FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH of HATFIELD, UCC
  • Welcome
    • FAQ
  • Visit
  • Community
    • Facility Use
  • Music
  • Pews News
  • Calendar
  • About
    • Reverend Randy
    • Our History
  • Contact
  • Donate

Pews News

Lenten blog | March 26, 2021

3/26/2021

0 Comments

 

The rejected cornerstone

Throughout the year, the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ reproduces the Daily Lectionary for use by churches.  These are the suggested readings for Friday, March 26th:  Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29; Jeremiah 33:1-9; and Philippians 2:12-18.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

Today is our sixth Lenten Friday, days that are especially solemn within a season that is especially solemn.  Today we read that Jeremiah has the unenviable task of being the prophet who prepares Jerusalem for defeat, destruction and deportation.  He advised everyone in the city to surrender so that lives would be saved.  Jerusalem was not going to win this battle.  Understandably, the authorities looked unkindly on such messaging and they imprisoned the prophet.

In the book of Jeremiah, it is written:  “Concerning the houses of this city and the houses of the kings of Judah that were torn down to make a defense against the siege-ramps and before the sword.”  The people of Jerusalem were trying to proverbially circle the wagons.  They were dismantling houses within the city’s walls to bolster the walls.  Jeremiah foretells that these efforts are futile.

Sometimes we feel like the best defense is to close ourselves off, to build walls, to keep others out no matter what we must do to ourselves to accomplish this.  I am sadly amazed at what some Americans are willing to sacrifice in order to keep up the walls, to prevent the outsider and the disenfranchised from getting inside.  I’m afraid that even the sacredness of our democracy is not exempt from being “torn down to make a defense” against emerging voices and awakened activists.  We will even destroy what we have to protect us from these others, but as Jeremiah warns, these efforts are futile.  They only prolong the illusion.  They only make the collapse more dramatic. 

Remaining with this imagery of building walls of exclusion, the Psalmist today writes of the rejected stone.  This metaphor was embraced by the earliest Christians to explain Jesus’ ministry:  “The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.  This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.”  Jesus is not a part of the old wall of exclusion.  Jesus is not about protecting us from them.  He actually reaches out to the excluded and the demonized.  Jesus is the cornerstone of a new structure, the cornerstone of walls that support buildings that give cover and protection to all who wish to enter. 

Rather than destroying what is within the walls to preserve the illusion of isolation, Jesus inspires believers to beckon outsiders inside and to use their gifts and talents to keep building this new structure in ways once unforeseen.  Paul puts it nicely for us today:  “In the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, in which you shine like stars in the world.”  Christians don’t hide behind walls.  Christ calls us to go forth “in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation.”  Out amongst the people of the world, out amongst the racism, xenophobia, sexism, violence and greed of the world, Christians are to “shine like stars.”  We are to be activists building the better structure of which Jesus is the cornerstone, the one rejected by the ways of the world, but the one that is “marvelous in our eyes.”

And please remember that we don’t ever do this alone.  The work is too much.  The futility too real.  IF we do this alone.  Rather, the motivation to build a better world and the strength to actually do it comes from God:  “It is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work.”  On this sixth Lenten Friday, let us concentrate on the rejected cornerstone who hangs on the cross, the cross which in turn is the fundamental rejection of the ways of the world.  Let us not hide behind walls, but rather follow the Saviour who hangs on the cross to finally and forever breakdown the walls of separation.  No one was at the cross with Jesus.  No one deserves His salvation.  This means that all of us, saint and sinner, are all welcomed inside because this is the will and way of Christ.
​
If you’d like, here is the link to the Massachusetts Conference’s daily reading schedule:  www.sneucc.org/lectionary.
Picture
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    News

    Faith, love and chitchat.


    Categories

    All
    Bible Bytes
    Events & Activities
    Jesus Said What?
    Music
    Newsletter
    Rev'd Up
    Sunday Service


    Archives

    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    December 2017
    December 2016


    Follow

    RSS Feed

Picture
YOU ARE WELCOME HERE
First Congregational Church of Hatfield
​United Church of Christ
41 Main St - Hatfield, MA 01038

Reverend Randy (413) 824-1630 ​
​
SERVICE TIMES
Sunday 9:30-10:30am 
Children Sunday School 9:30-10:30am
Nursery care available during worship

DONATE
Make a single or recurring contribution by clicking here
FOLLOW

COPYRIGHT ©2020 FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH of HATFIELD, UCC
POWERED BY ROCKET
  • Welcome
    • FAQ
  • Visit
  • Community
    • Facility Use
  • Music
  • Pews News
  • Calendar
  • About
    • Reverend Randy
    • Our History
  • Contact
  • Donate