The Stone Shout Out! | Dr. Rev. Carol Kerr | Palm Sunday | 03.28.10

At last Jesus makes his promised move on Jerusalem. Most of his ministry has been out in the hinterland, out in Galilee. Now he enters the capital city. Jesus is welcomed, not by the city dignitaries but rather by children waving palm branches. Those who welcome Jesus work themselves into a frenzy. Their exuberance is evident a they shout, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”

Did they say “king?” They have turned a procession with a Galilean rabbi bouncing in on the back of a donkey into a royal victory parade. It is more than religious leaders can take. They are outraged at the blasphemy, the impudence. “Tell your fanatical followers to shut up!” they say, or words to that effect. Jesus responds, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.”

On one hand it is just an expression “The stones would shout out!” But, on the other hand, when I started thinking about it, the stones do have a story to tell and something to shout about. Let’s follow the story of the stones.

First right after Jesus was baptized the spirit led him into the wilderness . There he ate nothing for forty days. The devil comes along, and offers this starving man his first powerful temptation. “If you are the son of God, tell this stone to become a loaf of bread.” Jesus feeling the gnawing in his stomach, remembering how God delivered manna in the desert to Moses and the people who followed him from Egypt to the promised land… why not turn just one stone into bread. Why not just one stone in a desert full of stones. One little stone, the one little stone right by his foot, he just had to reach down pick it up, make it turn to bread. Do it now, no one is looking…

But, Jesus let the stone lay where it was. The stone remained a stone among stones. Jesus would not be filled by stones. But he would be filled by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

Then there was the time Jesus was teaching in Jerusalem at the Temple. They brought a woman who was caught in the act of adultery, the law of Moses said that she should be stoned to death. What do you say? It was a trick question. If he said not to stone her, he would be violating the law of Moses. If he said to stone her, he would be violating the Roman law and carrying out an execution without going through the proper authorities.

You can imagine people picking up stones, ready to go. Relishing the moment.. Flipping the stones around in their hands they could feel the stone’s hard surface, its dense weight, and hot radiating the heat of the sun that had beat down on it. . Jesus was slow in answering. “Come on Jesus, let’s hear it. Quit doodling in the sand. Tell us the answer!” Finally Jesus looked up, thinking how there were stones everywhere, and said “Whoever is without sin can cast the first stone.”

One at a time the stones drop back to the ground. Thud, thud, thud, thud… each thud reminding people of their own sins.

Then there was the time that Jesus decided to preach about stones. That is, he spoke about the stone the builders rejected. That stone would become God’s cornerstone. Looking at all the stones lying around Israel, Galilee and Jerusalem it takes a special eye to pick out a cornerstone. It is the odd shaped one is in fact the perfect one . It would be the perfect stone that would hold the whole building together. Most people miss the cornerstone, they are looking someplace else, and they miss it is there entirely and trip on it and stumble on the cornerstone.

On the day Jesus entered Jerusalem the people were waving palms. When he was told to quiet them Jesus said, “I tell you if these were silent, the stones would shout out!” And they do. The stone in the wilderness, the stones that were dropped instead of thrown at the woman, the cornerstone. But what is the stone the shouts the loudest? It is the several tons of a stone, the dead, impenetrable, cold stone, in front of Jesus tomb That is the stone that was rolled away at the resurrection.

There is one more thing I would like to say about stones. Have you ever noticed that our church is made of stones. Bricks are stones of a sort. These old stones were brought up here by wheel barrow, and mortared together by the community. Our sanctuary is austere but it was built for the acoustics. These stones pick up the sound and move the sound in amazing ways. Sometimes I wonder whether on Sunday mornings when we have our doors open, and cars drive by with their windows down do they hear these old stones singing? When we sing our hymns and the organ peals forth I like to think that these stones shout out.

In 1Peter 2:4 it says “You are coming to Christ, who is the living cornerstone of God’s temple. He was rejected by people, but he was chosen by God for great honor. And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple….for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. You can show others the goodness of god, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. “

Us stones are going to do some of that right now. We are going to build ourselves up into a spiritual house and do some singing. We have collecting many stones here for this huge combined choir. So as we sing the Gloria Patri, everyone come up front……