Laying the Foundation

Laying the Foundation
Beginning the Sunday after Pentecost, we start the season in the church known as “ordinary time.” That means nothing more than there really isn’t a major holiday coming soon…we’ve been in the season of Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter and now ordinary time…Now, there would be some who would say, “ordinary time? Sounds boring…Good time to miss church for awhile…” But ordinary time is also a good time to reconnect, refresh, and rejuvenate…To find ways to get “on the right track” or lay the foundation…The foundation of faith…
Our passage from Matthew comes toward the end of the teaching section of Matthew known as the Sermon on the Mount…Matthew puts together all of the teachings of Jesus into this one section, where other Gospels like Luke & Mark have them spread out throughout Jesus’ ministry and travels…Matthew’s intent may have been to show how Jesus’ teachings layer upon themselves or how they are so important that they need their own section…Another reason could be that Matthew saw Jesus as the “new Moses”…the one who would lead God’s people to freedom…the one who had seen God face-to-face…And just as Moses stood on Mount Siani and shared the commandments from God…Now Jesus stands on a mount and shares teachings…Part of the reason that this is so important for Matthew is because Matthew is writing for a Jewish audience—and to help the audience understand who Jesus is, he likens him to a person that they would know, trust, and revere…Moses…Now, there are many ways that Jesus is not like Moses and goes beyond where Moses could…Matthew explores that throughout his Gospel in order to explain who Jesus is and what Jesus has done for all the children of God.
The Sermon on the Mount has many important teachings—the beatitudes, the Lord’s prayer, the greatest commandments, many of the teachings of Jesus that we know…and toward the end of the section of teaching, Jesus is wrapping up and he tells the parable of building the house.
There was a person who built their house on rock and the floods came, the wind blew, and the rain came and the house didn’t fall because the house had been built on the rock…but there was also a person who built their house on sand and the floods came, the wind blew, and the rain came and the house fell and it’s fall was great…
Jesus explains in this section that he’s likening the parable of building the house to listening to his teachings…Those who listen to his teachings and follow them are like the one who built their house on the rock…those who don’t listen and don’t follow his teachings are like the one who built their house on the sand. When you build a building, it’s always important to have a good foundation…the taller the building, the more important the foundation becomes…
Just like our lives…we need to build a strong foundation in Jesus’ teachings…Otherwise the floods will come, the wind will blow, the rain will fall…and what will happen?
So, how do we build this foundation? Well, there are many ways to build the foundation, but most importantly the foundation must be laid…it can begin to be laid in worship…by worshiping God and celebrating where God has present in our lives, where our joys and pains have been…But even more than worship, which is very clearly important…but being involved in daily prayer, reading the Bible, being in a small group, getting involved in Bible study…there are many ways to have the foundation of faith strengthened by simply being involved in faith everyday…beginning the day with prayer, and keeping that dialogue with God open throughout the day…
In Jesus’ parable, he doesn’t say that the one who built the house on the rock didn’t see the floods come or the wind blow…those came just the same…but with the foundation, it was easier to weather the storm…Just like our faith…Because we have faith doesn’t mean that we don’t experience the struggles and pains of life or that bad things don’t happen because we follow the teachings of Jesus…They certainly do…but, because we have a stronger foundation, it will be easier to weather the storms…either because of what we know to be true from Jesus or the addition support that we receive from other believers.
The foundation of faith is so important…it’s what everything is built upon…