Living Stones

1 Peter 2:2-10

Easter 5 Year A

Katharine Redpath, Pastoral Intern





I have been learning a great deal about stones this week, as I puzzled over that contradictory phrase used in the 1st Peter reading. The writer urges the early Christian readers and listeners regarding Jesus to: “Come to him, a living stone.” Later the writer describes Jesus as the cornerstone, and quotes the ancient Hebrew Scriptures in which the people of Israel are described as the cornerstone that God wished to use in establishing a relationship with his people on earth.

Today we often think of a cornerstone as a simply ceremonial stone. It’s put into place, sometimes after a building is completed, and it usually serves to identify something about the building—often its year of construction, its builder, or even its occupant. Sometimes it contains a time-capsule that holds bits of pertinent history to be opened years later. In some cases, the sole purpose of the cornerstone is to hold and protect that time capsule.

But in masonry terms, I’ve learned, the cornerstone was never merely decorative. It served a very distinct function in the making of the building, and in fact, was the most important piece of all from the standpoint of its construction. It was a large, unblemished stone that was laid in place before any of the other stones or bricks were laid out. The cornerstone identifies the exact location of the corner of the building to be erected. It serves as the piece against which all others would be measured and placed. The cornerstone has to be true—its measurements, its placement, its alignment, have to be accurate because it is used to determine the placement and alignment of everything that follows. If you’ve ever built anything, you know that if one step in the process is done inaccurately, the steps that follow will never be quite right. In terms of building construction, a cornerstone is extremely important, a vital part of the success of the project.

The writer of 1st Peter speaks of Jesus as the cornerstone of the newly forming Christian church. Given what I just shared about the importance of a cornerstone and the functions it fills, it offers an easy metaphor for us to use in speaking of Jesus as the cornerstone of the church. Jesus, the most important piece of the building under construction. Jesus, the one against whom all others will be measured and with whom all others will be aligned.

But how do we get from an important cornerstone to a…living stone? I think of stones as large, immovable, solid, imposing things…but never as living. How can we find signs of life in a stone? Life involves movement, changes, interactions, growth. How does a stone acquire that kind of energy? How can we stretch this metaphor that is so contradictory to anything we know? How can life be imparted to a stone?

I’ll tell you how a stone can live. It’s not because it’s a stone. A stone can live because God chooses the stone, and because God sets the stone apart as precious. And when God claims you as a stone—any kind of stone—you will live because God has given you life!

In the days of the ancient Hebrews, God chose the Israelites as his precious stones—the people with whom God would establish a loving, life-giving relationship. They were the ones chosen to be the cornerstone for the nations, the people who would set the example, who would be the measuring stick and the alignment rod for all the others. From the Hebrews they would see what it was like to worship a living god. They would be marked by the creator, the God who has the power to give them life.

In the letter of first Peter we see this metaphor used in reference to the building of the church in Asia Minor. The same metaphor applies to the church in the world today. This time, Jesus himself is the cornerstone, the one who sets the example, the one against whom all the other “stones” will be measured and aligned. The church will rise and the church will live because Jesus, the cornerstone, gives it life.

The church is built one stone at a time, one soul at a time. Each of us is a stone within the living church, a stone that will live because God breathes life into us. Through our baptisms we’ve been chosen and we’ve been marked as precious, we’ve been given life. We’re reminded of that life each time we receive the bread and wine of Holy Communion.

Today (at 11:00) we are going to add a new “stone” to our church. We’re going to baptize Andrew Michael Thomas. We are going to wash him in the waters of baptism, and we’re going to announce publicly that Andrew is chosen and precious in the eyes of God. We’re going to pray for the Holy Spirit to be poured into Andrew. We’re going to ask that the power of God’s living Word give Andrew life. We will mark him with the cross of Christ, and we will welcome him as the newest of our “living stones.” Andrew will live, not because he is a stone, but because God gives him life.

When Andrew gets a little older, we’ll invite him to take Holy Communion, just as we’re going to invite a group of children today to join us for their first time at the table. These children—Austin and Abby and Morgan and Jack and Cate and Nick and Avery and Thomas and BethAnne— will, for the first time, receive another breath of life from God, as he reminds them, through his presence in the bread and the wine, that they are precious and chosen, and that in him, they will always have life. We are all stones in the building that is the church. But through Jesus, we are living stones.

While reading about stones, I was reminded of a unique kind of stone called a geode. Other stones are just…well,… stones. Solid rock, through and through. A geode is a special geological formation, a round stone that has a hollow center. The normal looking exterior hides an unexpected thing of beauty. Inside the ordinary looking rock is a lovely crystal formation. During its formation, particles of sediment were trapped inside the cavity and, under just the right circumstances, a layer of beautiful crystals grew. The thing is, the stone must be opened to expose this secret beauty.

I like the metaphor that makes each of us a stone in the building of the church on earth, having life because God gives us life in baptism. And I think that if the church itself is a stone— headed by Jesus, the cornerstone, built from baptized members who themselves become living stones…then the church as a whole would be a geode. A stone that has growth taking place inside it, as new members are added and new understanding takes place. A stone that must be opened up to expose its beauty and its growth and to invite those outside to see and experience the quality of that living stone.