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SERMONS

The Second Sunday After Pentecost
May 29, 2005

As most of you are aware, shortly after I came here to the Chapel of the Cross in 1997 we began building the education building. So for most of the first year I was here I spent many hours observing the construction. One of the things that was particularly interesting to me was the site preparation. After removing trees and clearing brush, the contractor began to excavate and carry away dirt. The holes grew deeper and deeper as it seemed they would never stop digging.

The reason it was necessary to remove so much dirt, or course, was because of the Yazoo clay with which we here in middle Mississippi are blessed. Yazoo clay, as I am sure you are all aware, is one of our pre-dominant soil types. It is according to the "Mud Lab" at Mississippi State University, "composed in large part of expansive or "fat" clay minerals that have the capability to increase in volume (swell) when saturated with water." Yazoo clay swells when it gets wet and shrinks when it dries. For this reason-as the Mud Lab so delicately puts it-"building on Yazoo clay is problematic." Because of the swelling and shrinking of the clay in wet and dry weather, the ground moves. Buildings built on Yazoo clay move as well leading to cracks in foundations, walls, and ceilings.

Today's gospel reading from Matthew's account comes at the end of a prolonged teaching session of Jesus, a teaching we call the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus sums up his teaching with a warning: "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. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?' Then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.'"

So apparently it is not by what we say or by our power that we enter the kingdom of Heaven. It is, rather, by paying attention to the foundation on which our houses-our lives are built.

Jesus compares those who hear his words and act on them to wise builders, and those who hear his words and refuse to act on them to foolish builders. It is useful perhaps to note that Jesus makes no mention of the kinds of houses that these builders build. He doesn't comment on their construction methods, nor on the quality of the materials they use. For all we know the houses might be identical. The details are not significant to the point Jesus is about to make. All that matter are the foundations on which they build their houses.

The region of Palestine, that part of the world Jesus and those who followed him knew, receives very little rain. Throughout most of the year it is dry, with rocks and sand the main landscape features. Cutting through the Judean hills are ravines or waadis, whose bases are composed of smooth, hard-packed sand. Building on the sand would, I assume, be much simpler than building on a foundation of rock.

Jesus goes on to tell us that both the wise and foolish man experience the same things: the rain falls, and the floods come, and the winds blow and beat against the houses.

For even in Palestine, the rains come. And when the rains come in Palestine, the dry, flat waadis become raging rivers. Walls of water cover and carry away anything that stands upon their sandy bases. And great will be the fall.

Brothers and sisters, today Jesus sets before us a choice, the same choice that Moses set before the children of Israel. On what foundation will you build your house? On what foundation will you build your life? It may not matter much when times are good. Almost anyone can do ok when times are good.

But trust me - the good times will not last. Difficult times enter into every life. And when the difficult times come, then the foundation becomes vitally important. If the foundation is solid then you can weather most difficulties. Because if the foundation does not stand then the house cannot stand.

The psalmists certainly knew difficult times, and they were not hesitant to describe them. Among the psalms, Psalm 31 eloquently expresses what it means to build one's foundation on the Lord. The psalmist here knows his share of trouble:

Have mercy on me, O Lord - he writes - for I am in trouble; my eye is consumed with sorrow, and also my throat and my belly. For my life is wasted with grief, and my years with sighing; my strength fails me because of affliction, and my bones are consumed.

Yet even in the midst of such trial, he can say: Love the Lord, all you who worship; the Lord protects the faithful…

Our hope rests not on our own strength, but on the one who has walked this way ahead of us. As Paul reminds us, he is faithful. In Christ we have a foundation that is sure. That foundation will withstand rain and flood and wind. It will withstand the worst that the world can offer.

Be strong, then, brothers and sisters… and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord.

David Christian
The Chapel of the Cross
Madison, Mississippi