Church Killers: That’s MY Church—Exodus 20: 1-4; II Peter 2: 4-12
One of the most terrifying games I played as a kid was called Jenga. Perhaps some of you have played it? For those who have not, it is this great tower of rectangle wooden blocks lined up on top of one another three blocks at a time facing opposite ways. The goal of the game is that each person pulls out one block at a time then place them on top without making the tower fall from instability. To do that, you have to see and test which blocks are the anchors, or cornerstones, of this giant tower of collapsible terror. Inevitably, I always pulled the cornerstone block and caused the tower to fall to shrieks and laughter.
Our final installment of words and phrases which kill a church deals with this idea of a cornerstone. What lays at the foundation of the church? Or rather, the question should be who is the cornerstone of the church? We read in the Old Testament for today that when giving the law to the people, the Ten Commandments, God says, “I am the Lord your God…You must not have any other god but me, [and] you must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea.” The very first commandment God gives the people is to have no other gods and make no idols for themselves. We see that God is God.
In our New Testament, we also read the words, “You are coming to Christ, who is the living cornerstone of God’s temple. He was rejected by people, but he was chosen by God for great honor.” These draw on the words of Psalm 118 and Jesus himself, who in Luke 20 says, “The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.” In the Jenga game there is a stone which anchors and holds the potentially wobbly structure together. For us, as people of faith, Jesus is that cornerstone on which our faith and how we live our faith is founded.
But sometimes old idols creep in, and we see that Jesus is not always the cornerstone he should be. A friend was sitting at a church board meeting where the pastor and leaders unveiled a new vision and growth plan for the church. Though it was a strong church at the time, there was a lot of potential and room to grow. Everything they discussed was met with frowns and disapproval by the board chair. With each proposal and idea, the room became more and more tense. Finally, the pastor stopped and asked, “What is wrong? What is the issue here?” The board chair, now red-faced and angry replied, “You all want to come in here and make all these changes and mess it all up! I’ve been here longer than any of you. This is MY church. Leave it alone and stop messing things up!” After a few moments of stunned silence, the pastor quietly said, “This is God’s church. Jesus Christ is the cornerstone, not you,” then the pastor left the meeting.
Every time we hear this story of Jesus Christ as the cornerstone of the church, we hear about the rejection of that cornerstone. In the Gospel where Jesus discusses it, the religious leaders want to kill him because they know he means them. The idea is not aimed at “the world” rejecting the cornerstone. It is always in the context of Jesus chastising the religious leaders who have set human-made law or even themselves as the cornerstone of the church. That rejection of the life and work of Christ brings a faith which can be found cold and lifeless like a rock.
But I Peter goes on to say to us, “And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple.” As people of God, we are chosen and loved by God. We are called “living stones.” Instead of a cold and dead cornerstone, we are living and valuable to God and to God’s kingdom. As living stones built on the cornerstone of Christ, we are also told not to stumble over Jesus.
As Jesus is the cornerstone on which we are to build our life of faith, we should remember that Christian life imitates and participates in the reality of Christ’s life on earth. Verse 9 tells us, “For you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness and into his wonderful light.” Almost every book of the New Testament speaks in some way both of the grace Christ brings to us, but also of the calling or mission such grace gives us. It’s easy, warm and fuzzy to only talk about the goodness of God part, but the two go hand in hand. If Jesus is the cornerstone, something must then be built.
As we do this work of Christ, we find that the language and reality of our faith is not like an exclusive club or lodge—a place where words, traditions, and practiced grace are kept secret and only unto us. We should tell the story of our faith less like it’s an algebra problem and more like it’s the hottest gossip of the week. Some will respond that it’s dull and pointless, never finding the cornerstone or continuing with the idols they love, for you cannot sacrifice the idols you’re still in love with. Some will feel that faith is hostile and will stumble over the cornerstone like the religious leaders did. But there will be some who join us as living stones, building on the cornerstone and foundation of Christ.
Too often we see people building on a cornerstone that is not Christ. The words or idea that this is MY church are seen when we fail to realize that we come into God’s house to invest, not to own. The cornerstone of our faith is Christ, and the house is built by living our lives just as Christ taught us. When we are alive with this hope and grace, we can build a house of living stones. The church has never truly been brick and mortar anyway. Rocks are not living things. The living stones I Peter talks about are us—the people of God who are the church.
I think back again to playing Jenga with my friends. Each time a peg was removed from the tower and put back in elsewhere, there was a fear that the whole tower would collapse. But the truth is that so long as the structure remained anchored and supported, it would not collapse. The cornerstone of God’s church is Jesus Christ, and we are the living stones built upon this cornerstone. May we be ready for the task of building and growing knowing that we stand on the rock.
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