wise man built his house upon a rock
It is low tide. A big truck pulls into the harbour with a van right behind it. Out of the van comes a construction crew. Out of the back of the truck comes the most expensive grandest building material you have ever seen. Within a matter of hours this crew, the most amazing group of carpenters, builders, electricians, and plumbers erect the most beautiful house you have ever seen. They do all of this in the bay beyond the high tide mark while the tide is still out.
The tide does what it normally does and comes in. And suddenly this beautiful house is in the middle of the bay… rather useless. Over the next month the tide creeps in and out and soon the house is a pile of expensive rubble in the bay.
You would call whoever paid to have this house built a fool. We all know that a shack on dry land is better then a mansion under water.
The lessons today ask us to apply the same thought to our actions. We all try to do good things. We know that coming here to worship on Sunday is a good thing to do. We have to be careful, however. We can come here together on Sunday and have the most beautiful service in the world. We can build the most palatial church. We can have an award-winning choir with a record album. We can have all of that and be no better then the man who tried to build his house out in the bay.
We do not need any of that. We do not even need the building we are in, the hangings around the altar, this pulpit I am standing at… by themselves they are useless. They are as worthless a gesture as building a house out in the bay.
Any value in anything around us comes from our first having faith. You can come to church pick up this prayer book and say the words in it until you are blue in the face… and if you are not doing so in hopes of getting a closer relationship to God… well, you might as well not be here.
If you are here in church for any reason except the stirring of the spirit within you to have a relationship to Christ… then you are building a very palatial house out in the bay.
Even the smallest of houses built on dry land is better then a mansion in the bay. Christ is the dry land. Even the smallest of prayers done in Christ’s Love is grander then the most heroic deed done away from the Love of Christ. Faith in Christ gives meaning to this pulpit I am standing at, the hangings on the altar, this building itself.
As Christians our purpose is faith in Christ. Our deeds must be built on that faith, on the Love of Christ. When we act not out of Christ Love our deeds are like a mansion built out in the bay. They might be beautiful and magnificent… but in the end they are rather worthless.
The tide does what it normally does and comes in. And suddenly this beautiful house is in the middle of the bay… rather useless. Over the next month the tide creeps in and out and soon the house is a pile of expensive rubble in the bay.
You would call whoever paid to have this house built a fool. We all know that a shack on dry land is better then a mansion under water.
The lessons today ask us to apply the same thought to our actions. We all try to do good things. We know that coming here to worship on Sunday is a good thing to do. We have to be careful, however. We can come here together on Sunday and have the most beautiful service in the world. We can build the most palatial church. We can have an award-winning choir with a record album. We can have all of that and be no better then the man who tried to build his house out in the bay.
We do not need any of that. We do not even need the building we are in, the hangings around the altar, this pulpit I am standing at… by themselves they are useless. They are as worthless a gesture as building a house out in the bay.
Any value in anything around us comes from our first having faith. You can come to church pick up this prayer book and say the words in it until you are blue in the face… and if you are not doing so in hopes of getting a closer relationship to God… well, you might as well not be here.
If you are here in church for any reason except the stirring of the spirit within you to have a relationship to Christ… then you are building a very palatial house out in the bay.
Even the smallest of houses built on dry land is better then a mansion in the bay. Christ is the dry land. Even the smallest of prayers done in Christ’s Love is grander then the most heroic deed done away from the Love of Christ. Faith in Christ gives meaning to this pulpit I am standing at, the hangings on the altar, this building itself.
As Christians our purpose is faith in Christ. Our deeds must be built on that faith, on the Love of Christ. When we act not out of Christ Love our deeds are like a mansion built out in the bay. They might be beautiful and magnificent… but in the end they are rather worthless.
posted by koraps at 10:36 PM
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