WE STICK TOGETHER
Author: Fr. Michael Byron
May 10, 2020
I once knew a man a long time ago who was a retired brick
layer. That is among the many professions about which I know nothing. This guy
had a dry sense of humor, and when he spoke about his work he would tell me, “I
never could figure out whether that mortar was intended to stick those bricks
together or to keep them apart.” Something tells me that that’s probably an old
joke in that business, but I’d never heard it before, and I sometimes remember
it and think, “Well of course it’s both.” Without the mortar – the super glue
in between those bricks, no building could stand, or withstand the forces of
nature, like wind and storms and gravity.
Back in the time and place of Jesus and the earliest church,
people didn’t build things with bricks. They used stones, which is the reason
for the metaphor in today’s second reading from St. Peter. They used field
stones. But even then you still needed the equivalent of mortar, both to keep
the stones together and to separate them. Simply piling stone upon stone will
result in ruin for a building. All somebody would need to do is poke a hole in
one of the walls and the whole thing would come crashing down.
When you think of it, St. Peter’s description of the resurrected
Jesus as a “living stone” is a very strange image. Of all God’s creation, what
could be more obviously dead than a stone? And yet for him – as well as for the
Old Testament prophets before him, it’s the perfect picture of how we are to
think about our role in the building up of God’s people. Living stones.
It’s a very radical description of our role as disciples
precisely because it’s so absurd. A stone can be alive? Who could believe this?
A dead man could be raised to eternal life? Who could believe this? The crucified
one could be the savior of the whole world? Who could believe this? We do!
And to extend that metaphor to the Christian community, as
St. Peter does, a whole church can be founded and grown on the witness of weak
and cowardly and sinful people, including its leaders? Who can believe this? The
transformation of our world and of human history could happen depending upon
how people like me and our neighbors decide to respond? Who could believe this?
A pandemic killer virus is not stronger than God? Who can believe this? We do!
But let me return to that story about the bricks and mortar,
and let me dare to expand a little on St. Peter’s image of the living stones. Because
stones without mortar aren’t very useful for any kind of building. They will
just fall down into a heap.
The glue is the mortar. It is that which keeps this from
being an utterly individualistic effort, just a pile of stones, the glue is the
Holy Spirit, who both keeps us strong and together AND who prevents us from
simply becoming one and the same thing; prevents us from thinking we’re the
only important stone. Living stones – which is to say our community – are only
strong and useful to the extent that we acknowledge our need for the mortar,
the glue, who is nobody’s private possession or power. It is ours. Or more
accurately, it is God’s, and God’s gift to us together. It is Holy Spirit.
Peter announces today that, “you are a chosen race, a royal
priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own.” That “you” is plural, which is
why the scripture does not read, “you are a chosen person, a royal priest, a
holy individual, a man or woman of his own.” Even living stones aren’t of much
benefit without the glue.
And perhaps that’s why the image of stones is much better
here than the image of living bricks. Because bricks are mass produced and look
pretty much the same. But not stones. Every stone is the way it is because of a
very specific history, a very specific journey up to now. And so it is with
each of God’s people – with us and with others. No stone in God’s spiritual
house is to be discarded or declared unworthy. Each living stone simply has to
find its place in which to fit in with all the others, and the mortar can take
care of that.
We remain Christ’s holy house even during these strange and
upsetting days. We remain God’s living stones even when it may be less certain
how and where we fit in. The mortar, the Holy Spirit, still binds us together,
even as the circumstances of life may keep us physically apart for now. We walk
by faith, and with confidence, especially when it is more difficult to rely on
our sight.
And so we come to the table again.
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