Scriptures for today are Here.
Well, I see you’re all still here too. Either the Rapture didn’t happen yesterday, or else none of us made the cut. Which is fine with me, because I’m not ready to leave yet. As far as I can tell, there is still plenty of work for Christians to do right here.
Our scriptures today tell us something about how Christians live right here. The question these scriptures ask is: how do we live in the in-between time? To show you what I mean by the in-between time, I have the Story Stick. The children know that when I bring out the Story Stick, it usually means I have a story for the children. And I do want to ask the children to help me with something in a minute, but first let me explain the Story Stick. It has pictures on it that explain all of salvation history, from the creation of the world at the very bottom, on up through Noah’s Flood and Moses and the building of the Jerusalem Temple, to right here, where Jesus is born. Then it has pictures of a lot of things that Jesus did, like feeding 5,000 people with a few loaves and fishes, then it has his death and resurrection. Then up here at the very top is what hasn’t happened yet – the moment when each of us will stand in front of Jesus and see him face-to-face. That moment will come someday, but in the meantime, each one of us lives our entire life in the in-between time – between Jesus’ life, death and resurrection down here, and the moment of his Second Coming, up here. And the question for today is, how do we live in the in-between time?
Well, our scriptures tell us something about that today. Our Acts lesson is about a new path to salvation arising: Stephen is the first Christian martyr, and our scripture lesson for today doesn’t include the whole story. Basically, Stephen is stoned to death for declaring that the Temple is no longer necessary; that Christ offers salvation through a new kind of Temple – Jesus Christ. Stephen is talking about the dawning of a new era through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and it costs him his life.
Our Gospel lesson talks about what is to come, way up on the top of the Story Stick: on the night before he dies, Jesus tells his disciples not to be worried about what is coming, because he will come again and will take us to himself – Jesus is preparing a spiritual home for us. The way I read this, we don’t have to get anxious or troubled about heaven, the Rapture, the Second Coming or anything else – whatever God has in store for us, we can count on it, we can put our trust in Jesus – his promises are rock solid, he will show us the way. Salvation is the free gift to us through Jesus Christ, and we don’t have to do a thing to earn it – it is already ours.
But here’s the question: how do we live in the in-between time? In between the life, death, resurrection of Jesus, and the time we will stand before Jesus, and see him face-to-face. Because honestly, this is the most vital question of our lives – we will all live our entire lives in this in-between time. Christ has risen, and Christ will one day take us home. But in between, God has given us the gift of this world, and this life; the gift of love and family, the gift of church, the gift of work and service, the gift of a calling to live in the light of the Resurrection. And how do we live in the in-between time? This is what 1 Peter addresses – and to look at 1 Peter, I’d like to invite the children to come forward and help me.
So right here, children, I have some Duplo blocks. We are going to build a building together. To build a building, you have to have a foundation, something solid to build it on so it doesn’t fall down. So I’m going to put this yellow thing here as a foundation. Now here are some blocks, and we’re going to call them stones, and I’m going to give them to you. Here’s a Jaclyn stone, and an Alec stone, and a Charlotte stone, and an Evie stone. Now can you put those four stones right here, as four corners of a building? I have a whole tub full of stones, and I want all the children to take one and build a church building right here. (Children build building.)
Thank you, children. What the Bible says in the lesson from 1 Peter that we read today, is that we are like a building – you and me. The church is like a building that is built on the foundation of Jesus, who is a solid foundation who will never fall down. And every person here is a living stone, which is built on that foundation. And all of us together make the church. The church is built out of stones like us – a Jaclyn stone, and a Virginia stone, and a Bob stone, and a Susan stone. The church is not a building – it is a group of people like us who build our lives on Jesus. Thank you children, you can go sit down now and I’m going to talk to the adults.
You all know that we are going to be building a church building, and that the foundation of any church is Jesus Christ – as we sang in our opening hymn – Christ is made the sure foundation, Christ the head and cornerstone. But when Peter wrote his epistle that we read this morning, and talked about building a spiritual house, with a solid foundation, built of living stones, he was not talking about building a church building. Peter was talking about us, the community of faith, as the true church. He is talking about how God is building new Temple not made of human hands. You and I form the walls of a spiritual house that will be the living sign to all the world that God is offering salvation to the world through Jesus Christ.
And to a community that is asking the question – how do we live in the in-between time – between Christ’s resurrection and his coming again? To that question Peter answers, let yourselves be built up into a spiritual house that will live lives sacred to God. At our baptism, he says, we become spiritual infants, ready to be nourished with God’s living word and sacraments (spiritual milk), which is what we do here in church. And we must receive a steady diet of this spiritual milk in order to grow up into the salvation Christ has freely offered, to become the Christian Temple God has called us to become – the spiritual diet we receive as part of a church community. As living stones of God’s new Temple, we are rooted in God’s salvation, the foundation or cornerstone that is Jesus Christ. And we are also rooted in God’s creation, this world where we live our lives. Our purpose in this world, this world that God loves, in this in-between time, is to become “a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”
In other words, we are not just here to enjoy Christ’s promise of salvation ourselves. We are here to proclaim it to others, through our words and our actions. We are here to offer spiritual sacrifices – a word that means setting something apart, making it sacred, consecrating it to God – we make our lives sacred. And so we, as the spiritual Temple of God, offer ourselves and the community around us to God, working for healing, justice and peace; feeding and helping the poor, hungry and homeless; bringing up children in the knowledge of Jesus Christ; forming disciples by nourishing them with the spiritual milk that is God’s Word and Sacrament. That’s what the church does, and that’s what makes it a Temple of Christ’s salvation – not walls and windows and rooms; not even an altar.
If we ask why we are building a church building, it is not because a church building is the house where God lives. God lives in a house not made of human hands; God lives in us, because we are the Body of Christ. We are the Temple God offers to the world as a sign of Christ’s salvation. We are the ministers – the children, the youth, the adults, the musicians, the builders of houses through Habitat for Humanity, the proclaimers of God’s Word – we are the holy priesthood God has sent to the world God loves. The church we are building will be the home for those ministries, the tool God uses to empower the ministries of the real church, which is the Temple not built out of human hands, the Temple built on the one true and lasting foundation: Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Alleluia!
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