Sermon Tone Analysis

How would you describe the organization that we call the church?

Whether it is the local congregation or the Holy Christian Church, there are several ways of describing how a group of individuals with differences are combined together into one unit in order to perform one task.

We could describe it as an orchestra.

. . .

a sports team

. . .

an automobile

Two classic ways of describing the church in the Bible are that of the human body (one body with many parts with Jesus as the head) and as a building (built of stones with Jesus as the chief cornerstone and the prophets and apostles as the foundation).

This past week I was able to volunteer at a Bible camp held at Wyalusing State Park near Prairie du Chien, WI in the southwest corner of Wisconsin.

The founders of the camp were not very creative in coming up with a name so they called it Camp Wyalusing.

Since it is a bible camp we focus on a biblical them throughout the week with our morning and evening devotions, Bible classes, and plays that we put on every day.

The theme is also expressed in our T-shirt and songbook cover designs.

Our theme this year was “The Rock of our Salvation”.

We used key Bible passages to show different ways in which our God is referred to as a rock or stone and how he has saved us from our sins.

One key passage is found in

(NIV)

22 The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; 23 the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes.

24 The Lord has done it this very day; let us rejoice today and be glad.

25 Lord, save us!

Lord, grant us success!

26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

From the house of the Lord we bless you.

27 The Lord is God, and he has made his light shine on us.

With boughs in hand, join in the festal procession up to the horns of the altar.

28 You are my God, and I will praise you; you are my God, and I will exalt you.

What does this mean?

Literally, it is saying that in a building project there was a stone that the builders did not think fitting to be used in the project but it was in fact the most important stone.

But this passage is not about advice or commentary on how to build a structure out of stone.

It has a figurative meeting.

It is saying that someone who was rejected by others as not being good enough was indeed chosen by God to be the most important person.

Several times this is used as a passage to describe our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Jesus himself used it in his parable of the tenants as we heard in our Gospel lesson.

When Peter was on trial for healing a lame man in the name of Jesus, he also used it to refer to Jesus.

Most likely recalling what Jesus had taught him.

He makes that same application here in our text.

It teaches several points.

There were those who rejected Jesus (and still are)

God the Father chose Jesus to be our Savior.

Jesus is the most important person in history and believed by Christians to be the most important person in our lives.

He is described as a precious stone (using the metaphor of the building).

We could also think of him as a precious stone such as a diamond and how valued it is for its beauty and what it represents when it is placed on a ring.

God who chose Jesus to be the chosen one has also chosen us to believe in him.

(Not by our own thinking or choosing).

It is quite an honor to be chosen.

At camp I had my class choose up sides to play an athletic game.

I did not even tell them specifically what game it was.

The first camper chosen was a 14 year old African American who is almost six foot tall, extremely athletic, and a team player.

Perhaps he felt proud to be chosen but having talked with him at camp he was also very humble.

I think he was just honored.

Sometimes people get chosen because they are the best.

But sometimes they are chosen even though they aren’t.

St. Paul teaches us that when God chooses people to be living stones, we aren’t always the obvious choice.

We can be thankful that God chose us to believe in Jesus and that he gives us a united task to perform to his glory.

Peter teaches us what that is.

Jesus says we are chose to bear fruit.

We do this by not only trusting in Jesus as the rock of our salvation but also by sharing with others just how precious he is.