“Built with Stones”
May 3, 2026
Rev. Rebecca Migliore
There once were three little pigs. And they built three houses. The first little pig built a house of straw or thatch. The second little pig built a house of sticks or wood. And the third little pig built a house of brick (or we might say crushed stone). Now you know what happened. A disaster called the Big Bad Wolf. He came when the three little pigs were in the house of straw, and he threatened to “huff and to puff and to blow your house down!” And they sneered at him. So he huffed and he puffed and he did blow down the house of straw—but the three little pigs ran to the house of sticks.
And the Big Bad Wolf followed them. And in children’s story fashion he threatened, and they taunted, and he huffed and he puffed and he blew down the house of sticks—but the three little pigs ran to the house of brick. And the Big Bad Wolf followed them—thinking now he really had them because this was their last house. He threatened, and they taunted, and he huffed and he puffed and he couldn’t blow down that house. And the three little pigs lived happily ever after.
Now, you may know that this story has gone out of favor, because some say that it promotes more expensive dwellings (those of brick) over what many of us live in, houses of wood, or if you live in various places of the globe, houses of thatch. And certainly, we have to acknowledge that we often forget how our socio-economic bias shows up even in things like fairy tales. And I will admit that I live in a house made of wood, just for the record.
But as I was thinking about houses and what they were made of, I imagined what first century people would have been thinking about this. I wondered what were their houses made out of? The prevalent wisdom is that most homes in Jesus’ time were built on foundations of rocks, with walls of mud and plaster, roof beams of wood, and roofs of branches. Of course, the more money you had, the better the building materials.
But the preeminent building in Israel, the most revered building would have been the temple, that had been rebuilt after the exile. The temple that we can imagine today because the western wall still exists. And that space dedicated to God, using, of course, the best materials, is primarily built of stone. Huge blocks of stone. The lowest part of the wall is built with colossal stones—one of which (called “the Western Stone”) is 45 ft long, 10-13 ft high, and weighs 250-570 tons! So, although it might not be politically correct to say that a house built with stones is the best, it certainly would have seemed so in Jesus’ time, because that is what they built for God.
And as I was thinking about stones, of course, I thought about Jesus’ premier disciple—the one we call Simon Peter. The Peter part was a nickname, given to him by Jesus, and it means “rock” as in “on this rock I will build my church.” I notice that in the letter we read this morning, his first letter, Simon Peter calls himself just Peter. The “rock” part of his life is very important.
Jesus also used the image of rock in one of his familiar parables. He talks about one man, a foolish man, built a house on a foundation of sand, and another man, a wise man, built a house on a foundation of rock. You can see the ending coming.
The Big Bad Wolf, in this scenario, are storms (rain, floods, winds) that strike, and the house built on sand falls, but the house built on rock stands. The message is clear. Build your house, your life, your faith, on solid ground. And you will be able to weather the storms that will certainly come.
Jesus isn’t just making this rock image up out of his head or his experiences. In his Scripture, in the Psalms and in the prophet Isaiah, it talks about a cornerstone, about how God would provide a servant who would be that foundational block for the renewal of Israel. Peter quotes those Scripture passages, pointing towards Christ as that cornerstone, that stone on which the rest of the structure is based. So this idea that rock, or stone, is the best building material comes partly from the Bible itself.
One other, well-known story about stones is found in the gospel of Luke, where Jesus tells the Pharisees that if the disciples were to keep silent (on Palm Sunday) the very stones would cry out the news of the Messiah (or as they sing in Jesus Christ Superstar, “the rocks and stones would start to sing—Hosannah, Hey sanna, sanna sanna ho!”) Were they the first living stones?
In our own country we know that things built of stone last a long time. Take a drive down any country lane in New England, particularly Connecticut, Rhode Island, or Massachusetts, and you will see what they call “New England walls,” dating from 1775 to 1825 still standing. These structures are made of stones laid one upon the other (some of which never had any mortar). There is an estimated 240,000 miles of them. Our cultural ancestors thought stones were good building material, too.
Or think of the ancient monuments made of stone: Stonehenge, the Pyramids (in Egypt and elsewhere), the Great Wall of China. Think of the very church we sit in today. Although much of the inside is built of wood, the outer shell is made of stone. I think it is obvious that humans have known for a long time, that stone is a lasting, as permanent as possible, building substance.
So, what was Peter suggesting when he said we were stones, living stones, meant to be used in the construction of a spiritual house? What did he have in mind?
We should take this as a complement. Because in his letter, Peter (Rocky, or Rock) talks about us as living stones, living stones from which the church will be built. Notice that we are living stones, following in the wake of the first living stone, Jesus. We are to be like Jesus. We are called to be following in his wake. If he is a living stone, a cornerstone, then we should claim our stoniness with pride.
Being “stony” doesn’t sound like a good thing. We say things like, hard as a stone. Cold as a stone. Immovable as a stone. Those could be bad things, or good things. Being called stones is one way of hearing God’s words of grace and love. In the Hebrew Scriptures (what we call the Old Testament) God talks about us as precious, as being chosen, as made in the image of God. And if we are living stones, we can take pride that we are considered solid (hard/immovable), the best type of material for building the new house that God is constructing.
What is this house, this spiritual house? It is not a tent like the tabernacle for God in the wilderness. It is not the temple, the house made for God by Solomon and then remade after the exile.
It is a house created by the Spirit that had poured out onto the disciples after Pentecost. A house that is made up of people; they are the living stones, the spiritual stones if you will. This house is the church. It’s like that children’s game “here is the church, here is the steeple, open the doors, and see all the people.”
The church, God’s spiritual house, is the people, the living stones. These living stones build the church, says Peter. Peter isn’t just talking to those people long ago. He is still talking to us. Because we are now the living stones. What does it say to us today if we think of ourselves as living stones? It might point towards the importance of working together. We aren’t just living stones randomly hanging out, trying to trip people! We are living stones meant to be built into God’s house. One stone does not build a house. Church is not a solo proposition. Living stones building a house are meant to work together. I think it might say that together we are strong, even if the mortar (the glue) is thin. We might even say that if we find the ways that we fit together, the ways that we can support each other, the ways that we can be the foundation for others, we are becoming the building that we were meant to be.
Last week’s passage from the Acts of the Apostle’s makes exactly that point. After Pentecost, as the church was in its infancy, what did they do? They gathered together. They ate together. They prayed together. They studied together. They hung out together. The followers of Jesus as they were building the church made sure they were together and shared everything in common (including all the material things that anyone might possess).
What else does this passage about living stones say to us today? It says that we are essential partners with God in this journey. God doesn’t wave a magic wand and poof, the spiritual house appears. It is built, with hard work, with outreach, with charity, with nurture, with worship and prayer and study. God has tasked us with being building blocks of our part of the spiritual house. What a responsibility.
Of course, we have Christ as our cornerstone, our firm foundation. He is the way, the truth, and the life. He is our bedrock. He points us in the right direction. Even in the darkest times, Christ is our light. And that is important because we live in a world where there are all kinds of trials and disappointments. If we hold onto God’s truth, if we stick together, if we cling to all that is good about being living stones, we have a better chance of not getting tripped up by the Great Liar.
There is a Jewish tradition of laying stones on the grave markers of those gone before. The Hebrew word for pebble, tz’ror, also means “bond of life.” It is a beautiful way of acknowledging that we stand on the shoulders of our ancestors. Our stones upon their stones. Stone upon stone upon stone. And together with God, we all are part of building God’s house, God’s dwelling in this world.
May it be so, Alleluia, Amen.