The Living Stone

“THE REJECTED STONE”
I Peter 2:2-10 (The Message)
Faith United
April 20, 2008


I read this quote recently in a magazine
called Faith At Work:
It’s called “3$ Worth of God:”
It says, “I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please,
not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep
but just enough to equal a cup of warm mile
or a snooze in the sunshine
I don’t want enough of him to make me love a black person
or pick beets with a migrant
I want ecstasy, not transformation;
I want warmth of the womb, not a new birth
I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack.
I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please.”

I think a lot of people want to know,
what does Jesus do for ME?
Why should I believe or even follow this Jesus person
who lived over 2000 years ago?
What’s in it for me?
And a lot of people that want to sell books
or seats in an auditorium
will tell you that Jesus will reward you
for believing in him
Some guys on TV will even tell you
Jesus can make you rich
or drive away all your problems
or make your life easier
if you just send in a donation
in the name of Jesus

What do I get out of it?

Others will simply tell you
you better follow Jesus if you don’t want to wind up in hell
So the motivation to follow Jesus
would be to simply avoid pain and punishment
Yet I wonder how deep their relationship with Jesus is
if they’re just loving him out of sheer terror
as if they are abused children

It’s pretty normal for us
in our culture
to want to know what’s in it for ME
What do I get out of it?
And how much do I have to put in
in order to get something out of it?

We are a culture of comfort, after all
We want to pay our money
and get something in return
We want to buy a book
that will tell us how to stop being afraid
or depressed or angry
or a book to answer all the questions we have
about the meaning of life
about what is right and good
and the right way to vote
Well, I’ll tell you, Jesus disappoints people
he did then,
he does now
because he doesn’t come looking for someone
who just wants something out of him
but he comes looking for someone
who wants to give something
who want to be a part of something bigger than themselves
something that gives their lives purpose and meaning
in the midst of so much meaninglessness

A lot of people are selling God these days
a lot of them don’t even mention Jesus
because Jesus makes things too complicated
Especially if you read his Gospels --
if you read what he said, what he did
what he taught…
because all of that can be very disturbing
for anyone wanting an easy way

One of my professors in college
once told me during a time
when I was kind of floundering,
not knowing what to do
he just told me, “read the Gospels
Read them all; Matthew, Mark, Luke and John
Get to know who Jesus was and is
what he said, what he did
what he wants us to do and to be
Read with an open heart
and ask God to challenge you
to know Jesus better
and discover what that means for YOUR life…”
I did
because this was a professor I trusted
a person that embodied the very presence of Christ
in himself and in his life
So I read the Gospels very carefully
Got to know what Jesus was all about
and I won’t kid you,
what Jesus asks is impossible
It’s not comfortable, it’s not easy
it’s not even natural
But I’ve learned over the years
that just because it’s hard
and just because it goes against my natural tendencies sometimes
doesn’t mean it’s not what I’m called to strive for

Love your enemies?
Pray for those who persecute you?
I can’t do that
Forgive someone that has crushed my heart
or someone else’s that I love?
Forget it !
And yet I know that just because I don’t like it
or I don’t want to do it sometimes
that doesn’t mean I can ignore it

I guarantee that if someone ever did anything
to hurt my husband or child
my natural response would be to want to kill them
Not to forgive them
and see them as a broken human being – no way
But just because that’s my human response
doesn’t mean that that is what Jesus would want from me

What Jesus asks is impossible
and so a lot of people forget about it
They just say, well, I believe in Jesus, and that’s enough
I’m covered
But I don’t believe Jesus really cares
if you just say you believe in him
that you believe he is the Son of God
Anyone can say that
In fact, he said once,
“Many people will say Lord, Lord,
who will not enter the Kingdom of God.”

Jesus wants more than lip service
and that’s where he trips us up
Peter says he’s the stone that makes people stumble
and the rock that makes them fall
We didn’t learn that in Sunday School, of course
The Greek word that Peter uses in this letter
is Skandalon,
which means stumbling block
Peter calls Jesus a Skandalon, stumbling block

Michael Card, a Christian singer, who in fact wrote
the song I always sing at funerals at the end,
also wrote a song called “Scandalon.”
In it, he says,
“he (Jesus) will be the truth that will offend them one and all
a stone that makes men stumble
and a rock that makes them fall
Many will be broken so that He can make them whole
and many will be crushed and lose their own soul.
Along the path of life there lies a stubborn Scandalon
and all who come this way must be offended
to some He is a barrier, to others he’s the Way
for all should know the scandal of believing…
It seems today the Scandalon offends no one at all
The image we present can be stepped over
could it be that we are like the others long ago
will we ever learn that all who come must stumble?”

Will we ever learn that all who come must stumble?

Jesus is not easy
Some people try to make him easier than he really is
by watering down what he said and did
or just ignoring what he said and did
and focusing instead on the fact that he died
as if that’s all he did

But the Gospels go to great lengths
to tell us, from four different perspectives,
some of what he said and did
in the short time that he was on this earth
And the Gospel of John assures us that
he did much more and said much more
than we can ever know

So what’s the big deal about Jesus?
Before Jesus,
God was some frightening power on the top of a mountain
that struck sheer terror into people’s hearts
No one wanted to approach God
They saw him and heard him in the thunder and the lightning
He was kept apart from them in the Holy of holies
in the temple
lest people die of absolute terror
at the presence of God
So Jesus comes
to show us the face of God
in a way that doesn’t knock us flat on our face

You want to know what God is like
you look at Jesus…
God, I believe, is a lot like Jesus….

The first verse of Scandalon says
“The seers and the prophets had foretold it long ago
that the long awaited one would make them stumble
but they were looking for a king to conquer and to kill
who’d have ever thought He’d be so meek and humble?”
We’re still looking for someone to conquer and to kill
we still want to believe that there will be someone
who will bring God back to our country
But if you read the Old Testament,
God was always lamenting that the people wanted a king
trying to tell them that a king would not solve
all their problems
in fact, a king would create more problems for them

and God urged them through the prophets
to see God as ruler of all
even over kings and empires and governments

But the people wouldn’t listen
and we still don’t listen
Sure, I know we need a president, and we will get one
But that president will be just that --
a president over a human-made government
To say that any of those candidates
is the one chosen by God
or an appointed leader of God
is a very dangerous thing
Even the kings and leaders in the Old Testament
were just that, kings and leaders
who sometimes did what was good in the eyes
of the Lord,
and sometimes, they made God’s heart break
King David, a man after God’s own heart
murdered and committed adultery!

Government leaders have always been flawed
and to expect anything more of them is dangerous
It’s all about Jesus
whatever we do--,
whatever gives us passion,
whatever gives us meaning in this life
as Christians, we are the people of God
by ourselves we are nothing
because we are called together to be the people of God
together with all the crazy people that have been called before us
and being the people of God
doesn’t make us any better than anyone else
it’s gift… it’s pure gift
and with this gift comes incredible responsibility
We are to look to the one who called us in the first place
who came down the frightening mountain of God
in the form of a man
that could have blended into the crowd
He didn’t come with a holy glow around him
he came looking like one of us
But he showed us the face of God
as he spoke, as he healed
as he challenged his people
he never took the easy way out
and he never promised a comfortable way
But he did promise us a life everlasting --
a seat with our name on it at the heavenly banquet --
but the joy and the gift of that seat
is not something we have to wait for
the joy can begin now
as we sign up to be members at Jesus’ table

Don’t do it if you don’t really want it
don’t do it if you expect Jesus to make your life easier
don’t do it if you’re afraid of standing out
or looking like a fool
or sometimes being misunderstood
Jesus was rejected from the beginning
because people wanted him to be what he is not
and they still do
they still try to make him into their image

Many of us are still looking for a king
to conquer and to kill
and yet we get the one who appears meek and humble
while the power in him
is the power of love and compassion and mercy
a power that is not always valued in this society

So don’t ask what Jesus can do for you
rather, the Gospels remind us,
as Peter reminds us in his letter,
ask what YOU can do for Jesus
with the life that you’ve been given
He is the living Stone
the source of our lives
By our world’s standards, he’s not all that impressive
he might have even be called a wimp
or a softie
and be thrown out, or tossed aside, like a rejected stone
But Peter reminds us that what we reject
God puts in a place of honor
“present yourselves as building stones for the
construction of a sanctuary vibrant with life…”
Vibrant with life…

Why do we come here?
What are we looking for?
What do we find when we come here
as a part of this community?
What is it that we find in here
that we can’t always find out there?
Here we find the stone that makes some stumble
and the rock that makes them fall
Here we encounter the one who often trips us up
and challenges us to be different
to lay aside what comes naturally
and reach for the things that are higher
and with the Jesus that we come to know
we are called to be a holy people
after the example of Christ
“Be God’s instruments in a world that’s hungering for his grace
his love, his mercy
do his work and speak out for him
tell others of the nigh and day difference he made for you
bringing you from nothing to something
from rejected to accepted …”
If we’re to be like Jesus
and to take him seriously,
we have to say we believe with our very lives
we have to reach out to those we may not want to help
we may have to think about things from Jesus’ point of view
and not our own
we have to feed the hungry,
clothe the naked, set free those who are oppressed
in body and in spirit
we are called to set the captives free
and help them come to know that they, too
are beloved of Jesus
we are called to set more places at the table
to strive and pray for the vision
that Jesus has of our world --
a world governed by peace
a world where all people are free and safe
and loved and empowered to be all that they are created to be

To follow Jesus
is not easy
it’s not always comfortable
To really get to know who he is and what he wants
can be a scary thing
because it more often goes against our natural inclinations

Have you tasted the goodness of God at all in your life?
I hope so
I hope it’s not all a head trip
or just a lot of words that you learned in Sunday School
I hope you have had the opportunity
even if only in moments
to taste the goodness of God
to experience God’s love and grace in your life
to know God’s mercy and empowerment
If you’ve had a taste of God
then I hope you’ll want to make it possible
for others to taste the goodness and mercy of God as well
Because the stone that the expert builders threw out
is the very stone that God uses
as the cornerstone
the foundation of the power of God
at work in the world
It’s not a far off eternity
that we long for
we can taste the goodness of God right now
and we can live our lives with that taste in our mouths
as we long for the fullness of God’s glory someday
“For you are the ones chosen by God,
chosen for the high calling of priestly work,
chosen to be a holy people, God’s instruments to do his work
and to speak out for him
to tell others of the night and day difference
he made for you—bringing you from nothing to something
from rejected to accepted…. “
Thanks be to God!

3$ Worth of God

I saw this quote in a magazine recently:

"3$ Worth of God:

I would like to buy 3$ worth of God, please, not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine. I don't want enough of him to make me love a black man or pick beets with a migrant. I want ecstasy, not transformation; I want warmth of the womb, not a new birth. I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack. I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please.

Wilbur Rees, Quoted in Leadership, Vol 4, No. 1"
* * * * * * * *

Yep. Don't disturb my life, God. Just keep me comfortable, and I'll pray for others that they, too, may be comfortable. But when I read the Gospels, I get a nagging feeling that Jesus' goal was not comfort.

In fact, he made people rather UNcomfortable. Which could be why he got killed.

I keep thinking of a variation on JFK's famous quote, saying, "Ask not what God can do for you, but what you can do for God." I mean, I know, I'm a pastor. I get tired of the downward trends of the mainline Christian church. I know we live in a culture that is flashy, fast, highly technological, sophisticated (in ways), etc., and the Church can't keep up. There is pressure to "get people in the door" by offering them something they'd want, as if the Church is just another stop in the WorldWide Mall. Christianity becomes another product we, people of the Church, must sell. After all, we want to be able to compete! We want to not look like fools (although Paul in the book of Corinthians pretty much assures us that that is EXACTLY what we will look like if we follow the Gospel of Jesus....)!

Someone once said recently that if Jesus saw all that was going on in his name (which he probably does, actually), he'd throw up.

I am a Christian, who happens, in this phase of my life, to be a pastor. I am a Christian first. A Christian human being. I'm still a part of the Church with all of its frustrations, bickering, money problems, scandal problems, credibility problems,... the list goes on-- because I am passionate about Jesus. And for some crazy reason, Jesus chose to use the Church as one of his vehicles to proclaim and share his Message. I think he's crazy, myself. But he didn't ask me. I think he was crazy to call an impulsive, gregarious, speak-before-he-thought fisherman like Peter to be one of his main assistants! Hello! When the going got tough, Peter bailed. Wimped out. He was always embarrassing himself. What was Jesus thinking?? Or James and John, who after witnessing all these incredible miracles and hearing the Message straight from the Messenger Himself, are concerned about their cabinet position in Jesus' new government. Or worse, yet, another version has their mother asking that they get the corner offices!!

Any of the disciples, really, don't offer much hope for leadership. Oh yeah, and Jesus calls a zealot, a tax collector, and honest, working blue collar fishermen to all work on the same team?? Was he a glutton for punishment? Or did he have a wicked sense of humor?? They all messed up. When the women told them that Jesus had risen from the dead, they're like, "yeah, right, their hormones must be acting up again."

So I guess Jesus has counted on the less than impressive since the beginning, and to me, that includes the Church throughout history: we've done some horrible things in the name of God, some of which we'd rather not talk about because it's too embarrassing. Yet, still, God wants US. God wants the Church to be vehicle of the Good News. No matter how bumbling, selfish and hormonal we get.

So I'm still here. Because I love Jesus. I wish I could tell you that you'll have everything you want if you follow him. You'll get rich (some preachers will tell you that), you'll find Mr. or Mrs. Right, you'll be concretely rewarded, and you'll get a Get Out of Hell Card Free. But the Christian life is not easy. First of all, we don't all agree. But if you look at the Orignial Twelve, well, they didn't agree either. Why do you think we have at least FOUR versions of the Gospel? And we know there are others that were lost or hidden centuries ago. Because none of us have the Whole Story. We all have bits and pieces of it, and together, it becomes more and more Whole.

Why am I a Christian when I could do something else and live more comfortably? I'm not a Christian to avoid an eternal hell-- if that were the case, I could do what I want and wait till the last minute and profess the faith. I am a Christian to help me through the hells of life on earth. I am a Christian because I feel passionately that God has a purpose for my life that goes beyond the fourscore and ten years I may live on this planet. That I am a part of something way bigger than language can encompass. I believe that God made me for the purpose of loving, giving, spreading the fragrance of God's grace and love through Jesus Christ into my corner of the world. I would do that if I was a pastor or not, it's just that God--rather aggressively, I might add-- called me to be a pastor for this time. But before I am a pastor, I am a child of God, struggling with everyone else to wrestle meaning and blessing out of the hands of God, to give me bread for the journey, that I may share with fellow travelers. And together, I hope, in our small time on this earth, I can add a little brightness to the Light that God has sent into the world. Light that will continue to grow long after I'm sitting at the Heavenly Banquet, but Light that has my own little bit of sparkle in it to carry on.

I need more than just 3$ worth of God. I need enough to sustain me every day, from here to eternity.

Something God Alone Can See

I am just easing into the internet world with baby steps. Recently, someone invited me to get on Facebook.com, so I set up a profile on there. I still have a lot to learn about it, but once I typed in my high school and colleges with graduation years, suddenly there was a display of pictures of people that looked like slightly older versions of people I went to school with. In other words, the website revealed to me other Facebook residents who happened to graduate with me from either high school or college. Wow, that was weird.

This year will be my 25th high school graduation reunion, though I doubt I'll make the trip back to New Jersey for the event. I found one of my best friends from high school on Facebook; someone I hadn't seen in at least 20 years or more. He looked the same, except now he has a real job, making real money. He's a grown-up. Why is that so weird to me? Somehow people from the past get frozen in time in memory. It was shocking to find college friends from 21 years ago, with CHILDREN! They've been entrusted with raising other human beings! This, from people who, like me, at the time, had trouble getting to class on time or finding a decent date. Of course, I have a teenage daugther of my own, and she's turning out quite well, I must say, but somehow it is difficult to imagine my friends from the '80s (a very weird decade, I might add) raising children! And from the pictures, they look like they're being fed and clothed. I guess my old friends might feel the same incredulousness at the thought of ME raising a real live person.

It's kind of a time warp, to look into the faces of people you haven't seen in 20 years. What ways have they changed? I can tell you how much I've changed in 20 years, and it's kind of exhausting, but it's hard to imagine my old friends differently from my memory of them. Isn't kind of arrogant to think your life goes on, changing and growing, while the rest of the world as you remember it in the past goes on just the same? We are funny, us human beings.

In the profile, I had to write the name of my hometown. That was a tricky question. Where is my hometown?? It's hard to say. I was a pastor's kid in the United Methodist itinerant system. That means we moved a few times. I went to elementary and junior high school in Red Bank, NJ, and high school in Woodbury, NJ. But my parents live neither place-- they live in Mississippi. I never go "home." There IS no "home." My parents' house is where they've retired in the last few years, in an area I only visited in the summers to see relatives. New Jersey is technically home as it's where I spent my first 25 years, but there's no one town I call "home." There's no "place" to return to for me, in New Jersey. Or anywhere, for that matter.

I could feel sorry for myself, but I think in this day and age, I'm not so unusual. People are moving all the time. Now I call Nebraska home, and I have no doubt I will live in Central Nebraska for as long as I have a say in it! This is home. I pray that Gibbon, Nebraska will be my daughter's hometown that in the future she can claim on a space in a form or a website profile; a place she can come home to when she's older and needs to remember who she is and where she came from.

But in the end, I realize through all of this, that nothing stays the same. And really, time is just time, a human-made construct. In essence, we are all eternal beings, we are God's created children. The details of that are too vast for my human, time-bound mind to get around, but I trust in the mystery. One of my favorite hymns, "Hymn of Promise" by Natalie Sleeth, says, "From the past will come the future, what it holds, a mystery, unrevealed until it's season, something God alone can see." I will trust God's creative Spirit to continue to shape, mold and continue to create my life and the lives of those I love. I don't have to know it all or understand it all. "Grace has brought me safe thus far," and I trust, that "grace will lead me home."

What I Learned When I Turned 40

I used to be in the category of "young pastors" in the United Methodist Church. It was nice. I would drop little comments like, "no, I don't remember where I was when JFK was shot, because I wasn't born," to my older colleagues. There was something viciously satisfying about that.

Though it's still true that I wasn't born when JFK was shot, I'm no longer considered "young." The category of "Young Pastors" has been re-termed as "Pastors Under 40," which excludes me now. I've been in my forties for almost 3 years now. I almost can't remember NOT being in my 40s, and it's not because I'm getting old and losing my memory. It's because my life changed at 40. I'd say I was "born again" but that term is overused and horribly misunderstood. It just seems like everything was so much harder before I turned 40. I wouldn't go back for anything!!

I like to say that my life began again when I moved to Nebraska for the second and last time. I don't plan on leaving this time. You can't make me. When I came to Nebraska for the first time, I had a bumper sticker on my pickup truck that said, "I wasn't born in Nebraska, but I got here as fast as I could." Unfortunately, I was "young" then, and foolish enough to leave. Thank God I came to my senses. It was in my 40th year of life.

I don't mean to insinuate that God can make mistakes, but I've thought that perhaps I got mixed up in the delivery chute from heaven and got sent to the wrong state when I was born in New Jersey. No offense against NJ, it's alright for some people (about 10 million), but I am a much calmer person since I moved to Nebraska. Well, twice.

I moved to Nebraska (again) just two days before my 40th birthday. Not knowing anyone in town, yet, I avoided the embarrasing hoopla of vultures and black balloons and coupons for Depends that so often accompanies such a landmark birthday. I don't feel old since I turned 40, actually, I've felt increasingly younger since then. It has something to do with joy. And oxygen. And wide open spaces. This is what I learned when I turned 40 and moved (again) to Nebraska:

1. You don't have to rush everywhere. You don't even have to be exactly on time.
You especially don't have to be 1/2 hour early, or you're going to be alone for
30 minutes.
2. It's ok to talk to strangers. It's ok to smile at strangers. They're just as
weird as you are.
3. Driving can be fun, even therapeutic, assuming the land is flat, there are few
other cars on the road, and the sunset is amazing.
4. Life is too short to be uptight all the time.
5. Life is too short to not enjoy yourself at least once a day.
6. It's good to take time to have coffee (or tea) with people.
7. You don't have to be alone.
8. It's good to care about other people, even if you don't always like them. There
will be a time when you hope someone else will care about you.
9. The land is God's creation, no more or less than you are. Pay attention to it.
10. God is not just in your head. God is all over the place and beyond. God is
trying to tell you something all the time-- pay attention.
11. It is absolutely necessary to have friends who will take you as you are, no
matter what kind of shape you're in.
12. It is absolutely necessary to laugh so hard your stomach hurts-- and do it
as frequently as possible.
13. It's important to tell people you love them when you do.
14. It's important to be open to learning new things, looking at things from a
different perspective, and to not assume that you know everything.
15. It's good to mix with people who aren't part of your normal circle of friends.
It's good to talk to people you wouldn't normally talk to and find out they're
no weirder than you are.
16. It's important to keep an open mind and open heart.
17. It's not always bad to know everybody and their brother or sister. You don't
have to LIKE them all, just be nice.
18. When you don't know what to do for someone in crisis, make a casserole.
19. Getting dirt under your fingernails is not a bad thing.
20. Life can be good.

That's about all I have for now on the subject. Not everybody would agree with me on some of these points, I realize. But turning 40 was not traumatic for me, it was a new opportunity, a new beginning, it's when I took a deep breath of fresh air and started actually feeling younger.

I've also learned here that death is not the enemy, but it's a natural part of life. All of creation lives and dies and is renewed, it's how God does things. We don't have to be afraid of that process. God's been doing it quite successfully forever. God loves to recycle everything, and it's usually better the second time around. I've also learned that I can't control much of anything. I wish someone had told me this YEARS ago. It would have saved me a lot of wasted energy. Terrible things happen in life, and when it does, it stinks. But it's not the end of the world, and it's not always my fault. Even if I could have done something differently, all I can do is go forward from here. There are a lot of things I can't change and it's futile to try. That includes people. I pray God gives me the wisdom to know what I can change, and leave the rest alone.

Life is good.