Freeville/Homer Ave. UMC's - Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost/World Communion Sunday - 10/05/14 Sermon - “The Cornerstone"

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.