Sunday 10/05/14 Freeville/Homer Ave
UMC’s
Sermon Title: “The Cornerstone”
Old Testament Scripture Lesson: Psalm 19
New Testament Scripture Lesson: Philippians 3:4b-14
Gospel Lesson: Mathew 21:33-46
Brothers
and sisters, welcome on this the Seventeenth Sunday after the Feast of
Pentecost. The day of Pentecost was a powerful day indeed. For on the day of
this Christian holiday, nearly two-thousand years ago, the Holy Spirit moved mightily
through the disciples and the members of the early church. This movement of the
Holy Spirit caused the disciples and the members of the early church to speak
in tongues, and propelled them to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ far and
wide. The day of Pentecost is the official day that the Christian Church was
born.
This Sunday is
also World Communion Sunday, were millions upon millions of Christians this
day, partake of Holy Communion, the Eucharist, the Lord’s Supper, in a spirit
of Ecumenism. On this World Communion Sunday, we with millions of other
Christians worldwide, will “taste and see that the Lord is good,” and we come
together in the common unity of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ.
With all of that said, I have a question for all
of you here this morning. How many of you like to take walks in the woods? How
many of you like to spend time in the woods, in general?
For me, there
is something that I have always found soothing about nature and God’s creation.
When we go in the woods though, whether it be for a hike, for camping, and
etc., we sometimes see remnants of days gone by, don’t we? Sometimes we might
see an old structure, that seems like that it was eaten away slowly by the
foliage of the earth, as the person who owned that structure no longer lives on
that land.
Sometimes in the
woods we can stumble across an old cemetery. Maybe the cemetery is kept up by
someone, or maybe it isn’t. You see at one time there was human life and
activity there, but today the life and the activity that was present, is now just
woods, or is now just over grown land.
I remember
some of my childhood down in Orange County, NY spending time in the woods with
my friends. We would camp, play paintball, and do other fun stuff. I remember
one time that I was in the woods, I was walking alone, and then suddenly I saw
what appeared to be the remnants of an old stone fence. You know the kind of
fence that is literally a straight row of carefully stacked rocks?
As I was
walking, and as this stone fence came more into my view, I also saw the edge of
what appeared to be an old stone foundation. As I got closer, I noticed that it
was in fact, an old stone foundation. Once I got to it, I looked it over
carefully. What was immediately obvious to me, was that the house that was
there, was gone, the people who lived in that former house were gone to, and their
possessions were also gone. The fact that this land was vital and being used by
humans at one time, was now no longer the case. You see what was, was no
longer, yet the foundation was still present. My guess is, is that if I went
into those same woods down in Orange County, NY today that the foundation of
that house would still be there.
As I looked at the foundation, and as
I walked around it, the parts I could see, as it was largely overgrown, were
revealing. I then thought to myself, “the only thing that might be left of
these people, their lives, their home, could very well be, this foundation.”
Now I’m no builder, but this
foundation seemed well built to me. Sure there was crumbling in some places,
but in the corners of the foundation, I noticed much larger stones. As if these
bigger rocks were picked just for the corners, or the foundation of the home.
In our gospel reading for this
morning, Jesus, speaking of himself, said to the chief priests and the
Pharisees, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.”
When I was preparing for this sermon
then, I thought of that old foundation that I saw in the woods in Orange
County, NY when I was younger. When I read the gospel reading for this morning
therefore, I then wanted to be clear on just what was meant by a “cornerstone.”
Well, I then looked up the definition in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. The
definition said that a cornerstone is, “a stone forming a
part of a corner or angle in a wall; specifically:
such a stone laid at a formal ceremony. Or, a
basic element. Here
is a definition from WWW.Wikipedia.Com.
“The cornerstone (or foundation stone)
concept is derived from the first stone set in the construction of a masonry foundation, and it is important since all other stones will
be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entire structure.”
So this is what a
cornerstone is historically and literally. In the Apostle Paul’s epistle or
letter to the church in Ephesus, or the Ephesians, he says in 2:19-22, “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens,
but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined
together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built
together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.”
So if one views
Jesus Christ as the Messiah, and if one views Christ as the means by which we
obtain salvation, it is pretty easy to see how Jesus being seen as the “cornerstone”
places great significance on him both as a person, and in his full identity in
God itself.
It is undeniable to me then, that we
cannot have a full and a robust Christian faith, if we do not have a strong
foundation in Jesus Christ. If we do not have a strong foundation built upon a
solid “cornerstone,” on a solid rock.
Scripture says, to not build your
house on the sand, but rather to build it upon what? To build your house upon
the rock, upon the cornerstone.
The reading from Psalm 19 from this
morning says in 19:1, “Heaven is declaring God’s glory; the sky is proclaiming
his handiwork.” What is at the bottom of the foundation of our handiwork, of our
faith?
This Psalm goes on to say that God is
faithful, powerful, and that in him we can find truth, power, and a foundation
made of solid rock.
This Psalm ends with 19:14 saying, “Let
the words of my mouth and the mediations of my heart be pleasing to you, Lord,
my rock and redeemer.” My friend Pastor John Aukema who pastors the Scott UMC
and the Mid Lakes UMC, begins every sermon he preaches by reciting Psalm 19:14
in the form of prayer. It is interesting that it is said in this verse that God
is our “rock.” That God is solid and sturdy, a rock.
In the reading this morning from the Apostle
Paul’s letter to the church in Philippi, or the Philippians, the Apostle Paul
said that all the things that make him righteous, are nothing without Jesus Christ.
In fact, the Apostle Paul said, “I consider everything a loss in comparison
with the superior value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” The Apostle Paul then
says, he has given up his worldly goods and treasures to serve Christ. The
reason that the Apostle Paul serves Christ is, “The righteousness that I have
comes from knowing Christ, the power of his resurrection, and the participation
in his sufferings.”
The Apostle Paul then concludes this
portion of his letter by saying, “The goal I pursue is the prize of God’s
upward call in Christ Jesus.”
In the gospel reading from the gospel
according to Matthew from this morning, Jesus tells yet another parable or
story. This parable or story is about a landowner who took his land and “put a
fence around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a tower,” and then rented the
land to tenant farmers. This was a sort of cash cropping agreement then.
After renting this land, the gospel then
says that the land owner “took a trip.” When the time of harvest came, in order
to make sure that the fruit of this harvest was collected, the landowner “sent
his servants to the tenant farmers to collect his fruit.” When these servants
arrived, they were grabbed by the tenant farmers who rented the land, “They
beat some of them, and some of them they killed. Some of them they stoned to
death.”
The landowner then sent a second
group of servants to collect the fruit of the harvest, and again they were
treated the same as the first group. In trying to figure out how to get the
fruit that belonged to him, the landowner then finally sent his son. The
landowner said, “They will respect my son,” and when the tenants saw the son
they “threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.” They thought by doing so
that they could claim the son’s inheritance.
Jesus then asks his listeners,
including the chief priests and the Pharisees, “When the land owner of the
vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenant farmers?”
They answer was that the landowner
would kill and destroy those tenant farmers and replace them with good and
loyal tenant farmers.
Jesus then said to them, “Haven’t you
ever read in the scriptures, The stone that the builders rejected has become
the cornerstone. The Lord has done this, and it’s amazing in our eyes?” Now the
specific scripture that Jesus was citing was Psalm 118:22 that says, “The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.”
Jesus then tells the
people of Israel that God’s kingdom will be taken from them, and given to
people who will produce fruit. That if we reject Jesus Christ, the chief
cornerstone, we will lose our very lives.
That the landowner is God, and that
the people of Israel, the tenant farmers have rejected the servants, or all of
the Old Testament prophets, and now they are rejecting the landowner’s, God’s
son, Jesus Christ. So, what is the foundation of our lives built upon? What is
our cornerstone?
I would like to close this morning
with a very short story called “Two Cups.” Here is how it goes, “History has
preserved for us two magnificent silver cups from the boggy marshes of Ireland.
The first is known as the Gundestrup Cauldron and comes from a century or two
before Christ, at the time when the Irish worshiped violent pagan
gods. It is adorned with pictures of gods and warriors. One panel shows a
gigantic cook-god holding squirming humans and dropping them into a vat of oil.
These gods demand human sacrifice to appease their appetite.”
“The second cup is called the Ardagh
Chalice and comes from the seventh or eighth centuries after Christ, a time
when the Irish had turned to Christianity. Like the first it is a work of
magnificent craftsmanship, but the God it depicts is radically different. It
has a simple but intricate patterning. But this is a cup of peace, designed to
be used in communion. As the worshiper lifts it to her lips she is
reminded that this God does not demand human sacrifice, but instead sacrifices
himself for us.”
Brothers and sisters, this day, this week,
consider the houses of your souls. On what do our spiritual homes rest? What is
our “cornerstone?” If our souls are truly built upon the truth and graces of
God, of Jesus Christ, do people see this in our actions, our deeds, and how we
live our very lives? Amen, and praise be to our Lord Jesus Christ.
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