SEATTLE MENNONITE CHURCH
Third Sunday of Easter, April 14, 2002
Sermon: Weldon D. Nisly
TITLE: To build with living stones
THEME: Easter & the Risen Christ
TEXTS: switched April 14, Easter 3 texts, with April 28, Easter 5 texts
Psalm 31: 1-5, 15-16 Be for me a Rock of refuge
Acts 7: 55-60 Stoning of Stephen
1 Peter 2: 2-10 Christ is the cornerstone
Francesco Bernardone turned and walked away from the Bishop, his father, and the village square naked before God and all the people. He gave up the way of commerce, the way of the military, and the way of social life to follow a journey and a dream.
The time was near the turn of the thirteenth century. The place was Assisi, Italy. Francesco Bernardone has come to be known as Francis of Assisi or St. Francis.
Francis left behind his father’s hopes and dreams to follow in his footsteps as a wealthy cloth merchant. He did so out of great compassion and desire to listen to the vision God was setting before him and the journey God was calling him to live. Francis believed that Christ was testing him to see if he would follow “the journey and the dream” set before him. It was a test he both feared and desired.
Seeking
God, Francis wondered through the central Italian hills and found himself at a
little church lying in ruins at San Damiano. Entering the remains of the building with
crumbling walls and no roof, Francis made his way to the altar and a large
cross still hanging on the front wall.
“As though driven by an inner force, he fell to his knees and began to
pray intensely. ‘Lord Jesus, what do you
want me to do?’” (Murray
Bodo OFM, The
Journey and the Dream, 19).
After a time of deep prayer, Francis looked up into the eyes of Jesus on the cross. Gazing into Jesus longing eyes, Francis heard a voice, as if from afar, yet clear and close. It was a voice that that pierced his heart forever: “Francis, go now and build my church.”
Francis
was elated with this word from Jesus and set out to live it. Dressed in hermit’s clothing, he lived in the
ruins of San Damiano, and begged for stones to build
the church. Stone by stone, the church
at San Damiano emerged from the ruins. (Bodo,
The Way of St. Francis, 41).
Francis didn’t just rebuild San Damiano. He was truly building the church with single-minded obedience and radical simplicity and service to Jesus Christ. Francis of Assisi lived what Peter said in this first letter to scattered Christians: “Come to Christ…a living stone….Like living stones, let yourself be built into a spiritual house…” 1 Peter 2: 2-10
SMC sermon – WDNisly – 4/14/02 – p. 2
Francis also knew what Peter meant in lamenting that this cornerstone was rejected by the builders. Jesus, the living stone was a rock over which well-intentioned people stumble.
Read 1 Peter 2: 8…
Peter’s
First Letter is a word of encouragement and hope for the early Christian movement
scattered across the Roman Empire in Asia Minor, what is now Turkey. These Christians, called “strangers and
pilgrims” or “resident aliens,” were living in a hostile environment. (Erland
Waltner, Believer’s Church Bible Commentary, 1 Peter, 18.)
Peter wrote this letter about 62-64 CE, 30 years after Jesus’ resurrection. He is writing from the heart of empire in Rome, to scattered Christians subject to Roman domination. He is calling Christians to declare our true allegiance to God in the Risen Christ. Christ alone is the cornerstone. The heart of First Peter became a baptismal communion liturgy for the Easter evening vigil of the early church. (Waltner, 17, 19).
Peter’s Letter’s to scattered Churches living under the Roman empire’s oppressive reach, was a source of great hope and ethical instruction fifteen centuries later for the Anabaptists. They too, knew what Peter meant in this Letter. Those who build on Christ the cornerstone, are living stones. They are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people.”
Alan
Kreider, long-time leader of the London Mennonite Centre,
in his book Journey Toward Holiness: A
Way of Living for God’s Nation, articulates for Mennonites a personal
holiness, a social holiness, and a communal holiness. The Christian responsibility is to be a “holy
nation.” “This is where the action is,”
says Kreider. “Mysteriously but
potently, God is using this puny but transnational nation to bless the entire
creation. Other nations including the
mighty Roman empire could be [God’s] tools for a time. But [God] has entrusted [God’s] project to
the ‘holy nation’ that [God] has chosen.
Through it God will prepare the way for the holy city.” (Waltner, 70, Kreider, 36.)
There are numerous Old Testament images of stones inspiring Peter which we
don’t have time to explore here. (Isa.
8:14; 28:16; Ps. 118:22. Cf. peoplehood images Ex.
23:22; 19:5f; Isa. 43:20f; Hos.
1:6,9; 2:1,23. Waltner, 74).
Peter uses this image of a living stone first for Jesus Christ and then for the church. Stone is a strong image not usually associated with life. The Greek word lithos here does not mean natural rock, but rather a stone that has been hewn and dressed, readied for use in construction. Peter speaks of a living hope and living word now living stone as image to challenge and inspire us. [Cf. Pyramids!]
SMC sermon – WDNisly – 4/14/02 – p. 3
What a challenging word for us at Seattle Mennonite Church today! Peter is speaking a prophetic word to us. Be living stones, build the church.
The Journey & the Dream – Good News
New Jerusalem, named for the Holy City on the Book of Revelation, is the name of a Franciscan peacemaking lay community in Cincinnati founded by Richard Rohr. It is a community dear to my own heart. Every year in early October, we celebrated the Feast of St. Francis at New Jerusalem. Their musical equivalent of our Folk Group, sang a song of St. Francis that often echoes in my heart. It is a song connecting us to Francis building the church at San Damiano stone-by-stone. But it is more than that. It is a song to truly build the Church.
If you want your dream to be
Build it sure and slowly.
Small beginnings, greater ends,
Heartfelt works grow purely.
Day by day, stone by stone,
Build your secret slowly.
Day by day, you’ll grow too,
You’ll know heaven’s glory.
If you want your dreams to be
Take your time go slowly.
Do few things but do them well,
Simple joys are holy.
Wednesday when Ken arrived and saw our new space for the first time, he remarked about the beauty, simplicity, and efficiency of this space. That evening as the Worship Team planned this worship, the image of stones was evident in each of the scriptures.
Living stones is a good image to inspire us in knowing that Christ is the living stone making of us living stones in building the church.
A few years ago, Marcus Smucker asked us, “What are the images or metaphors that inspire and guide us as a church?” We didn’t have a clear answer for him then. Living stones is one of those guiding metaphors.
SMC sermon – WDNisly – 4/14/02 – p. 4
Let me identify a few of these living stones in our life together. [Use stones to tell stories]
Stone
by stone these stones became living stones building the church.
Each one of you…everyone who has ever been part of SMC is a living stone…
Our children….and each new life born or drawn into the church.
Worship
Musical gifts and groups
Ken Nafziger
MVSers….
This old theater building turned into Church…
Walter Thieme….Pat & the Shaver family (PNMC mission moment story)
Sisay & his family & SEAM…
Adam & the youth…..
Camp Camrec
Staff past & present: Cheryl, Marsha, Barb, Ken, Cole, Renee, Karen, Francis, Cliff….
Pastors (ask who was here in each pastoral era):
Milton Harder, Loren Friesen, Tim Mierau, John Braun, Steve Ratzleff, Mary Berkshire Steuben…me…
Maria & Illya & others living on the streets who know SMC as their Church
Vision 1 folks & new space & the oasis of garden planted around the building…
Small groups
Soccer
Camping on Shaw Island
CPT…
Public witness: WTO, Watchful Eyes, immigration….Nicole Bade…Don Holsinger
Corporate Responsibility Task Force efforts with Freeport McMoran & Indonesia…
Dori’s going to India recently & Barbie Gardner’s follow up with the baby…
Rachel soon going to Iraq in May…
Vision II & Alicia, Michael, Mike, Ken, Elizabeth, Bill, and many others…..
Living Stones for the future? Good only knows!
Two little houses next to our parking lot….
Future ministries with local, national, and global character….
An Anabaptist center for Seattle and the Northwest…
God is setting living stones before us. Jesus is the living stone. These stones are living!
We are living stones being Church. It is a guiding metaphor and a paradigm for our journey and our vision.
If [we] want [our] dream to be Day by day, stone by stone,
Build it sure and slowly. Build [our] secret slowly.
Small beginnings, greater ends, Day by day, [we’ll] grow too,
Heartfelt works grow purely. [We’ll] know heaven’s glory.
SMC sermon – WDNisly – 4/14/02 – p. 5….Addendum not used
Other Living Stones among us & touching us:
** Ecumenical Prayer service at Assisi on January 24, 2002….
** War tax resistance
MCC Palestine Update #44, April 10, 2002
In 1949 MCC began work in Jericho will Palestinian refugees following the Nakba (Catastrophe) of 1948. For more than ten years, the bulk of MCC's program with Palestinians was relief distribution to refugees. Then, from the 1970s through to the
present, MCC's work focussed more on development work, support of local Palestinian initiatives to build up Palestinian services and infrastructure in agricultural, women's empowerment, kindergarten education, rehabilitation of persons with disabilities, and conflict resolution.
Sadly, the mounting humanitarian crisis in the occupied territories has meant right now that it once more makes sense for MCC to be engaging in relief efforts. MCC has so far committed US $43,750 for the local purchase of basic foodstuffs (e.g., flour, rice, sugar) to be sent to cities recently reinvaded by Israeli troops to families whose monies and food are running low thanks to 19 months of 0-80% unemployment and now nearly three seeks of curfew. The first convoy--joined by a wide variety of international and Palestinian
humanitarian aid organizations--went to Nablus on Tuesday; after some negotiation, we were able to enter and deliver the goods. Many more convoys are planned during the coming days.
The
Israeli government is persistent in its policy to destroy human kind, trees
and stone (Al-Bashar, Al-Shajar
and Al-Hajar: these are the rhyming equivalents in
Arabic) and since there is nobody-not even in the stature of the President of
power number one in the world-capable or willing to bridle this insanity, we
approach you to stand up to your claims to civilization and culture. And in
case this appeal reached you after the fact i.e. after the disaster, we still
hold you –as a United Nation body –
responsible to exercise your right in conducting the required investigation and
inventory of all the damage incurred and make the perpetrators pay for their crimes
against our precious stone.
As to trees, there will be Palestinians to replant them for generations to come.
As to human life lost in this most unjust war, time will take care of that. Living or deceased, those who committed crimes against us shall be prosecuted when this world we inhabit regains its soul.
Nahla Assali
Retired lecturer / Birzeit University
Written on behalf of friends besieged in Nablus.