Laid Stones & Living Stones

1 Samuel 7:10-12 - As Samuel was offering the sacrifice, the Philistines approached to fight Israel. Suddenly, God sent thunderous sound upon the Philistines, which threw them into mass confusion. So, with God’s help, Israel defeated the Philistines and pursued the Philistines from Mizpah to beyond Beth-car. Then Samuel took a stone and placed it between Mizpah and Shen and named the stone Ebenezer, saying, “The Lord helped us to this very point.”

1 Peter 2:1-5 - So clean house! Get rid of all malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and evil speech. Like a newborn, crave pure spiritual milk that will help you grow to Christian maturity. This should be a core desire, if you’ve tasted the goodness of the Lord. Christ is a living stone rejected by men but chosen by God and precious. You also are like living stones, being built up to a holy and vibrant life, serving as priests and offering your lives as a witness to God through Jesus Christ.

Engage

Around the time of my graduation from high school, my parents organized a graduation party at our house. They invited friends near and far to come and celebrate with us, and most of them did. Many of the people who had influenced my life to that point came. It was a great time. I am so thankful for that gathering, it was something like setting a stone, similar to the one Samuel set, that said, “these people have helped me to this very point.” God had been helping me, too, I know now. But I didn’t know it as well then as I wish I had. It was nearly a decade before I really discovered the LIVING stone, Jesus Christ, and found spiritual milk, in the form of people, Scripture, worship, and the like, that began a lifelong journey toward Christian maturity. Today, and this graduation season, places a stone on the path of these graduates. A marker along their journey. Friends,

Laid stones mark past providence, living stones glow eternal presence.

Encounter

Laid stones, or other types of markers, are important. They point to a story or sometimes tell part of a story. In the case of our Scripture today, Samuel lays a stone to mark how the Lord helped him and Israel defeat the Philistines. We still lay all kinds of stones in our lives even if not exactly like Samuel did. Our graduates get tassles, a cap most likely, perhaps a ring with a stone (or stones) embedded in it. A yearbook (I guess you still get those). Signatures in the yearbook (do you still do that?). I went back and looked at some of the signatures in my senior yearbook just for kicks recently. Wow…30 YEARS AGO, I was where you graduates are…doesn’t seem possible!

Now, some principles to think about as your laying these kind of stones. Stones don’t move themselves. There ought to be some effort involved by you and perhaps others. Remembering, documenting, assembling, etc. Whatever stones you use to mark the key points along the path of your life. Also, the stones you place should be distinct, obvious, noticeable. If Samuel had placed his Ebenezer stone among a bunch of other similar stones, nobody would ever notice. And, the potential use of the stone to point to the story would be lost. One of the things I fear about many of us doing and storing SO many things digitally now is that many of our stones may be digital…hidden somewhere in the recesses of our computers, phones, thumb drives, what have you. Also, if possible, the stone you lay should summarize or otherwise point to the story it is representing. Texas and other states do this with historical markers, for example. A historical marker isn’t going to tell the WHOLE story, but the essence of it. Laying stones helps document your history. I’ve said before and I’ll say again…do your best to document at least the key points of your life. Even if you don’t routinely write or journal, graduation would be a great time to at least write SOMETHING down for future generations. It’s not even inappropriate to think ahead to your death someday. If a future child, or grandchild, or great grandchild is writing your obituary many years from now, what would you want them to say about your life to this point? Are you going to count on future generations having access to your Facebook, Instagram, Snap-Chat, or whatever other feeds? They MIGHT, indeed. But I’d bet they won’t. And, what are the next stones you want to lay, and how might you get to them? Who, or what, are you going to follow as your guide on your journey? I know a guy…he’s the best guide in the universe…there’s a ridiculous old bumper sticker maybe you’ve seen…Jesus is my co-pilot. Nonsense. Jesus should be our pilots! Front left seat only, Captain’s chair!

You see, we don’t lay stones to then go back and relive, or try and recapture, the lives and experiences we’ve already lived. Laid stones mark past providence, living stones glow eternal presence. Samuel lays the stone to say how God has helped them TO THIS POINT. The idea is that you lift and lay the stone, admire it for a moment, and then move on down the path toward other points where other stones will be laid. Now, God has gracefully given us our minds and memories, such as they are, to take little visits back now and then to stones we’ve previously laid. I love the Blake Shelton sung country song, “I Lived It.” The song is basically a trip down memory lane. There’s nothing wrong with going for little visits…but it’s best we don’t build a house and live the rest of our lives by any of the stones we’ve laid. I caught a little of the movie Up again recently, a great movie along this theme.

Ok, now imagine with me for a moment that the Ebenezer stone laid by Samuel could come alive and travel with him…maybe floating above his head all the time or something. Wouldn’t that be cool? In a way, it can. Only the stone that lives isn’t a stone at all, it’s a person. Jesus is a living stone, we can point to him and tell his story. We, too, can be living stones…stones with the presence of the Jesus stone living inside us. Today is the Sunday we remember Pentecost on the church calendar, from Acts 2. Pentecost, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on disciples of Jesus Christ, allows us to CARRY the living stone around with us. We don’t have to be perfect, we just have to be ready. When people notice that we’re different, in a good way, they may then ask, or someday ask, what it is that makes us different. Noticeable. Distinct. And, we can have our summary ready. I once was lost, but now I’m found. I once was a slave to sin, not I’m free. I struggled with malice, or deceit, or hypocrisy, or envy, or hateful speech, or whatever but THEN I MET JESUS. He lives, and reigns, and loves me eternally for no good reason. And with him I continue to travel down the road toward greater and greater discipleship and Christian maturity. As a living stone, friends, you can GLOW the eternal presence of Christ even in the deepest darkness evil can create. Laid stones mark past providence, living stones glow eternal presence.

Empower

I thought back to about a month ago. To the memorial service for Patrick Shaffer. A young man of only 30 who died very suddenly and very unexpectedly. As I sat among the large crowd present, numerous people got up to speak. Many pointed to Patrick’s qualities…compassion, friendship, hard-work, dedication. Some rambled and repeated. One young woman even got up twice for some unknown reason...When Mack Porter stood, however, he did something I didn’t expect. I should learn to expect the unexpected from that prophet. He said a few words of praise about Patrick, Patrick’s parents and family, and perhaps a few other things I don’t recall...and then loudly called for everyone to give praise to God right then and there…and then he started the clapping. The loudest sounds at that service weren’t weeping, or moaning, or the wiping of tears. Far and away, the loudest sounds at that memorial were of praise to God Almighty! That doesn’t mean there isn’t deep sorrow, weeping, moaning, or tears. Even a disciple as faithful as Mack is going to experience those things. Death isn’t how it’s supposed to be, remember? The garden? Yet, Mack served as a living stone for me and I’m sure others that day, as he does most any day. Even as we laid a stone celebrating a great life, over too soon, there was Mack saying, let me tell you about the amazing, the loving, the eternal, the living Lord I serve! He will have the last word on this and everything else under the sun! It occured to me that Mack is that great hymn come alive, It is well with my soul. though satan should buffet, though trials should come, let this blest assurance control…that Christ has regarded my helpless estate and has shed his own blood for my soul. It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Laid stones mark past providence, living stones glow eternal presence.

Can we get some praise for these graduates and for the great God and Lord we have! CLAP