What do these stones mean?
What do these stones mean?
Throughout history, people in many cultures have used piles of stones to remind later people of important events that happened where the piles of stones were placed. Often these marked places are considered sacred.
The scripture I've quoted below describes such an event in the history of the ancient Israelites. God was leading them to a new land that God had promised to give them to live in. To get there, they would have to cross the Jordan River at flood stage. That seemed impossible to them, but to their amazement God stopped the floodwaters, letting the Israelites cross the dry river bed.
God told them to mark the spot with a mound of stones, to remind future generations that God could do what people considered impossible. The stones would also be a reminder that God often called people to go into new territory and enabled them to get there by following God's instructions.
While all Israel were crossing over [the Jordan River] on dry ground, the priest who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, until the entire nation finished crossing over the Jordan... The Lord said... "Take 12 stones ... from the place where the priests' feet stood, carry them over with you, and lay them down in the place where you camp tonight." ... Those 12 stones, which they had taken out of the Jordan, Joshua set up in Gilgal, saying to the Israelites, "When your children ask their parents in time to come, 'What do these stones mean?' then you shall let your children know, 'Israel crossed over the Jordan here on dry ground,' ... so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty ... " - Joshua 3:17-4:3, 4:20-24
The church is our mound of stones
Today's Christians understand the church to be God's followers now, as the Israelites were in the time described in the book of Joshua. For us, the church's history, buildings, doctrines, and customs are like the ancient Israelites' pile of stones. Each stone represents something that God did, or something that people did in response to what they understood to be God's call.
Over the centuries millions of individuals and groups have contributed stones to the church pile. We've inherited it, and we continually need to ask, "What do these stones mean?"
For many years I never dared to ask that question. I merely assumed that all traditional church doctrines and customs were valid, because I thought that was what everyone was supposed to do. In more recent years, however, I've realized that in order to be faithful to God I need to examine the church stones from time to time and evaluate them for myself with the guidance of the Holy Spirit. I can't just automatically accept all of them as having equal and permanent value.
Forced belief isn't faith
Why? Because real faith doesn't come from trying to make yourself believe what other people say you should believe, even if those people claim to be authorities. Faith comes instead from seeing convincing evidence of the value and the truth of what you're asked to believe in. Without this, you're in danger of merely accepting the church's claims with your fingers crossed.
Doing that doesn't bring real commitment. If I'm merely going through the motions of church participation because I've been told that I should, but I haven't really seen a convincing reason for doing it, I'm very unlikely to be strongly committed to the church's mission or to its other members.
More importantly, I'm unlikely to have a real relationship with the true, living God. Instead, I merely worship a lifeless, powerless idol, a description of God that is incomplete or even false.
Some of our church stones have stood the test of time, but some haven't. If we want strong commitment from our present members, and if we want to attract people who aren't currently in the church, we can't keep asking them to accept stones that they can see are crumbling. We'll have to admit that those stones are faulty and stop using them.