Tuesday, June 15, 2004
Tuesday, June 15, 2004
And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall!”
(Matthew 7.26-27
NRSV)
Luke records these words of Christ and he quotes Jesus as saying the wise builder "dug down" deep into the earth to lay his foundation. That part of the country where Jesus lived and from where He was preaching was rocky terrain. He recognized that rock was a prime base for building anything. But there was another type of soil of which Jesus spoke. That was sand. Christ said, "but everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man." Jesus used the word "foolish," which in the actual Greek, is moro. It is the word from which we get our word moronic or moron. This guy was a moron. He was a foolish man because he built his house on sand. There were dry river beds in Palestine. They were leveled out by streams and rivers. The land around those dry river beds was extremely flat. No preparation of the land was necessary. This foolish builder thought, "I'll save time, I'll save money and I'll save energy in putting it right here where the ground is already flat."
There are some sharp differences between these two builders. One of the builders, the wise builder, had a long view. He was looking far enough ahead so as to prevent having to reconstruct his house. The other guy, the foolish builder, was spiritually confronted with two goods, the good for the moment and the good for the long run, and it was the long run that the wise builder had in mind. Certainly it took more time to dig deep into that rock and build a foundation, but his work paid off.
Jesus is saying he wants us to work harder on our relationship with God than anything else in our lives.
God of love, may I continue to build my faith and life on a solid relationship with you. Amen.
