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Mark Wheeler
Luke 20:9-19 07/31/2022
"The Purpose of the Cornerstone" Lidgerwood Presbyterian Church
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#801 This Is the Day
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Join in as Pastor Kathy leads us in our Call to Worship from a few verses in Psalm 118:
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Hello everyone! Welcome to worship at Lidgerwood!! Shalom Aleichem!
Welcome! Let's begin today by not taking for granted that we are allowed to be together for worship – even if you're one who worships with us from home or on the road!
We are glad you are here with us today! We gather here from a world filled with trouble and trauma. Welcome to a moment where we can settle in with God and with each other.
We gather in our church sanctuary – a holy place – and it's also a safe place – where the divine and the human connect together. Welcome to this holy sacred and safe place today.
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Let's take a second to welcome each other, those in the room and across the globe. Tell your loved ones, as we just did in our Call to Worship, whoever you can see , "The Lord is with you – and also with you!!"
Welcome to this "gathering" in God's name. We are assembled in NorthEast Spokane, WA, along with people from all over the world. We are very glad you are "here" with us.
Be filled with God's Holy Spirit presence and power, in your homes, through your phones and computers, in this building here, and in your lives. Pray with us … and hear and be transformed by God's Word.
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Our Opening Song of Devotion and Praise is –– Standing on the Promises - #306!! A song of devotion and praise.
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Open our hearts today, O Lord, to feel the powerful strength and love You have for us. Help us to listen, not only with our ears, but with our spirits for Your Word of compassion and healing. Enable us to become more faithful disciples for You; for we ask this in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
The purpose of the cornerstone is to set a strong foundation – a groundwork upon which everything else can lean and depend. It's kind of like the "capstone" in an archway. If the capstone is not cut right, or if it doesn't fit well, the archway is weakened and, eventually, will fall. In the same way, if the cornerstone, especially of an ancient building, is out of place, or not level, or cut wrong, the whole building will lilt. It loses its structural integrity.
Cornerstones have a specific purpose. They establish – they stabilize – the entire structure.
Look at our Call to Worship that Pastor Kathy led us in this morning. Remember that line 2/3 down? That's a weird line. "The stone the builders rejected became the cornerstone." That comes from Psalm 118, a Hallel Psalm, written 1,000 years before Jesus was born. And it declares, in powerful imagery, that we'd better be careful we don't reject God's "cornerstone" and trip into an eternity of rejection.
Let's look at Luke 20:9-19 for today's teaching from Jesus' parables in Luke's Gospel. In the past 3+months we have seen several different types of parables, different ways Jesus told stories to drive home His teachings. Last week we read the parable about the servants who each received a specific amount of money and each was given the same instruction to make something of their money. And we learned that we'd better take full advantage of every opportunity we can find to serve God well. We learned that we're at the end of Jesus' Journey to Jerusalem; and these parables start carrying a heavier theme of immanent importance. Last week's started with a Master who was going to a far country; today's starts with an industry leader who was "going away for a long time".
Before we start reading this parable, I feel the need to assure you that the Master refers to Jesus and the Farmer refers to God Almighty Himself! So, while I am about to go away – on a cross-the-globe trip to see Andrew and Gulaida – none of these parables use me in that positive light! But they DO speak to us today with perfect clarity!
Let's hear God's Word: Luke 20:9-19 …. ----
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9 Now he began to tell the people this parable: "A man planted a vineyard, leased it to tenant farmers, and went away for a long time. 10 At harvest time he sent a servant to the farmers so that they might give him some fruit from the vineyard. But the farmers beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 11 He sent yet another servant, but they beat that one too, treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed. 12 And he sent yet a third, but they wounded this one too and threw him out.
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13 "Then the owner of the vineyard said, 'What should I do? I will send my beloved son. Perhaps they will respect him.'
14 "But when the tenant farmers saw him, they discussed it among themselves and said, 'This is the heir. Let's kill him, so that the inheritance will be ours.' 15 So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.
"What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? 16 He will come and kill those farmers and give the vineyard to others."
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But when they heard this they said, "That must never happen!"
17 But he looked at them and said, "Then what is the meaning of this Scripture: The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone?
18 Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, but on whomever it falls, it will shatter him."
19 Then the scribes and the chief priests looked for a way to get their hands on him that very hour, because they knew he had told this parable against them, but they feared the people.
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This parable is fairly straightforward, isn't it? Jesus addressed this story to the whole crowd of listeners … but at the end we're told that the scribes and Pharisees knew Jesus was talking about them!
Have you ever wondered if a speaker at a gathering of people was referring to YOU as s/he spoke? I know that there have been times when I've been sitting where you are today, and I was pretty sure Jennifer or my Mom or someone had had an appointment with the speaker earlier that week because it sure felt like the preacher was describing my personal flaws exactly!
Maybe you've heard the story about the preacher who started one Sunday morning by asking everyone to sit still and quiet before the 1st song was started. And afterward he received angry letters and e-mails from people complaining that he had told them, by name, to sit down and shut up!
Sometimes, when I am driving a point home that sounds like I'm scolding bad behavior, I will simply look into the sky, or down at the floor, so I don't accidentally make eye-contact with someone and then they think I'm talking to them personally! That's not to say that I'm not talking about them, but … I'll never say.
This straightforward parable points out the fact that the whole Old Testament, the entire Bible, for that matter, is written to help hold us accountable for the decisions we make in life, for the ways we treat people, for the ways we reject God. One prophet after another, one speaker after another, the Jews have rejected – we Christians have rejected. And finally – in God's plans from the beginning of time – God sent His Son, that whosoever should believe in Him, whoever believes in their heart and confesses on their lips that Jesus is Lord, shall not perish but shall have everlasting life! Amen?
But … when God inconveniences us, when He asks us to trust Him and to serve Him and to live like we really mean what we say about His grace and mercy, when He asks us to to live like we believe what we say we believe … we reject Him as well!
When we read where Jesus says to pick up our cross and follow Him, we water His meaning down to living with our daily difficulties with faith.
When Jesus says to humble ourselves as little children, we say Amen but we're unwilling give up all our control and in-dependence!
When Jesus says it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God, we pretend that He was talking about a small gate that a camel had to "crawl" through instead of what He actually said.
When we water Jesus down, or refuse to trust Him for all of our needs, or simplify His teachings into things we can handle … we reject Jesus!
Jesus tells a parable that accuses the Jews of rejecting God's prophets, rejecting God's Word, rejecting God's Son, rejecting God! And so the parable ends with the death of everyone who has rejected God.
You see, Jesus was telling this parable to a bunch of relatively faithful Jews, God-fearers, pray-ers and Bible study-ers. And He's saying Death! So when He finished the story we can almost hear the gasp: "No Jesus. Say it's not so!"
So, Jesus goes to Psalm 118, the Old Testament song book, to prove His point. He is speaking with the authority of the Bible! The Cornerstone, whose purpose is to form the foundation, is a stumbling block to everyone who rejects it! And others will even be crushed by it!
This parable holds a 3-step challenge for its hearers: the scribes and Pharisees, the crowds, and the 21st century Inland Northwest North Americans. Think R … A … D. In the mid-1980s, calling something "rad" was to give it the highest compliment. Like: "This sermon is totally 'rad'!"
This parable calls us to Repentance
To Acceptance, and
To Discipleship
It is a call to Repentance – repent from every rejection we have ever handed Jesus; the rejections of salvation, of forgiveness, of hope, of acceptance, of His Lordship. Let's repent of our stubborn pride and self-centered lifestyle.
It is a call to Acceptance – accept Jesus as the living Son of God He claims to be; accept Him as the only means to heaven; accept Jesus as the incarnate God who desires our best if we will just listen to and follow His voice!
It is a call to Discipleship! – grow in grace and knowledge….
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In another day your pastor will be gone for "a long time" … he challenges you to be here to worship together under the authority of the Gospel NEXT Sunday at Worship in the Park, and the following Sunday when Rev Brad Buff and Pastor Kathy, along with Johnny's leadership and Scott, and Lilly and Julie and the Davises bring God's Word to you and lead our times of worship and prayer.
Repent of any complaining or grumbling
Accept Jesus again as Lord and Savior
Discipline ourselves to continue to grow in grace and knowledge. That's the purpose of the cornerstone.
Great God of Creation, we worship You in spirit and in truth.
Lead us into our 2nd hundred years of ministry in NE Spokane.
Prepare us for Your coming Kingdom and everything You would have us do and be here at LPC. We do collectively repent of the ways we ignore Your Word and Your will; we accept You again to rule our ministry; we discipline ourselves into Your grace and mercy.
Confirm Your direction for us with joy and hope. In Jesus' authority. Amen.
Ricardo – lead us in Prayer with your musical prelude:
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Our Special Summer Song !!! Dick McCarter – – "My Tribute"
18-20 Pastor Kathy – come lead us in prayer:
- what are some praises, thanksgivings, adorations we want to offer?
- Is there a person or a situation you want to lift to our Lord for His answers and grace?
21 We pray this in the name of Jesus, who taught us to pray: [The Lord's Prayer]
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Just like those earliest Christians, we sing praises here in this place because of the commitment and faith and generosity of others who shared the Good News of the Gospel in their time.
So we turn now, in our time, and share our faith and our commitment through generous giving to support the ministry of this church in Christ's name. Let us gather our gifts together and offer them to God in gratitude and praise.
Receive our tithes and offerings as symbols of our very lives and livelihood, given as response to Your life given for us! Bless it, and by it bless the world around us. In Christ's name, Amen.
– Offering (4449 N Nevada St, Spokane, 99207 ; or click HERE, or text 833-976-1333, code "Lidgerwood")
23 As Pastor Kathy comes up to lead us in Communion – we will sing our Communion song #803 – Jesus, Stand Among Us
As our Communion servers pass the trays down your row, please take a piece of bread and a cup – if you take the self-contained COVID-friendly cups the bread is already included so you won't need an additional broken piece – if you take the closed cups, open the top cellophane cover to reveal the bread right away so you're ready when Kathy leads us in that – if you accidentally open the foil top to reveal the grape juice – go ahead and drink that right away so you don't spill it opening up the bread….
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Expedition Song #840 – God Be with You –! We began today declaring our faith and praise to God, now we close blessing each other!
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We continue with this benediction: May we Grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Be filled with God's Holy Spirit.
And give glory to God, today, and forever! Amen.
And as we do that: "May the Lord bless you and protect you;
may the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;
may the Lord look with favor on you and give you peace."
30 Announcements
- Fellowship Time – self-serve coffee & pre-wrapped treats –
- Community Garden – is happening!
- Worship in the Park – NEXT Sunday, 10am, Harmon Park – choir rehearsal Wednesday, 6pm @ Fellowship Church .
Resources:
Buttrick, George A.; The Parables of Jesus; Doubleday Co; NY; 1928; Pp. 218-221.
Wheeler, Mark; "The Purpose of the Cornerstone"; Lidgerwood Presbyterian Church; 07/08/2007.
