NRS Matthew 7
21 "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. 22 On that day many will say to me, '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?' 23 Then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.'
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 fell-- and 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.

May the blessing of the Lord rest and remain upon you always; for the sake of Jesus. Amen.

For the second Sunday in a row today's gospel to us comes from the Sermon on the Mount. At the heart of Jesus' words is a kind of parable, or illustration, that describes two men, one wise and one foolish. The word here translated as foolish is the Greek moros, from which we derive the English word "moron." The wise man builds his house on rock, and not surprisingly, the moron builds his house on sand. When the rains come down, the rivers rise, and the winds blow, the house built on rock remains standing, but of course, the house built on sand collapses, "and great was its fall," says Jesus.

Traditionally, we've interpreted the house built on rock to mean a life built on and around Jesus. As we sing in the great hymn,
My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness,
no merit of my own I claim,
but wholly lean on Jesus' name.
[all together!]
On Christ, the solid rock, I stand;
all other ground is sinking sand.

But what does it mean to build a life on the solid rock of Jesus? Does that mean having faith in Jesus? Of course! What about praying to and worshiping Jesus? Certainly! But as Jesus also explains, "Not everyone who says to me 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven." Even people who prophesy, cast out demons, and perform deeds of wonder in the name of Jesus may find themselves out in the cold, with Jesus telling them, "I never knew you." Ouch! So what kind of life does Jesus have in mind that goes beyond mere lip service and displays of religious power?

When Jesus alludes to rain falling, rivers rising, and winds blowing, he's not just speaking poetically about the trials and tribulations of daily life, of which there are, of course, plenty. Rather, Jesus is hinting at another biblical story when the rains fell, the waters rose, and the winds blew. Any guesses? Right! Jesus' words echo back to Genesis 6, to the time when the world had become so corrupt and foul with sin that God regretted ever having created the heavens and the earth. But rather than turn his back on creation altogether, God, instead, vowed to cleanse the earth in a great flood, while also saving a remnant that would make a new beginning.

Jesus is speaking here in a kind of code in order to make a point that, if he'd spoken it out loud, would have probably had him and all his listeners crucified on the spot. Because the Roman Empire liked to think it was divine and would never end, Jesus speaks in this roundabout way to let his listeners know that when the Kingdom comes in all its fullness, the Lord will, just like in the days of Noah, make a clean sweep of things. That message isn't intended to threaten or scare people, but rather, to reassure us that evil will not have the last word. Sin and death and the power of the devil will not triumph. But whatever stands against God's rule or tries to hinder God's purposes on earth will be washed away, like a house built on sand. All the stuff in this world that we never seem to overcome - hunger, disease, war, violence, greed, lust for power, and selfish desire, or what St. Paul called the works of the flesh (Galatians 5: 19-21) - all these things are finally and ultimately doomed, praise God.

That's great news, but it's also a very serious warning. To whatever extent our lives are tied up in the idolatries of this world, including such things as strife, jealousy, anger, and the pursuit of our own self-centered goals, our lives are on shaky ground. They will not stand.

Now you don't have to watch too much reality TV to find plenty of examples of people leading lives of near total self-indulgence and still living in big, luxurious homes that don't seem in the least bit shaky. Does this mean that Jesus was just blowing smoke? Not in the least. That nasty, ruthless people sometimes prosper, and not infrequently at the expense of the weak and the vulnerable, is just one more sign of how totally messed up this world really is. As Luther might ask, "What do you expect?" But while the wicked may know how to butter their own bread and protect their own backsides, even against this world's many slings and arrows, they cannot (they cannot!) escape the judgment of God.

So if the Kingdom of God washes away what's foul, evil, and corrupt, then what's left standing? Good question! To the works of the flesh Paul contrasts the fruits of the Spirit; to wit, "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control" (Galatians 5: 22-23). Does that sound like anybody we know? No, it's not grandma, and it's not your first grade teacher, bless their hearts, but (right!) it's Jesus. And to build our lives on Jesus is to trust him so completely that we pursue and seek the same values and ends that he embodied, even as we may see those values and ends disgraced and dishonored in the world as we know it.

This is what it means to hear the words of Jesus and to act on them. We don't act on Jesus' words to win points or curry favor or save ourselves; that's just more selfishness and doesn't have anything to do with true love, joy, and peace. But rather, we act on Jesus' words because we believe him when he tells us that blessed are the poor in spirit and those who mourn, and blessed are the meek and those who hunger for righteousness, and blessed are the merciful, the pure in heart, and the peacemakers. Even though these are precisely the people who often end up taking it in the neck, we believe Jesus that when the Kingdom comes and the world has been finally purged of its wickedness, these are the lives that will still be standing. That's why the Bible says that the righteous shall live not by cunning or cleverness, but by faith.

Think of it this way. Imagine you had a revelation in which you saw what the stock market was going to do. That would be quite a revelation, but let's say you could see what stocks would be going up, and what stocks would tank and flounder. On the basis of that revelation, you would, of course, move all your assets to what you believed to be the winners, and naturally then also pull your money out of the losers. In Jesus, we believe that we have, in fact, received a revelation, not into the stock market, but even more importantly, into what God is up to and where God is taking this creation. In the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, we believe that we've seen the ultimate destination of all life and the climax of all history. And on the basis of that revelation, we invest our lives accordingly - to be in line with Jesus and faithful to his words. Of course, there are times we doubt and our faith gets stretched a little thin. We may wonder if we shouldn't hedge our bets, and instead of putting all our eggs in Jesus' basket, well, maybe we should, you know, diversify, and maybe have some fallback position. But Jesus is faithful, and standing before us in the fullness of God's future, he calls us when we waver, he forgives us when we wander, and he grounds us when we step out in faith.

On Christ, the solid rock, I stand;
all other ground is sinking sand.

In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.