Living Stones

A sermon preached at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, Haw River NC on their honoring my parents May and Tom Gibson's service.

 November 14, 2010

Luke 21:5-19

When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, Jesus said, "As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down."
They asked him, "Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?" And he said, "Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, `I am he!' and, `The time is near!' Do not go after them.
"When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately." Then he said to them, "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven.
"But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. This will give you an opportunity to testify. So make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance; for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your souls."

          My wife Cindy and I have been renovating our kitchen.  We live in a split level house built in 1968.  Other than cosmetics, such as paint and new vinyl, nothing had been done to the kitchen since the house was built.  The first step was totally gutting it.  The workmen took everything!  Cabinets, paneling, insulation!  We took it down to the studs!  This week the cabinet maker installed the new cabinets.  That was very exciting!  When the truck pulled up in front of our house, Cindy looked at me with a big smile on her face and exclaimed, “The new cabinets are here!”  This process, as you can imagine, though, has not always been exciting!  After the twenty-third take out dinner, Cindy glumly said she thought she would never get tired of eating out.  The primer smell almost drove us out even though we picked one with a low odor.   Dust, dirt and disorder have filled every square inch of our house despite our best efforts to keep it clean and maintain some semblance of order.  The process of tearing down and rebuilding is never easy.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus foretells the destruction of the Temple.  The Temple had stood for almost 500 years.  The Babylonians destroyed it in 587 BC.   The Judeans rebuilt the Temple in 516 BC.  Herod the Great began a massive renovation and expansion in 19 BC.   He transformed the Temple into one of the wonders of the ancient world.  In order to expand the Temple precinct, Herod built the Temple Mount, one of whose retaining walls is the famous Wailing Wall where Jews pray to this day.  The new Temple Mount dominated the city of Jerusalem.  Tunnels were built from the street level to the top of the mount.  Jesus and countless pilgrims emerged from these tunnels onto the sprawling Court of the Gentiles surrounded on three sides by broad colonnaded porticos with the Temple shining in the distance.  Herod imported white marble for the Temple itself.  The marble gleamed compared to the local limestone used for Jerusalem’s other buildings.  It truly was, as the Gospel says, adorned with beautiful stones.   The Temple was an awe inspiring sight!  All of this would be destroyed approximately 40 years after Jesus’ death when the Romans conquered Jerusalem in 70 AD.   The destruction of the Temple was devastating.  The Temple and its sacrificial system had been the center of Jewish life.

Out of the Temple’s destruction emerged two new faiths: rabbinic Judaism, centered on the Torah and the Law, and Christianity, centered on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Neither would have emerged the way it did without the destruction of the Temple as horrible as it was.   While today we often think of the building as the church, the community of believers, the body of Christ itself, for early Christians was the church, the Temple of our Lord.  Etymologically, the word “church” comes from the Greek word, kuriakon, which simply means “the Lord’s.”  A building was only called a church in the second century AD when the number of Christians grew to the point they needed buildings specifically for their worship.  The church at first met in people’s homes.  In truth, you and I are the church, the body of Christ.  A building is important for our common life together.   You have done a great job, St. Andrew’s, improving your grounds and the building.  It has never looked so good!  But buildings and grounds are only tools for the faith community.  St. Peter wrote in his first letter, “Come to [Jesus], a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God's sight, and 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” (1 Peter 2.4-5).  Founded on the rock that is Jesus Christ, we Christians are the living stones of his spiritual house.  We are the Temple of Jesus Christ.  Our service to our Lord and to one another is our spiritual sacrifice to God.

I am thankful to be with you today to honor my parents’ service to St. Andrew’s.  When I talked to my dad this week, he said he was embarrassed the church was making a fuss.  My mom and dad did not seek recognition.  They were simply faithful servants.  As long as I can remember, they served Christ first at Christ Church, Roanoke, Virginia, where my brother Pete and I grew up, and then here at St. Andrew’s.  I always thought of my parents as such faithful servants of Christ that I was a little shocked to learn they did not attend church after they first moved to Roanoke!  I cannot remember a time growing up that Dad was not a lay reader or a member of the vestry.  He worked around St. Andrew’s, doing odd jobs fixing, wiring, and making Brunswick stew.  Being a good Episcopalian, he drank some beer while he was making that stew, too.  My mother sang in the choir, served as the church’s treasurer, participated in the ECW, and worked with outreach activities.  She was always a cheerful support for a friend in need.  My parents’ example of service to the body of Christ is one of the main reasons why I was ordained a deacon twenty years ago on November 10 here at St. Andrew’s.  Dad, my father and my friend, I want to publicly thank you for the gift of faith and service that you and Mom gave to me.

As thankful as I am that you St. Andrew’s are honoring my father and mother, today is less about my parents than it is about Christ’s call to each of us to serve, to be living stones, to be the new Temple of Jesus Christ.  This is easier said than done. Tearing down the old Temple of self, letting go of our self-centered lives, requires us to wrestle with our endless acquisitive desires for more.  Taking up the cross of Christ, living lives centered upon God is the work of a lifetime and, for most of us, beyond.  The Gospel challenges you and me here today to tear down the walls of the old Temple of self to become the new Temple of Jesus Christ, to become living stones, to become servants of our God and of our neighbor.  AMEN.