3 Pentecost Yr A

My dad would come home from work covered in mud and smelling of sweat. He was a block layer, when I was little I called him a cement man. When he came home, he’d leave his boots by the back door, and head straight to the shower. But that smell of mud never left him. For fun on Saturdays, he’d put me and one or two of my siblings in the truck, and we’d drive out to the job site. He’d just want to check it out, make sure everything was fine over the weekend. There was a big hole, with cement blocks and wheelbarrows, and machines to mix the mud, as my dad always called the cement. I remember being in awe of that job site, like something that really mattered happened there. My dad was setting the foundation for all those new homes being built, what he did mattered for many many people.

As you know, I lived most of my life in Minnesota, and whenever there was a tornado warning, it’s those sturdy basements we would head for. I knew that basement was the safest place to be, I’d seen them being built, and I knew who built them. When we moved to Austin, Texas, I wondered where you would go during a tornado, there were no basements, it seemed to me that a house would just get blown away.

Today we live in a world where the foundation under us is moving, and the sky above us twists and blows, no well built basement can stand up to that. Tornados in Colorado, Iowa, and Missouri. Cyclone in Burma, earthquake in China.

And yet Jesus says, “everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on a rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. 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.” When the earth quakes, the winds and rain come in a deluge and destroy people’s homes, then what does Jesus mean? What is that rock? What is that foundation? What is really stable in a world that swirls and quakes?

There may be some clues in the preceding text itself. This passage we hear today follows what we know as the sermon on the mount which includes the beatitudes, a story about being salt and light, a self disclosure about being the fulfillment of the law, and lessons on forgiveness and fidelity, covenant, love, humility, prayer, worship. I’m thinking each of these things is like one of those big substantial blocks my dad would set in the wall of the basement he built, and all together they would form that firm foundation on which to build the house. Sadly, even with substantial blocks like that, that house can still be blown away.

But, I think we can turn to the prayer that Jesus taught us that is contained in this cotext which is “Our father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven.” This is where I believe the stability is located, this is the place that cannot be blown away or blown up or blown over. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

I think the stability is found in this new creation, God’s kingdom come, that God inaugurates in the resurrection of Jesus. The rest is incredibly important, important like the things that we would hope to take with us when we hide in our basement when the winds come. Love, humility, prayer, worship, forgiveness, fidelity, covenant, are all substantial, they are like the photos that I would want to take with me into the basement. The photos that tell the story of our families, but they are not the substance of our family. They are like the books that I love so very much that I would like to take with me into the basement, the books that remind me of who I am, but they are not the substance of who I am. If I lost all my photos, all my books, everything that identified me as Kathy Monson Lutes in the winds and the quakes, what would there be left? And of course, the question that must be asked, when life is lost in the winds and the quakes, when my life is ended in the winds and the quakes, or just ended, what does it mean?

“Our father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” The bedrock on which faith is built is this. God has begun the new creation in the resurrection of Jesus. Again, God has begun the new creation in the resurrection of Jesus. God’s new creation is begun; the renewing of the earth is begun. You and I are participants in God’s new creation; this is the bedrock on which our faith is built. It is this absolutely new thing that God has done, is doing, and will continue to do until the project is complete at the fulfillment of the ages.

The new creation that God inaugurates with the resurrection of Jesus reaches back into the beginning of Jesus' ministry, at Jesus’ baptism with the words, “This is my son, chosen and marked by my love, delight of my life.” The bedrock on which faith is built is God’s new creation begun in the resurrection of Jesus, and predicated by the words, “you are chosen and marked by my love, delight of my life.” You see, dust we are, and to dust we shall return, but God can do new things with dust. All else can be blown away, blown up, or blown over, God’s new creation cannot be shaken.

And today, you and I are agents of new creation. You and I, chosen and marked by God’s love, delight of God’s life, are participants in this new creation that we pray for each time we say the Lord’s Prayer. We are being transformed by God’s amazing and abundant love into agents of new creation. We are being transformed into people who do what the Lord requires of us, to act justly and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God. We are being transformed into people who continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in the prayers; who persevere in resisting evil, repent and return to the lord; who proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ; who seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbors as ourselves; and who strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being.

We get glimpses of new creation all the time. We get glimpses of ourselves being agents of new creation. But we never see it clearly, not until the fulfillment of all time. But the glimpses we get have everything to do with acting justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with our God. The glimpses have everything to do with the living out of our baptismal promises. When we are in the world living as agents of new creation, we get glimpses. When we order our lives here at St. Andrew’s so that people can have time and space to be healed, we get glimpses. I have heard people say that St. Andrew’s is a place where they can come when they are broken, that St. Andrew’s is a place where you can bring before God and your brothers and sisters the truth of who you are, and you will be accepted, and in that accepting, you will be healed. Healing is transformation. If you can’t bring your tears and your pain to the altar before God, well then, what good is any of it. These are glimpses of new creation. Glimpses of God’s renewing of our lives, and our world.

This is the bedrock of our faith. It is what will never be blown away, blown up, or blown over. The substantial blocks of our foundation are substantial and important, they are what keeps the building up. Even the touchstones of our faith are important, the Book of Common Prayer, the Hymnal, the altar, the candles; these are all things that identify us as to who we are. But as to the bedrock of our faith, that which will never be blown away, blown up or blown over, it is new creation, it is resurrection.

Alleluia. The Spirit of the Lord renews the face of the earth:
Come let us adore him. Alleluia.