Sunday, March 6, 2011

"Built on the Rock" (Matthew 7:21-29)

I read a story this week … I forgot where the story originated … but it involved a woman who was feeling pretty down about life. She was feeling dissatisfied. She may have even been a little depressed; but then she noticed, sitting on the counter just an arm’s reach away, a can of vanilla frosting.


She reached for the can, took the lid off, and smelled the frosting. Mmmmm. It smelled good. She found a spoon, and dipped the spoon into the can of frosting, and took a bite.

It tasted good; so sweet and delicious. It made her feel good inside. It made her happy.

So she took another bite. Again: so sweet and so delicious. So happy.

Wanting more and more of that happiness, and wanting it to last, she took another bite. And another. And another.

And after awhile, even though she kept eating the vanilla frosting, she discovered that the happiness was fading away. That good feeling that she felt after the first bite was no longer there. In fact, the more bites she took, the more that good feeling was replaced by a very bad feeling, a very sick feeling.

By the time she put down the spoon, after the can of frosting was almost completely empty, she felt far worse than she had in the first place.

This story is not so different from the one from the one about a man who built his house on the sand. Why did he build his house on the sand? Because it felt good! It felt good to open the door and step out, barefooted, and feel the sand squish between your toes. It felt good to be down near the water where the sand is, to hear the stream or the ocean waves.

Plus, it’s easy. Almost as easy as pulling the lid off a can of frosting. You can move the sand around however you want – grading the site, making it nice and level, is a cinch. You can do it by hand.

But when the rains fall and the floods come and the winds beat against the house… well, the good feelings fade go away… they go away, along with the house.

The words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount are a solid rock upon which one can build a strong, stable, and truly happy life; a life filled with joy that lasts, a deep down satisfaction that does not fade away. The happiness that comes from eating frosting fades away, but the joy that comes from building your life on Jesus lasts forever.

This is the sixth and final week that our Sunday worship scriptures come from the Sermon on the Mount. There is so much wisdom, so many good teachings on how to find joy in those three chapters in Matthew; and yet, I can’t help but wonder: if these teachings of Jesus do lead to a better world and more joy-filled lives, why don’t we follow them? Why do we so often ignore them?

Why do Christians get so hung up on homosexuality, for example – something that apparently didn’t bother Jesus, since he never spoke about it – and ignore his repeated teachings on turning the other cheek, on making peace, on forgiving others, on not judging, on loving one’s enemies? Why do we not put much effort into living by these teachings?

I think part of the reason is that these teachings of Jesus are so new, and we’re afraid of what’s new. Yes, I know, they’ve been around for 2000 years, and yet they are still new. They’re unfamiliar. They’ve been untested by all but a very few people in history.

The life to which they call us is radically new and different from the life most of us know. The world that Jesus describes – the kingdom of God – is so radically different from the world we know. It’s all still so very new to us.

And we don’t like things that are new or unfamiliar. New things scare us. So we resist them. We resist change – no matter how much hope and joy those changes promise. Stepping outside of the box, changing the way we look at things, it’s all very difficult.

When Copernicus and Galileo suggested that the world was round, and that the earth revolved around the sun (instead of the sun circling the earth), people refused to believe them. Believing them would require a whole new understanding of humanity’s place in the universe; believing them would require them to look at everything in a whole new way; … and that was just too big a leap for people to make.

Most of us, we’re so used to building our lives on the sand, that we can’t imagine building our lives on solid rock. Most of us, we’ve been licking the frosting for so long, we’re too afraid to try something new, something different, something that might actually lead to a satisfaction that lasts rather than a momentary sweetness that’s followed by an upset stomach.

Showing forgiveness not only to those who we think deserve forgiveness, but also to those who we believe do not deserve forgiveness: how often has that been tried? How often has that concept actually been tested out?

In 2006, a man entered an Amish schoolhouse in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania. He opened fire, shooting ten schoolgirls between the ages of 6 and 13, killing five of them, before turning the gun on himself.

Though horrified, shocked, and deeply saddened, the Amish community immediately forgave the shooter. Even family members of the victims offered forgiveness, and they reached out in love and support to the shooter’s family.

The news of their radical show of forgiveness and their willingness to love even their worst enemy captivated the world’s attention. Some were critical, saying it was inappropriate to forgive someone who showed no remorse; but most people were simply amazed that this group of people actually too seriously Jesus’ teachings on love and forgiveness.

Most people, despite hearing the Sermon on the Mount numerous times, couldn’t even imagine practicing the restorative justice of Jesus. For most of us, our idea of justice is that it be punitive: offenders must be punished!

And when they are punished, we feel good; we take satisfaction in the feeling that we did right. But that good feeling doesn’t last. It’s nothing but a momentary sugar rush that leaves us feeling worse in the long run.

Loving one’s enemies. Turning the other cheek. Going the extra mile. Not judging others. Showing forgiveness even to those who don’t deserve it. For most of us, it’s a completely new way to live.

It’s hard to put down the frosting. It’s difficult to put away the junk food. Have you ever seen the TV show The Biggest Loser? I’m not really a fan of the show – I don’t like the way it’s produced, I don’t like how the show drags everything out, and I generally don’t like shows that feature people getting voted off – but I am a fan of the contestants on the show. How difficult must it be to go from a lifestyle that involves eating two large pizzas a day while sitting on a couch, to a lifestyle of healthy eating and exercise? It takes incredible mental strength to so radically change one’s life. At the end of the season, when you see the contestant’s before and after pictures, it doesn’t even look like the same person. And, in fact, it’s not. That person how has a whole new life.

I think it probably takes at least that same amount of mental and spiritual strength to truly live according to the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount. The people on The Biggest Loser: they worked with trainers every day. They were encouraged every day. The trainers helped them find the strength that was within them. In the process, they learned how to live a new, healthier lifestyle, and they practiced what they learned. Every day.

That’s how we, as disciples, as followers of Jesus, are to live. We need to practice what we’ve learned, every day. We need to train. Every day. It’s difficult to begin living a whole new lifestyle. We need to find the strength that is within us, and we need to learn to rely on that strength. Every day.

We do this by practicing the spiritual disciplines. These are our training tools, which will help us live the new lives we’re called to live. We need to read our Bibles, alone, and with others. We need to pray. We need to worship. We need to practice hospitality. We need to tithe. We need to allow our lives to be shaped by the days and seasons of the church calendar, observing a weekly Sabbath, and observing special days like Ash Wednesday and special seasons like Lent. And we need to fast; if not a complete fast, then at least a fast from things like vanilla frosting.

It’s not easy cutting into solid rock in order to lay a level foundation on which to build a house. It’s much easier to just lay your boards across some level sand and build your house there. But we know the end result of such actions. Better to build your house on the rock, so that it will stand strong, so that you may dwell secure.

No comments: