Saturday, May 13, 2017

Stony the Road

It’s done.  She walked across the stage, shook various hands, tried to get her service dog in training to shake at least one hand (but she wasn’t interested), got the big white envelope and smiled for the camera.  And with that it was done. Of course it was done. Of course.  We planned for this day.  We waiting for this day.  And now it’s here.  No, wait, it’s gone.  Just like that.  Gone.  Hard to believe, frankly.  Hard.  Like a stone.  A stone in the gut, weighing you down.  Sadness in a way, that it’s over. Gone.  In a blink of an eye.  A stone skipping across a quiet pond, making ripples that disappear, even as the stone sinks out of sight.  Gone.

What am I saying?  It was a good day.  A bright sun shiny day.  We were proud to watch her walk across those stones set into the ground forming the platform on which they all stood, they all passed. Built up into something new, something more.  The horizon was clear, the future is bright.  Stand on those stones and launch yourself into a new tomorrow.  I couldn’t be more proud.  

It wasn’t easy, getting this far, crossing this threshold.  It wasn’t easy for her or for us, just like it wasn’t easy for her brother last year.  There were rocks in the road, stones on the path, there were trips that made us fall, stumbles that bruised us.  But we kept walking.  They kept walking forward, over the stones and into ... what?  More stones? 

1 Peter 2:2-10 Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation--3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. 4 Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God's sight, and 5 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. 6 For it stands in scripture: "See, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame." 7 To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe, "The stone that the builders rejected has become the very head of the corner," 8 and "A stone that makes them stumble, and a rock that makes them fall." They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. 9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

A nod to Mother’s Day, I guess, Peter starts with milk, with feeding, with infancy and nurture, with tasting and seeing.  What Mother doesn’t remember those struggles and those joys?  Happy Mother’s Day, to all those who help us drink the spiritual milk, who help us grow in faith.  We are grateful.  We are better for it, for you.  Thank you.

But it’s the stones that dominate the thinking in these verses.  Come to the Stone, and be a stone, and live inside those stones.  Peter gets a little carried away, it seems.  Stones on the brain, I guess. Rocks. Rocky, that’s what they called him.  Jesus changed his name from Simon to Peter (Petros - Rock). Maybe he’s trying to return the favor.  Come to the Living Stone.  Come and let Him build you into the house He’s trying to build.  Be a stone, like Him.  A living stone.  Part of the foundation.  Part of the structure.  Be a stone, a temple made of stone.  Be a stone sanctuary, let worship take place in you.  Make worship take place in you.  We’re both the structure and the activity that takes place inside that structure.  We’re the building and the worship that inhabits that building.  It’s makes your head spin a little bit.  Which is it?  What is it?  What are we, who is He, and what in the world is a living stone?  If living water is water that moves, water that bubbles and rushes and flows, what is a living stone?  

Let yourself be built, Peter pleads with us.  Let yourself.  Not decide for yourself.  I’m going here, I’m gonna hold up this wall, I’m going to frame that window, I’m going to lie on this path.  No, let yourself be built.  Go where He wants you, where He can use you.  You’re not in charge, you’re a stone, for heaven’s sake!  You’re not the architect, you’re building material.  Be built into something greater than yourself, something you may not even see right now. Who knows what you will be? He’s not done with you yet.  

Not done.  There was a finality to today in the sun at Wittenberg University.  A door closing, a chapter ending.  It felt done.  But I have to tell you a secret.  A contentious one, at that.  Maddie defied her parents (again), and she a few girl friends went to celebrate finishing their school work by getting a tattoo.  We didn’t want her to.  Told her not to.  That’s a door that closed, I suppose.  What are you going to do?  Let it be the end?  

It’s a tiny thing, tucked behind her ear.  It’s a semi-colon and a plus sign.  It says there’s more.  More to her.  More for her.  There’s more.  That’s why we’re living stones, I suspect, and why He is a Living Stone too.  Just when you think you’ve nailed Him down, He pops up again.  Just when you think you’ve buried Him deep, rolled the dead stone over Him, He lives.  Again.  There is more. More to Him.  More to you.  More to me.  More to her.  

I want to see what’s next. 

Shalom, 
Derek 

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