Rock of Ages

Gospel
Mt 7:21-27

Jesus said to his disciples:“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.Many will say to me on that day,‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name?Did we not drive out demons in your name?Did we not do mighty deeds in your name?’Then I will declare to them solemnly,‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers.’“Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on themwill be like a wise man who built his house on rock.The rain fell, the floods came,and the winds blew and buffeted the house.But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock.And everyone who listens to these words of minebut does not act on themwill be like a fool who built his house on sand.The rain fell, the floods came,and the winds blew and buffeted the house.And it collapsed and was completely ruined.”

Dulverton Sermon

Just along the coast houses are being demolished because the ground on which they have been built is crumbling. I am sure that we all have alot of sympathy for the owners and we can understand their anger. Did the builders know they were building on less than solid foundations? Could the influx of water, and the damage it is causing, have been foreseen?

In the gospel Jesus isn't describing a coastal situation. We know from Luke (6.47-49) that he was speaking about building in a dried up river bed. In summer it offered a convenient and easy location but come winter and the same site was a raging torrent. Even in such a location a building might have survived had the builder been more far sighted and dug down to rock below the sand for his foundations. But then that would have caused him a lot more hard work and expense.

In China just now many who have lost loved ones in the earthquakes there are angry that buildings, especially schools, were not more soundly and firmly built.

Jesus make his pont vivid and clear in his illustration. It comes towards the end of three chapters of teaching in the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount. He, and His teaching, he is claiming are the solid basis on which to build a sound life. "Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts upon them will be lick a wise man who built his house on rock".

Just a little further on in the gospel (Mtt 16.18) Jesus is delighted when Peter (whose name means 'rock') makes the profession of faith "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God". He tells Peter "You are Peter and on this rock I will build my church". These words praising Peter have a double meaning for us:
1. The solid rock foundation on which we are to build our Christian lives is a similar faith in Jesus.
2. The house of faith in which we should nourish and exercise such a faith is the church built on the foundation of Peter and the apostles with Jesus as the chief cornerstone (1Cor3.11).

A few years ago, here in Scarborough, a Christian couple opened a cafe in Eastborough. They had a vision to serve their customers with more than good food and indicated this by calling their cafe - 'Solid Rock Cafe'.

Napoleon Bonaparte said: "Alexander, Caesar, Charlemange, and myself founded empires; but upon what foundations? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded an empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men and women would die for him".

"Lord, make us wise men and women who build their houses on rock, the solid rock of faith in you. Let our faith be nourished and expressed in the firmly built house of your one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church".