PAUL BURKHART

SERMON: M ATTHEW 7.24-29

THE END & THE BEGINNING

TEXT: Matthew 7.24-29

7 24 Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be
like a wise man who built his house on rock. 25 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. 26 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. 27 The rain fell,
and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it
felland great was its fall!
28 Now when Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were
astounded at his teaching, 29 for he taught them as one having authority, and not
as their scribes.

PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION:

Lord God, we come to this text from many places with a swirl of
different emotions within us. Calm us. Center us. Speak to us. Tell
us what we ought to hear to live in your light and fullness. May
the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be
pleasing to you, my Rock and Redeemer, in whose name we
pray, AMEN.

SERMON

Intro: Black & White

I havent been preaching for very long. And yet, the great majority of the
sermons Ive preached have been out of the Gospel of Matthew, where our text
comes from today. And can I be honest? Of each of the four accounts of Jesus
life Matthews is my least favorite.
On one hand, I envy Matthew, the writer of this book. Hes so certain; so blackand-white about things. The beautiful and hard thing about the Gospels is that
each one is saturated with the personality and situation of the writer. And
Matthew here is no different. He is writing in a time of great conflict and tumult
within Gods people about what it means to live in light of what God is doing.
And naturally, there are disagreements.
And yet Matthews Gospel doesnt exist in the grey. Matthew writes in terms of
in/out, sheep/goats, wheat/tares, good/badimages that no other Gospel
writer uses. Matthew has experienced God in Jesus and he has a clear vision of
what life with Jesus looks like. This Gospel carries with it a hard edge that both
makes the sides clear and yet muddies up exactly where we might stand in
relation to God.
I dont occupy that kind of space. I encounter moral ambiguities on a near
minute-by-minute basis. How much money should I give? How much should I
keep? How should I vote? Should I call this person out or just extend grace?
I have a predictive keyboard on my phone that makes guesses as to what Im
about to type based on my history. On the text thread with my fiance, the first
thing it always suggests I write is Im sorry. This is the messy heart I bring to this
text.
Preparing for this sermon, I read this text so many times, all while I felt my heart
gripped by such arrogance, fear, anxiety, self-consciousness, exhaustion,
distraction, gluttony. In other words, this felt a whole lot more like a Sand sort of
week than a Rock one.

Aristotle
The foundational text of Western Ethics is Aristotles book appropriately named
Ethics. This is its opening line.

"Every art and every inquiry and similarly every action and
pursuit, is thought to aim at some good"
--Aristotle, "Ethics"
Everything we do. Every act of creativity. Every question. Every deed and pursuit
of our hearts is aimed at something we deem is good. And so, before we act,
before this question of figuring out individual actions and lives and decisions
ever approaches us, we encounter the question harder than any other: what is
your highest good?
You may not think that question ought to be so hard. Every religion, worldview,
culture, and nation has its vision of whats the highest good in the world. And
you may think you know the right answer, but dont answer too quickly.

Movement 1: Context & Judgment

Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them
will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.
There are two things going on here in the way this is phrased. First, Jesus is talking
like God. He is giving himself the authority that most other religious writers give to
their God. Secondly, he is making this about both the present and the future.
Yes, it is about life here and now as Gods people. But its also about Judgment.
Now youve got to understand, Matthew is the most Jewish version of Jesus life.
And it was written after the Jews and the Christians split up. The Christians were
hurt. So one thing to remember is that a lot of these words are the words and
phrasings of a traumatized, segregated minority community.
But also, at the time this was written, the Jewish Temple had recently been
destroyed. The early Jewish Christians, remembered their Old Testament which
connected the life of the physical temple with Judgment. Youve got to
remember, that most of the time there is imagery and language about
Judgment in the Gospels, its talking about how ones life here and now will
unfold in such a way that it has implications for life hereafter.

Matthew primarily has in mind here Jews that rejected Jesus. This is a family
conversation: in a sense, and theres a good deal of whats being said here
that is talking about the physical temple (Gods house) and its having fallen
down.
But why is that important? Matthew is saying that in the destruction of ones
house, the place in which they hold and protect what they hold most dear to
their souls, the truth of their place with God had been revealed.
They knew the right answers. They were following the rules best they knew how.
Just as Aristotle said, all that we do is aimed at some good, and these were
Gods peopleof course what they were aimed at was the greatest Good out
thereGod himself!
And yet when Judgment came, the rock did not hold their house up. And in
hindsight, Matthew is saying that this is because no matter what how good your
good vision is, it must be connected with Gods own life in Jesus. This wisdom.
Your guiding Good might be in and of itself good, but is it wise?
Its interesting that Jesus talked about the wise man and not the good or the
holy or the righteous man. At the end of the day, whether Christian or
skeptic, I think we really are all looking at the same info and seeking the same
thing.
Wisdom isnt about good or bad, or right and wrong. Its about hearing and
doing.
And we do this because Jesus is the highest authority to hear and follow in
actions. He is calling us to integrity.

Movement 2: Housing First

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.
I work in social work. And believe it or not, but philosophically, that is not one
monolithic thing. There are entire theoretical schools of thought and differing
perspectives on how this thing called social work ought to be done.

I work in the field of homelessness. We work with people that are chronically
homeless, who have been on the street for anywhere from a couple of years to
several decades. And again, there are lots of opinions on how to go about
addressing this problem.
Some perspectives: go through shelter, group home, supported living, etc.
Others, get them clean, get them stop doing bad things, and then move them
into some sort of indoor space. Others, get them a job and clothes and such
and then they can get on their feet.
Us, though? Housing first. Rather than jumping through hoops before you get
home, we take you straight from the street into your own apartment, with a lock
and key. You dont have to be clean, sober, getting treatment for your medical
or mental health issues. Also, theres practically nothing you can do to get rid of
us. We give you relationship and housing first, and let you take it from there.
And you know what? Repeatedly, it has better outcomes than any other model.
And its cheaper for cities. Why does it work? Theres something about
community, safety, security, and dignity that births new grace within us to move
forward. The same with the Gospel and with our text today: God gives us the
security of relationship with him and others, give you the stability and dignity of
home. And its from that place of freedom, not command, that we then grow in
this rhythm of life.
Notice that this text doesnt mention the condition of the house. What matters is
not the house, nor the residents, but the foundation. The foundation gets all the
glory here. This isnt about adding rocks to our foundation. Its about setting
yourself up on a preexisting foundation.
When storms come, it reveals what youve built your life on. And the difference
between these houses is not the quality of construction, but the stability and
security offered by the foundation.
If you hear and do the words of Jesus, that doesnt mean youve made God like
you enough that he wont let your house fall down. It means that you have
placed what is more important to you and your soul in a place that is absolutely
secure and stable.
And when you have that kind of stability and security that you cant mess up, it
(like our clients) gives birth to a new grace, and new energy, and new freedom
to live and even mess up and grow, knowing that your life here and now that
will echo out into the hereafter cannot be moved.

Movement 3: Digging Deep

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.
When I was in Israel, I saw the kind of housing these verses are referring to. Israel
is full of hills and valleys, much of the housing is built on terraced areas built in
the side of mountains and hills. There is very little flat land.
So when you want to build, the challenge is not finding rock to build on. Its
there. Its everywhere. You just have to dig it out.
The foolish person here (in the Greek, its literally moron) is not foolish for
picking the wrong sight. They are foolish for being lazy and not digging deep
enough to find the rock on which to build. The rock is there underneath the
house; they just didnt dig deep enough!
You can probably see where Im going with this. The problem for most of our
lives is not that weve built our lives on the wrong thing. Rather, its that we
havent gone deeper than those things. Underneath all our strivings and
longings is God himself, calling out to you if you would only do the hard work.
This is just as relevant for Christians as non. Its so easy to think that weve been
put on the rock. Its easy to have that right answer to the cosmic what do
you find good question. But the storm will show just how shallow your faith is.
You cant just settle for an inch-deep connection with God. You must dig deep
and deep into yourself to reach that foundation. Christianity is a journey.
Christian growth is not about adding rocks to your foundation, or building your
house better. Its not about adding more stuff to your life. There was a Medieval
monk and mystic named Meister Eckhart that said

God is not found in the soul by adding anything, but by a

process of subtraction.
--Meister Eckhart
Living out Jesus vision is about digging deep and removing the dirt from
underneath you so that you might in the land of security and stability that is the
rock.

Movement 4: Playing House

The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat
against that house, and it felland great was its fall!
I had my first crush when I was super young. I want to say like 3 or 4? One day,
we were playing in her backyard. She went to her playhouse and said, Lets
play house! I said, No, I want to play Superman! I then flipped over her house.
She then started crying. I ran back to my home.
Yeah thats cute, but really see whats going on there? We were using this
image of the house as this place to test out our visions of self-expression and
connection.
But this moment of self-expression was more about being seen in a role and not
actually becoming something. And how much more do we do this as we get
older and the stakes get higher? How often do we just play house?
This house fell because we were both playing the game. Trying to achieve
connection, and achieve a certain false affirmation about what we wanted to
be but was not yet.
But the beauty of this was that when that little play house fell over due to our
messiness, what did we do? We ran back to our respective houses. In the midst
of trauma and pain and confusion and brokenness, where do you run back to?
That is where your house is. Thats what youve built your life on. What is it?
Another hook up? More jockeying for a raise? Pornography? Alcohol? A new
relationship? Reactivating OKCupid or flirting with that coworker?
Whatever it is, the real question is not is it good or bad? Its simply to ask: is it
stable? Is it reliable? Is it secure? Will it form and shape your here in such a way
that it will echo out in the hereafter?

Movement 5: Authority & Integrity

Now when Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds
were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one
having authority, and not as their scribes.

And so we end where we beganJesus as the authoritative one. Everything we

believe about the world and ourselves, we believe on the basis of authority.
Whether it be our parents, science, or our own intuitions. We believe nothing
apart from trusting the authority of the source from which that knowledge
came.
And this is the fundamental difference between ones foundationtrust. Weve
sat through the Sermon on the Mount these weeks and we will continue to live
life as a community trying in fits and starts to live out its ethos. And the question
comes to us: where will you cast your lot? Who will you trust. Jesus appeals to no
other higher authority than himself.
This is indeed arrogant, exclusivist, selfish, intolerant, and unloving of him to do.
Unless he is telling the truth. Unless he is pulling back the curtain on how reality
really is. Will we trust him? Can he be trusted? Why should we be good if he is
not?
Because life as his people, as the living house in which he dwells, here and now,
is a life that promises to be absolutely secure and safe. Remember, this text is
less about doing good things and more about Judgment.
And Scriptures describes Judgment fundamentally as an act of revealing.
Eternity begins now. And Jesus inhabits himself. The ultimate act of Judgment is
not to come, but it was on the Cross, when the storm of all thats broken in us
and in the world came at Jesus. And while it looked like his house fell and
collapsed. He was able to take in every way that we mess up this world and our
lives and withstand it to a degree we never could on our own. No other vision of
the good can go through all that humanity could throw at it and come out the
other side. But Jesus, at the highest, most ultimate good, did so. In his
Resurrection, he faced Judgment and was proven to be the one he says he is
the authoritative one on whom we can build our lives.
And in so doing, he collapses the simplistic binaries of good and bad and right
and wrong. Its about where your hearts allegiance is. Where is home base for
your soul?
He invites us to be part of his own life, family, Community, the Church. Gives us a
context of Stability, Security.
As I said earlier, Aristotles view of ethics is the foundation of all Western Ethics.
And yet we often forget that Christianity is not a Western religion. It was originally
an Eastern one. The Sermon on the Mount is more about a realm we inhabit
than a list of rules we follow. Ill end with this quote from a Medieval Turkey Sufi
poet, Rumi, who gives words to this:

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right-doing, there is a field.

Ill meet you there.
--Rumi

FINAL PRAYER:
So Liberti Church, together, as a community, may we move
beyond simple ideas of wrong-doing and right-doing, into a field
rest, love, and grace. Ill meet you there. In the name of the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. AMEN.

Extra Reflections
"My secrets cry aloud.
I have no need for tongue.
My heart keeps open house,
My doors are widely swung.
An epic of the eyes
My love, with no disguise.
My truths are all foreknown,
This anguish self-revealed.
Im naked to the bone,
With nakedness my shield....
The deed will speak the truth
In language strict and pure."
--Theodore Roethke, "Open House"
"You are a Christian? Already?"
--Maya Angelou
According to ancient theory of art, the practice of sculpting has
less to do with fashioning a figure of ones choosing than with
being able to see in the stone the figure waiting to be liberated.
The sculptor imposes nothing but only frees what is held captive
in stone. The practice of [Christian depth] is something like this. It
does not work by means of addition or acquisition, but by
release, chiseling away thought-shackled illusions of separation
from God. [Our growth] proceeds by wayof release, of prying

loose, of letting go of the need to have our life circumstances be

a certain way in order for us to live or pray or be deeply happy.
--Martin Laird