For centuries, people have raised up stones as a witness. Stone monuments testify as to who they are and what happened among them. Just this week news came of discoveries at the ancient monument of Stonehenge on the Salisbury plain in England. Those great Sarsen stones were raised to honor the ancestors of the ancient Britons who lived there and to bear witness to the grandeur of the seasons. Those great stones meant something to those who worked so hard to put them there.
We too raise up stones as a witness and as a way to remember. Tour in your mind’s eye the monumental core of the city of Washington. The five hundred fifty five feet of masonry that honors George Washington. The temple that enshrines Jefferson and lets us read his words, set in stone for the ages, “I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.” Or at the western end of the mall, the Lincoln Memorial, with those penetrating eyes and those great hands, with that spot now marked with a tablet where Dr. King spoke one August day. We remember, we understand, because stones have been raised to help us remember. What do these stones mean? Their message is clear.
Such stones are important, for a people who forget their history forget who they are. A people who do not know their own story have no identity, no direction, and ultimately no hope. We must know who we are; and if it takes the setting of stones one on top of the other to build a reminder, then so be it. That we must do.
That is what Israel did, after they crossed the waters of the Jordan into the land of promise. Joshua insisted that they dredge up twelve stones from the middle of the river, and then that they set those stones in a monument on the banks of the Jordan. When new generations would see them, they would ask, “Why are these stones here? What do these stones mean?” And their elders would teach them, “These stones remind us that it was in this place, across these very waters, that God led us through. God did something here. God led us from danger to hope. This bears witness to who we are. We are Israel. We are the people whom God brought through danger to a land of promise.”
If we forget who we are, if we do not understand our own story, we have no identity, no direction, and ultimately no hope. We too must set some stones. We too must remember our story. And just as Israel used twelve stones, twelve for the twelve tribes of Israel, we today also take up twelve stones to mark out our story. What do these stones mean? Let’s find out.
I
So small that you cannot see it from where you sit is a birthstone. By tradition, each of the months of the year is assigned a stone, and so it is popular to wear jewelry that shows what month you were born in. I was born in February, so amethyst is my birthstone.
Birthstones are precious and beautiful and small. As infants, we too are precious and beautiful and small. We are the work of God’s hands, and in our innocence we mirror God’s perfection. No little child is tainted with sin. He is not responsible for the mistakes of his parents. She is not somehow predestined for failure because of her parents’ irresponsibility. The birthstone tells us that God has given each child potential and purity. When the Old Testament describes how the vestments of the priests were to be made, it specifies that there will be twelve birthstones on the front of the priests’ robes. Twelve precious stones near the priest’s heart, to be signs of God-given life. Something to celebrate. Let the first stone, this tiny one, reminds us of God’s gift of life and purity.
II
But now we have a shard, a piece of broken clay. Technically it is not properly a stone, but it’s close. It is made of a certain kind of earth that is heated and hardened and made into pots and vessels. Just last week I preached about the little clay pots that contain the treasure of the Gospel. But this shard, this chunk, came from a larger piece of clay. It is, quite literally, a chip off the old block.
We begin our lives as tiny infants, and it is not long until we learn to mimic our parents and others around us. We speak the way we hear others speak; we walk the way we see others walk. We are impressionable and ready to be shaped. As a chip off the old block, we are just like that Bible passage that speaks of the potter and the clay, or like that hymn that sings, “Thou art the potter, I am the clay; mold me and make me after Thy will, while I am waiting, yielded and still.”
What does this stone mean? The clay shard reminds us that once we were yielded and still and were shaped and molded by those responsible for us. We are chips off their old blocks.
III
And so we learned. We learned many things as young children. We learned not only physical skills, but we also learned academic skills. We learned to read and to write. We memorized our math facts. We drew colorful pictures to give to mom and dad and even grandpa. We as children did a lot of learning.
And one of the things we learned was about what is right and what is wrong. We learned that some things God wants us to do and some things God does not want us to do. We learned that some things please God and build up other people, and some things hurt God and damage others.
This flat rock that has some writing on it is like the stone tablets that Moses took to the people. On those tablets, if you remember, were the Ten Commandments. Not, as somebody once tried to say, the Ten Suggestions, but the Ten Commandments. Learn these. Live by these. Keep these. They are carved in stone. They are not going to change. These are true. It will always be right to honor God as first in all things; it will always be wrong to mess around with who God is. It will always be right to keep a day for rest and worship; it will always be wrong to take what belongs to others. And so on. God’s laws, carved in stone.
What does this stone mean? It means that all of us, in one way or another, do learn what is right and what is wrong. We don’t have any excuse for not knowing.
IV
And so we got old enough to go to school, where we were challenged to compete to see who could get the best grades. And not only the best grades, when we went out on to the playground, we were challenged to see who could run the fastest and jump the highest. We found out that there were a lot of things we were supposed to learn, big, tough things. And somebody expected us to do these things better than anybody else. Get good grades, win the athletic games, play the piano properly, read your Bible daily, mind your manners – a whole lot of things to learn how to do.
But we did. We did learn many things and we overcame many obstacles. Like the story of the boy David, in the Bible, who took five smooth stones and knocked down the giant Goliath. It seemed like David didn’t have much, didn’t know much. But he did have five smooth stones. And so when growling old Goliath came at him, David threw those five smooth stones and the giant came down. Just as we aced that exam, we cleared that high hurdle, we played a killer sonata, we sang a wow song, we did it! We did it right! And we felt proud.
What does this stone mean? It means that no matter how young you are, or how inexperienced, there will be something you can do and you will do it well. You’ll take down some giant with your five smooth stones, and you will be proud.
V
Well, things are going well, aren’t they? These stones seem to mean a lot of good things. The birthstone that means you are a precious jewel in the sight of God. The clay shard that means you are a chip off the old block. The flat, engraved stone that means you learned the law of God. And the smooth stones, like David’s, that mean you really have learned to do great things. But I have more stones. There are going to be twelve. And the fifth stone is one that we are going to see more than once. The fifth stone is one we are going to find over and over again.
The fifth stone is what the Bible calls the stumbling stone. The stone on which we trip and fall on our faces. This little stone, not very large, is one you might not see while you are walking down the path. You might not notice it while you are running on the track, because it is half buried. But put your foot just the wrong way on this one, and down you go. You have fallen.
And the Bible says that we will fall over stumbling stones. It speaks of a stumbling block to those who are weak. Friends, we are going to stumble. We are going to make mistakes. We are going to sin. We go running out into life, not aware that we are going to stumble. What does Scripture say? “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” That’s all, that’s everybody, that’s you and you and you and you. And yes, it’s me. I mess up every day. I trip on the hidden stumbling stones. I fall short.
What does this stone mean, then? It means that all of us fall flat on our foolish faces. It means we are sinners. We are in trouble. And we cannot even put this stone aside as if we were done with it, because we are not. Not at all. Not yet.
VI
Now here is where things get really sticky. This is where we have the most trouble of all. Because once we find out that we have stumbled, we don’t want to take responsibility for that. We want to blame somebody else. We want to punish someone else. We think we will feel better if we just punish somebody, when all along it is that we are hurting ourselves.
And, sad to say, there are plenty of stories in the Bible where people did just that. They picked up stones like this one; it fits the hand but it is heavy enough to hurt when it is thrown. And they threw stones like this at those they thought had done wrong. They wanted to punish.
There was a woman who had done something very wrong, and a whole group of men were picking up stones and were about to whack her hard. But Jesus said, “If you have never made a mistake yourselves, go ahead, throw the stone. If you are perfect, be my guest.” Of course He knew that every one of them had also done seriously wrong things. Remember that other stone, the stumbling stone? Oh, they had stumbled all right. But in their hearts all they knew to do was to hurt someone else.
And then there is the story of Stephen. A good man, a man who loved Jesus, but because He stood up in the Temple and told the truth, they hated him, and they threw stones at Stephen until he actually died. It wasn’t about Stephen. It was about them. Just like it is about us when we say things that hurt other people and call them names and maybe hit and push and kick. That’s what we do, because we just feel like we need to blame and punish somebody else for what we’ve done wrong.
Oh, what does this stone mean? It means that not only do we stumble over the stumbling stone, but also that inside us we want to hurt others. This is not very pleasant, is it? But this is the way we are. This is our story.
VII
So what do we do about that? How do we get past hurting other people because of our own brokenness? Well, one thing we do is to make promises. We promise our parents, we promise ourselves, and most of all we promise God that we won’t do that again. We promise that we will do better. God, I will do what the Bible says. Lord, I will be the kind of person You want me to be. Jesus, I will do what You would do. I promise.
But what happens with those promises? How long do we keep them? They are like New Year’s resolutions, which are in a shambles by the third or fourth day of January. How long do we keep those huge promises? We are like Jacob, who tried to go to sleep on a stone pillow, and who made a promise to God that he would follow God’s way. That’s in Genesis, chapter 28. Guess what? The whole thing happens again in chapter 31. He didn’t keep his promises and he tried again. And then if you turn over to chapter 35, it’s there, one more time. Jacob promising but not keeping his word.
What does this stone that looks a bit like a pillow mean? It means we cannot go to sleep thinking that just because we said we wanted to be better we could actually be better. It means that we cannot rest our weary heads thinking that out of our own will and grit we can be what we think we ought to be. Because that fifth stone, the stone of stumbling, is still in the path, and we will fall on it. We will. So the seventh stone, the pillow of promise, seems good; but it won’t be the last time we see the stumbling stone of sin. We cannot fix it on our own. We cannot keep our promises.
VIII
So we are in a mess now, aren’t we? I said I was going to use these stones to tell us who we are, and right now it isn’t very pretty. Right now it is an ugly pile of nothing rocks. From the beauty of the birthstone and the chip off the old block who is learning so much, to the child who is learning God’s law and who is knocking out giants, all of a sudden we have come to the stumbling and the hurting and not keeping promises. Not a pretty picture, and no hope in it. But wait and watch.
Peter says, ‘See, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.’ The Bible says that Jesus is like a cornerstone, laid down carefully. A cornerstone is put into a building to identify who that building belongs to. Out there someplace is a stone that you can read, and it says, “First Baptist Church of Gaithersburg.” That tells everyone that this building belongs to this church. Now what if your life said, “I belong to Jesus”? What if instead of your life saying, “I belong to me” you could say “I belong to Jesus”?
Friendsn, the only way you and I can get our lives in order is to give them to Jesus Christ. We cannot be better people just by trying harder. The stone of stumbling will always get us. We cannot be good just by promising to be good. The stone of stumbling sin will always trip us up. But what if between ourselves and the stone of stumbling we placed a cornerstone? What if between ourselves and our mess-ups we just said, “I belong to Jesus”? Wouldn’t that make all the difference in the world?
What does this stone mean? It means that I can build my life on Jesus and not on myself.
IX
Why? And how? Because He is able to give us new life. He has overcome sin and evil and even that worst enemy of all. He has overcome death. When they rolled away a great stone even larger and heavier than this one from the door of His tomb, they found that He was not there. He is alive. He has risen. He has dealt with what we need. He can do what we cannot!
X
And He promises that when we build our lives on Him, He will give us a new heart. Not a heart of stone anymore, but a heart of love and of faith. Ezekiel says it well, “I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them; I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, so that they may follow my statutes and keep my ordinances and obey them. Then they shall be my people, and I will be their God.” What does this heart-shaped stone mean? It means that we can have a new heart from God.
XI
And our story is not over, because when we get that new heart, then we ourselves become like living stones. This stone is a picturesque fossil made from something that was once alive; God will use us as long as we live and will build us into something beautiful for Himself. Peter says we will be like living stones built into a spiritual house. We will fit together and we will make something beautiful, together, as His church.
XII
And I tell you, when all that happens to you, then, says the Scripture, the very stones will cry out and tell the world how wonderful it is to be a Christian. You will not only be living stones; you will be witnessing stones. You will be as strong and as long-lasting as a monument. And when people say to you, “You are different. What makes you like this?”, you will be able to answer, as Joshua did, “The hand of the Lord is mighty.” The Lord did this for us. As on a stepping stone, the Lord has brought us through the mess and into hope.
What do all these stones mean? What is our story? They mean that “this rock is Jesus, yes, He’s the one; this rock is Jesus, the only one. Be very sure, be very sure, your anchor holds and grips the solid rock.”
