The Stones

Peggy and I were in awe as we toured Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia (translated “holy family”), the concept of Antoni Gaudi. From its towering spires to its intricate reliefs and tree-like pillars — all expressed in a cohesive blend of free-flowing styles — this cathedral visually testifies to the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Construction of this elaborate design began in 1882 and is anticipated for completion in 2026, 144 years later and 100 years after Guadi’s death. The Catalon architect reportedly once quipped, “My client is in no hurry.”

Truly magnificent though it is, this edifice is merely an artistic expression of something infinitely more marvelous, namely the true church, a people born of the Spirit through faith in Christ and united in Him. Paul teaches we were once “separated from Christ . . . having no hope and without God in the world,”¹ but this is no longer true about us. For the apostle asserts a new and collective identity we live together: “members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”² Members of God’s household, joined together as a holy temple in which God lives — might we be in a most real sense a “sagrada familia”? Yes, and Paul awakens the church to this reality: “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? . . . God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.”³ Pause to grasp this; soak it in, it is our identity as a people.

So we are, in Peter’s words, “living stones . . . being built up as a spiritual house.”⁴ We are no longer unused building materials piled high, separate, and idle; rather, we are built into something far greater than the sum of our individual parts. Then what happens when we as living stones are blended together as one? We testify as one body — a new creation — to the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Such an honor.

Father, “May [You] the God of endurance and encouragement grant [us] to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together [we] may with one voice glorify [You] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”⁵ In Christ we pray. Amen.

¹ Ephesians 2:12 ESV
² Ephesians 2:19-22 ESV
³ 1 Corinthains 3:16-17 NIV (emphasis added)
⁴ 1 Peter 2:5 ESV
⁵ Romans 15:5-6 ESV