Lord Jesus Christ 

By the power of your presence 

Open the mind of God to us 

That in your light we may see light  

And in your strength be strong. 

 

Amen.  

 

“In the future when your descendants ask their fathers, what do these stones mean? Tell them Israel crossed the Jordan on dry land. For the Lord your God dried up the Jordan..” (quote Joshua 4:  

 

History connects us to the past. To a time we did not live through but we learn from history, or we should.  

 

But as we read in Ecclesiastes there is nothing new under the sun. History repeats itself, it goes on a cycle of the world doing the same thing just at a different time.  

 

Our reading today sees God tell Joshua to record this historic event. A day in the history of the people of Israel. Generation after generation will be told this great event, of the Lord’s power and concern for his people.  

 

And if they ever forget the stones will be a reminder, to draw them back and the young people will ask what these stones mean. An opportunity to tell the stories of faith to a new generation, in a new time and possibly a new place. ( Pic2 Stones) 

 

The people of Israel were to remember all that God had done for them and trust that he again would do the same.  

 

Faith passed on from generation to generation.(pic 3 Generation to generation)  

 

Sometimes it’s easy to pass that faith on King Darius found the Torah and experienced the words fresh and living. The people of God came back to him.  

 

We have had the same in the last century when Churches were full and all the nation it seemed worshipped God. It’s easy to pass faith on when things seem to be going well.. 

 

But what about when you are the remnant, the people of God exiled in another nation and the few who still uphold the faith of their forefathers. That’s a hard place to be. In a culture that is far removed from yours, faith that is different from yours. Young people not knowing the stories and the places of the past. That’s a hard place to pass on your faith.  

 

In the New Testament even the people who met Jesus travelled with him when things were good, at the height of what they would have seen as his fame, many followed. When he was being tried and crucified not many stood by him.  

 

The Church has gone through the same situations. It has ebbed and flowed, great revivals and great times of change.  

 

It’s where we are now…the remnant…the place that’s hard to pass on our faith.   

 

We too live in a different culture, where our stories of faith are not known, where we cross a culture that may as well be  in a different country.  We talk a language and have traditions that folks outside don’t understand. (pic4 Culture-faith) 

 

Yet God calls us to pass our faith and stories of his faithfulness and love, mercy and justice on in ways that will be able to be understood and grasped by this present age. Our faith stories of our journey with God should inspire and help others to come to God.  

 

 

We can do two things we can be content with what we have and look back to a time when it was booming and all was well. If that time ever existed.  

 

Or we can look back and see what God has done and what he will continue to do. (pic5 what has God done in our day) 

Look to our ancient stones and see what stories they tell. Where are our stories of faith in our time? What will we leave as a memorial to our faith journeys here in our time.  

 

I first met John  when I worked as a detached youth worker in Ayr. I did this on a Friday and Saturday night as well as my job in the parish.  

 

My college Mark and myself would walk Ayr Beach on many a cold and wet night. Our job was to engage with the young people who were involved in risky behaviour, drugs, alcohol, and violence. We were employed by the 12 Ayr Churches in partnership with NHS Ayrshire and Arran.  

The young people knew we worked for the Church and we never had any disrespect from them, many, many questions came.  

 

John  hung out with a large group of boys and girls, there would be fights and too  much alcohol.  He would be about 12 at this point. He was always the one to start the fight, always coming off worse. We would despair, every week it would be Simon. We would spend time with him and chat and he had a total lack of faith. At first he would be aggressive but through time he saw it as a challenge to us to ask more questions.  

 

We were patient with him and we met him most weekends in various states for about 2 years. One day he came to the office he was about 15 at this point. School had excluded him permanently, his parents had called social work and he was in foster care.  

 

For the first time in  years he told us his story. His father had died when he was 7, his grandfather whom had been a minister had died the next year. His mother had remarried and he raged against God.  

 

We worked with him for many years, some days we got the rage and others we had time to talk and listen.  

 

It has  been a long journey for John , he goes to Church, has been to college and university. He still has questions but that is the mystery of faith.  It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon and were in it for the long hall.  

While I was in London working over the summer at  St Columba’s in pont street John  started his first day as a teacher teaching IT.  He helps in the scouts, the only place he ever felt was his constant through life.  

 

We never know how long it takes but God is with us in the long hall.  

 

We tell our stories, we live our lives. People watch and they know what is real and what is not.  

 

John  used to ask us why we bothered. To begin with we would tell him we were just looking out for him, as time went on we were able to earn the right to say that your made in the image of God and that you matter and are loved by your heavily Father. 

 

The first step to healing is to feel wanted and belong somewhere, first you have to have faith that things will change and when you do faith in God follows…we then reclaim the mystery of faith which connects us in hope and love.   

 

I don’t tell this story to highlight what we can do but to highlight that in our day the memorials of God will look different to those of the past.   

 

The stories of faith change in context in every generation but God remains the same. It’s about being open to him working in and through our lives, and then when we see the faithfulness of God in our lives, we use that story to encourage others to their own walk with God.  

 

 

 

What do these stones mean when we are asked? 

 

Will these stones mean a building , a tradition and that in itself is ok. But we will need to leave markers for those who follow us to make sense of that tradition.  

 

These stones though always have to point to the one who insisted the people of Israel marked their history. Jesus is our living stone, the cornerstone.Pic 6 Christ the cornerstone 

 

 What has God done and what is God doing in our day?  

 

 

 

 

From Generation to generation we tell the story, we live the story and we leave the work to God. For Jesus Christ is the same Yesterday, today and forever.  

 

To God the Father 

God the Son  

God the Holy Spirit 

Amen.  

 

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