Today, both a meditation, and a sermon...
READINGS: Ps 32; Matthew 7:13-29
'Thinking about...a meditation in stone'
to set the scene for morning worship, as everyone came into the building, they were given a stone.
In our 'Thinking About' segment, early in the service, we spent time prayerfully
thinking of stones...with the following meditation:
Take your stone now and hold it in your hand...
feel the weight of it,
feel its texture – its roughness, or smoothness
feel the shape of it...
look at the colour
and, if there’s a pattern, look at that...
But stop for a moment, and consider what it is that you hold in your hand
For some, stones represent a nuisance:
the hard work of clearing a field,
or the rocks occasionally tumbling down and resting at the roadside,
that you try to avoid when you’re heading up or down the Lowther hills...
For some, stones represent strength,
there’s something solid about a stone...
Consider what it is you hold in your hand...
What you hold in your hand
is as old as you
and older;
as old as your name,
your language,
your culture,
and older;
As old as your race,
as old as the human race,
and older...
as old as the soil,
as old as the sea,
and older;
As old as the earth,
as old as the sun, moon, and stars...
but this stone is younger than God,
for God made this stone –
made and meant its colour
its contours
its journey from below the depths of the soil
to above ground.
And, had earth never revealed it,
and, had you never held it,
the stone you hold in your hand would still bear witness
to God’s deep intention to make the world,
to mean the world
to want the world;
and, in Jesus,
to one day, walk the world,*
to hold stones such as this...
to tell stories about stones –
about building upon stone
for stone makes for a good foundation –
a way of saying that the very Creator
of this stone that you hold...
is the One upon whom we build our lives:
is the One who is the solid foundation
in a world of shifting sand
and rising waters...
is the One who has created us in his image;
who calls us to follow...
who calls us living stones:
to be his people:
alive and grounded and built up
in him...
What you hold in your hand is a stone –
but it is more than that:
it is a reminder of the One who has loved us since before time began;
who made us,
and shaped us,
to be his people:
solid,
finding our strength in God alone,
who is faithful,
merciful,
finding our strength in Christ,
the sure foundation –
the cornerstone of our lives
and the life of the world...
and, as we hold our stone,
we remember we are here,
here for God ...
(we then quietly sang: ‘Jesu, tawa pano’)
Amen.
*the section in italics comes from a stone meditation - in 'He was in the World' by the Iona Community
SERMON
Let’s pray: may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts,
be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer, amen.
Over the course of this week, I’ve been quite keenly watching the weather –
having lived in the UK now for over 25 years,
I’ve learnt that this is very much a thing you do...
However, while the weather’s been a bit of a mix here,
my focus hasn’t really been so much on the Lowthers or the lovely Clyde Valley:
not actually on the UK at all.
Rather, most of my attention’s been drawn to where I grew up:
Queensland.
You see, this week, my old home state has been getting quite a battering
from the ridiculously named Cyclone ‘Debbie.’
‘Debbie’ wasn’t the most disastrous cyclone that the state has seen –
however, with gusts rampaging at up to 163 miles per hour,
there’s been a whole lot of damage –
and more to come, because there’ll be floods to add to it.
The overall damage is still being assessed but:
several people have lost their lives;
thousands of people have been evacuated from homes utterly destroyed;
insurance losses will run into at least hundreds of millions
and possibly tip over into the billion mark;
the sugar cane industry and horticultural industry have suffered major losses –
that’ll mean the price of basic food staples will rise later in the year...
And this morning, waking up to the news coming out of Columbia -
hearing the devastating effects of rains falling down
and floods on a massive scale...
Well, it feels quite an odd thing to have had Cyclone Debbie - and now, Columbia,
on my mind, while in the other part of my mind,
I’ve been reading the parable of the wise and foolish builders and a terrible storm.
In that particular story, as we heard, two men are minded to build houses.
And they have two very different approaches:
one seemingly has a sense of the lay of the land –
maybe he’s talked to folk who live in the area,
people who understand the vagaries of river valleys...
people who possibly think that it’s not such a great plan
to cut corners when it comes to building.
Our first builder, says Jesus, makes a choice:
instead of the easier option of just digging down into sand, very much the quicker option,
this chap is looking to the long-term and puts in that bit of extra effort.
He builds on a literally rock-solid foundation.
For whatever reason, the second chap takes a different tack:
perhaps he likes to be closer to the water...
perhaps he’s not done much homework,
not taken advice.
Perhaps he hasn’t got much time and would really like to make an easier job of it.
Whatever the reason, he opts to build his house on the sand.
And, if his original thought was based upon his love of being close to the water...
well, he does get his wish, just not in the way he imagines.
Over the season of Lent, we’ve been working our way through Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.
And here we have the end-point, with Jesus rounding off by using sets of two:
• two gates: a narrow and a wide gate
• two types of tree, with two types of fruit:
a good tree that bears good fruit,
a bad tree bearing bad fruit
• two ways of following Jesus:
actually cracking on and following...
or, claiming to follow -
saying one thing, while doing another
• and, at the end of the sermon on the mount...
we have two builders – one wise, the other foolish
The Sermon on the Mount is Jesus’ great teaching concerning
how to be God’s people –
how best to follow in God’s ways:
learning that God’s way of viewing life
can run quite counter to the culture you happen to be living in.
There’s the challenge of understanding that God bestows his blessing upon the most unlikely people:
not necessarily the rich and the famous and the powerful -
they’ve already had their reward.
Rather, God blesses the poor,
the ones no-one notices,
the vulnerable.
And, another challenge:
that following in God’s ways can bring with it unpopularity and even persecution.
Having spoken of those who are blessed in God’s kingdom,
Jesus turns to the law, and turns that on its head as well:
the Law is not in place as a tool of revenge and retaliation –
it’s an instrument of justice...
but it’s more than just trying to de-escalate a spiral of violence
it’s more than just settling scores and moving on.
Rather than demanding your right to an eye for an eye...
Jesus’ teaching on the law demonstrates that justice
must be wrapped ‘round with love and mercy:
love your enemies,
don’t get even with them.
It’s a hard teaching.
Jesus also dissects the religious life:
encouraging his listeners to look to God and to undertake their acts of faithful living ...quietly:
just to get on with it...don’t make a big show.
He examines the motives for certain actions:
who are you trying to please –
God, or the folk around you?
Choose carefully.
What’s your priority?
What or who do you treasure most...
for where your treasure is, there will be your main focus,
the main driving force motivating you.
If your focus is on God...
then you’ll be less likely to have worries.
Sure, you’ll have responsibilities.
Yes, all manner of situations will crop up...
but if you trust in God, not things, then you’ll have a better perspective on all of it.
And then we have gates, trees, and builders wise and foolish.
At the end of this great block of teaching,
Jesus comes right back to what it is to live the life of faith:
what it is to be God’s people.
It’s a daily choice.
Which gate?
Which way are you going to go, says Jesus?
If you choose to go God’s way that will produce a particular type of harvest;
will result in a transformation of body, mind, and spirit –
growing in God produces good things – good fruit.
Fruit grown in the ideal conditions of God’s love;
fruit that impacts not just on you, but on others.
Trees need deep roots to produce good fruit.
...Just like houses need good, strong foundations.
How will you build your spiritual house –
will you invest that extra wee bit of time and effort?
Or will you choose what seems the quicker, easier way?
Build your house on firm foundations, says Jesus:
build your house on the solid rock that is God.
How else will you cope with some of the calamities that occasionally decide
to turn up unannounced, and which have the potential to leave
a trail of destruction and damage in their wake not unlike Cyclone Debbie?
Let God be the foundation upon which you live your life, says Jesus.
And see/ hear what he doesn’t say:
he doesn’t say
‘and if you do that, you’ll never see troubles knocking at your door.’
Remember back to the earlier part of the Sermon on the Mount?
If anything, digging deeper,
growing into God,
being God’s people,
can mean that potentially, more difficulties come knocking on the door.
However, with God as your foundation,
you have all the tools you need to keep one foot walking in front of the other.
Back in the day, you might have called this the perseverance of the saints:
God gives us the strength to keep going,
and to do so in the deepest sense of the word ‘joyfully’ –
for joy is not necessarily all bouncy, bouncy Tigger stuff:
it’s the deep knowing of being beloved,
and it’s that knowledge, quietly taken in to the very core of your being
that sees you through the storms...
yes, sometimes shaken,
but never destroyed.
This final section of the Sermon on the Mount is like that underline you write,
in the text book you’re revising for an exam.
It underpins the sum total of what Jesus has been teaching to a large crowd
while he's sitting on a hillside in Galilee.
Jesus isn’t just offering some good advice to be considered,
and, if we can make a little time, perhaps take some of it on board.
It’s more than that.
He reminds his followers then,
and reminds us, his modern-day disciples,
of what it is to be human –
to be real, authentic;
to understand just what matters in life,
and in doing so, to move into what Jesus calls fullness, abundance of life.
It’s a reminder of who we belong to:
who we are loved by
and who we follow...
To be God’s people is to know God’s love
and to share that love with others,
and, in a life built upon the good foundation of God’s love:
to grow fruit that will help to bring in God’s kingdom:
for all to enjoy,
for all to share in.
Preacher and teacher David Lose –
a man very much grounded in God, I think –
says that this is why
‘Jesus starts here, on this mountain, teaching his disciples then and now
what it means to be human, to be children of God,
to be citizens of God’s kingdom.
Because these words are not just foundational to our lives, but to his mission as well.’
As we begin to move toward Jesus’ entry to Jerusalem,
and recall again the events of that week so long ago –
what foundation have we chosen to build our own spiritual house upon?
And what difference will that make to us,
and to the world –
for Christ’s is the world in which we move
and where we’re summoned to love... Amen
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