Rock or Sand?

The story about building your house on rock not sand is one of the earliest Christian memories that I have. I can’t remember if I first heard it in a school assembly or from my parents, but however I came by it I lodged it deep in my memory. It’s only recently that I’ve realised that I missed the point of the story completely.

Or rather the point was missed for me. I had a middle class upbringing and this story could be described as a parable about being or becoming middle class. Just as slaves dwelled on the story of the exodus, reading into it their own yearning for liberation, so the middle classes have for years been pondering the difference between rock and sand.

The point of the story, as it was always told to me, was that we should be like the man who built his house on rock. We should think about the long-term, build solid foundations, stay on at school, go to university, save for tomorrow. It became a parable about prudence and deferred gratification. For that’s the great discovery that the middle classes have made, that if we are prepared to defer our quest for gratification, if we are willing to invest or save rather than spend, then tomorrow will get brighter and brighter – just as long as we can keep the habit.

So the story of the wise and foolish builders is used to inculcate in Christian youngsters all those wise and sensible habits which will make them successful and happy in life. And the wise builder is not a bad role model at all (although it has to be an analogy since the middle classes tend not to produce actual builders)

But Jesus told the story for a completely different reason. He spoke to people who already knew about wise and foolish builders, who knew that in life taking a bit more trouble over things, thinking carefully of the future when acting in the present brings rewards.

Throughout their history the people of Israel had been reminded by scripture that following God’s laws would bring material rewards in this life. The Old Testament is packed with sensible and practical advice, some of which has to be seen in the context of a tribal agricultural people in the desert and some of which is still good advice today.

Our old testament reading, Psalm number 1, makes the point clearly that following God’s teachings – as individuals and as a society – will bring security. The man or woman who follows and meditates upon God’s law is ‘like a tree planted in a streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.’

Godly people tend to do well in life, materially. One of the difficulties we have in the non-conformist traditions in the UK is that our churches, which came into being as part of the revival of the nineteenth century, started in working class communities but transformed their members into fully fledged members of the middle classes within one or two generations. It means that churches located in working class areas, with working class roots can become alienated from their communities as their members prosper and move away.

So for Jesus, who comes preaching a gospel that, although strange to the ear is nevertheless routed in the old scriptures, it should be quite unexceptional when he says that following his words will make us like the wise builder. We already know this, the scriptures have told us over and over that following God’s laws leads to increased and sustained prosperity – The first Psalm is just one example – it’s a message that is hammered home again and again in the old testament – build your house on rock not sand.

But here’s the problem. Jesus says that all this security is going to come not from carrying on with all the sensible and prudent ways of the old testament, Jesus comes onto the scene giving us advice that could be seen, practically speaking, as reckless even suicidal.

He tells us that we must pray for our enemies, love our enemies, forgive our enemies and if they strike us we must turn the other cheek.

He tells us that we should be prepared, in some circumstances should expect, to be persecuted, to be hated, to be mocked, to abandon all comfort or well-being.

He tells us that we will gain our life by losing it, that he brings the sword, not peace and that families will be divided. And having said all this he behaves so recklessly towards the authorities that he is arrested, humiliated, tortured and executed.

And that is why the parable of the wise and foolish builders is actually very, very radical.

How can it be that following his words will give us security when it seems that the opposite is true? What about the martyrs in Rome, who sang hymns as they were mauled and eaten by lions, hadn’t they followed the most reckless, the most dangerous path possible?

If we were to walk away from our worship today and truly follow Christ’s commands what could we expect? If we went back to our families, to our communities and places of work and NEVER lied again wouldn’t life get pretty scary pretty quickly? Surely we would feel like our life was balancing precariously on some pretty shaky foundations.

And yet he says it is not so. He says that our life, on earth and in heaven will be built on a secure foundation if we follow his words, many of which are dangerous and difficult to obey. Could it be that in this life we are meant to prepare a foundation on which we will stand in a very different sort of life?

How else could it be so that to do what seems too frightening, too difficult, too radical for this world is actually a sound investment? If the Kingdom of God is not a reality that will come to pass then Jesus’ words cannot possibly lead to a solid foundation, but if the Kingdom is real then that is the only foundation that counts.

So are we wrong to aim to be like the builder, building his house on rock? Are we wrong to cultivate middle class habits of thrift? No, there’s nothing wrong with sane, sensible, prudent, middle class habits that promote security and well-being for ourselves and those around us.

But Jesus tells us in the story of the wise and foolish builders that there is more, much more to life. He tells us about mighty foundations, about a rock so much more solid, so much more dependable and everlasting than any savings account, or college fund, or career plan. He says that there is a security and well-being that surpasses any diet or exercise regime.
It’s as though people who’ve only ever heard a penny whistle are told about an orchestra. As though a sit com is suddenly compared with Shakespeare. Jesus doesn’t dismiss or insult the prosperity and security we strive for in this life, but he introduces us to something much, much better.

But let us be honest at this point. Many of us, valued members of our congregations struggle with belief in a real kingdom to come. All of us for some of the time, and some of us for all of the time, are only able to see the gospel as relating to earthly realities. What then can we possibly make of Jesus’ comparing his radical and disturbing message to the image of a wise builder, building his house on rock?

There is, as far as I can see, only one way in which we might be able to value these words of Jesus if the Kingdom of God is not a real, supernatural and spiritual kingdom that will come to pass. That way is to acknowledge that for any individual to follow Jesus’ teachings properly will indeed lead to sacrifice and suffering for that individual disciple, but the rest of us, collectively will gain over time from the heroic, sacrificial lives of certain, exceptional Christians – disciples.
We might then say that a society that is able to inspire individuals to bravely follow Jesus’ teachings will be building itself solid foundations, though the poor disciple will not enjoy any of the security or well-being this produces.

If that’s the only way you can see it then so be it. Your life and the life of your family and community will be enriched beyond what would be possible if you had no belief at all. And yet consider that you might be missing something, you might be selling Jesus short, grievously so.

The riches and security, the longevity and happiness which we value on earth, and which we pursue logically, prudently and with impeccably middle class precision is relativized by Jesus’ statement that real prosperity comes ONLY from following his difficult and dangerous gospel.

The goals that my middle class family and teachers had in mind when they told me to be like the man who built his house on rock are announced as nothing compared to the Kingdom.

And when we find it hard to believe in the realities of heaven, of the kingdom, of the Christ that is risen and the spirit that is poured out, we console ourselves with practical matters and social action. We tell ourselves that what really matters is not the fine detail of what we believe but the practical, action that we take. The ‘Gospel means nothing if we don’t see it in action’ we say and we’re right.

But ask yourself this. Aren’t we more likely to take this action if we really do believe in a Kingdom, a real Kingdom which makes us prize the foundation that can be built there above any security we might have in this life? Who goes into the most difficult and deprived communities in the world – are they evangelical or are they liberal in their beliefs? When the martyrs went to the lions they had a real kingdom in mind and when Jesus Himself went willingly to his death he was doing more than setting a good example.

And today, very often it’s the evangelicals, those whom we may mock for having narrow or unsophisticated beliefs, who are prepared to live and serve where the rest of us fear to tread. If our faith is limited so too will be our action. I find it hard to believe that exceptional works spring from anything other than exceptional faith.

So I think we ought to believe, fully, that there is a reality beyond what we know here on earth. I think that Jesus is referring to this reality in the story of the wise and the foolish builders. He’s telling us about a new life to come: the Kingdom of God, on earth as it is in heaven; the Kingdom that will come,

And if this Kingdom really is on its way then it stands to reason, it is indeed sound, practical advice to follow his words no matter how difficult or frightening this might be.