STONES OF REMEMBRANCE Joshua 4, 14th November 2010

STONES OF REMEMBRANCE

Joshua 4:1-11  

Ninety years ago in 1920, King George V unveiled the Cenotaph in Whitehall, and the "Unknown Warrior" was buried in Westminster Abbey.  Two deliberate, intentional gestures, to connect place, time, and people, to link past, present and future.  (Did you know that the Cenotaph is a listed building?)   Lloyd George's government understood the importance of remembrance.

Over three thousand years earlier, about 1200 BC, and we see something similar - and greater.  Deliberate, intentional provision being made to connect place, time, people, and eternity... We sometimes talk about "stones of remembrance."   The event was Israel's safe crossing into their promised land.  When they had come at last to the river Jordan, it was in flood. The priests had taken the Ark of the Covenant down into the river, and the river had dried up, allowing the whole nation to cross over on dry land.  It was a miracle: evidence that God was really with them in this new development for their community.  And, so that no-one would forget, God said "Joshua, have twelve men, one from each tribe, go back to where the priests are standing, and each take a stone and put them at the place where you will camp tonight."   The Lord himself wanted there to be a provision for linking people who would come after with this event in time and place - and with eternity, with the fact that God had been at work. Stones of remembrance.

That's what we are about as a Church - what every Church should be about: making connexions between place, time, people, and eternity.  Today we will be thinking about stones, bricks and mortar..   ."First we shape our buildings, then they shape us"   said Winston Churchill in 1943 (possibly contemplating the rebuilding of the palace of Westminster). What can we learn from Joshua and the Stones of remembrance?

1. Stepping forward.  It happened in a time of pilgrimage and advance.  They were looking to the future because they believed in the future.  In no sense were these stones to be only a monument to the past, a depressing testimony to the "good old days"... as though the nation had nothing to do but commemorate times past.  It wasn't done at a time when "nostalgia ain't what it used to be..." Not at a time of prosperity and leisure when the nation had time to look back and the money to spend on such luxuries.  Not at a time of decline when the nation was tempted to look back to the so-called "glory days." It was done at a time when the whole nation was poised to take over their new land.   We are at a point of advance. We've been thinking about our vision, about how we can reach our community.  As we think about our stones and bricks, let us do so in an atmosphere of advance, of looking forward to a future.

2. God said... We've already noted, it was God's idea. God wants there to be these stones of remembrance, those links between time, place, people and trinity.  His heart is for men and women to get to know him. If we listen he will speak to us about how to provide these links.  We need to hear from god, to give him time to speak to us, about our life together and about our building.

3. Something solid. Twelve stones from the river.  It was visible, and (sort of) concrete.  Like Remembrance Day, not just a vague feeling that we ought to do this or that, but something practical.  The mission we believe in needs to be translated into tangible, solid visible stuff.  Vision is more than a dream.  It works with resources - or prays them in!

4. Simplicity.  Not twelve stones with the story carved on them in words or pictures. Just twelve stones.  Keep it simple.  And the simplicity does its job.  It takes us into a place of dialogue... We often complicate things because we don't want to encounter people face to face, and talk to them...

5. Curiosity.  It is Joshua who interprets what god says, by instructing the people "when your children ask, "Why are these stones here?" you are to say "the river Jordan dried up so that we could enter our promised land..." Everything about our life together is to make people curious about our God and saviour; "stones of remembrance" can be conversation starters.

6. Making sense. It was culturally relevant. It was something people did in the ancient near east.  Children would need to ask "what do these stones mean?" but they wood know the stones meant something.  Building stones into a cairn or setting up a standing stone was something people did. It's right that what we do should communicate the Good news across the barriers of culture, making sense to people who don't know Jesus, and stimulating curiosity and interest.

Jacob a few generations earlier had done set up a stone, too: Genesis 28.  11-19 tell how after a night when he had dreamed he saw right into heaven, he woke up and took the rock he had used a s a pillow, and set it on end, and poured oil on it.   He changed the name of the place from "Luz" (Almond tree) to "Bethel" (House of God.)  It made sense.    I want Rosyth Baptist Church to be a Beth-El, a House of God, a place of contact between time, place, people and eternity.

But, does God live in a house?

No. Stones of remembrance are found in ...

What we are - first and foremost. "You are living stones."  What we are, just being the Church - united, generous, supernatural, hopeful and loving in a fragmented, selfish, commonplace, hopeless and loveless world, is a sign, a pointer. It makes the connexion between time, place, people and eternity.

What we do - secondly.  In Jesus' day, the round loaves of bread could look like smooth stones.  Jesus took bread and said,  "Do this in remembrance of me". The way we worship, the way we serve, the way we live, are stones of remembrance, a way of making connections between place, time, people and eternity (including the Lord's table, the central act of worship - which can be a powerful witness).  Activities flow out of what we are.

What we build - lastly. Buildings are not temples (places where God lives) but like the stones of remembrance, tools, to help make the connexion between time, place, people and eternity.  They exist to support what we do.  They can help get questions asked.

© Gilmour Lilly November 2010