The Wise and Foolish Builders: Matthew 7:24-27, Luke 6:47-49
Thoughts about serving others
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Let the Word evoke words. May your life encourage lives.
The passage this morning begins with “Therefore.” We must be careful to evaluate what we’ve read before as we read this parable because Jesus is wrapping up his sermon. Yesterday the U.S. Supreme Court redefined marriage in this country. Does that wash your house away? Or is your house built on the rock of Christ Jesus? My initial reaction was sadness for a country as great as the United States to be swept away by the political tide of opinion. The vote was 5 to 4, one justice made the decision for hundreds of millions of people. I guess we’ll see if this country was founded on a rock or on sand in the years to come. Sadly, based on observations over the last few decades, I think the latter will prevail.
But the scripture at hand is bigger than any law of this land. Jesus dealt with the legal entities of his time with strong words and a consistent course of action that we should pay attention to as we navigate these current days. We recognize that the political powers are necessary for good order and discipline to run the country. The last thing we should do is build walls around churches! The reality is we need to be more involved, not less, that’s how we got in this mess in the first place. Why didn’t we march and fill the streets when prayer was removed from schools? Because we were trying to be flexible and understanding.
Satan knows his stuff. He is craftier than any politician and using all his muscle to move people away from Christ…that’s his only purpose and he’s good at it. These actions should not surprise anyone. This is no excuse for the church to hang its head and walk away. Now is the time to show with great clarity that Christ-followers are different from the rest of the world. Now is the time to stand strong in our faith, to be consistent with the message that marriage is an amazing institution designed by God for one man and one woman.
In this parable, Jesus speaks about building a house on a rock, a solid foundation. Building a house is a lot of work, many steps are involved. There are lots of decisions to make in the process and the temptation to save a few dollars and cut corners causes great tension. One thing that always amazes me is the fear of the dreaded inspector. People who build with fear of the inspector merely try to comply with rules without understanding the purpose behind them. I’m guilty of worrying about the inspector, but I’ve learned a lot by listening to them, by learning beyond the checklist that they have to follow. As incredible as it is to hear, their actual goal is for our safety. What? Yep! Because there are so many steps in the building process, they have experts for each category and each wants to ensure we build a house that won’t burn down or collapse around us.
It’s fair to say that there were no building inspectors in Jesus’ day, but his timeless truth is easy to expand to our society today. If we build a house that cuts every corner and hides the truth from the waves of inspectors, we will end up with a house that is a danger to us and all who enter. The same goes for building the church. I’m privileged to work with people involved in building churches (not buildings…actual humans!). The process is compared to that of building a house because it is that complicated and so important to ensure that every step of the process is solid. We’re doing Christ’s work on earth, we cannot cut corners! We need a series of inspectors to come along side the church that’s being built to ensure it’s done well. These are called coaches. Perhaps we really need several types of coaches for each church. I’m still learning about the process, so it’ll be interesting to see how it work in our modern culture.
My hope is built on the rock of Jesus and I will focus on nothing less. Our work is cut out for us. Don’t cut corners. Do the hard work well. Stay involved. Get more involved. Know that beyond a shadow of a doubt Jesus wins in the end. Amen.