Storm Preparedness

It seems a terrible time to talk about homes being washed away, but it is Jesus’ parable to close the Sermon on the Mount, and while the plan for Scripture for this Sunday was made months ago, perhaps it is just the right time to address the storms of life, our frailty, and storm preparedness.

Jesus says there are two kinds of people: wise people who prepare for the storms of life and foolish people who don’t. Notice that there is not a third group who don’t experience storms in their lives. Every single one of us will find ourselves in a storm during our lifetime. There will be loss, illness, addiction, pain, grief, fear, abuse, turmoil, danger, or tragedy in every one of our lives. No person has a storm-free life. Earlier in the sermon, Jesus said, “God causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” Good things happen to bad people and good people, and bad things happen to good people and bad people. The difference in the wise and the foolish, the good and the bad, the faithful and the unfaithful is not whether or not they have storms, whether or not they go through hard times, it is how they weather the storms, how they make it through the hard times.

And this is the difference: The wise build their house on rock, and the foolish build their house on sand. Around the Sea of Galilee, where Jesus was teaching, and where the disciples had grown up, the top layer of earth is alluvial sand – a mixture of sand, clay, silt, gravel, and a lot of organic matter that is in the process of breaking down – that has been deposited by the Jordan River as it flows into and out of the Sea of Galilee and by the Sea when it has flooded. During the summer months, when it is hot and dry, the alluvial sand gets hard, almost impossible to dig, it’s “hard as a rock.” But, because it is a mixture and part of that mixture is breaking down, it is highly permeable and porous, there are holes all in it for water to penetrate. And when it does, the alluvial sand washes away.

So, Jesus says, look right over there on that nice plain. That’s a great spot for a home, stream running right there. Imagine two men decided to build there, side by side one summer. One man started digging first. In the hot sun, day after day, he dug. The other man cleared off the grass and scrub bushes and started piling the rocks to form his foundation. It made sense. The ground was hard, and he was able to build and finish his house long before his neighbor. In the end the two houses were both really nice, and even though he ribbed his neighbor about insisting on digging down to bed rock before he started building, (he really did not think that was necessary…sort of extreme, actually), the two families got along fine. Once they were done, you wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference just by looking. They were both nice houses.

Then, the rains came. And the water rose, the Jordan overflowed its banks, water seeped under and around the house, the winds blew. One of the houses fell. It could not withstand the storm.

Jesus concludes the Sermon on the Mount, “So, everyone who hears these words of mine and does them will be like the wise person who dug down and hit bedrock before starting to build up. And everyone who hears these words and does not do them will be like the foolish person who built his house on sand.”

Jesus is truly a teacher. He wants his students to review what he has taught and to incorporate that knowledge into their lives. So, let’s review The Sermon on the Mount. It is found in Matthew 5-7.

It begins with a prologue, The Beatitudes. These are more than lovely ideas. They are worldview shifting.
Blessed are those who are humble, those who mourn, those who place their lives under God’s authority, who long for justice, who are merciful and pure in heart, who are peacemakers, those who will not veer from God’s way even if requires sacrifice. Dr. Amy-Jill Levine, a professor of New Testament at Vanderbilt, says that “The Beatitudes tell us that we – each of us individually – are not the center of the world.” And we experience blessing when we don’t live like we are. Jesus says we are salt and light for the world. When we live as salt, we are healers and preservers of the world, and keepers of humanity’s Covenant with God. When we live as light, we are sparks of hope. God creates light, guides by light, and calls us to be light in dark places. Salt and light both spread – they distribute evenly through whatever throughout the whole of wherever they are present and they both prevent mold and decay.

Some in the crowd, though, were questioning whether Jesus’ teaching was in agreement with the Law of Moses or not. He seemed to snub his nose at the law when it suited him – like when he let his disciples glean wheat on the Sabbath because they were hungry or when he healed on the Sabbath, or when he was the guest in the home of a Pharisee and didn’t follow the ceremonial handwashing ritual. Jesus taught that the purpose of the law was to create community by transforming hearts, not by restraining bad behavior. Jesus expands the law from don’t commit murder to include anger. Don’t commit adultery to include lust. Don’t divorce your wife without a certificate of divorce, to you have to have a reason too. Don’t break an oath to be trustworthy. And from an eye-for-an-eye to “turn the other cheek, give them the coat off your back, go the extra mile.” You have heard, love your neighbor and hate your enemy, but I say to you love your neighbor and pray for your persecutor. “Judge not,” Jesus taught, “or you will be judged by God.”

You have learned to follow the rules. You give your tithe, you say your prayers, and you practice spiritual disciplines like fasting. But are you doing it for the right reasons? Why is important is your motive. Jesus says, “Be careful that your righteousness, your acts of devotion, are not done with an eye to who is seeing you.”

Then, he taught them how to pray. Honor God, and pray for God’s will to be done. Pray for your needs and for God to forgive you in the same way that you forgive. Pray to be kept from succumbing to temptation and to be delivered from evil.

Finally, Jesus turns to our trust problem. We tend to store things in case. Extra money, extra clothes, extra food, extra stuff that gives us a sense of security and lets us feel in control of our future. Jesus taught, “Let me tell you: don’t worry about your life – what to eat, what to drink. Don’t worry about your body – what to wear. There’s more to life!” Worry will rob you of abundant life, and it is pointless. So, how do we stop worrying? Jesus says shift your perspective and adjust your priorities. Since worry is a biproduct of placing our faith in ourselves – believing we have to be self-sufficient – rather than placing our faith in God, we overcome worry by shifting our perspective and focusing on who we are and whose we are and realizing that worry doesn’t change anything – trust God, not yourself.

Check your priorities, says Jesus. “Seek first the kingdom of God.” Prioritize storing up living in alignment with God’s will: caring for others, seeking peace, doing what is right, living in relationship with God and with others as God intends…and you will experience abundant life….and you’ll find that having something to eat, and to drink and to wear take care of themselves.

Ask. Seek. Knock. God’s will is for you and never against you. Trust that God wants to give you good gifts.

God wants you to bear good fruit, but only good trees bear good fruit. So plant your tree by the living water of Jesus’ teaching, and when the storms rage and the flood waters threaten, you will not be destroyed and washed away if you build your life on his teaching.