Göttinger Predigten im Internet, hg. von Ulrich Nembach und Johannes Neukirch


Ninth Sunday after Trinity
August 1, 1999
Text: Matthew 7:24-27
Author: Dr. Johannes Neukirch
Translated by Prof. Bruce E. Shields, Emmanuel School of Religion

Text:

"Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on 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. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall!" (New Revised Standard Version)

Dear Congregation,

Why should it take very long to think this through? Of course I want my house built on rock; that stands to reason—especially since I understand that the rainstorm, the floods, and the winds actually stand for the final judgment. Naturally I want to be on the winning side at the end; naturally I want the house of my life to stand firm in the presence of God, so that I receive grace in his presence. That doesn’t take much thought. Even if I think of my life independent of the last judgment, the house of my life should stand on a firm foundation; it should be secure; it should be permanent. And that is the consequence if I not only hear what Jesus says, but also act on it—so it says in our text. And just before these verses, Jesus says, "Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven." (7:21)

When I read our text as building instructions for the house of life—for my life-blueprint—everything appears to be clear. All that’s necessary, then, is just to know how I can fulfill the will of God. However, that is not so simple as it might seem. How would life look if we heard the instructions of Jesus and then also followed them? In the Sermon on the Mount, for instance, Jesus said, "You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also…." (5:38ff) Or in another passage, "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; … Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." (5:44-45,48)

When you seriously consider it, those are powerful expectations that become our responsibility if we want our lives to stand on solid rock. And when we hear statements like this: "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear." (6:25), then we notice: This process of building the house of life on rock does not line up easily with the kind of normal life we are accustomed to. And I become increasingly unsure: On what basis have I built my life so far? What would happen if the storms of life were to break over me all of a sudden? Would my house remain standing, or would it collapse?

Now it becomes clear to me: This text really is not instruction for building the house of life. There is no way I can begin building from nothing. I am already living in the house; the building has already stood for a time. Therefore I understand our sermon text not as building instructions, but rather as a series of challenging questions: Upon what ground, on what foundation are you actually standing? How do you relate to your life’s blueprint, to the plans, wishes, hopes, that determine your life?

In my opinion, we all wish for our lives to be established on solid ground. From the time we are children we work to that end. If we had a normal childhood, our parents began the process, in that they reared us, they took care of us by seeing to it that we went to school and to confirmation classes, that we got an education, that we became, as people say, "solid citizens." As time passed we took over the responsibility ourselves, or we are about to. It has to do with choosing an occupation, establishing a family, making our way through life without great difficulty, and so forth and so on. In all of that, it is not so easy to answer for ourselves the question: What do I really want to accomplish with my life? It’s not unusual for the reality to be a long way from many of our dreams. To that end we work continually on making something out of our lives. We want to be satisfied. And when we reach the goals we have set for ourselves we get a sense of satisfaction. At that point we have the feeling that our life is on firm ground and that nothing can easily knock us off track.

But on the other hand, that is the quandary: many things can get us off track, often things beyond our control. Illness, for instance, or the death of a loved one. Such experiences can shake our apparently solid foundations. At that point the question comes up again: On what ground does the house of our life stand?

Jesus says: Your house is built on rock and is secure if what you have heard from me you actually do. Earlier I mentioned a few examples of what Jesus demands from us. You are likely now saying, My goodness! Am I expected to do all of that in order to stand on a secure foundation? What comes next?…. I must admit that you are right to be shocked. What Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount demands I can not receive simply as building instructions for a secure house of life . I can’t simply build that into my life’s blueprint and add all those other things to it. Offer my left cheek when somebody hits me on the right, be perfect as the Father in heaven is perfect, don’t worry about food and drink and clothing, but trust God for it—that soon becomes too much, an impossible demand.

An impossible demand, a super-human effort in house building could hardly be the will of God. But God could be questioning the foundation on which we are building our life. What Jesus says is not a building block for the house of our life, but the foundation itself, on which we continue then to build. To do the will of God should not just play a role in our life, but should define our life from the ground up. Everything else, our own plans, our actual life’s blueprint, these are the houses that stand on this foundation! No life is like any other, each life looks different. But all of them stand on the same foundation, on Jesus Christ. He is an absolutely secure and solid foundation. And that affects the houses that stand on this foundation. The life’s blueprint that are completed on this foundation we live on the basis that Christ has come to us and now plays the decisive role in our life. We live on the basis that with Christ a new time has begun. Now houses can be built on rock. Now it can happen that somebody offers the left cheek when the right one has been hit, that somebody loves her or his enemy, that somebody fully and totally trusts God. Such things happen when we establish the house of life on the faith that Christ is the Son of God and that one day he will complete what he has begun.

Amen.

---------------

Dr. Johannes Neukirch, Geversdorf (Germany)

E-Mail: johannes.neukirch@t-online.de

Translated by Prof. Bruce E. Shields, Emmanuel School of Religion


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