“Living Stones” – A Sermon for the 5th Sunday of Easter

(N.B. Given the visual nature of this sermon, you are encouraged to view it on YouTube once available.)

In this second half of Eastertide, these weeks between Easter and Pentecost, our scripture readings ask us to reflect on one question: what does the resurrection of Jesus mean for how we live as Christians? 

This question is especially pertinent on a Sunday when we celebrate a baptism.  We say that baptism is an initiation into a Christian way of life. What does that mean? 

For better or worse, scripture does not give us a ten point plan.

Instead, both last week and this week, our scripture passages have abounded with powerful poetic images, with metaphors to help us expand our spiritual consciousness, to help us ponder how we are called to live as followers of Jesus. 

Last week we played with a favorite image – the sheepfold. And I asked “What if the sheepfold is more than an image of the church? (We might see our family homes as sheepfolds, schools as sheepfolds, the Grace Center and Open Door as sheepfolds.) And I asked, what if we could see the whole earth as the sheepfold?”

This morning, we are given new images to explore our identity as Christians: we are to be like infants longing for milk (a vivid feminine image of God); we are to be like living stones built into a spiritual house; we are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation; called out of darkness into marvelous light. 

For the people to whom this letter was addressed, these intriguing and lofty images would be surprising.  Scholars have significant disagreements about who wrote the letter (was it Peter? Paul? Someone who knew both of them?). They disagree about who it was written to – Jews or Gentiles? 

But, what is clear is that this letter was written sometime after the utter destruction of Jerusalem and the fall of the Second Temple, the sheepfold – if you will – for the Jewish people.  This letter was addressed to people whose lives had been completely upended, whose sense of security was so shattered that they no longer found living in Jerusalem tenable.  

Scholars believe that these followers of Jesus had left their homes to emigrate and settle across Asia Minor, present day Turkey.  After all they had been through, to hear that they were chosen, royal and holy would be completely unexpected and encouraging. (Ask any immigrant today if they feel this way and they’d probably think you were being ridiculous.)

So, imagine this structure of blocks is a sheepfold… these blocks are stones… can you see it? The sheepfold is a place where you feel safe and secure in a community of friends and family. It is a place where you are deeply known… remember, the shepherd had tender nicknames for each sheep. It is a place of peace and rest.  Let’s take a moment and  feel the good vibes of the sheepfold?

I destroy the structure, sending the blocks flying.

This is what had happened to the people Peter was writing to.  And its what can happen to us on the journey of life. 

When the sheepfold is destroyed… when the school or church closes,  when the job is lost, when a natural disaster or war demolishes your home and community, when the pillars of democracy seem to crumble… when your sheepfold is destroyed…

What is the Christian to do? Can anyone demonstrate for us, what is the Christian to do? 

Congregants begin to rebuild the sheepfold in a more circular shape.

What Peter suggests is that with Christ as our cornerstone, we engage in the work of resurrection… out of the rubble of our lives, we create something new…we build back … together.

The mission of a Christian in a world that is broken and breaking down, is not to ignore what is happening or run away and hide. 

Instead, we pause.  We breathe. We pray like infants longing for milk.  We choose to see in what is broken and imperfect, the possibility for new life. Together in community we imagine what is possible. We take the rubble – whatever that rubble is (broken lives, broken homes, broken societies) and with God, create something new, a new spiritual house.

The images in today’s reading suggest that no matter how beaten up, broken down, imperfect, distressed or dismayed you may be or feel, your identity as God’s child is bigger… No matter what befalls you, you are Chosen. Royal.  Holy.  No matter what… just as this morning’s invocation from the Hindu Veda’s, the Perfect Prayer, proclaims:

We are complete, perfect, and filled with love in all our imperfections 

Life is complete, perfect, and filled with love in all its imperfections 

Everything is complete, perfect, and filled with love in every imperfection 

At the heart of the Christian life, at the heart of the spiritual life, is a recognition that our lives follow a cycle… birth, death, and rebirth into new life. Again and again and again. 

As Christians, it is up to us to have the vision, the creativity, and the spirit of collaboration to see the ways in which we can contribute to bringing new life out of the rubble. With Christ as the cornerstone, we can look at what others see as lost and hopeless and instead remember the resurrecting grace of Christ that knows no bounds.  

And what else happens as we take part in bringing new life out of death? We grow! We grow in our relationship with God and others. Our sense of community, purpose, and belonging grows. Our sense of self and our character grows. We become the people God calls us to be, living stones built into a spiritual house.  We become the sheepfold. Amen.