Location,
Location, Location
Everyone likes a
good story. Stories capture our
imagination and often start us thinking.
People often came to hear Lincoln, not because they wanted to hear a
discourse on politics, but because he was famed for telling good stories. (Ah, for campaigns like that.)
Jesus told special
kinds of stories. They’re called
“parables.” The word literally refers to
something thrown down along side something else. Maybe you’ve seen pictures of hailstones
someone has gathered after a storm.
Often they will include a golf ball or tennis ball in the picture to
better give an idea of the size of the hailstones. When Jesus told parables he was inviting his
listeners to lay those stories alongside some idea or principle so they could
better understand them. Jesus could say,
“God cares about each of us,” and we might find that encouraging. But when Jesus nails the idea down with the
story of a shepherd who braved the wilderness to find one lost sheep, we have
an “Oh yeah, I get it” experience.
Many of Jesus’
parables help us to have a better picture of who God is and what he is doing in
the world. Some of Jesus’ parables
invite us to compare or contrast certain kinds of people so we may have a
better picture of those who are ready to become part of what God is doing in
the world. As you might have guessed,
quite a few of Jesus’ parable are designed to help us understand the matrix of
what God is doing in the world, what Jesus termed “the Kingdom of God.”
Jesus shared many
of his parables to call people to respond to him. That’s true of the parable we are going to
look at today.
It’s found at the
end of the Sermon on the Mount and could almost be viewed as two parables for
the price of one. Let’s look at it. Turn to Matthew 7:24-27.
********
Have you ever
watched “House Hunters” on HGTV? It’s a
very popular show that follows people as they look for a new house. Some of the “house hunters” we meet amaze me. Often they are couples in their mid-twenties
who feel their 2000 square foot home is just too small for anyone to raise two
children. So, they start looking, with a
budget of three or four hundred thousand dollars and a list of “must haves” for
their new home. Often, they’ll go beyond
their budget to get just the right house. (I can’t watch these episodes without
thinking, there’s the beginning of the mortgage crisis.)
No film crew
followed Pat and I as we looked for our house.
Week after week our realtor took us to visit homes in the Worthington
area. We had a list of wants. We wanted to live where the boys wouldn’t
have to change schools again and we wanted enough money left after paying the
monthly mortgage to buy groceries. At
first, our realtor kept saying, “But the figures say you can afford more.” We’d always say, “Maybe, but we’d like to
take a vacation once in a while, too.”
Finally, she listened and started showing us homes we felt we could
afford.
Don’t get me
wrong. Kris was a good realtor. We’d use her again and I’ve recommended her
to others. She helped us avoid some
pitfalls. And, she was the first person
I can remember telling us the three most important words in choosing a
house: “Location, location, location.”
In this parable,
Jesus tells the story of two home-builders.
One of them understood the importance of location. The other didn’t. William Barclay reminds us that Jesus, who
grew up in a carpenter’s home, may have helped build many homes, so he had a
personal knowledge about this subject.
The first
builder—the one Jesus describes as “sensible”—wanted his home to have a good
foundation, so he made that a priority.
He looked around until he found a piece of solid rock. It may not have had a beautiful view. It may have cost a little more sweat to sink
the pillars for the home into the ground.
But the builder wasn’t looking for ease; he was looking for stability.
Once he found the
location, he started to build. He did
so, confident he had made a good choice for his new home.
Then, there was a
second builder. This one is described in
the various translations as “foolish,” “stupid,” or “imprudent.” To put it simply, he’s the man you don’t
want to be your contractor.
Apparently, there
are places in Israel where there is soggy, unstable land where no one would
build. But, during a prolonged drought,
some of this land would dry out and a relatively smooth, flat, hard surface
would be left behind. It would remain
that way, tempting the unwary builder, until the next rainy season.
Perhaps, this
second builder found one of these places, thought it was a great location, and
started to build. Or, maybe he knew the
danger and just thought he could beat the odds.
There are people
like that. They won’t listen to the best
counsel or even learn from history.
Since the key to understanding this parable and many others is how the
people in the story respond to Jesus, that fact about people may well provide
insight into the second builder’s heart.
So, the man
built. There’s no reason to suggest his
house as any less attractive than that of the first builder. Neither of these men built shacks.
If you and I stood
looking at these houses, we couldn’t see much difference. Both would look more than serviceable, a
great place to live. The funny thing is,
if there were a difference, the second might have had a better view. Maybe it was the kind of view those cliffside
homes have in Malibu.
Then, one day it
started to rain. It may have started
with just a few drops but it kept coming and coming down. Soon it was flooding. Water was running in great sheets across the
land. With the floods came the wind, not
a gentle wind but one that sent everything not tied down tumbling across the
landscape.
Remember how the
wind blew through Worthington just a few months ago. It snapped power lines, broke tree limbs,
ripped off sections of roofs. That was
nothing compared to this storm.
We’re not told
that the house the first man built didn’t shake. We’re not told the residents of that house
were undisturbed by the roar of the gale force winds. We’re only told the really important
fact: The house did not fall.
In another
location, there was another house, one built by another builder. At that location the rain was just as heavy,
the flood was just as high, the wind was just as strong. We’re not told if the builder of that house
huddled inside, thinking, “It’s okay. I
used the best materials when I built this house and I was so well-intentioned
when I built it.” No, we’re only told
the really important fact: “The house on
the sand fell flat” (to quote the old Sunday school song).
Listen to the ways
the various translations have tried to capture the fall of the house. The house fell “with a mighty crash.” “It falls and disastrous is the fall.” “Its collapse was devastating.” “The wreck of
it was complete.” “It collapsed and was
completely ruined.” “It was utterly
destroyed.” “It collapsed like a house of cards.”
That probably gets
the point across.
Jesus is inviting
us to compare this lesson in construction with the task of life
construction. The points of comparison
are simple.
--All of us are
building.
--All of us will
face storms.
--Those storms
will reveal the integrity of what we have built.
From the kid who
hands you your fries at McDonald’s to the chair of the philosophy department at
OSU, everyone is busy building a life.
Consciously or unconsciously, everyone has chosen a foundation. Whether we call it a philosophy of life, a
worldview, or a belief system, that foundation is crucial.
That foundation
will determine whether what we have built will stand or fall when the storms
come.
What are these
storms?
Those who lived
through Katrina’s wrath might tell you the storms are sometimes real. Still, other events can hit us like a perfect
storm.
·
Economic crisis.
·
Death of a loved one.
·
A fearful diagnosis.
·
Death of a dream.
·
The children we love more than life make a
colossal mistake.
You could add
other storms to that list but any one of these is enough to test the stability
of your life’s foundation.
That’s why it’s so
important to have the right foundation.
But what is that right foundation?
Jesus answers clearly.
--To listen and
act on his words is to build with a solid foundation.
--To listen and
not act on his words is to build on the wrong foundation.
Now, I know wise
men have told us to build our live on the right foundation for ages. What makes Jesus’ counsel so different is
that he defines building that right or wrong foundation in terms of our
response to him.
This explains why
the crowd was so amazed at Jesus’ words.
We’re told “the crowd’s were astonished at his teaching because he
taught them as one with authority.”
Something about Jesus set his words apart from any other teacher they
had ever heard.
With that in mind,
we need to ask what it means to hear and act on his words. The context is the Sermon on the Mount but I
think the principle applies to all he says in the Gospels.
We should hear and act on what he says about himself.
--In this sermon,
he calls himself “Lord.”
--In this sermon,
he presents himself as Son of God.
--He will call
himself “the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”
We should hear and act on what he says about us.
--He reminds us
that the way into the Kingdom begins with seeing we have no merit to recommend
us to God, no virtue to win a place for ourselves in heaven. Only then will we understand his words that
“those who see their spiritual poverty” are blessed; we’re blessed because knowing our poverty,
sends us to God for grace.
--As we seek that
grace, we should hear Jesus remind us that our hope for heaven depends on our
relationship with him.
We hear and act on his words when we accept his vision for the purpose of
life.
--Every thing is
in perspective when we “seek first God’s Kingdom.”
In short, we will
have the right foundation when we place Jesus Christ at the core of our
worldview.
We are building on
the wrong foundation when we try to find what only Jesus can give from any
other source.
--Religion.
--Materialism.
--Education.
--Relationships.
When we do so, our
lives may very well collapse when we face the storms.
When Pat and I
were looking for a house, we looked at a couple brand new ones. No one had ever lived in them. They were just a couple months old, but there
were already cracks in the walls. The
houses had not been built on solid ground.
Where it’s built is important for the house you live in.
Where you build
your life is more important. Is yours
built on a solid foundation?
