Acts 4:8-11
Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: “Rulers and elders of the people! If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. Jesus is
“‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’
Throughout scripture, one finds an elemental teaching about power and empire: The stone you builders rejected, has become the cornerstone.
“The cornerstone” is kephale gonias or the head of the corner. If you’ve ever seen a stone archway, it is the capstone or keystone that joins the sides of an arch at the top. This stone holds the arch together and is placed at its highest point. This capstone or “cornerstone” is essential for completing the arch.
In Psalm 118, the Psalmist refers to Israel as a “rejected stone”. Israel was understood to have been rejected by other nations but chosen by God to be God’s messenger. These builders who “rejected the stone as unfit” built their own empires apart from God.
In the gospels of Mark and Luke, Jesus refers to himself as the “rejected stone” when he tells the parable of the corrupt farmhands. The rejecting builders are the priests and elders of the temple who had built their own religious empire, worshiping their own rules and enjoying the power they wielded.
In the fourth chapter of Acts, Peter and John are called before some of those same teachers, priests, and elders to account for their preaching, proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. As more and more people heard this message and believed, this radical teaching threatened their power structure and empire.
The message? Empire doesn’t like stones that don’t conform. And when stones don’t conform, empire chooses to reject them in their own plans of building.
When a faith community doesn’t conform to a version of Christianity that subjugates persons on the margin, condemns God’s beloved children, and enforces its own values on others, that faith community becomes the rejected stone. For empire doesn’t like stones that don’t conform.
But what the Psalmist, the gospel writers, and apostles knew is this: A faithful, accepting, and nurturing community will be that cornerstone that transforms the world.
Let us pray…
Creator God, whose fashioning and creating continues, may we be a ‘cornerstone’ community that is unworthy of empire and worthy of your calling. Amen.
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