27th Sunday Ordinary Time – Punchline

Everyone and Everything we reject becomes our cornerstone.  It is the Lord’s handiwork.  It is marvelous in our eyes!

Jesus is The Intruder.  Here, he pokes his finger into the chests of the chief priests, the scribes, elders, and Pharisees when he cites Psalm 118.  God takes what has been rejected, despised, disdained, and makes it the cornerstone.

• “I thank you for You have answered me and become my salvation.  The stone which the builders despised has become the cornerstone. This has emanated from HASHEM; it is wondrous in our eyes. (Ps. 118:21-23. A literal translation of the Psalms from Hebrew – the ArtScroll Tanach Series.)

[Note: HASHEM is a Hebrew euphemism for God’s holy name, much like Adonai, for it is so holy, it is unspeakable.  It means, “THE Name.”]

More and more, I am coming to believe how God, the Great Intruder, the Merry Prankster, takes whatever and whomever I reject or despise and makes them the cornerstone.

And God has taken Jesus Christ, whom I only very partially accept but mostly resist, and made him the Cornerstone.

Good news and bad news, eh?