+ 13th Sunday after Pentecost – August 23rd, 2026 +
Series A: Isaiah 51:1-6; Romans 11:33-12:8; Matthew 16:13-20
Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church
Milton, WA
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Rocks are annoying when they get stuck in your shoes and maddening when they’re in your garden. And yet each rock has a story to tell. What would Yosemite look like without its famous rocks: Halfdome, Arches, or El Capitan? Each of those hummocks near Mt. St. Helens have a story to tell of the day the mountain blew.
Travel the landscape of Scripture long enough, and you’re bound to come across more than a few rocks. And they too have a story to tell. Not of floods and pyroclastic eruptions, but of God’s rock-solid promises. Famous landmarks that tell the story of God’s rescue from death to life.
No wonder the topography of Scripture is littered with rocks. Noah’s ark rests upon the rocks of Ararat. Jacob lays his head on a stone. YHWH carves his Torah into stone tablets. Pours out water from the rock. Hides Moses in the cleft of the rock. David takes refuge from Saul among the rocks. Slays Goliath with one smooth stone. And prays: The Lord lives, and blessed be my rock, and exalted be my God, the rock of my salvation.
The geography of the New Testament is no different. The Blessed Rock of Salvation hews himself a cave of flesh and blood in the womb of Mary. The Rock and Redeemer takes on human flesh. Overcomes Satan in the wilderness, refusing to turn stone into bread to satisfy himself. Christ the cornerstone gets the sand and gravel of Judea stuck in his sandals. Jesus walks the stony pavement carrying the millstone of our sin. He is crucified in a cross that is laid in the rocks of Mt. Calvary. But even the rocks and minerals quake at Jesus’ death. And the fresh cut tomb couldn’t hold him for long. The stone was rolled away.
Yes, God often mixes theology and geology to tell the story of salvation. And when God makes his promises he often sets them in stone.
By God’s grace and revealing, Peter the rock, knows and confesses the true Rock and Redeemer.
You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.
You are the Rock that gave us water when we thirsted. The Rock who shielded Moses from the glory. The Rock who David praised and Isaiah foretold.
You are the cornerstone. The keystone. The Rock of our salvation.
“Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Jesus gives Peter a new name. Simon has a new identity in Christ. Rock. Simon the rock, declared so by Christ the Rock.
Jesus does the same for you and me. He takes our hearts of stone and replaces them with a new heart and a new spirit. He takes sinful flesh as black as obsidian and hard as granite. He crushes it. Buries us in his tomb with him. Throws us like stones into a lake in Holy Baptism where we sink like a stone, but rise from the dead his new creation. A heart of flesh and forgiveness and confession. No longer dead weight, but living stones. You’re given a new name. An eternal identity. A daily calling. Baptized. Beloved. Holy. Saints.
Alive in Christ who walked the rocky, dusty soil of this fallen world for you. Who was crucified on top of the stony mountain top called Golgotha for you. Who rose from the dead and rolled away the boulder of his grave to bless you.
He turns your heart of stone into a heart of praise and confession, so that by God’s grace and gift confess the faith Peter did so long ago. Your house, your faith, your church, and all of God’s promises are built on Christ the Cornerstone. Our Rock and Redeemer. The Son of the Living God.
3. We are God's house of living stones,
Built for His own habitation;
He through baptismal grace us owns,
Heirs of his wondrous salvation;
Were we but two his name to tell,
Yet he would deign with us to dwell,
With all his grace and his favor.
Grant then, O God, your will be done,
That when the church bells are ringing,
Many in saving faith may come
Where Christ his message is bringing:
"I know mine own, mine own know me,
You, not the world, my face shall see:
My peace I leave with you always."
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
