Solid Rock
I spent a good part of my childhood in Westport, Washington. My grandfather worked there as a charter fisherman. Fishing is a dangerous business. My grandma needed some distraction when grandpa was out to sea. So my mom frequently shipped my brother and I off to Westport to give grandma some company.
On my grandpa’s days off, we would often drive down to Cape Showalter. At least that’s what they called it back in the Seventies. These days, it’s better known as Washaway Beach. About a hundred years ago, the beach started to sink into the Pacific Ocean. Washaway Beach is the fastest eroding place on the West Coast. About 150 feet disappear each year. That’s four miles of erosion over the past century.
When I first visited, Washaway beach was littered with cozy, little vacation homes. Just a few years later, there was only one house left on the beach. It was weather beaten, rickety, and abandoned. My grandma wouldn’t let me anywhere near the property it because the house could collapse at any moment. The tide kept undermining the sandy foundation until the beach house finally washed out to sea.
I was surprised to learn that people are still buying beachfront properties at Washaway Beach. Old houses find themselves closer and closer to the ocean each year. You have to sign off on the erosion clause in the purchase agreement. You can’t get insurance. The government won’t pick up the tab when your house collapses. That doesn’t stop people from buying houses at Washaway Beach. I suppose it’s the only affordable beachfront property left in Washington! The sea keeps swallowed homes on Washaway Beach last. That’s what happens if you build your house on a foundation made of sand.
Today we open up our Bibles to Matthew 7:24-29. Jesus tells us that if we put his words into action, we are like the wise person who built their house on a rock. On the other hand, if we just listen to Jesus’ words, but we don’t put them into practice, we have built our lives on sinking sand. Listening to the Bible without obeying the Bible is like buying a house on Washaway Beach. You might last the summer or even a few years, but eventually you are going to be washed out to sea. Hear the Word of the Lord and follow in the footsteps of Jesus.
Matthew 7:24-29
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.
Today’s scripture passage is the final point of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus started his sermon by telling the crowds, “Blessed are the poor, … blessed are the mourners, … blessed are the meek, … blessed are the persecuted.” These are not the people we typically celebrate! Then Jesus said that we should rejoice and be glad when people revile us and persecute us and utter all kinds of evil against us. Jesus keeps losing people because he warned us that must suffer for our faith!
Then Jesus opens up the Bible and interprets it in a fresh new way. His audience knew the sixth commandment by heart, “You shall not murder.” You might feel self-righteous about that rule if you have gotten through life without killing anybody. Jesus makes the sixth commandment much tougher by getting to the root causes of violence. Jesus says, “If you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; … and if you call someone a fool you will be liable to the fires of hell.” Raise your hand if you feel self-righteous when it comes to anger.
Then Jesus raised a few eyebrows by talking about sex. He brings up the seventh commandment, “You shall not commit adultery.” I think we can all agree, that’s a really good rule, but Jesus makes it much tougher. He says, “Everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery in his heart.” Once again, raise your hand if you feel self-righteous about lust!
Then Jesus tells us to turn the other cheek, to give away all our possessions, and to go twice as far as an oppressor asks us to go. Jesus says, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Don’t show off when you do good things. Don’t place any value on your earthly possessions. Don’t worry about what you will eat, or drink, or wear. Oh, and one more thing, don’t be a hypocrite, because you don’t get to judge other people. No one should feel righteous enough to raise their hand this morning.
Those are the words that Jesus is talking about when he tells the crowd, “Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man that built his house on the rock.” No one would behave this way without Jesus! You might not murder someone, but you are not going to be free from anger without Jesus. You may not have an extramarital affair, but you are not going be liberated from lust without Jesus. No one gives up retaliation, greed, or hypocrisy without Jesus. The only way we can do any of this stuff is by building our lives on the bedrock of Jesus. We don’t move to mountains and live on the rock until our beachfront property comes crashing down! You have to keep coming back to God’s word again and again, to depend on the forgiveness of Jesus and to experience new life.
Once again, Jesus uses the Bible to make an important point. The Old Testament tells us that God is safe and stable as a rock. Deuteronomy 32:4 declares, “[God] is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just.” Psalm 18:2 sings, “The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge.” Isaiah 26:4 says, “Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord himself, is the Rock eternal.” Jesus is telling the crowd that he is actually God; that he is the Rock of Ages; and that his very words are Holy Scripture.
The crowds were amazed because Jesus taught with authority, not like the teachers of the law. Please don’t judge the teachers of the law too harshly! They were the preachers of their day. Just like Covenant pastors today, the teachers of the law did their best to explain the Bible. It’s just not a fair comparison to compare the authority of a preacher to the authority of the Son of God. Of course the crowds were totally amazed by the authority of Jesus! He was writing the Bible every time he spoke!
It’s one thing to be impressed by the words of Jesus and quite another to put his words into practice. Last week I spoke about getting into the habit of praying regularly. This week I want to talk about the habit of reading the Bible regularly. Nearly a third of Americans blame the moral decline of the country on our failure to read the Bible. 80 percent of Americans think the Bible is sacred, but only 26 percent of Americans read the Bible regularly (defined as four times a week or more). The majority of Americans (57 percent) admit that they read the Bible four times a year or less. Americans like the idea that the Bible is authoritative, we just don’t actually read it, much less obey it.[1]
The Covenant Church began as a church revitalization movement. A bunch of Swedish immigrants opened up their Bibles and asked “Var star det skrivet?” which means, “Where is it written?” Over the past 138 years, the Covenant Church has become ethnically and racially diverse, but we are still reading our Bibles and still asking, “Where is it written?” The Covenant Church believes that the Bible is the only perfect rule for faith, doctrine, and conduct. We keep going back to the Word of God because it has unique authority to change our lives.
My first call out of seminary was to be the associate pastor of Bethlehem Covenant Church in Minneapolis. After planting Anchor Covenant Church in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, I was invited to come back to the Bethlehem Covenant to serve as the senior pastor. Bethlehem was a great congregation, but everyone agreed that we needed revitalization. We took a survey to analyze our strengths and weaknesses. Everyone assumed that our greatest strength was studying God’s Word. We had a terrible shock a few weeks later when we discovered that our presumed strength was actually our greatest weakness.
Only twenty percent of the church read the Bible daily. Forty-six percent of the congregation did not read the Bible regularly at all. Even more disturbing, more than half the congregation rarely or never studied the Bible with other Christians. There was some good news. Seventy-six percent believed that their behavior had changed in the last few months as a result of God’s Word. The congregation really did love the Bible! They were just out of the habit of digging into the Word of God.
So we made some important changes. We gave away a hundred free Bibles to our church and neighborhood. A third of the church committed to reading the Bible in a year. Seventy-percent of the church joined a small group Bible Study. I changed the way I was preaching, so that the congregation would get a summary of the Bible every year. We changed the Sunday School curriculum so that the children would study the same scripture as their parents and they could talk about it at home.
The church nearly doubled in size. New people came to know the Lord. Long-time members grew deeper as disciples of Jesus Christ. In a follow-up survey, forty-one percent of the congregation asserted that they were reading the Bible more than they did previously. Ninety-eight percent agreed that the church had become healthier and more missional. In separate focus group interviews, several members attributed the revitalization of the church to our renewed commitment to reading the Bible.
Bethlehem Covenant Church rebounded in large part because we committed ourselves to studying the Word of God. Reading the Bible provoked us to take some risks of faith, like starting a contemporary worship service, like giving sacrificially to our ministry partners, like starting a ministry to Bhutanese refugees, like partnering with a Spanish-speaking congregation. God blessed those endeavors and the church started to turn around. Bethlehem Covenant Church survived some stormy weather because we remembered that our foundation is the Word of God.
Just as Eugene is very different from Minneapolis, Valley Covenant Church is very different than Bethlehem Covenant Church. Maybe studying the Word of God is already the greatest strength at this church. I certainly have been impressed with the Sunday School classes that I have attended. God honors self-examination and prayers for new life.
Let’s commit to building this house the rock! God is solid and secure, and his Word makes the best foundation! Join a Bible study. Get involved in a Sunday School class. Commit to reading your Bible this year. Ask, “Where is it written?” Listen to Jesus and put his words into practice. Make the Word of God the authority in your life.
[1] Religion News Service, Caleb Bell, April 4, 2013