Living Stones in Praise of a Living God

Today’s lesson from the Hebrew Scriptures brought to mind a wonderful memory of actually living out the Scriptures in our own day and time. The faith community of Saint Patrick’s Mission in Mooresville, North Carolina had been worshipping at the Mount Mourne Middle school for a number of years while it waited for its first spiritual home to be completed. The congregation had been journeying in the “wilderness” for almost a decade and the fifteen acres of pristine woodland set aside for a new church and a center for ministry was thought of as the “promised land.” Between the school and the church’s property was a single active railroad track that was lovingly referred to over time as “The Jordan River.”

Saint Patrick's Misison
Mooresville, North Carolina

On the day of the dedication of the new building, the community gathered at the school to walk the third of a mile to the church property. It was a grand occasion complete with a drum line, banners, and members of the Mission surrounded by a host of friends. In the midst of the parade, we placed twelve members, who were either original organizers of the Mission or who had played a significant role in the life of the community, whose responsibility was to carry twelve stones.

When the procession came to “The Jordan”, we paused and read the lesson from the Book of Joshua, found below. Then we passed through “the Jordan” and finished our pilgrimage by entering and worshipping in the new facility. Those stones were later used, if memory serves right, in a wall along the side of the building, as a reminder of our journey and as a sign of God’s grace and mercy. Living stones reminding us of our Living God.

There are countless stories in the Scriptures of the people of God gathering stones to erect a memorial. In the Book of Genesis, Jacob alone, in three different narratives, creates pillars to mark the great turning points in life. The first example is his experience of the divine at Bethel in Chapter 28. The second is the covenant Jacob makes with his uncle Laban in Chapter 31. The third, Jacob constructs a stone cairn as a memorial to his wife, Rachel, in Chapter 35.

israeliimages.com

To this very day, when one visits the Holy City of Jerusalem, in the Jewish cemeteries located on the Mount of Olives, one will find thousands of small pebbles resting atop the graves. Isaiah 56:5 and Deuteronomy 32:43 are the principal biblical sources for this custom. The passage from Isaiah alludes to the symbolic building of a monument ("a place and a name"), and the stone represents a type of "building" by the surviving family and friends. In the Book of Deuteronomy, the reference is to the powers of atonement inherent in the earth, and adding the stone represents an aid for the soul to complete its ongoing journey toward perfection and reward after death. As my guide informed me while visiting the cemetery, symbolically the placing of a stone suggests the continuing presence of love and memory which are as strong and enduring as a rock.  One Hebrew name for God is "The Rock of Israel." So the small stone is a reminder of the presence of the Rock whose love truly is stronger than death.

Love One Another - Brian

Listening and Love

Morton Kelsey

We can love only those human beings to whom we listen, and love is the heart of the spiritual way. No one can ever learn to listen to God who has not first learned to listen to human beings. The one who cannot listen cannot love either another or God.

Source: Through Defeat to Victory

Joshua 3:14-4:7

When the people set out from their tents to cross over the Jordan, the priests bearing the ark of the covenant were in front of the people. Now the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the time of harvest. So when those who bore the ark had come to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests bearing the ark were dipped in the edge of the water, the waters flowing from above stood still, rising up in a single heap far off at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan, while those flowing towards the sea of the Arabah, the Dead Sea, were wholly cut off. Then the people crossed over opposite Jericho. While all Israel were crossing over on dry ground, the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, until the entire nation finished crossing over the Jordan. When the entire nation had finished crossing over the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua: ‘Select twelve men from the people, one from each tribe, and command them, “Take twelve stones from here out of the middle of the Jordan, from the place where the priests’ feet stood, carry them over with you, and lay them down in the place where you camp tonight.” ’ Then Joshua summoned the twelve men from the Israelites, whom he had appointed, one from each tribe. Joshua said to them, ‘Pass on before the ark of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan, and each of you take up a stone on his shoulder, one for each of the tribes of the Israelites, so that this may be a sign among you. When your children ask in time to come, “What do those stones mean to you?” then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off in front of the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the Israelites a memorial for ever.’