rock or sand?

Built on the Drina River, Serbia in 1968. 

The rain fell, the floods came, and the wind blew and beat against that house.
It fell and was completely destroyed.” Matthew 7:27 CEB

This fall, I had my gutters cleaned and gutter guards installed. With all the rain this summer, I've had plenty of opportunity to notice that they were clogged. I'm hoping the basement will be drier after this. It's an old house, and this's only a hope, but it'd be nice.

I've known that verse (above) most of my life. And I've worked to "build my life" on God and God's precepts. But today I was struck, maybe for the first time, by an earlier phrase: "Everybody who hears my words and puts them into practice..."

This parable about builders –  one who built their house on solid rock, the other on sand – concludes what we commonly call The Sermon on the Mount, a whole string of Jesus' teachings that begin with "Blessed are the poor in spirit..." then go on to include:

• Being salt & light
• "You've heard it said" sayings
• You've heard "Don't murder," but I say, "Don't even think, 'You, fool!'"
• You've heard "An eye for an eye," but I say, "Give to whoever begs"
• You've heard "Hate your enemy," but I say, ""Love everyone"
• Don't be a hypocrite
• No one can serve two masters
• Don't worry ... Don't judge ... Don't give what's precious to those who can't appreciate it
• Trees are known by their fruit
• Build on solid foundations
• and more...

Gee, talk about a winding sermon! In truth, this's probably a compilation of wise saying and teachings that the person we call Matthew put together from what he'd learned about Jesus. After all, he was writing decades after Jesus' execution and there were no recording devices back then. (So much for our Red-Letter bibles.) Not that I mean to devalue the ideas. It's all good stuff; it's just that it didn't happen while everyone was sitting on a hill having a picnic. And that part about building on a solid foundation ... maybe Jesus didn't say it at the end of a long speech, but whenever he said it, we can trust it was because we need to hear it. 

I've noticed though that sometimes when people sing or preach this story, seldom is attention given to the "act on them" phrase. Granted, some of us – many, actually – do practice living out parts of scripture, but we often do so without considering the meta-story.

What was the overarching message Jesus worked to communicate? Maybe you respond, Love, without even having to think about it. And, while that's a good answer, I suggest that maybe it's more than that. 

I'm still working on this, but I'm pretty sure that in addition to communicating God's love for all of creation and God's eagerness to connect with us, Jesus was trying to get through to us that God intends for us to turn the world (or maybe the "world" as we understand it) upside-down. This is something very few of us are really interested in. (In fact, it's what got Jesus killed.) And, yet, so much of what Jesus conveys is presented over-against what the folks back then understood as religion, as community, as leadership, as, faith, as life. Or what we understand to be those things.

That's the message I find. That's the message we're supposed to be practicing ... in our conversations, in our politics, in our jobs... well, you get the idea. 

May God bless you as you ponder the ways you live out your faith.

“Everybody who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise builder who built a house on bedrock..." Matthew 7:24 CEB