This is the time of year when we begin to read stories of the people who would be the foundation for what would come to be the Christian faith. Our readings for today give us a handful of ways to look at our own stories. If you so choose, please read all of each reading as you go along...
Acts 7:55-60 tells us the story of Stephen, the first martyr, who one day, while going about his business, looked up and saw heaven, with Jesus at the right hand of God. When he attempted to tell others around him what he saw, they closed their ears and their hearts and hauled him off to stone him to death for what they heard as blasphemy. Those misguided people are long forgotten, but we still remember Stephen and tell his story today.
John 14:1-14 gives us the story of Jesus, on the night before his death, trying to tell his disciples what was coming and how they should continue to live, assuring them he would always be with them — never leaving them (or us) to live out our own stories alone. Jesus is the heart of our stories and will always be.
1 Peter 2:2-10 gives us one of the earliest sermons, describing Jesus as “the stone that the builders rejected,” and our subsequent relationship to that all-important cornerstone. “Come to him,” we are told, “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.”
After Jesus’ death and resurrection his followers couldn’t just go back to the way things had been before. Instead, they moved forward to build something totally new, something never seen before. They built a new spiritual house on the cornerstone that was Jesus -- the house where we live today.
Many of the things we have always taken for granted have been torn apart by COVID-19 in recent weeks. When the worst of this is over we are not likely to just go back to the way things have always been. Many of us have discovered we don’t want to go back to the “same olds” such as hunger and racism and classism and homelessness and the huge divide between the rich and the poor. We actually look forward to building something new and better.
We each have a story we tell ourselves about who we are. Where does your story come from — and where does it fit in the bigger story of the new kingdom we started building with Jesus 2000 years ago? Where does it fit in a whole new story we might build for the future?
What would you like to see built differently if we have a chance to build better this time? And how can we, as individuals and, particularly, as a church, help to build it? Where is our role in building a better world for all God’s beloved children?
We weren't planning to do this, but we have had the opportunity dropped on us seemingly out of nowhere. This is our chance to right some wrongs, to build new communities of caring. Where does your personal story fit into this dream of a better world?
Acts 7:55-60 tells us the story of Stephen, the first martyr, who one day, while going about his business, looked up and saw heaven, with Jesus at the right hand of God. When he attempted to tell others around him what he saw, they closed their ears and their hearts and hauled him off to stone him to death for what they heard as blasphemy. Those misguided people are long forgotten, but we still remember Stephen and tell his story today.
John 14:1-14 gives us the story of Jesus, on the night before his death, trying to tell his disciples what was coming and how they should continue to live, assuring them he would always be with them — never leaving them (or us) to live out our own stories alone. Jesus is the heart of our stories and will always be.
1 Peter 2:2-10 gives us one of the earliest sermons, describing Jesus as “the stone that the builders rejected,” and our subsequent relationship to that all-important cornerstone. “Come to him,” we are told, “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.”
After Jesus’ death and resurrection his followers couldn’t just go back to the way things had been before. Instead, they moved forward to build something totally new, something never seen before. They built a new spiritual house on the cornerstone that was Jesus -- the house where we live today.
Many of the things we have always taken for granted have been torn apart by COVID-19 in recent weeks. When the worst of this is over we are not likely to just go back to the way things have always been. Many of us have discovered we don’t want to go back to the “same olds” such as hunger and racism and classism and homelessness and the huge divide between the rich and the poor. We actually look forward to building something new and better.
We each have a story we tell ourselves about who we are. Where does your story come from — and where does it fit in the bigger story of the new kingdom we started building with Jesus 2000 years ago? Where does it fit in a whole new story we might build for the future?
What would you like to see built differently if we have a chance to build better this time? And how can we, as individuals and, particularly, as a church, help to build it? Where is our role in building a better world for all God’s beloved children?
We weren't planning to do this, but we have had the opportunity dropped on us seemingly out of nowhere. This is our chance to right some wrongs, to build new communities of caring. Where does your personal story fit into this dream of a better world?
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