Cornerstone

Picture your life as a building. One stone after another is laid forming a structure, shaped by experiences, challenges, failures, victories, tragedies, and celebrations. What is it that forms the shape and strength of that building. In ancient building projects, especially when the building was to be significant, the first and most important stone in any building was the cornerstone. Builders had to find a stone that was both strong enough to be the foundation and straight enough to give the building shape. The rest of the building was built on and from this stone. It had to be the right stone laid in the right place. In our passage from the Gospel of Mark today, Jesus tells a parable that pictures how most people have responded to Jesus and his mission. Then he uses the image of a cornerstone to demonstrate that we too need the right stone to build our lives on and from if we want to see straight walls and a solid structure.