Fifth Sunday of Easter

May 10, 2020

“Where God Dwells”

Acts 7:55-60 / 1 Peter 2:19-25 / St. John 14:1-14

The three texts for this Sunday are about stones:

        Throwing stones,

        Rejected stones,

        Living stones.

The readings this week bring us to stones: 

stones of death and stones of life;

stones that break down kill and destroy,

and stones that build up into eternal homes.

Stones of death…throwing stones:

St. Stephen finds himself in a tough spot.  Bold preaching leads to bold rejection.  Stopped ears, hot anger – fists around stones and throwing rocks kill Stephen.  

Stephen’s words echo the word of Christ from the cross:

‘Father forgive them…into your hands I commit my spirit…”

Imagine those first persecutors – stopping their ears like adolescent children and then taking their frustration out on the messenger by beating him to death with stones.  We may be tempted to say:  “Oh that it then – that is a once-upon-a-time story about a few immature people in the first century whose behavior can be dismissed as smug self-righteousness. 

No!  This is about us.  It is about stones of death…throwing stones.  Are there times when we’ve stuck our fingers in our ears rather than hear the uncomfortable reality?  When we continue to believe something that is not true about other religions, groups, or politicians to avoid admitting our own culpability?

This is about us whenever we wrap our fists around the stone of fear, rather than cling to the rock of love.  This is about us whenever we choose to live in illusion rather than truth.  We cling to the stone of fear whenever we choose to blame others rather than see our own responsibility.

It is about stones – stones of death that are thrown to kill the truth.  What is that truth that is smothered if not killed?

Stephen preached it.  That is why he got stoned:

⁴⁴Our ancestors had the tent of testimony in the wilderness, as God directed when he spoke to Moses, ordering him to make it according to the pattern he had seen. ⁴⁵Our ancestors in turn brought it [the tent] in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our ancestors. And it was there until the time of David; ⁴⁶who found favor with God and asked that he might find a dwelling place for the house of Jacob. ⁴⁷But it was Solomon who built a house for him. ⁴⁸Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made with human hands as the prophet says,
⁴⁹'Heaven is my throne,
and the earth is my footstool.
What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord,
or what is the place of my rest?
⁵⁰Did not my hand make all these things?'

                                                Acts of the Apostles’ 7:44-50

Stephen is talking about how God’s people domesticated God.  God was in a tent dwelling in the midst of the people.  But David consolidated power and built Jerusalem.   Then Solomon – built the Temple. 

God became the play thing of the power brokers.   “We’ve got God in a box, in a Temple – under our control.”  The Temple and the priests became more important than God’s mercy and justice.  The prophetic witness cries against a brick and mortar theology and proclaims a God in the midst of the people! 

Notice how Jesus begins his ministry in the Gospel of John.  Take a look and you will see in chapter 2 after the Wedding of Cana after using the jars meant for purification to create 600 fifths of wine for a wedding – Jesus marches into the Temple and cleanses it and says:

¹⁹Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." ²⁰The Jews then said, "This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?" ²¹But he was speaking of the temple of his body. ²²After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

The all too frequent human problem is domesticating God –creating a dwelling place for God and sticking God in that place and making a building the center of God’s people. 

So where does God dwell?

In temples made with hands…in all 23 ELCA Lutheran churches in Rockford, IL.  The all too human response to God is to build a place of worship for God and guess what happens – the bricks and mortar inadvertently become the idol. 

What do most of our churches spend their money on?  Keeping up the building!  Compare building costs of any parish to what is spent on outreach, feeding the hungry, advocating for the poor and you will find a grave disparity.   And yet we continue in this pattern.

We create space for God in a building and then keep God there –away from the rest of our lives.  God has got his place – it is in this building – not in our politics, or confronting our prejudices.  When God dwells in a place we can create the illusion that we can live a life separate from God.  

The status quo always aids the powerful and a God who dwells in one place will not affect the way things are!

It is about stones this morning – throwing stones and rejecting stones.

God’s response:  The rejected stone has become the head of the corner.  St. John talks about this rejection at the beginning of his Gospel:

¹⁰He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. ¹¹He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him.    John 1:10-11

St. Peter reminds us that in Jesus – the rejected stone –the stone tossed off as dead – God raises and places that stone at the head of the corner.  Only it is not a dead brick and mortar house that God builds.  No it is a house of living stones!

God in Christ disarms us of our stone throwing ways.  God calls us to see the fallacy of bricking God into a particular space.  God sends God’s Son to throw his tent among us. 

John writes:  ‘The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”  Where does God dwell?  God has the audacity to remain among us.  God dares to make a home among us.  God in Christ became our flesh and blood – one of us.

Where does God dwell?  Not in temples or synagogues, or church buildings or sanctuaries – but God dwells in Christ.  Christ is the decisive revelation of what a life full of God looks like.  God dwells in the healings, the compassion, the teachings, and the life of Christ.  There we see God most fully.

Yes, God is in nature – but we only get a slice of God there.  We may come to think of God as rather arbitrary and capricious if we only look to nature.

No, the God we know in Christ Jesus is a God of justice, healing, and mercy.  God dwells in Christ and in his acts of love and service to the disciples and the people.

We could conclude the sermon here and simply thank and praise God for dwelling in Christ.  We sometimes fall into the belief that Jesus has already done all the work and the rest of us only need to gather weekly to give a nod of thanks in his direction.

But God does only simply dwell in Jesus.  Jesus says;

“Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do, in fact, will do greater works than these…”   John 1:12

Where does God dwell?

Do we really expect worship to change us?  God has that expectation.  Because God dwells with you here and now! 

In the waters of baptism – God is present with a word of promise:  “Do not be afraid!  You are mine!”  God is present here and now in bread and wine where he promises to you that the body and blood of Christ is given and shed for you for the forgiveness of all your sins.”

Do we really expect worship to change us?  God has that expectation.  But do the bricks and mortar – the stones get in the way?

Here is radical life-changing news: 

God dwells in you, in me, in us! 

We are living stones. 

I have read where if the water were completely extracted from the human body all that would be left is minerals and trace elements – in other words ‘stones.’  So we are literally living stones.  God has made us into a holy building – living stones.  We are the dwelling place for the Spirit of Christ.

Christ is at the heart of our community – not bricks and mortar.  God dwells in Christ and God dwells in us.  We are the body of Christ in this place.  We are commissioned by our baptism to be living stones in this world, transforming what currently exists into the realm of God.

Amen