I want to talk with you today about building, because you see, we’re builders. From the time we’re born, we start building. As babies, we spend all our energy and effort building bodies and vocabularies. As young adults, we build our knowledge and our skill. We build relationships with others. Eventually, we will build a special relationship with a special person. And from this one special relationship, we’ll build a marriage. Together we’ll build a house and turn it into a home. And then we’ll build a family. We’ll build estates, bank accounts, and many other things. We all build because, you see, we’re builders.
But not everything that we build has lasting value. Years ago, I worked for a computer company. Our company’s specialty was medical informatics. That’s a fancy way of saying that we computerized hospitals and medical facilities. In 1992 we were contracted to build a state-of-the-art computer center at a large hospital. Part of that work included taking out the old computer center. I still remember the day that the workmen arrived to tear down the old computer facility. One of the men opened the doors to the master interconnect panel. Inside was a huge, complicated honeycomb of circuits. The workman lifted a huge sledgehammer and let it fly. In just a short time he had torn down what others had taken countless months to design and build.
This event led to some very important insights. You see, my colleagues and I had been spending 14 and 15-hour days to design and build the very best computer facility a hospital could want. And when that sledgehammer started flying, it told me that one day, our labor of love – what we had spent so much time building - would be obsolete. Just like the old computer system, our work would end up in bits and pieces on the floor. You see, not everything that we build has lasting value.
Building is important. It tells a lot about us. You see, what we build often describes who we are. The pharaohs built pyramids as testaments to themselves. Countries build monuments to testify of their power and might. But Jesus told his followers to build carefully. He said to them, “Build up treasures in heaven. Build things that will last forever.”
Building for eternity - Who does that sort of thing? What kind of materials last forever? Let’s find out. St. Peter tells us in the Epistle Lesson for today: “4 Come to the Lord, the living stone rejected by people as worthless but chosen by God as valuable. 5 Come as living stones, and let yourselves be used in building the spiritual temple, where you will serve as holy priests to offer spiritual and acceptable sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 2:4-5)
In these words we learn that God Himself is the builder. God started out with the Cornerstone. He chose a strong one – Jesus Christ. But men thought that the Cornerstone just wasn’t good enough. Peter tells us that people considered Him worthless – so much so that they killed Him on a cross. God’s design was to build for eternity. We changed God’s plan into nailing the Savior to the cross. That’s what humanity thought of God’s building program. You see, this side of the fall, we’ve been under the ill-conceived idea that we know better – that we can tell God how to build.
But God had already chosen Jesus. He wasn’t about to throw out a plan conceived from the foundation of the world. Jesus dying on the cross was part of the building process. You see, Jesus Himself said, “Destroy this temple and I will rebuild in three days.” There would be no thwarting what God had designed. The grave would not hold Him. And so Jesus rose from the dead and the Cornerstone was laid.
And so God began building for eternity. God started to build a spiritual temple. It was very different from how man has built. About one thousand years before, King Solomon undertook the building of Israel’s first temple. It was a beautiful, ornate structure. Solomon used the finest cedar, olive wood and gold. People thought that it would stand forever. To build the temple, Solomon did something that we don’t always hear about: He conscripted 30,000 workers – he used slave labor to build the temple. In spite of it’s splendor, In spite of the work, Solomon’s Temple would not stand. When the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar attacked, the temple Solomon built was destroyed.
The spiritual temple that God is building is different. You see, God is building for eternity. We are invited to both be the workers and the building material. When by grace through faith God calls us, He inlays us into the spiritual temple that He is building.
We become a part of the spiritual temple that will last forever because the Foundation and Cornerstone are Jesus Christ Himself. And there is no forced labor here. Instead, we are invited to be a part of God’s eternal building program. Peter tells us, “Come as living stones, and let yourselves be used in building the spiritual temple.”
What a blessing. We are invited to be the hands and the feet and the heart and the voice of Christ – in short, God commissions us to be co-builders with Him. The Great Commission that we heard in the Gospel Lesson today, is God’s way of making us part of his grand plan. He’s asking and empowering us to become builders of the eternal spiritual temple. “Go ye therefore and make disciples,” Jesus says. I’ll be with you until the end of the age – protecting you, and making sure that we build this house. God is building, beloved, and we have the wonderful privilege to be a part of it!
What God is building is not always easy for us to see. But believers from the beginning of time have looked to and yearned for what God is building. The writer of Hebrews says: “[By faith Abraham] was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.” (Heb. 11:10) We often don’t grasp what God is doing as He builds, but He asks us to trust Him.
Let me share a couple of stories with you. The first story I want to tell you is about Alila, a young Indian woman. One day Alila stood by the River Ganges holding her tiny infant son close to her heart. Tears filled her eyes. She began slowly walking into the river, silently making her way out until she was waist deep. The waves in the water gently rose and fell, touching the sleeping baby’s feet. She stood there for a long time. She held her child tightly as she stared out across the river. Then all of a sudden, in one quick movement, she threw the six-month old baby to his watery death.
A native missionary, M.V. Varghese, often witnessed among the crowds, which gathered at the Ganges. That day he came upon Alila kneeling in the sand - crying uncontrollably and beating her breast. With compassion he knelt beside her. He asked, “What’s wrong?” Through he sobs she told him: “The problems in my home are too many. And my sins are heavy on my heart. So I offered the best I have to the goddess Ganges - my first born son.”
Varghese’s heart ached for the desperate woman. As she cried he gently began to tell her about the love of Jesus. He told her that through Him her sins could be forgiven. She looked at him strangely. “I have never heard that before,” she replied through her tears. “Why couldn’t you have come thirty minutes earlier? If you had, my child would not have had to die.” (Christianity Today, 1993)
The second story is about a 44 year-young woman. I met her just a few months ago. She was busy building a resume. You see she was looking for a job. She was the sister of one of our parishioners and she had come to our church to interview for a secretary position that was open. Some months prior to that interview, this young woman had had to quit her job for personal reasons. But now she needed to rebuild and restart her career. She invested time and energy to accomplish this. But you see, God had a different plan. This 44-year-young woman was called home by the Lord after an extremely acute and pernicious illness. Her funeral was yesterday.
You see, beloved, In the face of life and death and eternity, all the busy-ness of life takes on a very different perspective. The only question is: “God am I part of your spiritual temple? Lord will those I love be in heaven? God, help me trust in Jesus work so that I can be with you.” Those were the only issues that mattered for the young woman’s family. Those were the only matters important to the young Indian woman after her child died.
God is building a spiritual temple that will last forever. I am certain the young woman who was laid to rest yesterday has been incorporated into God’s plan for eternity. But there are those who not heard. How many are like Alila – the young Indian woman? How many are unprepared to enter eternity? How many are desperate to hear the words of comfort that God has given to us? Are any of those our family, friends or neighbors?
We are God’s commissioned and empowered builders. God tells us through St. Peter, “You will serve as holy priests to offer spiritual and acceptable sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ.” Build that temple by telling of God’s love. Speak the name Jesus. And what we build in Jesus’ name, God will bless. I can guarantee this, beloved. How? Because Jesus came; Jesus died; Jesus rose again. Amen.
