From These Stones

Trinity Church in the City of Boston
The Rev. Morgan S. Allen
September 13, 2026
“From These Stones” Program Year Launch, Matthew 3:1-12

In you, O Lord, have we taken refuge; for the sake of your name, lead us and guide us.¹From Psalm 31.  Amen.

Welcome to a new Program Year at Trinity Church in the City of Boston!  This year promises to prove a special one, as we celebrate the 150^th anniversary of this magnificent building’s consecration.  Anticipating that February 9, 2027, milestone, we have chosen as our theme the short phrase – “From These Stones” – drawn from today’s Gospel appointment.

As we get started, I invite you to pick up a bible from a nearby pew – you might have to share – and to find the first chapter of Matthew’s Gospel on the first page of the New Testament [literally, Page 1], or online [whether worshipping from home or here on your phone, search up “oremus.org” … that’s O-R-E-M-U-S.org …] and we will set today’s lesson in its narrative context – a context we’ve gained during the church calendar begun in December, for we have now made our way through much of this Gospel, including this chapter-three appointment we heard last Advent.²… and that we hear today with permission of the Bishop to change our Gospel lesson to pick up the theme.

As a shorthand, you will hear me refer to “Matthew” as the Gospel’s author.  Even so and as always, please hear that attribution as a reference to the early followers who shared authorship of this canonical account.  Two generations after the resurrection of Jesus, this Matthean community memorialize a witness not only to the events of Jesus’ life, but to the faith and worship of their nascent church.  They tell this story in an intentional sequence, with select details, and purposeful emphases reflecting their experiences and their hopes.  As we can, wash away the image of a candlelit room and a solitary Jesus biographer toiling with parchment and quill.  No.  Instead, imagine an organic, decades-long process with many contributors and multiple editors.

In your open bible, see how Matthew’s authoring community emphasizes Jesus’ Jewish identity.

Chapter 1 begins by cataloguing the forty-two-generation³Matthew 1:17. genealogy that locates Jesus – even before his birth – in the line of Israel’s leaders, heroes, and kings.  That opening chapter concludes with an eight-verse Christmas narrative presenting Jesus as the fulfillment of a prophecy from Isaiah.⁴Matthew 1:23a, quoting Isaiah 7:14.

Chapter 2 follows with the magi’s entanglement with Herod and their journey to visit Jesus⁵Matthew 2:1-12. – signs once more set within a prophetic vision, this time of Micah.⁶Matthew 2:6, quoting Micah 5:2.  Under threat, the Holy Family escapes to Egypt and stays there until receiving word from an angel that Herod has died.  [Now, turning the page in most versions of the bible in our pews] Joseph, Mary, and Jesus then return to their country and make a home in Nazareth,⁷Matthew 2:19-23. fulfilling another prophecy of Isaiah.⁸Matthew 2:23, quoting Isaiah 11:1.

Skipping just past today’s appointment, Chapter 3 concludes with the story of Jesus’ baptism by John,⁹Matthew 3:13-17. and following Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness that opens Chapter 4¹⁰Matthew 4:1-11. – a story drenched in Hebrew scriptures, as well¹¹Quoting Deuteronomy 6 and 8, and Psalm 91. – the Christ’s ministry begins in earnest.

Between these tales of Jesus, we find what we just heard in worship: “In those days, John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’”¹²Matthew 3:1.  Matthew credentials John [wait for it] as the fulfillment of yet another ancient prophecy of Isaiah.¹³Matthew 3:3, quoting Isaiah 40:3.

While all the momentum of these references might conventionally expect affirmation of the religious leadership, John instead delivers a striking rebuke of the Pharisees and Sadducees: “You brood of vipers! … Bear fruit worthy of repentance.  Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor;’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham” … from these stones, children to Abraham.¹⁴Matthew 3:8.

Now, turn ahead with me to the conclusion of Chapter 23 [page 20 in most of our pew bibles].

In the pages we are thumbing past, King Herod beheads John the Baptist during that awful, Chapter 14 supper scene with Herodias and her daughter.¹⁵Matthew 14:1-12.  In Chapter 21, Jesus enters Jerusalem on a donkey colt with the procession of palms – another scene soaked in Hebrew scripture.¹⁶Matthew 21:1-11, quoting Zechariah 9 and Isaiah 62.  Following two days [and chapters] of teaching in the Holy City, in Chapter 23, Jesus delivers a screed against the scribes and Pharisees: “Woe to [you] hypocrites!” … “Woe to [you] blind fools!” … “Woe to [you who] strain out a gnat but swallow a camel!”¹⁷Matthew 23:1-36.  With the memory of his cousin John heavy on his heart – to say nothing about the weight of his own fate, which he surely could feel pressing down on him as the authorities close ranks – Jesus readies to leave and laments: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!  How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!”¹⁸Matthew 23:37.

Turning now to the beginning of Chapter 24 [at the lower right of that page], “Jesus came out of the temple and was going away, [when] his disciples [point] to him the buildings of the temple [creating a towering, sparkling vista from their distance].  Then [Jesus] asked them, ‘You see all these, do you not?  Truly I tell you, not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down’” … not one stone, all will be thrown down.¹⁹Matthew 24:1-2.

Setting these two scenes from Chapter 3 and Chapter 24 next to one another:

Matthew locates the first in the wilderness, and the latter in reach of the city.

The first establishes the opening of the Gospel by setting the lives and ministries of John and Jesus within the prophecies of old.  The latter accomplishes the same, though in anticipation of the Gospel’s resolution, and then itself becomes a prophecy.

In both exhortations, John and Jesus seek to inspire urgency and spur righteousness, each forcefully challenging the Sadducees, scribes, and Pharisees.  Yet, just as John admonishes those who present as open to a new fidelity – the Chapter 3 detail that those he excoriates have come for “his baptism”²⁰Matthew 3:7. – in Chapter 24, Jesus aims his concluding admonition at his disciples, those who have committed to follow him.

John points to the rocks at the riverside and declares, “God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.”  Jesus points to the Jerusalem temple’s majesty and declares, “not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.”

Broadly, the parallelism of Matthew’s authoring community makes clear that God’s hopes for the world stretch from the mountains to the moors and the cities to the steppes.  Likewise, Matthew’s Gospel declares God’s love – God’s love! – has endured from the origins of the cosmos … from the covenant promises … through the advent of the Christ … to the ministry of the early Church and beyond.  The parallel form makes its own claim, suggesting that what has been, will be once more, though inherited statuses meaning far less than a vital faith.

As we begin this anniversary year, From These Stones sets Trinity Church in continuity with these stories – indeed, with all that has come before us, and all that will follow.

Both the prophetic context of our theme and its echo later in the Gospel call us Trinitarians to become – ourselves! – a living prophecy: From These Stones we live as an embodied witness to God’s hopes, past and future.  Importantly, we do not live and lead as the Pharisees and Sadducees, who bent their faith to serve political convenience with Rome.  No, we live as a Beloved Community … we lead as a Beloved Community, whose life in Christ inspires our shared identity.

It’s not that our inheritances mean nothing to God; rather, for us who inherit the beauty and 150-year history of this holy place … the nearly 300-year history of this parish church, our faith home … [well,] God expects much of us – once more, not that we would leverage our presumed status to direct and demand with a wagging finger as the religious leadership of old once did, but that From These Stones we would live with one another in humility, grace, and love.

From the beach gravel of John’s ministry, then, to the Temple rubble Jesus foretells, we find ourselves in a prophetic tension between sage and savior.  From These Stones we have received the responsibility to care for this inspiring structure so that it may marvel others as it has moved us, yet we undertake that charge realizing that in time, as with all the tangible cosmos, “not one [of Trinity’s stones] will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.”

Even among these tensions, this anniversary season renews the opportunity for us to choose what will endure when all else passes away: our union with God and one another.  As a congregation of many differences and disagreements, our diversity can be our strength … if our common identity in Christ comes first, before all else.  Then, from that union, we can share authorship and stewardship of our common life; order ourselves by principle and purpose; worship as a reflection of our experiences; and let love be our testimony to the past … love our witness for the coming reign of God.

From These Stones,

I pray that we would love so well,

Amen.