May 3, 2026

“The Cornerstone”

1
“The Cornerstone” A sermon based on Acts 4:5-12; Habakkuk 2:9-11 and 1 Peter
2:2-10. Delivered on May 5, 2026 by Rev. Alison Dutton Jacobs at the First
Congregational UCC of Onekama, MI.

Alas for you who get evil gain for your houses, setting your nest on high to
be safe from the reach of harm! You have devised shame for your house by
cutting off many peoples; you have forfeited your life. The very stones will
cry out from the wall and the plaster will respond from the woodwork. (Hab.
2:9-11)

In this extremely graphic architectural allusion to the plundering of an oppressor
nation which uses poignantly descriptive terms, the prophet Habakkuk indicts all
human tyranny—all human inhumanity and greed which abuses other human
beings. The prophet, writing during the height of Babylonian power, around 600
B.C. writes this descriptive metaphor as a part of a series of five “woe” sayings
directed against a nation that plunders peoples and obtains gain by violence, It is a
series of indictments against the oppressor nation of Babylon which was wreaking
havoc on the nation and peoples of Israel at that time. . . .