Reflection - Rocks

http://usccb.org/bible/readings/110916.cfm

Ezekiel 47:1-2, 8-9, 12
1 Corinthians 3:9-11, 16-17
John 2:13-22

When you live in a place with lots of rock, you invariably find out that rocks tell a story. For example, I grew up in Kansas. We didn't have much variety in our rocks --- at least not in the surface rocks. From east to west, limestone was the rock most commonly seen. The early pioneers even used the rock for fence posts in the central and western part of the state. Post rocks were cut and placed in lieu of the non-existent trees. Kansas limestone tells a story. It's an ancient story from millennia ago when much of Kansas was a part of the bottom of a large shallow sea. The story is read in the deposits of ancient marine life which are part of the limestone composite. It tells a tale of seemingly endless centuries that collected bones and shells from a multitude of marine animals. 

The story of Colorado's rocks appears much more complex. I don't have the background to do the story justice; but much is revealed to anyone who has even a modest degree of curiosity and is willing to take the time and has the patience to observe. The story of Colorado's rocks  recounts volcanoes, sandy seashores, and petrified redwood trees. It's a story of super-heated stone with threaded infusions of entirely different types of molten minerals. The canyon walls of the Black Canyon tell a story of a slow uplift of the earth. The multi-directional fractures in the face of the Glenwood Canyon walls tell a story of ancient stresses. Throughout the state you can see elongated waves and tortuous twists in the exposed rock face that suggest the stretches and pulls of salt-water taffy in progress of being made. Despite the fact that all this took place over countless centuries, the story these rocks tell is one of violence when compared with the slow and simple accumulating of materials forKansas limestone.

All three of today's readings are about rocks. And in all three of the readings, the rocks tell a story. The rocks in Ezekiel's vision offer a narrative of precise measurement, careful cutting and exact placement so as to form a temple. From this temple, toward each of the four corners of the earth, there flow streams of living water.

"Wherever the river flows,
every sort of living creature that can multiply shall live,
and there shall be abundant fish,
for wherever this water comes the sea shall be made fresh.
Along both banks of the river, fruit trees of every kind shall grow;
their leaves shall not fade, nor their fruit fail."

Ezekiel's rocks tell a story of waters that give life, waters that flow in abundance from the stone footstool of the Lord --- this is the water which Jesus refers to when he speaks with the Samaritan woman at the well.

The rocks in Jesus' encounter with the Jewish leaders and the rocks in Ezekiel.'s vision are both components of a Temple; and both Temples are symbolic. However, the symbolism of the the stones in the Gospel incident  contrasts sharply with the stones that compose Ezekiel's temple structure; yet, inexplicably and mysteriously, their stories are the same. The stones of the temple edifice to which Jesus refers are symbolic; but the story they tell is real. Just as the temple stones locate the unique place of God's presence on earth, so to, Jesus, the Immanuel -- our God with us -- uniquely locates the singular place of God's presence on earth. The stones in Jesus prescient view seem to tell a tale of destruction and untimely death. Yet, the story has a mystifying ending; for, like the account in Ezekiel, it too speaks of living water: "One of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water." (John 19:34) Like the streams that went forth from Ezekiel's temple, this water, too, poured forth on the four corners of the earth, brings life wherever it passes. 

The third story is the shortest of all, probably because it is unfinished. It is the story told by the stones in Paul's letter to the Corinthians. "You are God's building, God's Temple." Paul tells the Corinthians. This theme also finds expression in his other letters. "So then," he says to the Ephesians, "you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord." (Ephesians 2:19-21).  And yet again, when he writes to the Corinthians a second time: "We are the temple of the living God; as God said, "I will live in them and move among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people." (2 Corinthians 6:16)

The image is further developed and extended as Paul writes to others in the early Christian community. The focus in his texts shifts slightly from that of the other two readings. Once more the stones are part and parcel of the Temple, which itself is symbolic; but, while the Temple is still central, Paul's eye has turned ever so slightly so as to be directed toward the stones which compose it and their mutual relationship in the context of the whole. We, he says, are the stones; we are the temple of the living God.

So here I am at this junction.

I am a rock and I have a story. My story contains more of the turbulence of  Colorado stones than it does of the passive sedimentation and compression which formed Kansas limestone. My story recalls volcanic explosions, tortuous twists, and stress fractures. Yet, those are not even the whole of the tale, just some of the chapters. Other chapters would find me in the turbulence of cascading mountain streams, being shaped and polished by the rapid flow of water. Still other chapters would find me measured and refined like the gold ore from Cripple Creek. 

So, like I said, here I am at this junction, finding it necessary once more to consider the notion of being a living stone. God promised that he would remove from me my heart of stone and replace it with living flesh. He didn't mention at the time that that exchange would require that I eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood so that I might have life within me. 

Nevertheless, this moment is like every other moment in my life --- it is an ever recurring point of no return and keeps requiring a choice day after day and time after time. What kind of rock will I be? Will I allow myself to be precisely measured, carefully shaped and exactly placed by the master builder? Will I consent to abandon the complacency of inanimate existence and welcome the life he offers in abundance?

Once more. This is the point of no return, and Peter commends all disciples, the fractured and life scarred rocks that we are, to join the master builder.  "Come to him" Peter says, "and . . . like living stones be yourselves built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." (1 Peter 2:5) He wants to build a Temple for his presence and he will only do it with living stones.