It was also during this process that I learned that no matter what else you included in a house, you ignored the foundation at great peril.

Jesus was a carpenter, and surely he had seen what happened if a foolish builder did not first put down a good foundation on solid ground. Around Nazareth there were many wadis. In West Texas we would call them dry creek beds. When there was no rain, the bottoms were dry, and there was lots of sand. It was easy to dig in the sand, quickly lay a foundation, and get on with building a house to shelter a family. It was deceptively easy to ignore the obvious. It was dry, but it was still a creek bed.

Up from the dry bed there was land that was covered with loose soil, but a little beneath the soil there was rock. Digging through to rock was hard work. It took patience, endurance, and determination to keep working until a foundation could be laid on solid rock.

The real issue was how each house would fare when the wind and rain brought floods that literally beat on the house. Jesus was certain of two things—the flood would come, and only one house would stand.

When Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount, he was doing more than giving information, making suggestions, or seeking to be inspirational. He was giving a vision of the Kingdom of God and what it is like for his people to live as Kingdom people on earth. He played no favorites. He taught with authority and warned that if you build foolishly, your house could not stand when the floods came.

The Sermon on the Mount is the call for us to live by a higher standard, to see the world through the eyes of a compassionate and loving God. It is a blueprint for how we are to live as baptized believers in the midst of a world that cannot stand. 

I have lived long enough and been a pastor long enough to be certain that the rain falls, the flood comes, and the winds blow and beat on the house we build. My memory bank is full of pictures of the pain and tragedy of floods. I remember the couple who kissed good-bye on Sunday morning. He was going to Chicago for his last business trip before retirement. He dropped dead in O’Hare Airport. The young promising chemistry student who overdosed; the devastating experiences of Alzheimer’s; the young woman who got her high school diploma in the hospital just before she died; broken marriages, mental illness, long battles with cancer; meningitis that took the life of an infant; parents visiting their son in prison for the rest of their lives; addiction to alcohol, sex, drugs. Also in my memory is the way these people and their families faced the storm—most houses stood, but not all of them.

Every house is tested by a flood.  When I talk with couples about to get married, I often use this parable to invite and urge them to build their marriage on the only strong foundation for life—a life of faith in Christ. It is hard for them to grasp how unexpectedly a crisis can happen. No one of the people in the stories I mentioned was expecting the flood to sweep over them. When the storm comes, it is too late to build the faith resources you need. You face the flood in the house, the life you have built. When the floods waters are two feet high and rising, life gets out of control in a hurry.

Floods are dangerous. A few inches of rain can wash a car off the road and cause drowning. Six thousand people were killed in the flood and winds that hit Galveston in 1900. Floods can destroy homes, business, and dreams. The floods that hit our lives are just as dangerous; they can be deadly.

Floods come because we don’t live in a perfect world. Our world is not predictable. Floods may come because we are careless and shallow in our understanding of life and God, or because we are in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Floods sometime come because we are sinful and because we live in the midst of sinful people. We make the wrong choices, or we are victimized by others. God does not hold back all of the flood waters. 

Rather, God gives us the blueprint for building a life that helps us avoid the storms or prepares us for the storms. Jesus said, “Everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.  The rain fell, the floods came and the winds beat on the house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock.”

Wise people know that this is a dangerous world. Just like saving money for a rainy day, they carefully build and craft their lives.  A good builder follows the blueprints. My sister-in-law and her husband have built two houses in the last five years.  Guess what? The builders made mistakes when building each of the roofs. There is a reason for drawing blueprints, and when they are not followed, it can cause real problems.

Of the two builders, one is a thoughtful and deliberate, planning the house with an eye to the future. 

A wise person learns to listen to God. Hear and do. The Latin root word for obedience is audier: to listen, to hear. The opposite of listening is deafness or indifference. A secure life begins with listening. Listen to God through Scripture; listen to God in hymns; listen to God as we worship together; listen to God through the community who surrounds you with the love of Jesus. Hear and do. Listen and follow. Listen and obey.

For wise people, listening to God is not left on the edges of life, but is central to life. Foolish people are so busy that if God has anything to say to us, he must speak to our backs. To listen to God, turn down the volume of culture that measures life by what you do and what you have. Listen to Jesus, who calls you to trust in his words. The wise person knows that the dangers of life require paying attention to. To ignore these realities is to face the consequences. The wise person, who seeks to build for the future, knows that he or she is not the center of the universe, and that human strength and knowledge are not enough when the water is five feet high and rising.

The foolish builder is not necessarily bad or stupid or wicked, but is thoughtless and casually begins to build the easiest way. The one is earnest; the other is content with a careless and unexamined life.

It is easy to live and simply become indifferent to the hazards, carelessly, hurriedly looking for the easy shortcuts and deceiving oneself. This builder arrogantly declares, “I know what I am doing, and I need no help from God. I am smart enough, strong enough, and successful enough to build life my way.” What a tragically misplaced sense of security! When my life is coming apart in a storm, I need more than the knowledge and strength I have built. The fool has said in his heart that there is no God. Or the fool has said in his heart, I can ignore God’s voice and live on my own terms. The foolish builder hears the words of Jesus but does not act on them. The rains fall, and the floods come, winds blow and beat against the house, and it falls—great is the fall.

Is there hope for the foolish builder? When the house has fallen and is lost, is there hope?

Yes, yes, yes. Because nothing you can do will stop God from loving you and speaking to you. God provides the rock on which to rebuild life—even his Son, Jesus Christ. No one of us is beyond the voice of God. On this second Sunday of Pentecost, Paul says, “Hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” (Rom. 5:8) God is the source of healing, cleansing, and comfort. It is always God’s desire to redeem, rescue, and “make all things new.” When the darkness of the storms seems to overwhelm you, listen for God to speak in the silence with a still small voice. In the darkness, listen for the One who is light, and know that the darkness cannot overcome this light. Softly and tenderly Jesus calls and promises never to leave you.

Johnny Cash wrote the song “Two Feet High and Risin’” based on his family’s experience of having their farm washed away. Cash later said that when the flood receded, it left behind a layer of rich black soil.  The next year they had the best cotton crop they had ever had. No matter how foolish we are or how terrible the flood damage, God never stops working in our lives. Our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ love and righteousness. God is the God of second chances and more.

Here is the rest of the story.

We are not really the builders of our own lives.  When our faith, hope, and love come from Jesus, he is the one who builds the house.  We get wisdom by listening to the voice of Jesus and obeying him. He is the builder of the strong foundation for our lives. 

Be careful where and how you build your lives. It all comes down to this: Wisdom ultimately is hearing and doing the word of God. God’s word is the path way that leads to life. The other way leads to death. 

Amen.