Dear Friends in Christ Jesus,
We forgot something when this building was built 14 years ago. Have you missed it? The missing item is a cornerstone. Yet even without it, our building has continued to stand.
23 years ago, ten families were commissioned to begin exploratory work in Hamilton Co. When the Lord granted them success, they were able officially to become a mission congregation, Bethlehem Lutheran Church of Carmel, in 1994.Only two of those families remain. Over the years, many believers have come and gone as members.
When the first families established Bethlehem, they did not forget to bring a cornerstone of a different kind with them.The cornerstone they brought remains for us. As we continue to be built on that living Stone we will stand long after this and our new building fall.
It is no ceremonial cornerstone laid in the wall. Even though we plan to have one of those this time in the wall, such a cornerstone does notgive a congregation direction, or the strength that binds it together. That living cornerstone that gives us direction and strength is Jesus Christ.
We give all the glory to the Lord’s name and not to us on this 20th Anniversary pause in our walk as a congregation, Peter’s words remind us that We are a Spiritual House Built on a Living Stone. We are being built on Jesus Christ alone. We are being built to serve Jesus Christ alone.
Peter paraphrases the Lord’s words in Isaiah that he would lay a tested and precious cornerstone that would be the sure foundation for Zion, his church. God the Father laid that stone when he sent his Son into the world. The first builders rejected that stone and now he is become the capstone, the cornerstone on which we build as the New Testament Church.
Many stumble over Jesus in unbelief as they seek some other stone on which to build their spiritual lives. However, we are built on Jesus Christ as the cornerstone. Note especially that someone else does the building. We do not build on Christ. We are built on a living stone, Jesus Christ alone. We are living stones whom the Holy Spirit raises up as the church.
As the church, we are “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God…once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy but now you have received mercy.”
The buildings and the membership of a congregation change through the years. Yet for 20 years,the Holy Spirit has continued to build up the spiritual house of living stones that are believers. The Spirit has cut those stones through Holy Baptism and the preaching of the gospel. He has laid those stones together by the fellowship of Holy Communion and the preaching of the gospel.
The foundation stone that gives us living stones our direction and strength is Jesus Christ alone. In Jesus’ day, a cornerstone was not ceremonial but functional. The entire building got the straightness of its walls and the strength of its foundation from the cornerstone laid first.
Our logo of star and cross bring together his story as that living Stone. Jesus is the story of the forgiveness of our sins, and our eternal home with God in heaven.We are a spiritual house built on a living stone. We are being built with a purpose. We are being built to serve Jesus Christ alone.
Every building is built with a purpose. We are building with the purpose of doing ministry in our community and the world. We are building so others and we may come to God’s house and worship him around Word and sacrament.
God has built us into a spiritual house, the church, for this purpose, “that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” We are all priests who serve our God as the spiritual temple. We offer the spiritual sacrifices of our entire lives, which God accepts through Christ.
The work we do as the living temple of our Savior is to his glory always. We exist as the spiritual body of Christ and a spiritual house only because the Holy Spirit has called us to come to the living Stone.
Please think about Peter’s words as we are standing outside this morning; no slab, no walls, no roof, no cornerstone. Yet, we are the church; living stones built on the living Stone, Jesus Christ alone. We are built to serve Jesus Christ alone and can do that without any earthly building around us. It will help us as a useful tool but it is not who we are or why we exist.
This morning we stand together with one foot in the past and one foot in the future. We celebrated our 10th Anniversary in 2004 and now 20. Will we be like some of our churches and do 25, 50, 100, 150? Only God knows. We will, however, continue to celebrate through eternity as a spiritual house, chosen and precious living stones, built on a living Stone. Amen. <SDG>