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What is your cornerstone?

March 10, 2023

Genesis 37:3–4,12–28  |  Psalm 105:16–22  |  Matthew 21:33–43

“The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone”
– Matthew 21:42

Cornerstones are a most important building element. We see them engraved with the date of construction and part of dedication ceremonies. With today’s modern construction methods and alignment tools, the importance of cornerstones is mostly ceremonial. But their original purpose was more essential. Cornerstones set the location, orientation and alignment of masonry buildings. Improperly placed cornerstones would throw the whole building off, requiring a lot of correction along the way, or if not corrected, resulting in a poorly constructed building.

And so it is in our lives. What is your cornerstone? What are the core principals and beliefs that set the alignment of the way you live? We have such freedom and choice to build our lives upon so many different cornerstones. For me, I think building my life upon Jesus and his teachings is a pretty good one. I like that he always cut to the core of what really matters. He exposed the absurdity of focusing solely on rules, practices, customs and judgement. He instead pointed to the basic underpinnings of love, kindness, respect and forgiveness. He turned on end what the world felt was important and pointed us to what the kingdom God says is important. When I feel my life getting out of alignment, I try to reset my thoughts and actions to these cornerstone beliefs. Jesus’ parable is a tale of caution for those who reject a good cornerstone. The kingdom of God gets taken away. I don’t think it is so much a tale of punishment and exclusion as it is an acknowledgement that your life will follow what you believe is important.

I drove around St. Luke’s three times this week looking for a cornerstone to take a picture of for this blog.  I even made my Joseph get out and walk through the snowy cemetery to make sure it was not hidden back there. (I could not do it myself because of an injured knee – talk about getting out of alignment!). I could not find one. There is a commemorative pavestone at the parking lot entrance dedicating the Parish Hall renovation and addition. But I could not find a ceremonial cornerstone with a date on it for the original building. I found this surprising because it would have been common practice for a building of such community importance in 1875 when our beautiful stone church was built.

So it makes me wonder, is it possible our forebears left it out intentionally as a statement that Jesus was the true cornerstone of St. Luke’s? It is an interesting thought to ponder. And it is also why you see no picture of a cornerstone accompanying this blog. Whether our forebears did this intentionally or not, what I do know is that it is the charge of each and every one of us to make sure that Jesus remains the cornerstone of our church. For it sets the tone for how we live as a community of faith.

Gary Schweizer