Proper 4-A (6/1/08)      
Gen 6:9-22; 7:24; 8:14-19; Rom 1:16-17, 3:22-31; Mt 7:21-29

St. Paul’s, St. Joseph                                           Fr. Joseph Neiman

Theme: “Are we wise or foolish? (c. Mt 7:24ff)

I am not sure I want to hear what I have to say this morning as it is both threatening and hopeful for me, and I imagine for you as well. You see, as a priest, I started listening to the Gospel for today last Monday at Morning Prayer, and have prayed and reflected about it all week. Preaching always applies not only to those who are listening, but also to the preacher.

The key question this morning is whether we are wise or foolish, whether we are building our lives upon rock, upon a solid foundation that gives us hope, or whether we are building our lives on sand, on an unstable foundation, and are therefore headed for disaster.

Matthew tells us that Jesus taught: “Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord”, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only one who does the will of my Father in heaven” (Mt. 7:21). This seems like a straight forward statement and one with which we can readily agree. It means, of course, that simply claiming to be a disciple of Jesus does not make us one. Many people claim they are Christian, but do they do the will of the Father in heaven, as Jesus put it?

Jesus makes it even more explicit. He says, Matthew tells us, even doing some good works or Christian things is enough to make us a faithful disciple building our lives on rock. At the judgment, we can say, as others will:   “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?” Didn’t we attend church somewhat regularly? Didn’t we donate a bit to charity and to the church? Didn’t we pray occasionally? His answer might be devastating: “I never knew you” (Mt 7:23).

So how do we build on rock, on a solid foundation that will help us withstand the crises and storms of life? The answer varies with each of us, but in general it comes from what we do with the ordinary things of life, day by day.

Thomas Merton has a wonderful statement about developing our spirituality, about moving toward that inner peace and harmony which is where our true spirituality is headed: He says: Every moment and every event of (every one’s)  life on earth plants something in (their) soul. For just as the wind carries thousands of winged seeds so each moment brings with it germs of spiritual vitality that come to rest imperceptibly in the minds and wills of (people). Most of these unnumbered seeds perish and are lost, because (people) are not prepared to receive them: for such seeds as these cannot spring up anywhere except in the good soil of freedom, spontaneity, and love.”[1]

In the Church’s calendar, we have entered what is called “Ordinary time,” or in the older calendar, “Sundays after Pentecost,” which means living daily in the power of the Spirit. Throughout the coming weeks of the summer, each Sunday we will hear narratives from the Gospel of Matthew teaching us how to live as faithful disciples in the ordinariness of our daily lives. That means, learning what to do with every moment and every event.

Learning to live this way means developing a spirituality that is solid, that puts us on a sure foundation. Here we encounter a difficulty because we have different understandings of “spirituality”.

Ronald Rolheiser, in a book called The Holy Longing, say this about spirituality: “Spirituality is not something on the fringes, an option for those with a particular bent. None of us has a choice. Everyone has to have a spirituality and everyone does have one, either a life-giving one or a destructive one…. Hence, spirituality is not about serenely picking or rationally choosing certain spiritual activities, like going to church, praying or meditating, reading spiritual books, or setting off on some explicit spiritual quest. It is far more basic than that. What we do with that fire [deep within us], how we channel it, is our spirituality. Thus we all have a spirituality whether we want one or not, whether we are religious or not. Spirituality is more about whether or not we can sleep at night than about whether or now we go to church. It is about being integrated or falling apart, about being within community or being lonely, about being in harmony with Mother Earth or being alienated from her. Irrespective of whether or not we let ourselves be consciously shaped by any explicit religious idea, we act in ways that leave us either healthy or unhealthy, loving or bitter. What shapes our actions is our spirituality”[2]

What do you do with the fire within? What motivates you at the most basic level? You can answer that question by reflecting on the stream of thoughts that run through your consciousness regularly, and by reflecting on your behavior, particular when you remember that there was something disturbing about what you did or said. Are you striving to prove something to someone, like a parent? Are you claiming to be a victim? Or a superior person of intellect or some other attribute? How do you answer the fundamental questions, who am I really? Why is my life important? What can I contribute to others?

An ancient monk, Benedict of Nursia in Italy, who was born in 480 AD, was profoundly disturbed by the corrupt nature of the Roman Empire. He wrote a Rule of life to guide disciples of Jesus, a rule which subsequently became the foundation for numerous monasteries throughout the centuries. In it he stresses that “the spiritual life is not a set of exercises appended to our ordinary routine. It is a complete reordering of our values and our priorities and our lives. Spirituality is not just a matter of joining the closest religious community or parish committee or faith-sharing group. Spirituality is that depth of soul that changes our lives and focuses our efforts and leads us to see the world differently than we ever did before.” As one rabbi taught, “There are sparks of holiness in everything.”[3]

But can we see God’s hand in everything around us? Can we hear the good Lord speaking to us in the quiet of our hearts? The miracle of Pentecost, which we celebrated three weeks ago, is not just an historical event that happened to some disciples of Jesus centuries ago. The miracle is that the risen Lord through the power of the Holy Spirit can speak to us in the core of our hearts through our own language and thought patterns. The challenge is for us to learn when is the Lord speaking and when the thoughts stem from the brokenness of our own human experience.

We can learn to see and hear the presence of the good Lord in our lives by developing our spirituality. That requires the basics which you know already, but like me, probably are not practicing regularly. We all know about what we should eat, what we should drink, how we should exercise in order to have a healthy life, but we do not always do it. The same is true in nurturing our spirituality: prayer, Scripture, service of others, worship, shared life with other disciples in the assembly we know as the church. These are the basics that over time can lead us to see the hand of the Lord at work in our lives around us, and to hear His holy word deep within our own hearts and through the words of other disciples shared with us. As St. Pauol would remind us, as he did the Romans, it is not the observance of spiritual disciplines which produce the basic rock solid spirituality or faith, it is rather first and foremost a living relationship with the risen Lord as a result of which we do spiritual exercises to deepen the relationship, to give it shape.

So who are you really? Are you truly aware that you are a beloved son or daughter of the good Lord? Last week we heard in that wonderful passage from the prophet, Isaiah, the feminine image of God that the prophet spoke to his despairing people: Can a woman forget her nursing-child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. ¹⁶See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands…” (Is 49:15-16). Since we are created in the image and likeness of God, irreplaceable, one of a kind, wonderful persons, how can God forget us? Matthew’s Gospel begins by remembering the prophecy of Isaiah that Jesus will be called “Emmanuel,” which means God is with us (Mt 1:23). Then the Gospel ends with Jesus telling the disciples, which we heard a week ago: “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Mt 28:20). The refrain in the Psalm today reminds us as well: “The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our stronghold” (Ps 46:4).

So why is your life important?  Our family has given us not only a name and an upbringing, but also a deep consciousness of who we are as an individual. For some seeking love from a parent becomes a long time endeavor right into middle age.  We want to succeed to prove we are lovable. For others the damage from childhood lasts into middle age where we continue to be seen as the wounded one or the victim. Many of these deep struggles, “the fire within,” compel us to action in one way or another. Reflecting of what we say and do in a prayerful mode can help us get in touch with these compulsions and heal them. Our life is important because we are, because God has given us the gift of life and ask us to embrace it and live it as He directs.

So what can I contribute? We each have gifts and talents to be developed and used for the wellbeing not only of ourselves, but also for others.  Paul, writing in a later passage in the Epistle to the Corinthians, tells them and us about the gifts of the Spirit. “⁷To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good” (1 Cor 12:7). We tend to hear these gifts of the Spirit as religious or churchy things and not part of our ordinary lives, but that is far from the truth. Paul uses that analogy of the body to show that each part if essential. Life in community is essential, and we each contribute something to it.

“The word community has many connotations, some positive, some negative. Community can make us think of a safe togetherness, shared meals, common goals, and joyful celebrations. It also can call forth images of sectarian exclusivity, in-group language, self-satisfied isolation, and romantic naivete. However, community is first of all a quality of the heart. It grows from the spiritual knowledge that we are alive not for ourselves but for one another. Community is the fruit of our capacity to make the interests of others more important than our own (see Philippians 2:4).The question, therefore, is not "How can we make community?" but "How can we develop and nurture giving hearts?"”[4]

These are the questions we each need to address in order to know how to build the foundations of our lives on rock, on God rather than wealth, as we heard in last week’s Gospel. “There is nothing more important in our own list of important things to do in life than to stop at regular times, in regular ways to remember what life is really about, where it came from, why we have it, and what we are to do with it, and for whom we are to live it.”[5] Those whose lives have been devastated by the tornados, the cyclone in Burma, and the earthquakes in China know that these are the questions that point to what is truly important in life. Our actual homes may be destroyed as if they were build on sand, but our inner lives continue because they are built on the “rock of ages.”

For your homework this week (I give homework and let the good Lord do the testing), I ask you to find a quiet place alone, light a candle if this helps you to focus, and reflect on these questions. Who am I really? Why is my life important? What can I contribute? Ask to the Lord to help you go beyond the clutter of our anxious minds to the inner space where he can speak to you as you seek answers.

God bless you and keep you this day and always, and remember the good Lord loves you more that you can ask for or even imagine. Do you believe it?