Good Foundations Make for Good Building – And Lives
First Congregational Church – Wauwatosa, Wisconsin
3rd Sunday after Pentecost – June 1, 2008
Rev. Steven A. Peay, Ph.D.
[Texts: Romans 1:16-17; 3:22b-28/Matthew 7:21-29]

“Everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them ill be like a wise man who built his house on rock.”

When you look at an impressive building remember that the most essential part is rarely ever seen – the foundation. I think we learn early on, while playing with blocks, that if we’re going to build something it had best have a solid foundation or it will simply fall down. We’ve seen the effect of uncertain foundations in the coverage of the recent earthquake in China. Looking at the defects of modern construction I have wondered what the builders of the Great Wall would think of the building practices of their descendents. Sometimes the older buildings are actually better built, certainly have better foundations. I have been privileged to see some very ancient buildings, Westminster Abbey, Norwich and Lincoln Cathedrals and more. I was particularly impressed, however, when touring Dublin Castle and being brought down to where a tenth century Viking wall still held back the River Poddle and still supported one of the castle’s great walls. Indeed, a well-built building begins with a good foundation.

Jesus is telling his hearers, and us, today that a well-built life also begins with a good foundation. Thomas a Kempis, author of the spiritual classic The Imitation of Christ, tells us, “The loftier the building, the deeper must the foundation be laid.” Jesus says that we are to do two things: first, we’re to hear the words he has to say to us and second, we’re to act on them. If we do that, it will be just like we had built the house of our lives on solid rock. The storms may surge around us, winds may blow and even floods rise, but our house will endure.

So, how do we lay these good foundations? First, the Scriptures we read and sang today point us to a realistic faith, an honest faith. Jesus says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” What we’re being told is that there is a certain amount of personal responsibility involved in coming to faith – something our Puritan ancestors understood quite well. Realism in faith means understanding just who we are and where we stand before God – in other words, we’re not in charge, God is and we need God a great deal more than God needs us. This is something that for some odd reason we’ve forgotten in contemporary Christianity. Our faith may have a therapeutic element, but ultimately, it’s not about what makes me feel good or gives me what I want – Christian faith is about getting our lives into proper alignment with God and with God’s life.

We have to look at ourselves in the mirror of the teaching Jesus has given us and see how we look. As Blaise Pascal pointed out, “The world is divided between sinners who believe themselves to be saints and saints who know themselves to be sinners.” If we understand that we fall short and place ourselves in the mercy, the grace offered us, the strength and refuge the Psalmist wrote about, then we’ll be ok. It’s when we go off on our merry way thinking that we’ve got it under control because we’ve been baptized or said a little prayer or even led a good life or done good deeds that we get ourselves into trouble. Jesus told his hearers, and tells us, that it’s not just the deeds we perform but whether or not those deeds reflect who we are, what we are at the core.

Yes, we called to be doers of the word and not just hearers, but what that implies is living a life of transcendent love; a life connected with God and then living, acting appropriately. One of the great teachings of the Reformation is that our justification, our salvation, comes not by works, but freely, by grace. I believe that, but, again, what contemporary Christianity has forgotten is that following our justification – which is a gift – comes a life which reflects that gift. Our Puritan ancestors would talk about it as “sanctification,” leading a life that looks more and more like Christ’s life, a life for others, a life conformed to God’s will and God’s way. A realistic faith, then, let’s us know that we don’t earn our way into heaven, but it also knows that if we’ve opened ourselves to God’s Spirit we’re not going to be the same or act the same.

Now, how do we build the foundation of a realistic faith? First, we listen to what Jesus says; in other words, we take the time to be students of the Bible, of God’s Word. Jesus says, “those who hear my words,” where do we hear them – through the Scripture. Every day should find us taking the time to enter into the Word and allow it, as Paul says in Colossians, “rich as it is,” to enter into our lives and make a difference. Out of our study of God’s Word comes the next building block: worship and prayer. We’ll understand that it’s not about us and we’ll turn, gladly, eagerly, openly, to the One Who it really is about and then, “Lord, Lord” will be more than ritualism, it will express the truth of what is in our heart. Then we’ll add the final building block, we’ll let it show in how we go about our daily living, how we treat those with whom we live and even how we live in the world. We’ll become the stewards of creation God made us to be by offering service to God by serving God’s people and caring for God’s good creation.

Perhaps we can sum it up using some familiar Scripture? The prophet Micah was on to something in chapter 6 verse 8 of his prophecy: “He has shown you, o mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you, but that you love justice, do kindness and walk humbly with your God.” There is foundational faith if ever I heard it. Jesus also sums up foundational faith in the “Great Commandment,” “’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” Love God and love your neighbor – hear the word and do the word, it’s that simple and it’s that difficult. You see it’s not about what we profess to believe, it’s about how we let it affect the way we live that makes the difference. Do we really love God? Do we really love our neighbor? Does it show? A realistic faith, a foundational faith examines itself every day to see if that’s the case and if it isn’t, makes the necessary changes.

Jesus doesn’t tell us that if we believe, if we follow him that there will be no storms, that everything will always be ok. No, he tells us that we’ll have a foundation that will endure. Let me close with the great contemporary scholar of religion Huston Smith’s reflection on his daughter’s eight month battle with cancer and her subsequent death. He recounted, “But I want to spell out how she and her immediate family rose to the showdown . . . Even when her condition had her at the breaking point, her farewells to us, her parents, in our last two visits were ‘I have not complaints’ and ‘I am at peace.’ Her last words to her husband and children were ‘I see the sea. I smell the sea. It is because it is so near.’ She always loved the sea. I think it symbolized life for her. . . .Her life had had its normal joys and defects, but the spiritual work she accomplished in those thirty weeks of dying was more than enough for a lifetime.” A hearer became a doer and her foundations held, even as it seemed that she was sinking.

I invite you today to renew a commitment to a foundational, a realistic faith. What we’re about to do as we come to communion is not meant to be “dessert for saints,” but rather it is medicine for sinners, help for those who know that they fall short and need the strength to get up and continue the journey. Jonathan Edwards’ grandfather, the Reverend Solomon Stoddard, called communion “a converting ordinance” and I agree with him. We come to this table not out of deserving, but out of need, so that we can be healed, renewed, restored and can continue to build a good life, a lofty life, on a solid foundation.

Amen.