August 23, 2020
Hope Lutheran Church
Pastor Mary Erickson
Isaiah 51:1-6; Matthew 16:13-20
The Stuff You’re Made Of
Friends, may grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus our Lord.
UW-Stout in Menomonie has plans to renovate their student center. The focal point of the new space includes a large fireplace. And that fireplace will be constructed from Dunnville sandstone.
Dunnville sandstone is a lovely creamy yellowish stone. It is quarried just south of Menomonie in rural Dunn County. The Mabel Tainter theater in Menomonie is constructed from this Dunnville sandstone. The ornately carved building is from another era. For Menomonie citizens, it’s the central showpiece of the community.
To have the fireplace in the Stout student center made from this local stone will shape a connection to the surrounding land of the community. It will connect students to the land and the history of the community.
Rocks and stones have a way of grounding us. They give us bearings. It’s not unusual for hikers to set up rock cairns on hiking trails. Where the way is not obvious, these cairns provide much needed landmarks in an area where one might otherwise feel driftless. For hikers not sure of their way, the stone structure created by previous travelers is much appreciated.
Rocks. Tekla is a dear lady from a former parish. Tekla hailed from Westby, Wisconsin. And like most people from Westby, that means Tekla’s people came from Norway. Tekla had the opportunity to travel to Norway. When she went, the highlight of her trip was a visit to the farm where her family came from. Tekla wanted something to remember this place of her origin, and so she took home some rocks.
They must have been significantly sized rocks, because Tekla’s suitcase ended up weighing a ton! When she went through the airport to return home, the man who checked her bag said, “Gee, what’ve you go in here, rocks?” Tekla smiled sheepishly and said, “Well, as a matter of fact, yes.”
Our reading this morning from Isaiah speaks of rocks. Isaiah says, “Look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug.”
Isaiah speaks to an Israel in exile. They are located far away from their homeland. This exile has lasted for decades. The memory of Israel and the hope of ever returning is fading away. Isaiah speaks words of hope to them.
“Look to the rock from which you were hewn! You are not from this place,” he’s saying. “You were quarried in promise, not in desolation. You were dug from hope, not despair. You come from the living God! You were quarried by God! Remember who you are, dear people!”
Israel was in need of direction. They were lost, a lost people. They couldn’t find their way home. They needed help to trace the route that would take them back to their origin, to WHO THEY WERE. But so much time had passed, the trail had been erased. Isaiah’s words were a rock cairn to help them home. “Look to the rock!” he said, “Look to the rock from which you were hewn! Remember who you are!”
Isaiah’s words continue to echo with relevance throughout the years. In our gospel reading today from the book of Matthew, Jesus asks his disciples about what people are saying about him. The disciples tell Jesus what they’ve heard. He’s definitely caught the attention of people, but they’re not exactly sure who he is. Some think that maybe he’s the prophet Elijah, long promised to return. Others think that maybe the recently beheaded John the Baptist has come back from the dead.
But then Jesus asks the piercing question: “And what about you? Who do you think that I am?” Bold Peter answers, “You are the Messiah. You’re the Son of the living God.”
Peter has been able to see to the core of Jesus. Jesus is more than a wise rabbi. There have been many rabbis full of deep wisdom, but Jesus is in an altogether different category. And Jesus is more than merely a prophet. Israel has seen many prophets, including Elijah. But what Peter has seen in Jesus surpasses the proclamations of a prophet. Jesus expresses a force beyond anything in this world. The things that Jesus can accomplish, like his healings, the raising of the dead, the power over the forces of nature, these aren’t human. This is divine. Jesus is of the same stuff as God.
Jesus tells Peter that he is right on. And then he makes a word play on Peter’s name. “Rock,” he calls him. “This is the rock on which I’m going to build my church.” This confession of Peter’s. that is the bedrock on which the Christian faith is built.
“Look to the rock from which you were hewn.” Our faith as Christians is built on the awareness that Jesus is the Son of the living God. In Christ we see the manifestation of God’s power and God’s will. When we look to Jesus, we see the heart of God. Jesus’ concerns are God’s concerns. Jesus’ compassion reveals a divine love big enough to embrace the world. And when we see Jesus, we also see the divine source of life.
In every generation, we are faced with the same search for our grounding. What is our bedrock? From which quarry have we been dug? Knowing our source reveals who we are.
And who are we? For beginners, in our origin story, we understand something very significant about humankind. We’ve been created in the image and likeness of God. There is something about each and every one of us that reflects our divine creator. And because of that, we hold that all people must be regarded with the highest of respect. Each one of us is a creation of God and somehow reflect God.
Even those we might personally despise, we need to see them as God sees them. And when we search hard enough, when we can see that glimmering light within them, we will come away with a new understanding of who they are and what they struggle with on a daily basis. This is the rock from which all of us have been hewn.
And as followers of Christ, we look to the rock of our faith. That faith was first established in our baptism. One of our traditions here at Hope is to place a rock on our baptismal bowl for every person baptized during that year. By the end of the year, we have quite a pile of rocks! One each rock is written the name of the person and the date of their baptism.
In our baptisms, we took on Christ. We were born anew in Christ. His resurrection life has become our life. We live now in that newness of life that has no end. And nothing in all of creation can take that away from us.
Those baptismal rocks remind us of the rock from which we have been hewn. We have been made anew in the image and likeness of Christ. And as we are Christ’s, we have been made to reflect the heart of Christ. Christ’s love lives within us. Christ’s reconciling grace extends through us.
Like the Israelites in exile, there will be times when we have lost the trail. The turbulence and strife of living will cloud the pathway leading us home. But the bedrock of who we are does not change: we are children of the light.
The daily awareness of our baptism will keep us grounded in our true identity. With each new day, we return to the font. We remember the rock from which we are hewn. And the light and life of Christ will fill us again, overflowing with grace and peace.
