The Rev. Nancy E. Gossling Church of the Redeemer, Chestnut Hill
My husband Paul and I have a family home on Cape Cod. Looking for something to do one summer while I was in a time of transition, I decided to make a stone walkway at our house. Every day, I would walk down to the beach with cloth bags, pick up heavy stones, and carry them back to the house. Like my thoughts and prayers, I would pick them up and put them down. I walked slowly, methodically, and patiently, not exactly my usual style. Except the time when a snake slithered across my path.
Margaret Silf wrote a book about Celtic spirituality called Sacred Spaces. In one chapter she said, “in Celtic times the standing stones and high crosses were the village’s library, its pulpit, and it's art gallery, watching over the community, focusing the people’s gaze always to something beyond themselves.” Redeemer is like that.Your stone church sits on one of seven small hills, watching over this local community, and clearly visible to all who pass by. Your bell tower stretches high above our heads, pointing to something beyond ourselves.
And yet, as you know from your recent bell tower repair, stones will crumble. Nature can take its toll on the sturdiest of our buildings. And tonight we hear Jesus, pointing to the Temple in Jerusalem, saying, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.” Not by nature, however, but rather by human beings. Climate change, as you know, involves both.
This Temple was destroyed twice, once in 586 BC, during the Babylonian occupation, and a second time in 70 AD, when it was destroyed by the Roman government. Temples and towers, walls and pathways, anything that is material is vulnerable to both natural corruption as well as human destruction.
During this time of personal transition, I also decided to walk the Camino de Santiago de Compostela in Spain. Known as the Way of St. James, the Camino leads to Santiago, which is the third historic pilgrimage site in our Anglican Communion, with Jerusalem and Rome being the other two sacred places. People make pilgrimages to these cities for various reasons and almost always walk away with some sort of inward and spiritual transformation.
On the Camino, pilgrims are invited to carry a stone with them and put it down somewhere along the Way as a symbolic act. It may be a prayer of thanksgiving or a prayer for healing and reconciliation. It may be a prayer for the release of a burden or guidance for a new direction. In one place on the Camino, there is an Iron Cross sitting on top of a small hill of stones, 15 to 20 feet high. Since the 11th century, pilgrims have been leaving their rocks at the foot of this cross, which symbolize the sins they have committed, and a request for their absolution.
Another benefit to walking, in general, is an opportunity to connect spiritually with God. As I walked through various landscapes, villages, and cities I grew increasingly grateful for God‘s creation and for all God’s people. I became more content with simple things. Amazingly, whether in Spain, or at the beach, in the forest, or on city streets, in a never-ending cycle of prayer, I put things down, like grief, and sorrow, and worry, and fear. And I pick things up like hope, and joy, and faith, and love. I travel more lightly. My baggage lessens; my soul expands; and my heart fills with love.
When we’re open to other pilgrims, wherever we walk, we hear many stories of challenges and blessings. Perhaps you know the story of The Stone Soup. In it, a traveler passes through a village with no food or shelter. When she asks villagers for something to eat, they decline for various reasons. And so, the traveler goes to a river, takes a large stone, and begins to cook it in a pot. When villagers ask her what she is doing, she tells them that she is making stone soup, and how much better it would taste if it had a potato, or some meat, or a vegetable. Soon enough, villagers were bringing one thing or another, and then together they enjoyed this newly created stone soup.
You have made many stone soups here at Church of the Redeemer. The ongoing FUEL program provides healthy lunches for young children in local schools. Your recent initiative for Haitian refugees, recently relocated to Massachusetts, provides warm winter coats and other needed items for pilgrims of all ages. You give blood and socks and money because you know that it is more blessed to give than receive. You know that we are all pilgrims, walking the stony path of Life, which we call the Way of Love.
In Sacred Spaces, Margaret Silf, describes human beings as islands of disconnection; and yet, underneath all of our individual islands there is a bedrock that connects us all. This bedrock is where creation is held together in unity, and it reminds us that there is Something and Someone far greater and more powerful than all of us combined. Underneath this bedrock, underneath Church of the Redeemer, underneath the Temple in Jerusalem, and every church everywhere, there lies a Rock that will never crumble. On this Rock, Jesus told Peter, “I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.”
In these times of turmoil and unrest throughout our world, when it seems as if nations are rising against nations, when earthquakes, famines, and fires are frequent and climate change is real, when diseases like COVID 19 are killing people around our world, it is comforting to hear Jesus say, “Do not be troubled.”
We live in fearful and anxious times; and like Covid 19, fear and anxiety are contagious. We are constantly being told to “beware” of this or “to be careful” about that. We fear being led astray by the leaders of our country and the most recent fads in our culture. While apocalyptic visions and warnings may generate fear; so too does the reality of our daily lives.
Like the disciples in today’s lesson, we too may wonder when the end will come, and how it will happen. Jesus said, “Yes, the end will come; but this is only the beginning of the birth pangs. Do not be troubled.” For God’s power is far greater than any institution or government, far greater than any disease or even death. From the very beginning of time, God created life; and new life emerges each and every day, even when everything seems to be crumbling all around us.
In my walk around the Chestnut Hill reservoir a few weeks ago, I marveled at Redeemer’s tower which was visible at one point along the path. I thought to myself, “We need places like Redeemer, a stone church that points to a higher power and a greater purpose. We need people like you who make stone soups and offer your prayers and beautiful music. And we need these sacred spaces that help us to focus our gaze on Someone and Something beyond ourselves.
Brother James of SSJE, once wrote, “For a path to be a path, you have to be able to see it, or at least catch glimpses of it, every so often. And for that to happen, somebody needs to have walked it ahead of you. We may not be able to see them, but here and there they have left a sign: a shoe or a boot abandoned in the muck, something they have dropped, a pile of stones, a marker inscribed with an arrow pointing the way - or simply the holiness of their lives.” People of Redeemer, you are signs of God’s presence. You are living stones in a big stone Church pointing to the Way of Love.
Near our house on the Cape, on the side of the road to the beach, there is a large mound of stones, and at its head is a wooden cross with the words: Here lies Chester. Resurrection into eternal life begins with birth pangs and our burial sites are often marked by stones, with high crosses that point to Life and Love beyond ourselves.
As Christians, we are a community of love, which has been built upon a bedrock of resurrection faith, with Jesus Christ, as the chief cornerstone. The Church of the Redeemer is a sacred space on this little hill in Newton and a touchstone of Eternity for everyone to see. And while our churches, temples, and towers will occasionally need some repair, surely God’s grace will never crumble.
Mark 13:1-8
As Jesus came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!” Then Jesus asked him, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.”
When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, “Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?” Then Jesus began to say to them, “Beware that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many astray. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be troubled; this must take place, but the end is still to come. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birth pangs.”
