake creating ripples that continually move outward, to the farthest reaches of the world.
That’s a mighty cornerstone!
As we did last week and each Sunday in our Stewardship season, you will be given something blessed on the altar to take home with you. Today, each of you will be given a stone.
Take it home and let it serve as a symbol of who you are – a cornerstone.
As you hold it, let it remind you:
Of the cornerstones in your life – the people who served as a foundation for you in your turning points.
Let it remind you as well of the cornerstone that is the community of faith we call Christ Church – what it means to you, and what you mean to it. Of the way in which your commitment to this church ripples through the world as if that very stone you hold was tossed into the water of humanity.
As you hold it, remember that Christ is the cornerstone in your life – the one on whom you can rest all of your burdens, the one who gives you strength and lifts you up.
And remember too, as you hold that rock in your hand, that as part of body of Christ in the world today – you, in your life, can be the cornerstone for others – helping them in the corners of their journey.
It is who you were born to be.
It is what God calls you to do.
Do not reject it, but embrace it.
For your own sake – and the sake of the world.
Amen.
The Rev. Diana Wilcox
Christ Church in Bloomfield & Glen Ridge
October 5, 2014
Pent 17, Proper 22 – Year A – Track 1
1st Reading – Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20
Psalm 19
2nd Reading – Psalm 19
Gospel – Matthew 21:33-46
