Sermon Tone Analysis

In Shirley Jackson’s book, "The Lottery," the towns people conducted a lottery in the spring of each year in which the winner of the lottery is stoned to death by his or her own neighbours including family members.

The tradition had been around for as long as the town existed.

Old Man Warner, the town grandfather, supports the lottery and tries to make sure it lasts forever.

Others thought it was distasteful and maybe even a little barbaric.

But still, all the people set aside their differences when it came time for the stoning because they believed that the ritual ensured that the harvest would be plentiful that year.

When the time came to draw the winner’s name out of the black box set up in the town square, everyone gathered.

And when the winner was announced, everyone threw a stone.

This is a fictional story with a disturbing truth behind it.

We sort of love to throw rocks at one another especially when we think we can get away with it or it is against those who are less powerful then us.

This rock throwing, is it something we learn?

Even worse, is it in some semi-conscious way, a malicious act that we take some pleasure in performing, just once in awhile.

There was a story from a New Zealand newspaper about four young lads who had stoned to death four ducks.

The newspaper quoted an unidentified man who said that when he tried to stop the boys, one of them responded, "But we're only killing them with rocks."

I must say that when I read this story, I felt a little regret.

I grew up in Creighton Mine Ontario.

Some meteorite, a great big stone in its own right was hurled into space by an angry exploding star eons ago and eventually hit the earth’s face causing a great big dent in what is called the Sudbury basin.

I spent my life playing with the stones in that basin.

I threw stones at my friends and they at me.

The fact that I am here today in one piece attests to just how bad our aim was.

Stones can be deadly instruments used to destroy, can’t they?

There are many, many stories of people getting stoned to death in the bible as well.

It was a legal way of punishing someone who broke the law.

It was also a quick way to get rid of someone you did not like much.

Every time a crowd got really upset with someone, you knew things were going to go really bad when someone yelled stone him or her.

Jesus saved a woman from being stoned in a situation exactly like this when he said let those without sin cast the first stone.

Today, stoning is still an official punishment in some countries in the world.

Of course, we here in the west, don’t actually stone anyone with rocks anymore.

We use more sophisticated projectiles like bullets and smart bombs, far more accurate ways of stoning someone.

I think, we do like to throw stones sometimes because we look for reasons to justify our stone throwing.

Every human has their favourite stone, I think.

Some of us like to hurl insults, and some fists and some bullets.

All these stones have slightly different consequences but they all hurt those they hit.

The bible contains another image of stones; stones as foundations of buildings.

The story of Jacob’s ladder in Genesis 28 tells how Jacob fell asleep with a stone as a pillow and God came to him in a vision dream and blessed him.

Jacob was so overcome by awe for God that he took his pillow and stood it on its end and said this pillar shall be God’s house.

When God wanted the people of Israel to know that they must trust God, he gave the prophet Isaiah this message to preach to them, See, I am laying in Zion a foundation stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation: “One who trusts me will not panic.”

Virtually all of the New Testament writers, speak of Jesus as the cornerstone of faith and living that Isaiah spoke about.

In the letter to the Ephesians, Paul wrote, you are members of the household of God, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone.

And in today’s epistle reading, we hear Peter preaching to Christians in the Roman provinces of what is now modern Turkey.

He says, you have been saved, made whole with God through Jesus Christ.

May your faith cause you to become a living stone for each other just as Christ was a standing stone of your salvation, your blessing.

Let your faith in Christ cause you to be built up into a spiritual house with Christ.

(here we are to be stones not for throwing but stones for protecting the poor, the powerless)

Sometimes, we are called to become standing stones of love, justice, and compassion for each other and it is impossible to do without faith.

See this stone.

It has two sides.

One side faces the weather and the storms of life, the other side is a place, a shelter that we can get behind out of the storm.

When Jesus was alive, Peter knew him as the one who was both sides of the stone.

Jesus stood against injustice, Jesus stood against evil and all who believed in him stood behind him.

Jesus stood like the standing stone and absorbed the stones of his enemies that we might understand that there is no reason, no tradition, no rationale to throw stones at ducks, or at each other simply because our tradition or cultures say we can or must.

And for Peter, those who stand in faith behind Jesus shall find refuge from stone throwers and they shall become a standing stone of living faith for others to get behind.

This faith is the foundation of healthy communities.

A friend I know tells me, Tony when you are starting to feel you need to be in control and can’t be then imagine that Jesus is standing in front of you.

You get behind him.*

Jesus is the living stone.

He is the cornerstone of our lives.

He never through stones to strike anyone down, he laid the foundation stones of faith in which we have come to know God.

*

Christian faith asks us to think about whether we use stones as weapons to strike down or do we allow the living Christ through our faith to build up each other and the community in which we choose to live.

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