Dear Friends,
There are any number of reasons for this, but one notable thing about my disposition is that I am perfectly content to tell people things they don’t necessarily want to hear.
I won’t pretend this is the most welcome character trait. I do my best, but I’m not cut out to offer subtle nudges toward what I’m thinking. I’m autistic. I’m not going to communicate in some sidelong manner and hope people understand where I’m leading them. At worst, if I tell people things they don’t want to hear and they’re upset about it, we have something to work with. Reactions are information. And while I’m no prophet, this approach isn’t out of line with how Jesus delivers his messages to powerful audiences, as we see in this week’s Gospel.
This week, Jesus has got a classic prophet problem.
The Stone That The Builders Rejected
In this week’s Gospel, Jesus tells one of the most stark of the Parables. Here, the laborers in the vineyard aren’t just dishonest or difficult or frustrated. They kill the owner’s slaves and then his son. It’s one of those parables that makes me glad Godly Play has its small group of model parables and that I generally am not called upon to teach this one. If you’re using an RCL-based program, I wish you luck this weekend.
But as unsettling as this parable is, these misdeeds quickly fall into the background as Jesus speaks one of those phrases deeply entrenched in our faith: “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” This is the beginning of a threat against the Pharisees. “The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.”
This maybe wasn’t the time to deliver unpleasant news. But then again, Jesus did have the crowds on his side.
The other day I was working on a lesson plan that spoke to the prophets, and one of the core pieces of that was describing how prophets often spoke messages people didn’t want to hear. It’s a problem faced by prophets from early in the Old Testament on, but Jesus sums it up well: “Only in his hometown and in his own household is a prophet without honor.”
Some people make for a tougher audience. But some prophesies matter more than others, in terms of how people respond. It’s one thing for Jonah to try to avoid going to Nineveh, but they actually did need to hear the message he had for them and repent. But if you’re the cornerstone, people can join in this collective building project or be shattered into pebbles. The Pharisees can repent or be left behind, but the cornerstone remains the cornerstone.
An Architectural Interlude
You’ve probably spent a little time examining building cornerstones in your life. (Or maybe you haven’t – I don’t look at billboards, but cornerstones, totally.) You may have one somewhere along the face of your church building or at a school you went to. If you live in an older area, they’re downright difficult to avoid. But cornerstones aren’t necessarily in the very corner of a building, and they don’t have to hold everything else up, though they can be these things. Unless you’re an architect, though, you probably haven’t given this much thought.
Luckily, this architecture blog showed up to fill-in the blanks.
For the tldr; of it all, the cornerstone is one of three major stones used in masonry, along with the keystone and the capstone. Capstones, as the name suggests, go on top. While partially aesthetic, they help prevent water damage. Keystones go in arches, distributing the weight of the structure.
And the cornerstone? I particularly like the triad this writer sets out (and as a former digital content specialist, I imagine it was probably written by a jack of all trades who has never built anything). Cornerstones are distinct because their roles includes “building orientation, history, and celebration.”
Squaring the cornerstone oriented the entire building. Markings on it provide historical information – though sometimes the stone even houses a time capsule. And, as a sort of stand in for an altar, the cornerstone was sometimes the place where offerings could be set. People offered wine, grain, and water.
I met my wife in a class where we spent a lot of time studying the relationship between buildings and community identity, and I offer this invitation. Can the young people at your church find your building’s cornerstone? Do you have one (in the conventional sense)? What does it say? Do longtime members know anything special about it?
And as groups and individuals – what would we consider to be our personal cornerstones? Consider this a way of articulating your values or your spiritual autobiography. If prophets look ahead, telling us who we could or should be, returning to our cornerstone can help us remember where we began and understand how far we have come, for better or for worse.
October Resource Round-Up
We are several years into this newsletter at this point, but as my work continues to expand and diversify and change shape, I have been trying to find the right ways to streamline things. Just a yearning for reduced executive functioning load over here! One thing I’m going to try to do is be more intentional about when I’m tackling different parts of what I share, so with that, for the first newsletter of the month, bring on the resource round-up!
An Update From BuildingFaith: I’ve been so excited to share this project with you all for a while now, and it’s finally live. Almost two years ago, I made a few passing recommendations while working on an article. The “Special Needs” category tag became “Disability & Inclusion.” An outdated article with harmful recommendations came down – but there was still more work to do.
Over the past several months, there’s been a lot going on behind the scenes as I reviewed all of BuildingFaith’s disability-related content and worked with the leadership there to develop a process for developing additional content in this area going forward.This year’s AdventWord prompts are up! I don’t know about you, but I’m already working on Advent programming, so get excited. I’m kinda digging the choice to start with the word “wind.”
Speaking of Advent – if you love Gayle Boss’s “All Creation Waits” (or if you’ve always seemed a like a bit more than you were ready to take on), the new children’s edition is out today! With pared back passages detailing how different animals prepare to weather the darkness, this book could be a great addition to your Advent devotions.
Forma Registration Is Live! If you’ve been following along, you may have heard that Forma is trying a new model this year, with the opportunity for gatherings at Kanuga and Camp Allen or to attend remotely. This is ideal in a number of ways, given the spike in COVID cases (and a January conference is the worst time for any and all illnesses). Personally, I don’t know that I would have been excited to try to extract myself from the icy tundra of New England, but now I can be with you all and give a paper without trying to fly in a blizzard or some other miserable condition!
Do you love Holy Troublemakers & Unconventional Saints? Have you somehow managed to miss out on it all this time? Well, either way, there’s big news! First, we’re getting a second curriculum unit, once again written by the incomparable Wendy Claire Barrie. And second, coming next month, A Holy Troublemaking Advent is headed our way! Make sure you’re getting Daneen Akers’ newsletters for updates. (Also, if you’re hitting a wall on middle school-ish programming, these are the materials you need.)
Okay, are you all overwhelmed by new resources? Wish we weren’t thinking about Advent already? Well, time to get back to the right-now of it all. Fall is finally feeling like it’s really here where I am and I am relishing the turning leaves and clear skies. I hope you can also bask in this season of things.
Peace,
Bird