The high-pitched grinding of metal on stone goes right through me every morning on my way to work. I walk past the stone masons yard for York Minster. If you have ever been to York, you will have seen the Minster; a huge construction that was built 800 years ago. One of the frustrations with the Minster is that it is built out of magnesium limestone, so it erodes easily in the weather. As a result it is always under repair. There is never a part of York Minster that is not being rebuilt, reshaped, reformed. It always has scaffolding on one side of it to allow this to happen. When I hear a tour guide saying "York Minster was built 800 years ago" I know they are correct. But parts of it were made 300 years ago, others 100 years ago and some parts were added yesterday. 

This is true of the church. Jesus says in Matthew 16:18 that he would "build the church" on the rock, Peter. He also calls us to "make disciples" in Matthew 28:19. These are active, creative and engaging words. They are verbs. This is a verbal gospel. Jesus is in the business of doing not just being and he asks us to join him. There is a task at hand - to make disciples and to build the church. 

And like York Minster, the church is always being rebuilt, reshaped, reformed. Parts of the church are hundreds of years old, while other parts were added yesterday. But unlike York Minster, which thankfully stays the same size, the church is getting bigger. The old prophesy about Jesus in Isaiah 9:7 says "of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end." 

That is why we work with students. To make disciples. Followers of Jesus who will bring hope to a dying world through building the church with the master creator. God, the stone mason, chips away at us and gradually makes us into our "child-of-God selves" (John 1). 

As I walked home today, I looked in to the mason's yard again. I saw an enormous hunk of unformed rock. Next to it lay a shiny, golden block of sandstone, 2x2x1 meters, which will become a buttress in the Minster. I know which one I was called to become and I know which one I want to help others to become. In 1 Peter 2:4-5 it says:

"As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ."

I'm ready to hear the high-pitched grinding of metal on stone again.