'What Do They Mean'
On Sunday, I stood in front of our congregation holding a brick. Munholland Church turned 90 this month, and our first building went up with St. Joe bricks from an abandoned shipyard in Slidell. Men from the church drove over, loaded them up, and drove them back, and a pastor named Reverend Took, a bricklayer before he ever preached, laid them by hand. They didn’t order them from Amazon for next-day delivery. Somebody carried every one of them. I held that brick up and asked the question every memorial eventually gets asked: what does this mean?
Israel faced the same question. After forty years in the wilderness, God’s people reached the Jordan River at flood stage, and God stopped the water so they could cross on dry ground. Then God told Joshua to have one man from each tribe pick up a stone from the middle of the riverbed, right where the priests had stood holding the ark of the covenant. “Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder” (Joshua 4:5). They were told to stack them up so that whoever walked by when the water was low would see them. And then came the reason: “In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord” (Joshua 4:6-7). Notice the answer. It isn’t, “Look how strong we were.” It is, “God cut off the river.” The stones don’t remember what Israel did. They remember what God did.
In the same way, the St. Joe bricks that make up Munholland’s sanctuary are not a memorial to the people. These bricks are a memorial to what God has done here. God brought together 32 people and a pastor, Reverend Jolly Harper. God provided the bricks for the building of His church. God brought children into covenant when their parents lifted them up to the Lord in baptism. Each year, confirmands professed their faith and loyalty to the Lord. Couples have entered into marriage covenants with God at the center. God has transformed men and women into followers, raised up leaders, and sent out servants. When people ask, “What does Munholland Church mean?” we have a story to tell about what God has done.
Your life has also been made of touchstones. God has spoken to you, forgiven you, directed your life decisions, and answered your prayers. People see a changed life, prayers offered at mealtime, and the Bible out on your side table. When they do, they have questions about you and what it means that you do these things.
A stone is just a stone. A brick is just a brick. A life is just a life. But they all point to something God has done. Somebody is looking at your life and at the lives of all those who have gone before, and they are asking, “What do they mean?” and “What do they mean for me?” Tell them about what God has done.
Blessings,
Jonathan