A Stone of Another Name...

Acts 4:5-12

April 26, 2015

Easter 4 Year B

Frist and Harmony Presbyterian Churches

The Rev. Dr. Robert Wm Lowry

            Unless you are a real Arkansas history buff, the names Prospect Robbins and Joseph Brown probably mean nothing to you.  Don’t feel too bad about that, there is not really much known about them except that they both lived part of their lives outside of St. Louis. MO and were both land surveyors. 

            In 1815, at the order of the Madison administration, Robbins and Brown began a monumental task; surveying and mapping the Louisiana Purchase into precise map squares. 

            Years earlier at Thomas Jefferson’s urging the nation had adopted the federal survey system that laid out land in precise one square mile rectangles called sections.  Since the earth is not flat, and the landscape is not either, surveyors have a challenging job and early in the 19^th century it was doubly so. 

            Over the next several years these two pioneer surveyors would map a small portion of east Arkansas mostly in and north/south of Phillips County.  It would take dozens more surveyors and more than two more decades of work before most of the state was mapped according to the survey system.

            To make the system work, there has to be what is called an Initial Point.  It is the point of intersection of a north-south line and an east-west line by which all the succeeding lines are measured. 

            Imagine being the person in charge of making that calculation!  Imagine what would have happened if they had been off by a little!  The whole Louisiana Purchase would have been crooked (of course given the history of Louisiana politics, that might be the case!)  Thankfully, Robbins and Brown were good at their jobs and even without the help of GPS satellites, they managed to precisely map hundreds of thousands of acres and lay the groundwork for generations of surveyors to follow all thanks to the accuracy of that first Initial Point meeting in Phillips County.

            What, you are probably wondering; does any of that have to do with Jesus, the bible, or our valuable time this morning?  Only this. 

Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, speaks to the assembled and tells them that the one in whose name the disciples have healed the man who could not walk is none other than the cornerstone that they have rejected.

            You see, a cornerstone in Roman architecture was not the ceremonial rock it has become in modern buildings.  It was the Initial Point of the building.  The cornerstone was the stone by which all the remaining stones would be laid.  The whole building- a house, a temple, a market, a coliseum- was built based on that one stone. 

            Being the mason in charge of setting that stone must have been like standing in a Phillips County swamp with Robbins and Brown meeting and marking that Initial Point for their maps.  Get it wrong and the whole thing will be off kilter.

            I wonder how often we really hear this text that way? 
            Jesus is the cornerstone.  No one and nothing else, Peter makes clear, but only Jesus.  He is the cornerstone; the stone by which every other stone in our lives is laid.  He is not ceremonial stone laid to mark an occasion or hold a time capsule.  He is no ornamental stone placed to make the building look more official or to make sure that the building committee’s names are memorialized forever. 

No, he is the cornerstone.  He is the stone by which every other stone in our lives is laid. 

Or at least he should be.

I don’t know about you, but if my life is supposed to be constructed with Jesus as the cornerstone by which all the other stones are laid, I am carrying around some pretty crooked rocks.

I suppose that is another way of talking about sin; as mislaid stones in our lives.  Maybe that is why it is so hard to change from some of our sinful ways; it is like changing a mislaid stone in an already built wall.  Cemented into place we cannot just shift it.  We have to chip away at it and clear away all the mortar that is holding that crooked stone in place before we can reset it according to the line of the cornerstone. 

If you life is anything like mine, there is still a lot of chipping to do.  In fact I imagine that I will draw my last breath with the chisel still in my hand chipping away at the mortar holding my sins in place. 

Of course the crooked stones are not the only ones mortared into place.  The cornerstone is as well. 

I wonder if Peter had that in mind when he called Jesus the cornerstone?  I’m sure that part of the reason he uses that metaphor is that it is used in the Old Testament and in the Gospels, but so are a lot of others.  Jesus is called everything from the cornerstone to the Lamb of God, so why chose cornerstone in this moment; in this story.

It may be giving Peter too much credit, but I like to think he did it because after his little outburst in chapter 3, he knew his audience and his moment a little better and realized that everyone was afraid.  Jesus was gone and they felt alone and his followers needed a word of courage and hope.  Lamb of God would have been fine, but lambs wander off.  He needed one of those familiar metaphors that would tell them that not only is Jesus the foundation of all hope and promise, but that he is also never going to leave them.  He is the cornerstone.

Of course it is not just the followers of Jesus who are going to hear him.  He is also speaking to his accusers who have seized them after healing in Jesus’ name.  So he reminds them that they are the very ones who rejected Jesus as the cornerstone. 

The traditional reading of this text makes it sound like Peter is chastising them again for the crucifixion and in fairness I think there is merit in that interpretation.  But I also think Peter saw this as a teaching moment. 

You rejected the cornerstone.

You rejected the one stone in the whole building by which every other stone is measured.

How can you have a solid building without a good cornerstone?

How can you have an ordered life without THIS cornerstone?

He scolds, but I think he also teaches. 

Christ, he says, is the true cornerstone.

Christ is the starting point for every life and the point by which every life is measured and built.

It is an elegant and powerful metaphor.

And, like so much of what we get in the Greek New Testament, it is only part of the story. 

Like so many words and phrases in Greek, the words that mean “cornerstone” also have another meaning. 

Keystone.

Christ is the cornerstone and, according to another possible translation, Christ is the keystone.

If the cornerstone provides the starting point for building a solid building, the keystone has an equally vital role; it keeps the ceiling from caving in!

Now that we have had a short lesson in the history of surveying, here is another short rabbit trail into architecture. 

The stones in an arch are called voussoir (vu-swar).  Each vussoir is wedge shaped to fit the curve of the archway.  You can have just a few or several dozen voussoir to create the arch, but whether it is large or small, one must serve as the keystone. 

Like the cornerstones of old, keystones in ancient and even some modern architecture are more than decorative headpieces above a doorway.  Thought it does not bear much weight, the stone placed at the apex of an arch provides the stability and structure that keeps the two sides from collapsing.

Christ, Peter says, is the keystone.

Right there at the top, holding things up, keeping all the stones of the archways of our carefully constructed lives from slipping away, is Christ the keystone.

It’s a nice image.

In a way, I like it better than the cornerstone.  The cornerstone is nice and all, but it seems so permanent; so invasive.  I have to measure my whole life by that one stone?  How about I measure my life by the stone I set at the corner, and Jesus can focus on holding the roof up over my head?

Christ is the stone that stays out of my business but still serves to keep the roof from caving in above me. 

That sounds better. 

It sure sounds easier.

So which is it? 

Cornerstone or keystone?

Is Christ the measure by which we build our lives or the stone that keeps the roof from caving in on us?

Like so much of the interpretation we do with scripture, there are loopholes we can find in the text.  This one provides a huge one.  It is not inaccurate to translate this passage as saying that Jesus is the keystone and run along with our days claiming that the role of Jesus is to keep the roof from caving in.

It is also faithful to translate it as cornerstone and get into all that measuring business.

So which is it? 

Both.

It is both. 

Jesus is both the measure by which the building is built and the stone that keeps it from crumbling down.

He is both the measure by which we build our lives and the sustenance by which we live them.

He is both cornerstone and keystone.

Or to use the words of the writer of Revelation, he is Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. 

When Peter stands accused of healing in Jesus name, he reminds the crowd, he reminds us, that Christ is both the measure by which we live our lives and the promised hope that keeps our lives together. 

He is the cornerstone and the keystone.  And in those times when we don’t quite measure up, he is always there to hold us up.

We can hope for nothing more, and our loving God will give nothing less.

Alleluia.  Alleluia.  Amen.