Building on Solid Ground
If you grew up attending Sunday School as a child, it would
be difficult to be unfamiliar with the saying of Jesus in our gospel passage
this morning. And if you grew up attending Sunday School as a child it is most
likely that you remember the song that goes with it. “The foolish man built
his house upon the sand. The wise man built his house upon a rock. And the
rains came a tumblin’ down.”
The rains come down and the floods go up; the foolish man’s
house goes splat; the wise man’s house stood firm.
When we were taught the song as children we were also taught
the meaning. The rock that the wise man built his house on was Jesus Christ:
faith in Christ and his teaching lead us to God and to life. The sand that the
foolish man built his house on was anything else that one centers one’s life
around other than Christ.
When
the storms come, life centered around one’s vocation, one’s possessions, one’s
beauty, one’s addictions, one’s politics, it all caves in and proves
short-lived, narrow, less than life encompassing.
There were people on the Titanic whose lives were centered
around wealth, power, and prestige. But when the ship began to sink, wealth,
power, and prestige suddenly carried very little meaning.
Houses can be destroyed or lost, peace can be broken, cars
can be wrecked, marriages can be dissolved, health can be fleeting, jobs can be
lost, and people we love will die. None of these things are rocks.
Houses, dependable cars, marriage, health, jobs, the people
in our lives, peace: all can change the scenery and flavor of our lives to be
sure. And sometimes we build our lives with someone we love very dearly.
But only faith can properly center our lives. Only faith is large enough to
encompass the loss of anything. Only faith is large enough to encompass the
loss of everything. Only faith can give one’s life meaning even when the tide
rolls in.
Passages like this remind us to ask ourselves, “Do we know
the difference between making a living and building a life?” It
is easy to make a living. But it takes more concentration to build a life.
It is easy to live a life, all you have to do is not die. But it takes more
spiritual awareness to understand and practice giving your life
as a way of living your life.
It is a simple thing really. You can almost explain it
to children. Enjoying the simple pleasures of life is good. Living
for the simple pleasures of life is sand. It doesn’t take too much to
explain. It is something we all know. What we forget, what we forget is to stop
every so often and check ourselves, to stop and see if we are still building a
life, or if we have gotten side tracked by making a living, and with things
that do not last, do not give meaning, and cannot sustain us over time.
Where Matthew has placed this saying of Jesus, it is clear
how he thinks one should build a life. Matthew ends the Sermon on the Mount
with this parable of sorts. “The wise man built his house upon the rock” is the
end of the Sermon on the Mount which is all of chapters 5, 6, & 7 of
Matthew. It is on these principles, and on these kinds of actions, those found
in the Sermon on the Mount, that one builds a life on.
I think it would be spiritually healthy if we assumed we all
had a problem living up to this with consistency. Don’t ask yourself if you
have this problem, assume you have the problem – because you are a human being
and your breathing. I liken it to having high blood pressure, it is something
that we can keep in check, but it takes the medicine of prayer and worship, and
we have to stop and take our blood pressure every so often to make sure it is
where it is supposed to be. But it is a chronic condition!
So maybe this morning is a good time to check and see how we
are doing. To stop and ask ourselves what has had most of our mental and
emotional energy lately? Are we spending our energies building sand castles
before the tide comes in? Or are we building a life of faith on the rock of
Jesus Christ?
A lot of people who are in the latter years of their life,
and a bit wiser, look back on all the time they had, and wish they had spent
some of that time differently. The wiser ones do not talk about
spending their time working at a different job, or living in a different house,
and certainly not about owning more stuff. And I have never had anyone tell me
at the end of a long life, that they wished they had spent more of their time
at Walmart.
What they do say is expressed in different ways, but
typically boils down to wishing that they had understood in their youth what
was truly meaningful, valuable, good, beautiful, and true. It is a matter of unlearning
what we think is important, and letting God show us what true living really is.
This is what this passage means for us as individuals. But I
also want to apply it to our church, to us as a faith community. Churches also
need to stop and do a spiritual check up. And I also think this is timely for
us.
For a number of years now we have been focused on land and
buildings and financing. We have been, and are, focused on signage, kitchens,
carpets, lighting, welcome stations, and so forth.
As easy as it is for a person to get sidetracked and lose
sight of what is really valuable, so too it is easy for churches to be
sidetracked by the periphery, and loose sight of the core of spiritually –
prayer, developing a deeper relationship with God through Christ, learning to
fall in love with God all over again, reflecting that love and spiritual
enrichment in the ministries of the church, and in the willingness – even
eagerness – to share our faith stories with those who don't know Christ.
You don't need a building to be a church. Wherever you have
people who gather to pray together and worship, who share their love for God
with each other, and who reflect that love into the world – there you have a
church built on the rock, the solid ground of Jesus Christ.
Make no mistake, it is easier to concentrate on financing and
buildings and kitchens than on spiritual development. Especially if we are not
accustomed to the deeper things of the spirit. When we are not practiced at
praying together, with spiritual self-reflection, with holy silence, exploring
what our faith means to us – the introduction of such things makes us
uncomfortable, maybe even very uncomfortable. It is easier and more comfortable
to concentrate on, to put all of our energy into, budgets and buildings and
maintenance and signs and parking lots and kitchens, than things of the spirit.
And that is a problem. Because a church without spiritual
development is a church without a core. It is a church built on sand – as
surely as a life lived for the accumulation of wealth is a life built on sand.
So this passage reminds us to stop and reflect a moment – not
only in our personal life, but also in our congregational life. As individuals
we stop and reflect on whether we are just passing through life, or if we are
spending our life embracing God and the deeper things of the spirit.
As a church the question is very much the same. It is easier
to concentrate on the mundane details of maintaining the church as a
institution than on spiritual development. And spiritual rebirth is the only
place from where true transformation will flow.
But spiritual development will probably make us
uncomfortable! So we have the opportunity to ask ourselves if we have, with
maybe even a sense of relief, gratefully embraced the business of
church and thereby avoided that vital spiritual core which should be at the
heart of our faith community.
Are we playing in the sand? Or building on the rock? Some thoughts on which to reflect. Amen.