The Living Stones of God, the senior sermon of Janet Gilmore, Class of 2007 from the Diocese of Texas, given on September 29, 2006, in Christ Chapel

Genesis 28: 10-17

Today’s readings show us that there are a myriad of ways God connects with creation. God visits Jacob in a dream, Jesus talks to Nathaniel and the angel Michael fights Satan for humanity. We can celebrate this feast day of St. Michael and All Angels with the awesome understanding of the limitless possibilities of how heavenly beings are used by God to convey God’s love and protection for us. God sometimes speaks directly to us, like God did with Noah. Or, God may send an angel like Gabriel to tell Mary she would bear God’s son. Daniel needed help interpreting his dreams and the archangel Michael arrived. You are just as special to God as these characters. They questioned their worthiness to be in direct communication with God and I do to. Would God really take the time to talk to me, assure me, interpret for me? Yes, if only I will be quiet.

Just as some people wear crosses, others wear a medallion or metal with a patron saint to protect them. Unfortunately, I could not find a patron saint of senior sermons. But, ST. Jude Thaddeus is the patron saint for desperate situations which I think is quite appropriate.

This great book we call the Bible is one continuous love story of a God that seeks each of us out individually, carefully, thoughtfully telling us: I love you and you are my own. But as Bruce Feiler says in his book Abraham, “being human is being uncertain, being on the way to an unknown place. Being on the way to God.”

This is where we find our very human and flawed Jacob. Jacob is running. Running to where he knows not. Tires out and collapses finding nothing better than a stone for a pillow. Here, alone, in this desolate place God speaks to him. God tells Jacob God loves him. Jacob needs to fully comprehend that he is more than just a descendent of Abraham, a grandchild of God’s love; he is a child of God in his own right. This is Jacob’s time to have a relationship with God that is not inherited but his personal, individual relationship with God. God’s relationships with humanity are as children of God, uniquely tailed for each of us.

Jacob was surprised at the presence of God at Bethel and I have to admit that there are times that I loose awareness of God’s presence. I need the assistance of someone else to shine a flashlight and illuminate what I cannot see. It would be helpful for me if there was yellow police tape cordoning off specific places that told me “God is/was here.” like on a CSI show. Then, I wouldn’t have to always be looking for where God was working in the world. That’s my problem, I’m looking for the tape instead of looking inward, God is here (touch my heart).

As Jacob awakens from his dream, he takes the stone from beneath his head and builds an altar to God, a place to worship and give thanks to God. Jacob shows us the innate need for humans to build something, create a sacred space to worship God. Generations have built their stone churches, anointed them with incense and fine linens and centered their commitment to God within those walls. We build our communities of faith upon the rules, written and unwritten, that control the worship of the people. But unlike the stone altar that Jacob left behind, our churches can become something attached to us that we often idolize and revere or they become so heavy and burdensome that we become immobilized.

Yes, we need places to worship God, places to rest in God’s word and sacraments, places to encourage us to go out and do God’s work but these places cannot become more important than the love of humanity. YHWH came to Jacob, Christ came to us, we must go to the children of God, the poor, the widowed, the orphans. We cannot do this if we hide behind the stone walls, or lifting the stone tablets of the 10 Commandments so high and out of reach of humanity that we risk dropping them and watching them break into unrecognizable pebbles.

But we do recognize some of these pebbles, they are pride, racism, elitism, power and conceit. They are the deadly words we use, the pieces of scripture we dissect from the Bible all used to quell the meek, the questioning, and the inquisitive. But, we continue to pile the stones higher and higher often extinguishing the inner fire of unique relationships with God. We must remember that with no 2 humans alike there will not be 2 human/divine relationships that are alike. One of the vilest things we can do is to sever this sacred, unique, individual relationship each of us has with God. How arrogant of us to think that we can make the infinite – finite. Why would we even want to try? I want God to be bigger and better than I am, for I am acutely aware of my failings and want God to be more than I can be. Could the same small stones that David used in his sling shot to kill Goliath be the same stones that were picked up years later to stone the adulterous woman? We must be careful of what we do with the stones we have access to, for they can be used for both good and evil, building or destroying.

God wants something different from us. God wants us to carry the memory of the altars and the words on these tablets, in our hearts, minds and souls. But often it’s only in the wilderness, where it is quiet that we listen and hear only God’s voice. God calling us out of our safe niches, challenging us, never allowing us to be complacent, never allowing us to know it all, never leaving us alone. God’s people are never static. We are always nomads. Moving, talking, praying, building, going wherever the proclamation of God’s love needs to be heard and seen. Don’t expect to stay in one place if you follow God’s call. Show me where in the Bible, Old or New where God’s people were stationary and I’ll show you where they got themselves into trouble. Casting golden calves, turning a deaf ear to the prophets, making the letter of the law more important than spirit of the law. So keep moving, keep transforming, keep stretching the yellow tape, keep jumping over the stones.

But I dwell too much on the physical stones; what God asks is for us to build up the kingdom of God and God has given us all the supplies we need, if we will only just use them. You know them; they are written upon your heart by the Holy Spirit “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Gal 5:22)” If we use these gifts, then we will more vibrantly imitate the nature and love of God. We can show love while helping others in abusive relationships. We can be compassionate when managing a crisis. We teach acceptance when faced with difference. Of course this is antithesis to what our culture teaches; We must look out for ourselves for who else will do it. If you’re too nice to people they’ll take advantage of you. If the poor really wanted to get ahead, they’d learn English, do better in school, take a bath. But this is not what God teaches. We are to love God and our neighbor, showing hospitality and charity in all we do and say.

If we are called to build up the kingdom of God: then, we must have the altar of God within us as well as about us. 1 Peter (2:5) tells us: “ you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood ” We are the living stones, the altars of God and we must be willing to be used for God. We can pray for those who have no one to pray for them; we can love someone who feels there is no one to love them. Rarely do we see a single stone just lying in the road. These stones are stacked together, in community. We must support each other in this royal priesthood, gaining strength from one another. We encourage those that feel weak so that we are all strengthened in knowledge that God is ever present, ever loving. It is in our relationship with each other that God is truly known. God is community.

In different ways each of us has been drawn here by a call from God, something has been stirred up in us in such a way that we have left the safety of our old lives and followed a new path strewn with stones. From the first chapter of Genesis to the last chapter of Revelations the Bible is a story of an ongoing, flawed, human, divine, glorious tale of relationship. Relationship and covenant with a God who is just as emotional as we are but more loving and accepting.

“Tell the children I love them, God.” was on a billboard is saw on I35 just north of Temple last week. The writers of Genesis & Galatians, Ruth &Romans, Ester & Matthew, Proverbs and Revelations reveal to us God’s love for humanity. But we can’t just speak the words to tell the children God loves them. We must show the children God loves them. Don’t rely on the stone church of one denomination or one faith to tell them of God’s love. Call upon the gifts within you, call upon the relationship with God you have that makes you unique. I come before you today as an Episcopalian, as a Jew, as a Christian but most importantly, as a precious child of God. Sarah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were wandering humans without any denominational identity and we shouldn’t limit or label ourselves either. We are the people of the Book, a love story of the One who created the heavens and the earth; the One who lived amongst us in human form.

God builds us up, equips us and uses us. The stones aren’t there to trip you up, but to be used to build altars to God, people of God. Always remember “you are the living stones of God” contributing, in your unique way, to the building of God’s kingdom.

But if at times you get a little shaky and can’t quite believe this, I’ll lend you my St. Jude medallion and we’ll do it together.

Amen.