27th Sunday of the Year: The stone rejected...has become the cornerstone

The year was 1464, and a massive slab of marble, Carrara marble, very rare, very precious, was carved out, this huge, massive chunk, over six and a half tons of rock.

It was brought to Florence, Italy.

It's supposed to be used for a big piece for the church.

But as people began to look at this, they saw all the flaws.

First off, this particular chunk of stone, so tall, very narrow, so really worried about how it would even support its weight.

But they saw that there were flakes in the stone, possible imperfections that could cause the whole thing to crumble.

Well, the first artist who looked at it, he looked at it for two years.

His name was Agostino di Duccio.

And he looked at this thing, and he messed up.

A couple places where he even inadvertently put a hole right through the stone.

Disgusted, he walked away from the whole project.

For 10 years, that block of marble sat exposed to the elements.

And another guy came.

The year was 1476 at this point.

Antonio Rossellino.

Now, Antonio worked on it for a very short time.

He gave up.

He just finally said, no, not going to happen.

And for 25 more years, the block of stone sat out, exposed to the elements, the wind, the rain, getting more and more despised.

This piece that no one could work.

Until a young man, 26 years of age, named Michelangelo came and said, I will fix that.

I will carve that.

And for three years, he worked all alone, didn't let anybody else touch his piece of rock.

And for three years of sweat, blood, and tears, he poured out all of his effort until finally, three years later, he would unveil what would become the David, one of the greatest statues in Western art.

This amazing masterpiece, 17 feet high, 12,000 pounds of marble, with the painstaking effort and an amazing craftsmanship about even how he styled David to support the weight given the limitations of the rock.