One of the defining characteristics of our Grace Church building is its stone construction, but it almost didn’t turn out that way. Our founding rector, Franklin Babbitt, had a vision to build Grace out of stone. Babbitt was a frugal man in many ways, but he did not skimp on architecture. However, the building committee wanted to save some money, and while Babbitt was away, they ordered much cheaper Haverstraw bricks and had them delivered. When Babbitt returned, he had them sent back straight away and the church was ultimately build in the stone we see today.
It’s remarkable to think about the number of individual pieces of cut stone that make up Grace Church. There must be hundreds of thousands of them, each doing its part to create and sustain our beautiful building.
We often talk about people being pillars of a community and it seems to me that each one of us—those here today and those who have come before us —is like a stone in the spiritual building of Grace Church. When all of us come together, we are strong and form something beautiful. If some are missing, we are weak and the whole community is at risk.
Now the physical building of Grace Church is complete, but the spiritual work we do here in building for the Kingdom of God continues. As we pledge each year, we come together to once again build Grace Church. Some of us may have large stones to contribute, and some may have smaller ones. If you look around the church, you’ll see that all sizes of stones make up the building, and that the smaller ones are just as important as the larger ones. If any was missing, the church would be structurally unsound.
So thank you to those of you who have already completed your pledge. You are stones in the church who are helping to make this community full and strong so that it will endure for generations to come. If you haven’t pledged yet, I urge you to consider doing so. Take some time to prayerfully and thoughtfully decide what stone you can contribute to build Grace Church. Small or large, it joins together with all the others and is held together by the mortar of the Holy Spirit to create something beautiful for God.
