“Grace and peace to you from
God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”[1]
Let us pray. “May the meditations of my heart and the words
of my mouth be pleasing unto you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.”[2] Amen.
To start today’s message, let
me begin with the fact that I am between a rock and hard place. In fact, we all are. Now this turn of phrase is often employed when
we have to make choices, with neither option being particularly “good”. But that is not what I am talking about. I am talking about the rock I just prayed to. It is right at the center of what our lessons
are speaking about today.
As a civil engineer, I know much
more than the average person does about rocks.
From classes in earth science to a sequence of technical courses on soils
and foundation design, as well as years of practice either literally pounding
rocks (several stories I can tell you about back woods trail maintenance never
mind rock excavation on job sites) or blowing them up, rocks are a core part of
my area of expertise. As I indicated, there
are piles of rocks and stones in our lessons today, so many it would be hard not
to stumble over them[3].
In our first lesson we have
the weapon of choice, rocks in the form of stones, that the Jewish authorities
are using to put the first martyr in Christianity, Stephen, to death. In our Psalm today, the psalmist calls out
that God is “indeed my rock and my fortress; …” asking for the Lord, for His
name’s sake to “… lead me and guide me.”[4] In our second lesson, Peter calls for us to “[c]ome
to [Him], a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in
God’s sight, …”[5]
He continues the use of this motif of
stones by telling us, “like living stones let yourselves be built into a
spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”[6] Peter goes on to cite Isaiah 28:16 indicating
that God is “…laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and
whoever believes in [Him] will not be put to shame.” Peter then concludes that this is an honor for
those who believe, but a stumbling block for those that do not.[7]
Then comes the Gospel, and
you might be saying, where is there a rock mentioned there? Well let’s start with the statement by Jesus
that “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places.”[8] Christ, here, is making a direct reference to
the nature of what it means to “dwell” in God.
Later in the same scene He asserts clearly that, “I am in the Father and
the Father is in me” and that “[t]he words that I say to you I do not speak on
my own, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the
Father is in me, …”[9] But what does it mean to have the Father
dwell in Him and what are these “dwellings” that are being prepared for
us? Well, this brings us back to some
lessons we heard a few weeks ago.
Remember that Samaritan woman
at the well? The one that drew water for
Jesus and was told that “… those who drink of the water that I will give them
will never be thirsty. The water that I
will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.”[10] The phrase “spring of water gushing up” ought
to be helping us recall the scene way back during the wandering of Isreal after
the Exodus where “Moses took the staff from before the Lord, as he had
commanded him.” And “ … said to them, ‘Listen,
you rebels; shall we bring water for you out of this rock?’ Then Moses lifted up his hand and struck the
rock twice with his staff; water came out abundantly, and the congregation and
their livestock drank.”[11] You see, this indwelling of God, this living
water that we imbibe in, comes from a distinct source, a rock, a rock hewn
deeper than any other, Christ himself.
And this rock is simultaneously
immovable and fully alive and active in the world. This is why when Peter, in Matthew, announces
that Christ is the Messiah, he calls out the statement of faith that Peter
gives as: a) not revealed to him by “flesh
and blood” but was revealed by Christ’s “Father in heaven”[12] and b) that “on this rock”
the Messiah, the first cornerstone, “I will build my church, and the gates of
Hades will not prevail against it.”[13] So when Christ is speaking of the dwelling
places in Heaven, and he speaks of the Father dwelling in him and him in the Father,
he is speaking directly to the rock that is the living God.
Which brings me to this rock
and a hard place that we are all in. You
see we are in a constant tug of war here, and we hear it in what Thomas and
Philip ask in the Gospel lesson today. We
have on one side the rock, our redeemer, Christ, God, who saves and frees and
is our lodestone for all our heart and soul and body might desire. But on the other side, we live in a hard
place. We are the broken and fallen
children of God that lives in a shattered world that causes us pain and
suffering and simply makes us question everything to the core. We have a very hard time seeing things clearly
even when looking straight at the almighty in all the wonders He has created
for us. Even though we have been shown
the path, we see it like through a mirror darkly.[14] I, for one, would very much like to get out
of this push-pull of this existence, and really understand Paul’s assertions in
Philippians when he says that “[i]f I am to live in the flesh, that means
fruitful labor for me, yet I cannot say which I will choose. I am hard pressed between the two: my desire
is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better, …”[15] In some sense, I’d like to have the release that
Stephen has in our first lesson. But,
like Paul, I realize that such desires are fleeting[16] and we all are called to “remain
in the flesh” so as to “… continue with all of you for [our] progress and joy
in faith”[17]
What I also know is that
there is a here and now promise that God makes for us, to make this tug between
the Rock of our salvation and the hard place of the earthly realm,
bearable. It is that he calls us to not
let our hearts be troubled[18] because if we ask of anything
in His name, he will accomplish it in, with, through and for us.[19] If we simply believe in God, believe in Jesus
Christ his son, as revealed to us by the Holy Spirit, we will be able to do the
works that He did and does and, has been demonstrable thought history, even “greater
works than these”.[20] The current challenge of this hard place we
know, is passing away and the new heaven and new earth are ever closer to one
another, and to us.[21] As a consequence, it is from this rock, this
firm foundation, the cornerstone of the New Jerusalem, God, Christ, and Holy
Spirit, that we indeed can have hope both now and always.
“Now may the piece of God
that surpasses all understanding, keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”[22] Amen.
[1] 2
Corinthians 1:2
[2]
Psalm 19:14
[3] Cf.
1 Peter 2:8 (which is paraphrased from Isaiah 8:14)
[4] Psalm
31:3
[5] 1
Peter 2:4
[6] 1
Peter 2:5
[7]
Cf. 1 Peter 2:7-8, borrowing directly from his speech before the Sanhedrin in
Acts 4:11
[8]
John 14:2a
[9]
John 14:10-11a
[10]
John 4:14
[11] Numbers
20:9-11 (Exodus 17:6)
[12]
Matthew 16:17
[13]
Matthew 16:18
[14]
Cf. 1 Corinthians 13:12
[15]
Philippians 1:22-23
[16]
Cf. Revelation 9:6 “And in those days people will seek death but will not find
it; they will long to die, but death will flee from them.”
[17] Philippians
1:24b-25
[18]
Cf. John 4:1
[19]
John 14:14
[20]
Cf. John 14:12
[21]
Cf. Revelation 21:1,22-27
[22]
Philippians 4:7
