Chapel Matters

Stones and rocks are strange things. They are the skeleton of this world on which the flesh of earth is laid. Ancient things, formed over millions of years – minerals pressed together from heat or pressure, slowly smoothed by wind and water. They are found everywhere: little flinty stones which the tractor turns up in a field; round, smooth pebbles on the sea and lake-shores; tumbling scree on mountain sides; giant rocks, cropping out of the central Otago land; or Moeraki boulders lying in the sand, giant eel baskets washed up from the giant sunken canoe Arai-te-uru.

Stones can get in your shoe and cause you pain! You can stub your toe on them, trip over them. And you can throw them – to hurt others. Stoning people to death is a cruel and terrible thing. Sometimes rocks can hurtle out of the sky and the hills, falling on houses in an earthquake, as unlucky people in Christchurch experienced.

However rocks and stones can also be the foundation of a house or building. Something solid and dependable, essential and reliable. They carry our memories, in cemeteries, walls, archways, and memorials, of loved ones and fallen heroes, of the famous and the forgotten. Polish them up and they can look beautiful – jewels and gems, pounamu and pearls – rare and precious – symbols of power and value, wealth and beauty. Or a stone can just feel nice in your hand, plain and smooth, good for skimming across a river, or simply just to hold.

We are told in the Bible that Jesus was the stone that the builders rejected, and a stone that people stumbled over, tripped up on, and cursed, and yet this stone became the cornerstone – the foundation – of the whole building, the most important stone of all. Overlooked and ignored by some, tossed away by others, yet the rock on which we can build our lives, build our school, and depend on for our future.

The stones and rocks that students bring in for the installation by the new Arts Building are representations of their turangawaewae, the place where they stand strong. And also, therefore, of our school, a place where together we stand strong on the foundation of our special character, of God who is the rock of our salvation, Jesus who is the cornerstone the builders rejected, and the Spirit who can break our hearts of stone with the waters of peace and love.

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