Scripture Readings:  Deut. 11: 18-21, 26-28, Matthew 7: 21-29

Some kind of Scripture readings today, huh?  There’s something in there to offend – or to baffle – or to uplift every person who hears these passages. 

            If you are a person whose primary mode of responding to Scripture (or to the Holy – or to other things of faith) is a heart-response – a feeling response – you may be really put off by the feelings of sharpness or threat that resonate through both of these passages.  If you are a person whose primary mode of responding to things of faith is a head response – an intellectual response – you may be really confused by these passages that in some way seem to contradict other Scriptural messages we frequently talk about.  And if you are a person whose primary mode of responding to things of faith     is a body response – an action response – you may feel frustrated or disappointed because these passages just don’t seem to give enough direction for what we’re supposed do.  And all of those possible responses – feeling put off, being confused, feeling frustrated – mean that today’s texts raise some faith challenges – and invitations – for every one of us who hears – and who is willing to engage with – this Word that we are offered today.

            To relieve a little of the confusion, I suggest we start by exploring the context of the passage from Jesus’ sermon.  If you were listening carefully, and if you’ve been in church the last couple of months, you may have noticed some resonances with a sermon-series that I preached back in April, on some of the elements of the Sermon on the Mount.  Or, if you missed that, but were here two weeks ago, you may have noticed some resonances with the sermon I preached then, on “Show, Don’t Tell.”  And if you picked either of those up, good on you!  And if you didn’t, let me just point out that in today’s reading from Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus is still talking about the same things we’ve been reflecting on for awhile. 

            In fact, today’s passage is the conclusion to the Sermon on the Mount.  He has told his followers what it means to be faithful – “blessed are the poor in spirit … blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, blessed are the peacemakers … “ (and all those other blessed ares).  In other words, being faithful means being willing to be dependent on God, being willing to be peace-makers, being willing to share the Good News in concrete ways.  And today Jesus winds it all up with an overall summary statement – which boils down to something like this:  “You’ve heard me tell you what it means to be faithful … so what are you going to do about it?”

            In today’s passage he tells his followers that faith is a matter of a lifestyle –             that it’s about a way of living.  It is not a matter of thinking – it is not a matter of believing certain things – it is a matter of doing certain things – and specifically, doing the things that are commanded by God. 

            And then, to try to help his listeners understand why this is so very important, he tells them a story about wise and foolish people.  In this story, Jesus isn’t talking about intellectual “smarts” or the lack thereof – he’s talking about whether or not people are wise enough … not just in their minds, but also in their hearts and souls and bodies … to truly trust in God, and to truly try to live the way God wants us to live.  And he says if we’re wise enough to do that – to really live as if God is at the center of our lives – then whatever “storms” may come in life – and we can be certain that they will come – we’ll be okay.

Jesus reminds all those folks sitting there at his feet – and tells us – that there is a big difference between what he calls “sayers” and what he calls “doers.” 

            Sayers are those people who say they love God … who say they love Jesus … people who say they want to follow God’s commandments … who say they believe we are called to be peacemakers, and to create justice, and to treat others with compassion, and to share the good news that God loves everyone … but who simply do not practice those beliefs, or that faith, in a real way.   In contemporary language, they don’t “walk their talk (of faith).” 

            And, Jesus says, even the ones who do do good things – who appear to practice their faith – say, some of those people you know (but of course would never be like) who give lots of money to their favorite charities, or donate a new wing to the hospital, solely so they can get their names in the newspaper, or so they can improve their business connections in the community – aren’t necessarily getting the faith-thing right, either.  He says that if those people are not doing those good things first and foremost out of their relationship with God and their obedience to God then it’s not the kind of righteousness – the kind of transformed life – that we are called, as faithful people, to live. 

            Jesus tells them – and tells us:  “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ (in other words, the ones who say they believe in God, or believe in Jesus) will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of God in heaven.   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?’  Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers’ (or, more accurately, you “lawless ones”).

Now, that sounds kind of harsh.  Certainly not “gentle Jesus, meek and mild.”   But Jesus is trying to make what he feels is a very, very important point – in fact, the most important point of all:  that what God wants is not people who just pay lip-service to faith, but people who practice their faith, day in and day out, in things large and small.

            And so Jesus talks about “doers” of faith.  Doers of faith are the people who love God, like a friend of mine who is a social services worker and several years ago was going through a very painful and difficult time in her job.  She and I were talking about what was going on, and I kept thinking if it was me, I’d simply leave and find another place to serve, and so I asked her why she was staying at this place, even in the middle of the rotten things they were doing to her, and she looked me in the eye, and said very simply, “I stay here – and do this work – with these people – because I love God.”

            Doers are the people who recognize how good God is – who aren’t embarrassed to say grace before meals, and who aren’t embarrassed to tell other people about how good God is, and who aren’t embarrassed to show other people how good God is, by being God’s hand and feet and heart and hands in the world.  Doers are the people who don’t just say they believe in the Great Commandment to love their neighbors as themselves, they actually treat other people with respect and consideration and compassion and care.   Doers are the people who don’t just say they agree that Jesus calls us to make peace, and to create justice, but they’re out there in the world doing everything in their power to actually make those things happen.

            The doers, the ones who “hear these words of (Jesus) and act on them,” “will be like a wise person who built their house on rock. 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.”   In contrast, the sayers, in Jesus’ parable, those who “hear (his) words and does not act on them” will be like a foolish person who built their house on sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall!”

          And, Jesus says, we get to choose which kind of person we’re going to be. 

            And interestingly, it’s the very same kind of choice that Moses was talking about many centuries earlier, which we heard in today’s passage from Deuteronomy, where Moses says, in even harsher-sounding words than those of Jesus:  “See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am commanding you today; and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn from the way that I am commanding you today, to follow other gods that you have not known.”

          In other words, Moses is saying, friends, right here, right now, not tomorrow, not yesterday, but right now, you get to choose … how are you going to live?  Are you going to live a life of real faith – are you really going to do what God is commanding you to do – or are you going to live some other way? 

            Two weeks ago, when we made our choir-trip to Silverton, I preached there on the metaphor of “journey.”  On the notion that in our faith-walk, we are always moving – or can be always moving – to new places.  In the same way, Jesus’ sermon today reminds us that we are always building whatever kind of life it is that we are living.  We are always building whatever kind of character it is that we live out of.  We are always building what Methodist pastor Clovis Chappell, some 80 years ago, called our “soul-home[1].” 

            Chappell said that “everything we do – every word we speak, every thought we think, every dream, every picture we hang on the walls of our imagination, every ambition – goes into the structure of our lives[2].”  And so the faith-struggle, for each of us, is to determine what words we will speak – and why we’ll speak those words rather than others.  For example, when we encounter someone we disagree with, or someone we dislike, will we speak words of condemnation, or words of reconciliation?  When we dream dreams, the faith challenge is to determine how those dreams will be shaped – and why we’ll choose those dreams rather than others.  For example, when we vote on how to use our tax-dollars right here in Grand Junction, will we dream a community in which all children have access to an excellent education, in which all adults have access to health care, in which everyone who wants a decently-paying job can find one, or will we dream a community in which only some of them – perhaps the ones we think “deserve it” – have those things?  When we choose which ambitions to pursue, the faith question is to decide which ambitions we will pursue and which we won’t, and why we will choose certain ambitions over others.  For example, when it comes to our church, will our primary ambition be, as one of our long-time members suggested to me several years ago, to increase the number of lawyers, and doctors, and educators in our membership, or will it be to welcome everyone who is in need of a nurturing faith community? 

My guess is, as I asked each of those questions, every one of you was pretty clear about what Jesus’ answer would be, about what God’s answer would be.  And that is precisely Moses’ point.  And that is precisely Jesus’ point.  We do know – if we’ve paid any attention at all to the teachings of our faith – how it is that we are supposed to live as people of faith. 

            We also know that we have choices.  In the next hour.  The rest of this day.  Tomorrow.  In each word we speak, each dream we dream, each action we take, we get to choose.  Will we choose blessing, or curse?  Will we build our lives on the rock of God, or on shifting sands? 

            And so, as you leave and go into this week, I want to offer all of us some questions to reflect on:  “How is your life different because of Jesus?  What do you say you believe – and how do you live out those beliefs?  In what ways does your faith bring you into conflict with our dominant culture?  As a Christian, how (if at all) do you live differently from anyone else?[3]” 

            And as we reflect, may God be with us in our thinking, and in our understanding, in our praying, in our feeling, and in our doing.  Amen.