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SERMONS

Fifth Sunday of Easter
April 20, 2008

By The Rev. Sylvia Czarnetzky

Acts 17:1-15
66:1-8
1 Peter 2 :1-10
John 14:1-14

Before I came to the Chapel in 2006, I served a small church in Sumner, Mississippi. Our church was so small that in order to have a critical mass of kids in youth group, we had to have our youth group with the Presbyterians down the street. We met on Sunday afternoons.

And I remember vividly one particular Sunday afternoon. We gathered at someone’s house, and for our activity, we divided the kids into two groups. Each group was given two things: a five pound sack of red potatoes and a box of toothpicks. Five pounds of red potatoes, and a box of toothpicks.

The assignment for both groups? To use those materials and only those materials to construct a tower, a potato-and-toothpick tower. And we gave ‘em ten minutes to do that. Then we set a kitchen timer and turned ‘em loose.

It was so much fun to watch! These kids just put their heads together, and started building. And before you know it, the ten minutes were up and there on the floor were two potato towers! As I recall, the two towers were very different. Then we had a parent judge them in several categories: tallest tower; most creative tower, and tower that was structurally the sturdiest.

This activity was so much fun for the kids, that we took the towers apart and gave the groups another go at it.  This time, however, there was one additional rule – they could not speak. No talking at all, so they had to build their
potato towers without speaking at all.

That was also pretty entertaining to watch – there was much wild gesturing and pointing – but again two very creative towers emerged, made only of red potatoes and toothpicks!

The potato tower building activity that Sunday was designed to introduce the story of the Tower of Babel, from the book of Genesis, and it worked pretty well.

But it has struck me since then, that the potato-and-toothpick towers might be helpful in other Biblical contexts. So, hold on for now to that picture of the potato towers, because we’re coming back there in a few minutes. 

We get a lot of construction imagery in our lesson from First Peter today. Peter speaks of  “living stones,” and “precious stones,” and cornerstones, and spiritual houses.  (1 Peter 2:4-7) The spiritual house is, Peter says, built of “living stones,” and has a cornerstone.

Now I’m not a expert on architecture, but I am reliably informed that a cornerstone is “the first stone laid when beginning the foundation for a new building.” It’s the stone that “fixes the precise location of the building.” (Barlow 1)

Now I was a little confused about cornerstones, because
when I think of a cornerstone, I think of the cornerstone
in my sister’s back yard  in Memphis. It’s the cornerstone from the old Opera House in Greenville. It’s a big square marble stone, carved with the date of the building, and the names of the officers of the Opera board, one of whom was an ancestor of ours.

Now this cornerstone is all that’s left of the old Opera House, but it’s not the actual cornerstone – it’s not actually the first stone laid, but rather the above-ground cornerstone that added to the building later, fixed on the building corner at about eye-level so that people could see it and learn about the building.

But the cornerstone that Peter is talking about is the actual cornerstone: the first stone laid at the beginning of the building of a building, and the cornerstone of this spiritual house is Jesus Christ. Now, if Jesus is the cornerstone of this house, then where do the rest of the living stones come from?

Well, Peter tells us. The living stones with which this spiritual house is constructed are members of the early Church, his listeners, who are early church folks in remote areas of Asia Minor:  Peter invites his listeners to “Come to” Jesus – himself a living stone  -- “and like living stones, let yourselves  be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood…”  (2:4-5)

So, if I understand Peter here, he’s talking about the Christian church. This building has Jesus as its cornerstone – Jesus is a “living stone,” “rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight.” Christ is the living stone who invites us to come and be part of the building that is the church. (1 Pet. 2:2-3)

It seems to me, though, that Peter could also be talking about the building that is me as a Christian person, or the building that is you as a Christian person. Peter could also be reminding us what is and should always be the cornerstone of our lives: Jesus Christ. 

Peter goes on to remind us that the cornerstone of our church, is the “same stone the builders rejected,” meaning that Jesus wound up on the “rejected stone” pile.

Back in the days when the church was just getting started, lots of people wanted Jesus to stay on the rejected stone pile. They thought Jesus was a phony. They thought the story of the resurrection was made up. They thought Jesus wasn’t anything more than a Galilean troublemaker who got himself crucified by the Romans.

But, according to Peter, Jesus didn’t stay on the rejected stone pile for long. If you’re the rejected stone that is Jesus, then you have been lifted off the rejected stone pile, to become the cornerstone of the foundation of a brand new building – the Christian church.

Bear in mind to whom Peter was writing in this first century letter – he was writing to the Christians in Asia Minor, where the prevailing pagan culture was hostile to their very existence! (Bartlett 235-6)

In the earliest days of the church, to be a Christian was both difficult and potentially dangerous. These are the people Peter is writing to in this epistle -- people for whom identifying one’s self as a Christian was potentially hazardous to one’s health! (237)

So Peter is writing to encourage them, to affirm their decision to be Christians, and to remind them that the life they are called to as the people of God is a new life -- a life very different from the life they used to live. (Bartlett 263)

They could be killed for confessing their Christian faith – the price they could pay for following Jesus could be their very lives!

While none of us, thankfully, will probably ever be asked to pay for our belief in Christ with our lives, we still share with those early Christians a fundamental truth: we Christians are swimming against the cultural tide. It is often hard to sustain our faith in the face of so many temptations to trust other things instead. After all, there are still plenty of people around that reject the kingship of Jesus and think that anybody who believes in Jesus is a fool. (see Bartlett 234)

(If you don’t believe me, just pick up Christopher Hitchins’ book, or one of the other current aetheist bestsellers.)
The resistance encountered from the culture by the very earliest followers of Christ isn’t much different from the resistance we encounter today.

And that means that what Peter had to say to them, all those centuries ago, speaks to us as well. Peter’s invitation resounds to us across the centuries, and across the millenia: “Come to” Jesus, Peter says, “the living stone,” the stone the builders rejected which has become the cornerstone of the church. For those who believe in Jesus, he is a precious stone; for those who don’t believe in Jesus, he’s just a stone you might stumble over in the road, or just kick out of your way. (Bartlett 268)
                                                           
But if we believe in Jesus, if we believe that Jesus has called us “out of darkness into his marvelous light,” (2:9) if we believe that Jesus is the cornerstone of the church, then we are invited by Peter to become ourselves “living stones.”

Peter says, “[L]et yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ.”  (1 Pet. 2:5)

We, the people who profess the name of Jesus Christ, are the stones that make up the church. (Allen 42) We who believe in Christ’s resurrection are the “living stones,” that make up the body of Christ. (Rossing 49)

And that’s where the potato tower comes back in. What if building the church was a lot like building a potato tower? What if each of us in this church were a potato in the potato tower that is the church? So that has all sorts of metaphoric possibilities.                       
           
One of the things that was true about the potato tower project is that every single potato in the tower was important to its structural integrity. Every potato was necessary to hold the tower up. If you took a single potato away, the tower might collapse.  Also, both teams used every single potato in the bag to build the towers. Every single potato was used, no matter how odd its shape, and no matter how many bumps or lumps the potato had. Every single potato was used to build the tower.

Those two truths about the potato towers have implications for the church today. All potatoes are welcome, all shapes and sizes, in various states of imperfection -- they are the stones that the builder rejected, that the maker finds precious in his sight! (Bartlett 265)

Every potato is important and every potato helps the tower to stand up.

Three other points:

1. Let us not forget who the cornerstone is. It’s not me; it’s not you.  It’s Christ, Christ is the cornerstone of the foundation on which our fellowship together is built.
2. One potato by itself does not a tower make. It’s just a potato. But if two or three are gathered in his name, then we can build a tower. (see Mt. 18:20) So it is with the church. One person worshipping God alone does not a church make. But when two or three people gather together in the name of Christ then we’ve got ourselves a church, and Jesus promises us he will be in our midst. (Mt. 18:20)
3. Finally, a question: What are the toothpicks in our potato tower? What is the mortar that holds our stones together? What is the connective tissue that holds us together?

Is it our worship together, Sunday after Sunday, week after week? Is it our study of God’s holy word, especially the good news of the gospel? Is it the way we support one another when trouble strikes, or our efforts to reach out together to those in need?

Maybe it’s all of these things. Maybe all of these things are the glue that hold us together. Maybe all of these things are the toothpicks in our potato towers. So maybe, just maybe, toothpicks and potatoes have a lot to teach us our life together, as living stones placed upon the cornerstone that is Christ. Amen.

Works Cited:
 
Allen, O. Wesley, Jr. “The Season of Easter.” New Proclamation. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2008.

Bartlett, David L. “First Letter of Peter.”The New Interpreter’s Bible. XII. Nashville:  Abingdon Press, 1998.

Barlow, Chuck. E-mail dated April 15, 2008, on the architecture of cornerstones.

Rossing, Barbara. “The Season of Easter.” New Proclamation 2005. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2005.

Taylor, Barbara Brown. “Practicing Incarnation.” “Faith Matters.” Christian Century April 5, 2005. 39.

Whitley, Katerina K. Sermon for 5 Easter. Sermons that Work. ECUSA website. April 22, 2005. 102.