"The House on the Rock"
By Michael Browder Ph.D.
June 27, 2010

When I was in high school, I was a door-to-door salesman, selling magazines. Because I went door to door, I saw just about every type of house that was built in the city of Richmond and surrounding areas. There was one thing that always troubled me. Some of these houses were built out of such cheap materials. There was many an apartment door that was so thin you could easily punch right through it if you wanted to. When I saw cheap houses, I always wondered: When there comes a wind or a rain or a snow storm, how does this house stay standing?

Years later, when I first became a pastor, my best friend was the county building inspector. (I called him Inspector Goin.) One day I finally asked him: All these cheap houses they build out there, why don’t they all just fall over? And I never will forget what he replied. He said, “The answer is in the foundation. The foundation! No matter how fragile the house is, if it has a strong enough foundation, it can withstand a lot.”

The same is true for spiritual matters, and whether a person’s life will stand or fall. Today we talk about Jesus’ short parable from the Sermon on the Mount about the house built on the rock and the house built on the sand. The deciding factor is the foundation. Proverbs 10:25says:When the whirlwind passes by, the wicked person is no more, But the righteous person has an everlasting foundation. And I Corinthians 3:11 reminds us that Christ is our foundation. He is the rock. All else is sinking sand.

And let me remind us that the sinking sand includes our own human efforts. If we think that we can save ourselves with our own good deeds, our hope is just sinking sand. Only Christ can save us. He is the sure foundation.

A couple of things I thought about when I read these verses. For one thing, I remember that Jesus had been trained and worked as a carpenter. Jesus knew how a house was built. He knew what kind of foundation it needed.

And Jesus knew what happened to a house when disaster struck. He knew about the flash floods that thunder through the rocky gorges of Palestine, down to this very day.

When I think about houses lost to floods, I think of the Katrina flood in New Orleans. And I think of the terrible Nashville floods that we saw recently. I think about all the homes that were lost in Haiti during the earthquake.

Yes, I think about these things. I also think about other images from the Bible. You know what I thought about this week? I thought about the story of Noah. We all love Noah. We love the boat. We especially love the animals. But I thought about the flood. I thought about the houses and the people who were destroyed. I wondered if Noah and the people on the ark saw sights like we have seen on television during floods. Other ancient cultures had flood stories, like the Epic of Gilgamesh in Mesopotamia. I wonder if they witnessed something like the things we have witnessed. If so, I know why they had to write about it.

From our scripture today, I have been thinking about the parable of the house built on the low-lying sand. The rains came, and the winds blew, and the floods descended. And the house was washed away. And the old version says, “Great was the destruction thereof!” Had this gospel writer ever witnessed a hurricane? Or a tsunami? I wonder.

And when I think about people left without a home I think about Mary and Joseph when Jesus was born. They could not find a place to stay. Jesus was born in a shelter. Not even a regular building, but crude barn which his family had to share with filthy farm animals. There the savior, the greatest king, the greatest human being who ever lived, came into this world.

the hope of one who has been there. Christ understands suffering and death because he has experienced it! And when he comes to you in the midst of your struggle and says, “I love you!” and “I know what you feel,” he says it as someone who has been there. Because he had to go through it alone, he does not want you to have to go through it alone. He is there. He is with you.

Mary and Joseph had to flee for their lives to Egypt. When they left their home in Nazareth for a brief trip to Bethlehem, they had no idea that it would be years (years!) before they could go home again. They were refugees, displaced people. They were a different ethnic group, second-class citizens, who were forced to live in another part of the Roman Empire.

And you know what? Somebody took care of them. There were people, who are anonymous in the Bible record, who nevertheless took care of our savior and his family, while they were homeless. Someday Jesus would say, “I was a stranger and you welcomed me!” And he would say, “As much as you did it unto the least of these, you did it unto me.”

If I were the one who decided who got to be Saints (with a capital S), I would include those unnamed people who took care of Jesus and his family while they were homeless.

I would makes saints of all those who have reached out to help people who have no home. And I would put your name on that list: First United Methodist Church. I have seen you stepping up to help those who are homeless. I have seen your generous gifts to people in Haiti. I have seen you reach out to the homeless on the street. I have seen your health kits. I have seen those of you who have worked in Habitat. I have seen your work in volunteer teams, and in many kinds of missions. As your pastor, I am very, very proud of you. You have touched my heart! And I am proud of our denomination, the United Methodist Church. We were listed as one of the first relief organizations to respond with massive aid in a disaster.

I have talked about the blessing of a loving home. And I have talked about the anguish of losing your home. I have talked about those who stand in that gap. And no one stands in the gap any better than Habitat for Humanity. While everyone else has been wringing their hands and saying, “What are we going to do to help all these survivors who have lost their homes?” the people at Habitat have been saying, “We have an answer.” “Let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work.”

We at First United Methodist Church are proud to support Habitat for Humanity. We consider it a privilege to welcome their director today and to celebrate their work. Habitat was founded by people, whose faith in Jesus Christ, led them to reach out to others. Our congregation lifts this up, as a model of what faith should be.

We have many things to consider from our scripture today and from the disasters we have witnessed in the world around us: Joy and sorrow. Despair and Hope. Need and love. In the midst of all these things, Christ is present and calling us to be in action. Amen.

This week’s story:

Did you hear the one about the two Methodist volunteers who were building the Habitat house? One of the volunteers would take a nail and hammer it. Then he would look at the next nail and throw it away. Then hammer one. Then throw one away. Finally, the other volunteer asked, “What on earth are you doing?” He answered, “I can’t use half of these nails; they’re pointed in the wrong direction.” The other volunteer yelled, “You idiot! We can use those nails on the other side of the house!”

So the volunteers run out of 2x4, and they go down to the hardware store to buy some more. They tell the clerk, “We need some 2x4’s.” The clerk asks, “How long do you need them?” And the volunteers say, “We’re going need them a long time. We’re putting them in a house!”