Trinity 1: 1st
June
Preacher: Thea
Oliver
Readings:
Deut 11, 18-21 and 26-28
Romans 1, 16-17; 3, 22b-28
Matthew 7, 21-29
St. Peter’s,
Draycott
I want to
start today with a quiz, who knows where this comes from?
Words!
Words! Words! I'm so sick of words!
I get words all day through; first from him, now from you!
Is that all you blighters can do?
...
Don't talk of stars burning above. If you're in love, Show me!
...
Never do I ever want to hear another word.
There isn't one I haven't heard.....
I think in
today’s Gospel reading Jesus agrees with Eliza Doolittle from "My Fair
Lady" shouting, "Show me!"
Jesus
said, "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." Am I the only one here who is confused? How can we do His will if
we don't know what it is? I would be amongst the first to admit that this is
one of the controversial passages that causes disquiet and disagreement because
it is so dogmatic, there isn’t time this morning to explore this but I am very
happy to discuss it further later! Because the people who cried Lord, Lord
& who did all those apparently good things in his name were sent away, so
what are we supposed to do? What can we do to work out "the will of my
Father in heaven"? Lets look at today’s readings: The reading from
Deuteronomy was about obeying the commandments; In Paul’s letter to the Romans
he spells out that its only through obedience that we can be saved, and Matthew
instructs us on doing the will of the Father in heaven and acting on Jesus’
words.
Our Gospel
reading from Matthew today has been taken from the end of what we call the
Sermon on the Mount. This has been called the Christian Magna Charta, the
Christian Manifesto, the Design for Life, and the Rules for Christian Living.
Jesus tells his followers that belief in him should affect what we do every
minute of our lives. How do we live our lives what choices do we make and what decisions
do we take? In the Sermon on the Mount we find the Beatitudes, the Lord's
Prayer, and the Golden Rule. Jesus deals with murder, adultery, divorce, oaths,
revenge, and worry. He gives instructions on prayer, giving to the poor,
fasting, judging others, and saving money.
We are
instructed to -
* turn the
other cheek, * Love our enemies, * you cannot serve God and
material goods, * do not judge, * do to others what you would
have them do to you.
It is very
easy to agree with these statements but then go out and behave differently. We
can accept them as being fundamental, but nevertheless we can be utterly
complacent and not allow ourselves to be changed by what we have heard. Our
Gospel reading today, challenges any of Jesus’ hearers (including us) who might
have that shallow kind of response. The message is clear, if we follow Jesus we
must do what he says, otherwise we might just as well not bother following him
at all. It is a hard message, but it makes sense, being a Christian is not just
about things we believe in our heads, it is about how we live and show that our
faith makes a difference.
So now we are challenged to be either obedient to his words or disobedient: by telling a parable he challenges us to live what we believe, rather than just go through the motions. Above all else, Jesus spurned those whose behaviour revealed their hypocrisy because their actions did not correspond with their pious words. At the same time, the vivid parable of the two houses, one built on rock, the other on sand, revealed how destructive hypocritical living can be.
This
parable has a powerful message about 2 men who built identical houses. One man
built his house on sand and his house fell down when the weather got really
bad. The other man built his house on the rock and his house stood firm in
spite of the storms. So far so good, we all agree that we should build on solid
foundations; we should copy the man who built on the rock.
Then Jesus comes in with the punch line. The difference
between the two men is not that one man is a believer and the other is not.
Both of the men listen to the words of Jesus. What distinguishes them is that
one man put the words into practice and tried to live by them. The other man
hears the words and might think that they are fantastic, but he does not live
by them. The lesson is clear, listening to the words of Jesus is a start, but
ultimately useless if we don't live out what we believe.
The storm
in the parable can be seen as any time of testing. What is clear is that Jesus
makes the assumption in the parable that both men experience storms. The wise
man who tries to live out his faith and the foolish man, for whom it is only
skin deep, both face storms. Being a Christian does not mean that we don’t have
to endure storms. Our faith is a strength to us in times of distress not a
means of protecting us from them in the first place. How often have we heard
somebody say, or even said it ourselves, I don’t know what I have done wrong to
deserve this? The importance is not what difficulties affect your life; it is
how you face them.
A faith
that is built on the solid rock is a faith that endures emotional upheavals,
floods of sorrow, tempests of grief and hostility. Christians find strength to
endure economic upsets, sorrows and grief. But building a house of faith on
rock is a slower process. It takes more effort, stamina, patience, and
imagination. Any builder will tell you that building a house on rock is a lot
harder, in desert countries in particular you need to dig deeper to find the
rock and put in strong foundations at the end your house looks no better than
the one built on the sand. Superficially they both look like well built houses.
The
difference is only seen when the going really gets tough.
There is a
rabbinical parable that says 'A man whose knowing exceeds his doing, is like a
tree with many branches and few roots.'
We know
that the benefit of a tree having great roots is that when a drought comes or
strong winds blow the tree can survive.
The key to our relationship with Christ and to standing in
the storms of life is our obedience to the will and Word of God. Jesus has made
it crystal clear that it is not what we say that counts, it is what we do. It
is not what we hear that counts; it is what we do with what we hear.
Surfing the net I found this formula:
It is not what we eat
but what we digest
that makes us strong;
not what we gain
but what we save
that make us rich;
not what we read
but what we remember
that makes us learned;
and not what we profess
but what we practice
that makes us Christians.
We are told that the people surrounding Jesus were amazed at His teaching. Here was a man
teaching them as one having authority. Of
course, we believe that the reason why Jesus was teaching as one who had
authority was that he did have authority. Indeed, he is the
authority. And how we respond to him is the key.
If we decide that we know best how to live for God,
then what we will have might be called religion, but it might never be a real
life with God. God is not calling us to commit to do a few more things for Him.
He is calling us to surrender our lives. He is calling us to give up trying to do things for Him and to start
living for Him. He doesn't want any more
of our spare evenings; He wants the whole of our lives. In exchange, He will
give us His life. He will live through us and empower us, not to do a few more
good works, but to do greater works. He will help us to really live.
Bishop
Ryle put it clearly when he said,
‘Sound
doctrine and holy living are the marks of true prophets.’
And so the
Sermon on the Mount is brought to a conclusion with a warning from Jesus. His
words are not just to be listened to but also to be followed. Choose - wisdom
or foolishness. Words without action and action without faith are both shallow
and not what God wants for us. Jesus is not impressed by our pious words;
rather he looks for sincerity in our good living and obedience, and we can be
reassured that He will recognise and reward us and welcome us all home.
So hear what Jesus says and think of Eliza Doolittle: Don’t talk of
love…SHOW ME!
Amen