The Reverend Mike Riggins 4/4/21

Easter

The Cornerstone

Psalm 118:14-24
Acts 10:34-43

If we were to place the container cargo ship Evergiven on 7th St., with its bow at

the corner of Larry Bird Ave., its stern would lay a quarter of a mile south, at the public

library. Its height, from the keel resting on the blacktop to its deck, would tower over

the peak of our roof. (Note this refers only to the deck. The superstructure would rise

up half again as far.) If we were to snug one side up against our building's front, the

beam (or width) would extend into the courtyard on the other side of the administration

building across the street. Container cargo ships are the largest mobile machines

ever devised by humanity. Last week high winds blew the Evergiven's bow sideways,

driving it into the mud and rip rap lining the eastern wall of the Suez Canal. The stern

lodged against the western wall. It took a week to unstick the ship. The disruption to

shipping caused a multi-billion dollar shock to worldwide economies.

Does your life ever feel you have turned sideways and gotten stuck in the mud?

Do you ever feel your failure to move damages and delays others? Build on the

cornerstone. Do so and you cannot be blown off course.

King David wrote Psalm 118 after winning a victory he attributed to the Lord's

intervention. Scholars disagree over the form of this victory. Until about 80 years ago
most assumed it was military; based, however, on scholarship by the formidable

Mitchell Dahood, commentators now believe King David gave thanks in this poem

following his recovery from a deathly illness. Regardless, it has since New Testament

times been one of the Psalms families sing around the Seder table during their

Passover celebrations. Our verses contain a call and response between the king

(sung by the family patriarch) and the temple priests (sung by all other family

members). “The Lord is my strength and my salvation,” sings the king. He continues

to praise the Lord's work until he demands the gates of the city be opened to him, “that

I might enter through them and give thanks to the Lord.”

The people respond, “This is the gate of the Lord, only the righteous may enter

through it.” (This translation, which varies slightly from our Revised Standard Version,

comes from Dahood.) The king sings back to the effect that the Lord's vindication has

made him righteous enough to enter. And how has God done this? “The stone which

the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” King David sees himself as that

stone, deemed unacceptable to the builders (human power brokers) but used by the

Lord to build not just the temple, nor even the city walls, but the whole nation of Israel.

(Humility was apparently not one of David's virtues.)

In our times cornerstones serve only ceremonial functions. They have nothing

to do with a building's foundation, appearing as they do as part of a wall at about

human knee height. To ancient Hebrew masons, however, the structural integrity of

the whole building depended on finding the right cornerstone. The first stone laid, the
cornerstone established the proper angles and formed a key part of an interlocking

system to support the entire project. Yes, King David did see himself as that crucial to

Israel—and to God's plans for it.

Though both Simon Peter and Paul quote Psalm 118:22 elsewhere in the New

Testament, Peter did not directly reference it in the passage we just read from Acts. It

makes no matter. The concept supports his thought just as surely as a cornerstone

supported a building. Peter “opened his mouth” (Acts 10:34) because a Roman officer

named Cornelius had seen a vision in which an angel told him to send for Peter.

Cornelius, a Gentile, had earned a reputation as a godly man. It seemed God wished

to reward him. Peter answered the summons. (Luke, the author of Acts, rather dryly

tells us Cornelius greeted Peter with, “you have been kind enough to come,” as though

any subject of the Empire could possibly refuse.) Cornelius told Peter he wanted to

hear “all that you have been commanded by the Lord.” Peter told him.

He began, “Truly I perceive that God shows no partiality.” Having already

received his vision of a net descending from heaven with both kosher and non-kosher

food in it, and a voice telling him to feast on all of it, Peter knew that salvation through

Jesus Christ belonged to all the nations. Still, Jesus was a Jew, fulfilling the words of

the Hebrew prophets. He came preaching Good News throughout Judea. God gave

him the power of his own Holy Spirit. He “did good and healed all that were oppressed

by the devil. “They” put him to death “by hanging him on a tree.” But God resurrected

him. “And he commanded us to preach...and to testify that he is...to be judge of the

Jesus “receives forgiveness of sins.”

That offer still stands. Though Jesus is the stone rejected by the builders, the

man the Jews and Romans conspired to crucify, he has become the foundation of our

salvation. Upon faith in him is the church built. He is the Rock. And here would be

the time to remind ourselves that Simon was actually Peter's given name. Jesus

renamed him Peter. Peter comes from Latin. If means “rock”. Acts 10 concludes with

Cornelius and his entire household confessing their faith in Jesus—standing on the

Rock—and getting baptized.

Build on the cornerstone. Build on your faith in the risen Savior, Jesus of

Nazareth. His resurrection is, of course, the primary point of Easter. But the point of

the resurrection is to show forth his power over death, that we might believe in him as

the Messiah and have life. Build on that cornerstone. Unsticking the Evergiven

required excavating thousands of cubic yards of sandy muck, unloading dozens of

cargo containers (the very same colorful stacked boxes we see passing before us

when we get railroaded), and the rising of the tide from the Mediterranean and Red

Seas. Only then could tug boats push and pull it out of trouble. What will it take to

unstick your faith? So often we find Scripture calling us to serve others. We have just

completed a Lenten study series on Jesus' pointed call to serve the “least of these”.

(Though we have emphatically not completed our plan to take action on this call.)

Today, though, we find Peter calling us to believe in Jesus as the risen Savior.
Paraphrasing Paul, if God is for us, who are we not to work on our own faith?

Build on the rock-solid foundation of faith. Do what works for you to build your

faith in Jesus, and Him resurrected. We speak often of the spiritual disciplines, of

Bible study, prayer and mission work. Today we lift up a less frequently cited source of

faith-building. Early last week I posted a short blog column on finding encouragement

in my faith through the majesty and beauty of creation. I wrote of the perfection of the

full moon and its motions through the heavens, and of the joy of witnessing the first

face-to-face meeting of our infant granddaughter and her great-grandmother, my mom.

I cannot recall anything I've ever written getting more, and more heart-felt, reaction.

People just keep reaching out to me. Many told their own stories of how the natural

world or people have helped them believe in God.

Whatever works best for you to grow your faith in the risen Jesus do that.

Whether it be those spiritual disciplines, or moons and grandchildren, or fellowship

with your fellow believers, or whatever works for you, intentionally employ those things

that build your faith. Lay that cornerstone. Jesus died and rose from the dead so

people would believe in him as Savior and know life. Do what you must to get that

faith for yourself.