10:30 am, Sunday, Nov 5, 2023 ~ FBCA (Joshua 3:14 - 4:7) J G White

What do these stones mean to you?

Let’s take a short walk upon several stepping stones today.

Seven weeks ago, a new, granite stone was unveiled near here. The Afghanistan War Memorial. Below the Armoury mural on the Town Hall, you can just see this memorial stone in the photo on our bulletin cover today.

Stones like this, and the monument just over here in Victoria Square, mean a great deal to so many people. People who will gather in six days to remember, and keep a moment of silence. We see such stones in most towns and villages. Lest we forget.

For thousands of years of human history, people have set up stones as places of remembering. Even when I walked my pilgrimage to Amherst, last summer, one of my travelling companions set a stone by a stream, near Truro, as a marker and memory for the two of us, who walked with God along that stretch of road.

The prescribed Hebrew Bible text for this Sunday did not include any of Joshua chapter four, but I wanted us to read of this moment when twelve stones from the Jordan River were gathered and set apart as a memorial to this moment when God brought the Israelites, finally, into the Promised Land. As they had crossed great waters to escape Egypt, forty years before, now, they crossed the Jordan at full flood stage - and gave the credit to Yahweh God.

And what will happen, in years ahead, was explained. When your children ask, in time to come, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’ then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off in front of the ark of the covenant of the LORD. (J 4:6-7)

There are many stones - or other markers - that the next generations may ask us about: what do these mean? This past week I was at three funerals, and in the midst of these I spent a full hour in the big cemetery in Advocate. I walked among those stones. I found the markers of two couples I once knew so well, years ago, and had a part in helping bury one there. We know what gravestones mean, but we may need someone to tell us about the individuals buried there. ‘What did these people mean to you?’ Well, Clarence and Vera were delightful Christian people. So hospitable; both were good cooks. And when Clad passed around a plate of their cookies, he’d always say, “Take two. One will make you sick.”

I am quite interested to get a copy of a new book by Steve Sakfte, The Dead Die Twice: Abandoned Cemeteries of Nova Scotia. After a while, no one is left alive to remember a buried person. The stone may remain a lot longer than living memory or ‘perpetual care.’

Our merciful Creator has made us in such a way that sticks and stones and all work for us, they help us remember, keep us in touch with real events and real people of the past. The text of scripture, stones in the landscape, and songs that keep being sung all unite people, across the ages.

A stone set up in the landscape is a long-term version of the string tied around your finger to remind you to do something. Is there not a freedom for the mind and heart when a monument is in place? You don’t need to work at remembering, or dwell on something all the time, when there are helpful reminders, stones or songs or whatever.

History is actually important. It is not just a human thing to be interested in the past. Our timeless God is interested in the past, and helps us stay connected with it, and with our future. In Faith, we tell the story of the Hebrews brought to a Promised Land, laying twelve stones for the twelve tribes. And we tell the Revelation story of the New Jerusalem with twelve foundations under the wall of the City, on which are the names of the twelve apostles.

In between, we mark our own stories.

This summer, I happened to be exploring the NB shore not far from here, and came upon a stone cairn at a little cove, Slacks Cove. So, I wandered right over to see what was memorialized there. Baptist history, believe it or not! 1763

Thirteen Baptists from Swansea Mass. landed by Slack’s Cove, April 21, 1763. Middle Sackville and Main Street Baptist Church Sackville N.B. were the first Baptist witness in Canada. Founded on the Rock Christ Jesus. Dedicated June 1973. And the names of those Baptist settlers are listed.

Forty-six years later, the Baptist congregation in this town was organized. We have this brick from the house of the Freeman family, where the first Baptist gatherings took place, in West Amherst. Another stone, of sorts, to make people ask, ‘What does this mean… to you?

Well, what does it mean? To you? This particular congregation has had most of its people come and go over our 214 year history. Our fellowship does go back to those long-gone folks who met in a long-gone home, west of here. Do we consider that a wonderful act of the Living God: to inspire a handful of Christians of the Baptist flavour to band together in this town? Was there some freedom, some hope, some good purpose for this, in the name of Christ?

Today, we are surrounded by the local-quarried stone of this 1895 building, our third here on this downtown lot. What do these stones mean to you? What do we say to younger people about this meeting house? And to newcomers to our area? Our sense of purpose and togetherness must still come from the Spirit of God.

We have an identity and a role within the community, from God, and expressive of we who are this body. Our favourite introit says it. Let us build a house where love can dwell and all can safely live… all are welcome in this place. It is the welcome of the Gospel we learn to share. In the open arms of Christ upon the Cross we see our inspiration. The house built here is actually we the people.

Thus, we claim the words of Ephesians 2. So then, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone; in him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are built together in Spirit into a dwelling place for God.

What do these stones mean to you? To me, they mean Christ Jesus is the Cornerstone, and we are built into a people of blessing. So, from us there is goodness and grace shining out to our neighbourhoods.