This past week we had ten youth from Lutheran High School of the Rockies help tidy up our church property.  One of them asked about the large limestone rocks behind the church, and I told how they were left over from last year when we completed the water catch basin for our parking lot.  Now we're saving those big ones for a future Prayer Garden made of rocks and shrubs and benches between the church and the Fellowship Hall, a quiet place where God's people can meet Him outside.  It's only in the dream stage right now, but one day it will be a reality.

          Fred Schwartzwalder's hobby was collecting rocks.  Weekend after weekend he roamed the hills, bringing home new samples for his collection.  After his basement was filled to capacity he started building a rock garden in his backyard which grew larger and larger each year.

          In 1950 Fred bought a Geiger counter to test for radioactivity, and after poking around his backyard rock pile, it began to make noise.  When he found the radioactive rock, he couldn't remember where he'd found it.  For three solid months he retraced his steps through the foothills until at last he discovered the spot where he had broken off the sample from an outcropping on Indian Head Mountain.  Again the Geiger counter went wild.  After many difficulties he managed to transport several tons of the ore to a government processing plant in Salt Lake City.  Three weeks later he learned that he had hit upon one of the most significant uranium deposits in the United States.  That long-forgotten rock in his back yard made him wealthy beyond his wildest dreams.  It is amazing what riches are sometimes found close at hand.  But nobody needs a Geiger counter to lead him to the greatest treasure of all--the riches of the Holy Bible.

          Today's Bible text has an interesting metaphor - living stones.  One thinks of rocks as lifeless and hard, but through the miracle of faith in Christ, God makes us living stones who are placed side by side with other living stones until we form a living temple.  It's not by our own reason or strength that this happens, but because of the blood which Christ shed for our sins on Calvary.  His sacrifice on the cross makes us acceptable to God, and by His wounds we are healed.  And now being healed, we become living stones in the temple of God, and a holy priesthood able to offer sacrifices acceptable to God because of Jesus.

          The Bible calls Him the Rock of Ages (Psalm 19:14).  Israel is filled with stones and rocks of all sizes and shapes.  Houses are built of stone and graves cut out of the rock.  The whole city of Jerusalem is built on a limestone mountain, and much of the Israeli farmland is made up of decomposing granite, rich in minerals and nutrients.  Rocks there are used for everything, even as weapons.  The Old Testament civil laws allowed for stoning people for various offenses, and these days young angry Palestinians stone Israeli soldiers in a tragic conflict of passionate hatred.  No matter what other governments try to do, the land that brought us the Prince of Peace will never have true peace until the end of time.  It's a sad fact.

          Stones were used to build altars to honor God.  In the Old Testament whenever God did something amazing, the people of Israel were told to set up "standing stones" as a primitive but lasting memorial to recall forever what God did there.  Still today you can find dozens of these tall standing stones at high places crucial to Hebrew history.  Only today people no longer know why they're there.  Now they're just curiosities for tourists to photograph.  They were once a place of miracles, but now no one knows why they are there.  How easily we people forget what God has done for us!  Little wonder He loses His patience with mankind now and then.

          The New Testament is rich in rock imagery, and it nearly all points to Jesus.  In today's lesson He is called the Living Stone (1 Peter 2:4) "rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him."  St. Paul calls Him the Corner stone (Ephesians 2:20) on which the apostles have built the church.  He's also the Stumbling Stone (Romans 9:32) that causes the enlightened people of this world to trip and fall over their worldly wisdom.  St. Peter calls Jesus the Capstone of the Arch (1 Peter 2:7), the one that holds the rest of the stones in place.  Jesus is the Rock of our Salvation who shed His blood that we might be forgiven.

          And here we, too, are called stones, "living stones" made alive by the blood of Jesus.  We're also "standing stones" that testify to the grace and mercy of God who made us alive while we were still dead in our trespasses and sins.  And so St. Peter calls us, "living stones, being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood."

          Last Thursday I held a graveside service at Ft. Logan National Cemetery, where I viewed once again its thousands of marble standing stones, each one honoring the life of a fallen soldier.  Ft. Logan is a peaceful yet moving place, and although I've officiated at two dozen or more committal services there, the sight of all those white marble headstones never fails to grip me.  Some are for those who fell in battle, but most honor the men and women who died later on.  Each stone not only stands for a soldier, it also stands for a life.  Each time I see those stones I wonder what kind of life was behind the name, rank and service branch etched on it?

          And silently, within my heart, I always wonder what my own headstone will represent.  And in years to come when you have a stone standing over your final resting place, what kind of life will it represent?  Will yours be a life of service or of selfishness?  Will it be a life of faithfulness or foolishness?  Will your life have been cemented into Christ the solid rock, or will it have rested atop shifting sands that never stand for anything, always moving, blown about by the winds of the latest fad, the latest purchase, or the latest deceitful and empty bit of human wisdom?

          Jesus once told a story about two men who built a house.  Actually it was about building a life, and this is what He said:  "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.  The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house;  yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.  But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.  The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash." (Matthew 7:24-27)

          Will we be the wise man or the foolish man?  Will we build our lives on sand because it's easy, or will we do what is right?  Today if something is hard, people find an easier way.  Followers of the modern "Cult of Ease" worship whatever is faster, simpler or more painless.  But no one ever said being a follower of Jesus Christ would be easy.  It never is.

          The world and Satan pull and yank us away from Christ, enticing us with whatever feels good and comes easily.  If it feels good, do it.  Sex is natural, so kids shouldn't resist it.  Truth is relative, so you have no right to criticize me or what I do.  The right to choose has become more sacred than the right to live, and Christians have become the world's preferred target.  All roads lead to God we're told.  Even some Christians think Allah is just another form of Jesus, so we shouldn't criticize his followers.  But Allah does not exist.  He's an illusion.  His followers are condemned to hell because they're following a fictional god.  Jesus gave His life for people who knew not what they were doing, and millions of us still don't.

          God will not be made fun of.  His people may suffer and die just for being Christians, but God will not be the loser of this battle.  St. Paul wrote, "Do not be deceived:  God cannot be mocked.  A man reaps what he sows.  The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction;  but the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life." (Galatians 6:7-8)

          The smartest human being has the IQ of a chicken compared to God.  He's more powerful than our biggest atomic bomb.  Foolish is the man who thinks God is an invention of the mind.  He is real, and He is alive, and He is coming back one day soon to judge the living and the dead.  Great and terrible will be that day for those who have trusted in their cleverness.  But joyful and triumphant will be that day for those who have remained faithful to Christ, the Rock of Ages.

          Finally, my friends, always remember that your faithfulness will not bring you to heaven.  We must never allow the idea that because we've been obedient, or because we are needy, or because we are earnest in our faith, that therefore God will hear our prayers.  We have no right to God's grace;  He only can give it freely.  There is only one way to God, and that is through Jesus.

          Because He died for our sins, we are made acceptable.  Because He went through the agony of Calvary, we can enter His presence.  Our faith life must rely entirely on Jesus.  God is never impressed with our earnestness, but only with our faith.  Our greatest need is not to do good things, but to believe the right things.  Salvation is not an experience;  it is a great act of God which He did for us in Jesus, and we must build our lives on that fact.  God grant us faith to trust the Rock of Ages who will make us Living Stones and shape us into a Living Temple dedicated to Him.  Amen

Copyright © 2002 by Pastor Bob Tasler.  All rights reserved.