September 21, 2025

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TEXT: Isaiah 28: 14-22

TOPIC: Christ the Cornerstone

SERMON SUMMARY:

Choosing the True Foundation

Rev. Jessie Duisberg opened with a surprising Monty Python reference—the bridgekeeper's challenge to knights crossing the bridge of death. This character represents what literature calls a "threshold guardian"—an obstacle standing at the boundary between the old reality and the new. From the Sphinx's riddle to Morpheus offering Neo the red pill, heroes must overcome these challenges to move forward on their quest.

Living at the Threshold

Our culture has been saying "we can never go back" for decades—after school shootings, 9/11, the 2008 recession, COVID, and ongoing political tensions. We're experiencing a collective threshold moment into an uncertain future. But threshold moments aren't new; they've existed since God placed the sword-wielding cherub at Eden's entrance.

In Isaiah 28, Israel faced their own threshold crisis. They had "made a covenant with death" and an "agreement with Sheol," believing they could strike a bargain to avoid judgment. They put their hope in lies rather than in Yahweh. God's response was to point them back to His cornerstone—the true foundation built on justice and righteousness.

The Ancient Understanding of Cornerstones

Rev. Duisberg drew from Henry Clay Trumbull's 1896 book "The Threshold Covenant" to explain how ancient peoples understood thresholds and cornerstones. These were places of sacrifice, covenant-making, and spiritual significance. Crossing a threshold meant entering into covenant protection—even enemies became sacred once they crossed into your home. The cornerstone marked not just physical alignment but spiritual alignment with the divine realm.

Jesus presents himself as both the threshold and the cornerstone. Jesus declares, “I am the door.” As the ultimate threshold guardian, He determines who enters God's kingdom. Jesus is also the stone that the builders rejected but became the cornerstone.

Our False Refuges

The heart of the message was deeply personal: What do you turn to for protection instead of turning to Jesus? When you feel anxious, fearful, or hurt, where do you go first? Rev. Duisberg shared blogger Anne Hamilton's story of discovering coffee as her false refuge. After repenting and choosing prayer over caffeine during difficult moments, God eventually said, "Let's talk about it over a cup of coffee"—showing that God wasn't against coffee itself, just against it taking His rightful first place.

Our false refuges might be friends, TV binges, working harder, social media, or storing up resources. These aren't necessarily bad things, but they can't take the place that only belongs to God.

The True Covenant

Unlike Israel's false covenant with death, God offers a covenant based on truth, built on the cornerstone of Jesus Christ. It's a threshold covenant sealed with the most costly sacrifice—His own Son. When we come to communion, we renew this covenant, stepping over the threshold of His house "red with the blood of his own firstborn."

The challenge isn't to find safety and comfort, but to surrender our false refuges and trust in the one who has defeated death itself.