May 7, 2023
“Weird Living Stones”
Sermon by Rev. Trip Porch
May 7, 2023 Based on 1 Peter: 2-10
What sort of house do you think God is building?
I found myself walking through my neighborhood this week and noticing all the different architectural styles of houses there. Each one with its own kind of color and flavor.
And with this passage in the back of my mind I found myself asking this question… what kind of house is God building with us? And, maybe more importantly… where do I fit in to the house that God is building?
In 1 Peter, we are told that we are living stones being built into a spiritual house. It’s a beautiful image, but it can also be a bit daunting. After all, what kind of stone are you? Are you a smooth, polished stone that fits neatly into place? Or are you a rough, irregular and raw stone freshly gathered from the ground that sticks out like a sore thumb?
If you’re like me, you probably feel more like the latter one… Imperfect of course but also with attributes that sometimes make me feel different and quirky in good ways sometimes, but also sometimes make me feel flawed and weird or unusable. Like there is something about me that needs to change if I am ever going to belong in a group or make an actual difference in this world.
It was around this time that I stopped at a particular Brick house. I looked up at it and noticed its exact perpendicular and parallel lines of even brick and mortar. And I thought… There are so many Christians who hear this image from our scripture today where God is a builder, and we are the living stones God is using to build with and a brick house is what they picture. A perfect, uniform structure made of perfect uniform bricks, each one identically manufactured to the one next to it. There are so many people who believe that this is what God wants them to be. That somehow our faith is supposed to change us completely until we become some perfected image of what a human should look like.
The God of the brick house is one who needs followers to get in line and conform in order to fit in and be usable for the construction. The God of the brick house needs you to behave a certain way, to act right and deny who you are innately. You need to submit to a brick house God if you want to be chosen to be a part of God’s work.
But I believe the God of the precision brick house is not the God of this passage, nor the God of the Bible, Nor the God of Abraham who we know and worship.
Our God is not a God of uniformity or conformity.
How do we know? The answer is right in front of us, staring us down in today’s passage… It is the stone the builders rejected which has become the cornerstone of what God is building. The stone that was deemed unfit, or unworthy, or broken by the builders of the world that was cast aside that God is picking up to begin a new construction.
This cornerstone is Jesus.
The world’s authorities and powers had no use for such an out of shape, out of line stone and saw fit to throw him away. But unique stones with their own unique crags and bumps are exactly the sort of stones that our God chooses to work with. Our God is not the precision brick layer… Our God is the artistic craftsman who delights in diversity and creates beauty out of even the most quirky and odd shaped living stones.
So, I have another image for us to work with today. Dry Stone Stacking… It’s an ancient building technique, maybe you could even consider it the original building technique because all it requires are raw natural stones that anyone can find in almost any landscape.
Dry stone stacking is where a builder collects a pile of rocks and stones and then without the use of a binder like mortar or concrete, the builder picks up each stone, one by one. The builder turns it around to study the stone’s own unique features, its quirks, and oddities. And then, using the stone’s unique shape, the builder finds the exact right place for that stone in the structure. A place for it to fit best with its own unique attributes. The builder then orients the rocks just so and fits it in to exactly the place it needs to be with the other unique stones around it.
Dry Stone stacking does not rely on the perfection of the material but on the artistry of the craftsman. And there are dry stone stacked structures in the world that are so perfectly built that they have stood for millennia.
God's art is not about uniformity. It is its diversity that allows it to stand so strong. God loves the beauty of our differences. God loves the way that different stones come together to create something beautiful and unique.
I sometimes feel discouraged that I am not a natural builder bringing about God’s kingdom like it should be in this world. That I am not constructing something great or amazing to transform this world for the better or even my neighborhood into the place that God thinks it should be.
But what our passage reminds us today is that God does not need me to be a builder of anything at all. God wants to allow me to a part of something that God is building. And God doesn't need me to be a perfect… All God asks is for me to be the stone that I am. That's it. Just a stone with my flaws and with my gifts. God needs me to be exactly who I am. And God who is not a bricklayer will do the rest.
So, if you're ever feeling discouraged about your place in the kingdom of heaven, or feel like you are flawed and imperfect, or inadequate or not living up to your full potential. Don’t be. Just be yourself. Be the living stone that you are. Celebrate your craggy places and trust that God is using you to build something beautiful and life changing.
May we all be built up in faith, hope, and love, as we find our own unique place in God's ongoing beautiful artwork in this world.
Amen.
WE GATHER IN AWE AND PRAISE
PRELUDE Bach Prelude in A minor, BWV 543
INTROIT “Now the Silence” Carl F. Schalk
WELCOME Rev. Trip Porch
*CALL TO WORSHIP
One: We come together as the church;
All: not a building of wood or stone, but a spiritual house.
One: We will be the living stones that shout praise even when others are silent.
All: God redeems us, joins us together, and builds us up.
*HYMN NO. 301 “Let Us Build a House” TWO OAKS
*PRAYER OF CONFESSION Ann Hitzhusen
One: If we say we are completely put together, the truth is not in us.
All: But if we confess our distractions, our errors, and our anxieties, God will meet us and renew us.
One: Let us Pray
Before God and God’s people, I confess that I have been a reluctant part of this community, I’ve struggled to speak out clearly, to dismantle the injustice I see and declare God’s vision. Before God and one another, we confess our reluctance to receive our calling as God’s people, made by God and chosen as witnesses to God’s dream of justice and joy. Remind me, God, that you have made me for your service and recharge me with your Word. Renew us, God. Grant us courage to live out your Way of peace and grace. We ask it in Jesus’ name, Amen.
*ASSURANCE OF PARDON
*RESPOPNSE OF PRAISE 582 “Glory to God, Whose Goodness Shines on Me” GLORY TO GOD (Vasile)
*PASSING OF THE PEACE
One: The peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all,
All: And also with you.
WE LISTEN FOR GOD’S WORD
ANTHEM “Look At the World” John Rutter
The Chancel Choir and IPC Children’s Choir
PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION
SCRIPTURE: 1 Peter 2:2–10 MSG
So clean house! Make a clean sweep of malice and pretense, envy and hurtful talk. You’ve had a taste of God. Now, like infants at the breast, drink deep of God’s pure kindness. Then you’ll grow up mature and whole in God.
Welcome to the living Stone, the source of life. The workmen took one look and threw it out; but God set it in the place of honor. Present yourselves as building stones for the construction of a sanctuary vibrant with life, in which you’ll serve as holy priests offering Christ-approved lives up to God.
The Scriptures provide precedent:
Look! I’m setting a stone in Zion, a cornerstone in the place of honor.
Whoever trusts in this stone as a foundation will never have cause to regret it.
To you who trust him, he’s a Stone to be proud of, but to those who refuse to trust him,
The stone the workmen threw out is now the chief foundation stone.
For the untrusting it’s . . . a stone to trip over, a boulder blocking the way.
They trip and fall because they refuse to obey, just as predicted.
But you are the ones chosen by God, chosen for the high calling of priestly work, chosen to be a holy people, God’s instruments to do his work and speak out for him, to tell others of the night-and-day difference he made for you—from nothing to something, from rejected to accepted.
Dry Stack Building - In the right hands using the imperfection/irregularities of stone work to make a strong fit without mortar.
One: Holy Wisdom, Holy Word All: Thanks be to God
CHILDREN’S MESSAGE Marie Boozer
SERMON Rev. Trip Porch
*HYMN No. 530 One Bread, One Body ONE BREAD, ONE BODY
TIME OF OFFERING “Abide With Me” arr. Dan Marvin
*OFFERTORY RESPONSE No. 710 “We Lift Our Voices” OFFERING
COMMUNION
INVITATION TO THE TABLE
GREAT PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING with Lord’s Prayer using debts and debtors
SHARING OF BREAD AND CUP
MUSIC DURING COMMUNION #501 Feed Us Lord FEED US
PRAYER AFTER COMMUNION:
At your table, Giving God, we have been fed; our thirsty spirits have been quenched. We give you thanks for this foretaste of your kingdom meal, a vision of when wolf and lamb will feed together and peace will reign on your holy mountain; Use us to build that vision, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
*HYMN NO. 697 “Take My Life” HENDON
TIME OF COMMUNITY SHARING
CHARGE AND BENEDICTION
CHORAL RESPONSE “God Be With You Till We Meet Again” William G. Tomer
God be with you till we meet again;
loving counsels guide, uphold you,
with a shepherd's care enfold you:
God be with you till we meet again.
Text: Jeremiah E. Rankin
POSTLUDE “It Is Well With My Soul” arr. Sunghwan Kim
Acknowledgments: Unless otherwise indicated, all texts and music are printed and broadcast under OneLicense.net license #A-702452
Worship Leaders
Pastor - Rev. Trip Porch
Liturgist – Ann Hitzhusen
Children’s Message – Marie Boozer
Music leaders
Chancel Choir
IPC Children’s Choir
Director of Music – Christopher Dent
Assoc. Director of Music – Ariel Alvarado
Organist – Sunghwan Kim