Rocks and Stones

Easter 5A-26

Immanuel Lutheran, Chicago

Death by stoning is a horrible way to die.  Yet despite the violence directed against him, Stephen prayed for his enemies. “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.” (Acts 7:60)

Hatred is a powerful thing.  Cain hated Abel for being more admired by God than himself, so he killed him (Genesis 4:8). King Saul hated David for becoming more popular with the people and tried to kill him every chance he got (1 Samuel 19:19 – 22:23). Saul of Tarsus hated the followers of Jesus because he thought they were blasphemers and heretics. He made a career of rounding up Christians like Stephen to be stoned to death (Act 8:1- 9 :18). Horrible self-deception about our own righteousness can be deadly, not to mention the effects it has on families and relationships.

Human history is a seemingly endless recycling of cities laid to waste. How long will hatred or fear or arrogance or ignorance harden our hearts into doing violence? We throw rocks at what God intends for love. Christ is the stone that causes this tired old world to stumble. Christ is the cornerstone of a new humanity subverting the old Adam and Eve from within. Empire builds community by using and discarding people like Stephen. God rebuilds community starting with the ones Empire throws away.  But exactly how does God do this?

Jesus said, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me. In my father’s house there are many dwelling places” (John 14:1-2). Stephen seems to have taken those words to heart. It changed how he lived. It gave him courage to proclaim the gospel to a hostile crowd.  It gave him peace of mind and love for his neighbor even as they slowly, painfully, and tragically murdered.  It sounds crazy.

Jesus explains, “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home (monē) with them” (14:23). Jesus says this repeatedly in John’s gospel. In fact, he says it 69 times.  The little verb “meno” means to “stay,” “remain,” “abide,” or “dwell.”  Jesus revealed the hidden source of his glory was that he abided in the Father and the Father in him—and he invited us to do the same.  This is what Stephen knew and trusted. Stephen knew his true home was in God. God is the soul within all souls, the life within all life. God’s love and light dwells deep within you.  This was the living sanctuary that guarded and protected Stephen.  and enabled him to love his enemies even as they stoned him.

No doubt, today’s generation of Christians will hear Jesus’ promise to go and prepare dwelling places for us and think of ‘going to heaven.’ But here Jesus points to something different. Jesus is describing a place created within us of the mutual indwelling of the undying life of God within every nook and cranny of the universe. Jesus revealed a “dwelling place” God has prepared within you that softens our hearts of stone and opens our fisted hands to drop all our rocks.

The crucial passage for understanding Jesus’ promise to make dwelling places (John 14:2), comes much earlier in John 2:16. It’s the only other place that we find the phrase “my Father’s house.”  There Jesus is talking about the Temple in Jerusalem. Jesus told those selling doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my father’s house a marketplace!” … He said them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” He was speaking, of course, about the temple of his body.

 Scientists now tell us we live in an omnicentric universe.  The center is everywhere. Likewise, the address of the father’s house changed upon Jesus’ death. It is no longer the temple in Jerusalem. It is now the Body of Christ.  Abiding in God through Christ is what Jesus means by “eternal life.”  One scholar suggests it might be better translated as “life in God’s new age.”  (Paul Nuechterlein, Girardian Reflections on the Lectionary).  This is the way, the truth, and the life to which Jesus invites us.

It should be obvious that this way of life in Jesus cannot be a reason to exclude anyone, whether by race, or gender, or sexual orientation, or immigration status, or religious affiliation. Not even our enemies are denied access to the living sanctuary of God’s grace. Neither can we exclude from grace the natural world. Celtic theologian and pastor, George Macleod used to love saying “Matter matters, because at the heart of the material is the spiritual.” (John Philip Newell, Christ of the Celts, p. 98). What we do with matter, therefore, is at the heart of our spirituality, whether that be the matter of our bodies, whether that be the matter of the earth’s gifts, or whether that be the matter of the body politic.  All matter is holy because God dwells there. (Newel p. 99). What could be more revealing of Jesus’ power to forgive and to heal our bitter, hard-won divisions than the story of Saul who would become Paul?

Scripture says, “The witnesses [to the stoning of Stephen] laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.”  This is the first mention of the great missionary apostle whom Jesus will knock from his horse and claim for himself. In Acts 8:1 we are told that this Saul “approved of their killing of [Stephen],” with the implication that Saul himself may have instigated the entire event. Yet this same man will go on to become the apostle to the gentiles, spreading the gospel message to many “even to the ends of the earth.”  He will author more pages of the New Testament than anyone else.

Jesus Christ, who suffered unspeakable violence, broke the wheel of the endless cycle of violence, enmity, bitterness, and contempt. Christ Jesus returns again and again to us who have rejected and betrayed him with the gift of shalom—peace—this is the seed of willingness planted in us that grows, and blossoms into forgiveness, compassion, and reconciliation so that trust may be restored, loneliness is ended, and kindliness may abound.  Christ is the cornerstone of a new humanity. He is the stone the builders rejected that has constructed a sanctuary of living stones from the stuff of our flawed and finite lives.

Christ the cornerstone is straight and true. Upon it the kindom of God is bound together, stone by living stone. The only rule used by our heavenly architect is love. Do to others as you would have them do to you Jesus said. Religions that are built upon doctrines not as loving as Jesus are false and will fail. How long will we persist in the false gospel of white supremacy, of patriarchy, of rigid gender conformity and sexual orientation, or in the abomination of holy war? How long will the church preach a God more intent upon judging than in loving? True religion aligns with the Golden rule and the Sermon on the Mount.

We are living in the times of Saul, knocked off our horse on the road to Damascus.  Amid bewildering challenge and change, I believe the Spirit of Christ is calling us to begin again with a new name. Something is trying to be born among us, and not just us, but in people of many faiths and of no faith throughout the world. It is a new reformation. A new Pentecost. A new humanity. Something both ancient and new.

Like Stephen and like Paul, we begin this journey from wherever we are.  The heavens stand open before us, and our common humanity is revealed. We dwell in the mystical and living sanctuary of the body of Christ. Christ the true vine, the one body, the temple not made with hands, the living sanctuary of hope and grace in which heaven and earth are one stirs within us.  It gently, lovingly says to us to stop throwing rocks.

We cannot create a world without pain or loss or conflict or hurt feelings, but with God’s grace we can create a world of grace.  We can create a world of forgiveness in which we love even our enemies, heal our losses, repair our lives and relationships, and begin to heal the natural world.  But ultimately, no one can tell you how to live. The gospel, and the Holy Spirit, can only ask.  You and I are invited on this journey.  All of us must walk our own path and go at our own pace to discover the power of the abundant life that transforms your heart and mind and ultimately, is changing the world.