New Life from a Rock

Listen to me, you that pursue righteousness, you that seek the Lord.  Look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug.  Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you;  for he was but one when I called him, but I blessed him and made him many.  For the Lord will comfort Zion; he will comfort all her wasted places, and will make her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song.  

Isaiah 51:1-3

And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.  I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

Matthew 16:18-19

Recently, my husband and I were invited for dinner and a tour of the Rolling R Bison Ranch. It is owned and operated by some of my parishioners, Dale and Beth Rengstorf and their daughter and son-in-law, Karla and PJ Breen.  It was a spectacular evening as Dean and I made the trek through rolling hills and around lakes and streams to get to the ranch.  The first thing we did was to hop into Dale’s pick up and take a tour of the ranch. As he drove, Dale pointed out to us some acres of the land he owns that have never been tilled, a rare piece of native prairie in the midst of farms that go on and on into the horizon, the majority of them still using tilling practices.  He pointed out some ruts in the land that he believes to be a sign that the Oxbow Trail may have passed right through this piece of prairie.  

Next, he drove us into one of the fenced-in areas where the bison roam. They were in the midst of calving, so we witnessed the precious calves clinging to their mothers for milk, while the sun set in the West.  Rolling R places a high priority on sustainable practices. One of the most miraculous things we witnessed was a beautiful plot where the bison graze. A gravel pit, a quarry, loomed less than a half mile away. Dale informed us that the field on which the Bison were grazing was, up until a few years ago, one of those gravel pits!  What had appeared to be a “wasted place” on this landscape had been purchased by Rolling R and restored into a beautiful pasture on which the bison now thrive.  Dale works with the gravel company to purchase and restore land when they are finished utilizing it.  Things can change in miraculous ways….even rocks!  Dale told us that when he started his business, there were only 80,000 bison left in the US.  Now there are over 500,000!  Over 500 of them reside on the beautiful prairie which is the Rolling R Ranch.

One thing I learned that night: as much as we see rock as being static, rock can be changed.  In Isaiah, the message from God is that there is a change in the rock, and in the quarry.  We are taken from the rock and sculpted, taken from the quarry. When that happens, both are changed, and something beautiful is created.  Abraham and Sarah were only one couple. With God’s power to bring life, something new was created. There was change and flourishing. 

When Jesus gives Peter authority and calls him the Rock, he is not called to be static and unmoving.  Peter is not only given authority to make an impact on earth: heaven will be changed as well.  “Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (16:19).  And Peter, this Rock, is bound to be changed as well by his new position in the world.  Rock is formed, after all, from change. It too will be changed.

In his book, Listening Point, Sigurd Olson writes of a beautiful crystal found in a mine he was touring.  “As I sat there the whole violent story of the north came alive to me, for the quartz had been a part of it, in some form or other, during the three billion years or more since the whirling gaseous mass of the new planet began in condensation and the molten lavas that poured from its fiery interior flowed into the first primordial seas to make the Ely greenstone which underlies the point.”  It was only through movement and change that a beautiful crystal was formed, which, once created, will continue to be sculpted by wind, rain, and even humans.

All this leads me to a question.  How are we being called to be sculpted and to be sculptors, here and now?  How are we listening to God calling us by name into new endeavors of restoration, that restore not only the earth, but our very souls?

Rock may take different forms at different times, like making up an outcropping on Lake Superior, or like being crushed into gravel in the midst of farmland in a quarry that appears to be destroyed, devoid of life.  But maybe, just maybe, a faithful rancher then listens to the Spirit’s call, takes that land and makes it flourish in a different way, restoring it to an Eden that hosts some of God’s creatures who had almost been dissolved from the planet, but have been given a new life. 

This was Peter’s job and ours as well.  To take a world where hope has been dissolved, life has been crushed, and create something new. To participate in God’s miracle of restoration. In doing so, both earth and heaven are changed forever.  

Amen