Scripture: 1Peter 2:4-9
16th Sunday after the Pentecost
September 28, 2025
Williamstown, MA
Scripture: 1Peter 2:4-9
In Matthew’s account of Jesus feeding the 4000 (there are two feeding stories in Matthew), he and the disciples got into a boat to cross the Sea of Galilee. Upon reaching the other side and after verbally parrying with some Pharisees and Sadducees, the disciples realized they didn’t bring any bread with them despite having several baskets left over. They grumbled.
There’s a back story to this, which you won’t find in the gospel. Jesus and the disciples started on their day’s journey. Jesus asked them to pick up a stone. Peter picked up a small stone. After walking all morning, Jesus asked them to sit down and show him their stones. He then proceeded to touch each stone and transformed them into bread. Peter, having picked up the smallest stone, was still hungry after he finished his loaf. The next day, Jesus asked each of them to pick up a stone. Peter, again, picked up the smallest stone. Like the day before, when they sat for lunch and held out their stones, Jesus touched each stone and transformed them into bread. Again, Peter was famished after he finished his loaf because he was still hungry from the day before. Third day. Jesus asked them to pick up a stone. Peter, now wiser, found a large rock. He carried it all morning. Though he was always at the rear and struggling to keep up, he was able to keep going because he knew he would finally get the bread he wanted. When they sat for lunch at midday, Peter, who finally caught up with the others, presented his rock. Jesus like the days before touched each of the stones and transformed them into bread. When he got to Peter, Peter was bursting with anticipation as he would have the biggest loaf of bread. Jesus touched his rock and said, “Upon your rock, I will build my church.” (Mat. 16:18)
The rock upon which the church is built is the values underlying the law and applied by Jesus’ life lessons and strengthened and solidified by the Holy Spirit. The church cannot stand without the sure foundation of the rock.
1 Peter was written in the final third of the first century. Peter was dead by then. Nevertheless, the attribution to Peter indicated its importance as a general letter to the churches suffering under the oppression wielded by the wider society. It reassured Christian communities throughout Asia Minor that their suffering was in the name of the Christ and thus, was not in vain.
Despite today’s claims from the Christian right that Christians are an oppressed people, that’s not true. Among people who self-identify as religious in this country, Christians have the largest share.
However, undeniably a sizeable percentage of the wider population does not see the church as relevant to their lives. We might be able to attribute some of that irrelevancy to the Christian far right whose theology strikes the general population as queerphobic, misogynistic, racist, anti-Semitic, and overly judgmental. Unfortunately, that theology stains us.
Though we are not oppressed and suffering like the first century church, we are surrounded by a culture which finds our paradoxical faith nonsensical, aka weird. While people endorse feeding people who are food insecure, extending the belief that true peace relies upon feeding people not weapons of violence or destruction, which is communion’s fundamental theology, seems preposterous. While people embrace supporting and caring for people on the bottom of the economic ladder, defining wealth by how much we give away rather than how much we have defies traditional measurements. While people get behind love as a good thing, embracing it as the antidote for fear is farfetched.
Imagine if the church didn’t exist. Everyone, bar none, would be poorer for that. Though people have a hard time embracing the paradoxical faith we proclaim, that same faith has a pervasive moderating influence to keep people from completely succumbing to their primal desires: greed, arrogance, jealousy, and fear, to name a few.
We are the church, built upon the living stone, who is Christ. A living stone, which is paradoxical itself. A stone, an inert object, that is alive. This stone, a rejected cornerstone, was now the corner upon which the church was built. Though crucified, Christ remains alive in the Holy Spirit. Because of that, we, today’s disciples of Jesus, are living stones, too because the Holy Spirit was sealed in us at our baptisms. In this time of despair and anxiety, our spiritual house is a beacon of hope holding out the promise that another world is possible. When queer people feel emotionally assaulted, demonized, and erased, our spiritual house is their refuge Emanating from our spiritual house is love as action towards those who struggle to find hope in this world and where grace is in short supply. Furthermore, this spiritual house offers anyone the opportunity to put their faith and love into action as well. Our spiritual house stands as a rejection of Christian nationalism whose theology distorts the gospel into a limited and cramped vision for this nation rather than God’s universal and spaciously expansive vision for all humankind.
We stand in full belief that there is enough for everyone because we have faith that God’s creation was one of abundance so no one would suffer from scarcity or deprivation. We firmly believe that there is a place at the table for everyone, regardless of age, ability, gender, race, sexual expression, or ethnicity, and that if we run out of space, we extend the table. We are a place of calm and serenity in a world racked with turmoil and turbulence. We bear witness to the possibility of God’s realm of peace infused with justice and built upon love. Love that is not eros. Love that is agape, God’s steadfast love. Love that is action. Love that is the antidote to fear.
Your pledge is your faith that this church has a vital place and role in this community and world. Our service extends beyond Williamstown and beyond the northern Berkshires. We offer grants to a wide range of agencies from the arts to youth to education and housing throughout the Berkshires. Our generosity through the United Church of Christ serves communities throughout the world. Though we don’t know these people by name, we know them as victims of natural disasters, as people who need clean water, as parents who yearn for their children to have better lives than they. Your pledge is your declaration that our ministries matter because they make a positive difference in people’s lives. Your pledge is your belief that life built upon a foundation of love and justice is a life of true peace. You pledge is your affirmation that God’s generosity makes heaven on earth possible.
We remind the world that the paradox, which is our faith, is the rock upon which true community rests. It is the rock which saves community from itself. It is the rock that is the foundation of the church. This paradox makes our world livable. This paradox proclaims that another world is possible.
Pledging today is your affirmation of faith that this church is more than an iconic landmark on Main Street. Your pledge is a proclamation that the ministries emanating from here matter to give Williamstown, the northern Berkshires, and the world beyond a glimpse of true peace, where people, especially those people who feel overlooked, erased, abused, and oppressed will find a touch of grace and have, even a brush with shalom, God’s peace, a peace built upon justice and rooted in love. Your pledge is your belief in hope for tomorrow.
