H. Michael Brewer
Crescent Springs Presbyterian
March 7, 2004
KNOWING WHERE TO BUILD
Matthew 7:24-27
Starting at the top might be possible in some jobs, but not in the building business. Every house,
hotel, office building, school and skyscraper is built from the bottom up. Even with the highest quality
materials and the finest craftsmanship, a building is only as strong and stable as the foundation upon
which it stands.
For several years I served on the board of Buckhorn Children’s Center, a residential treatment
center in the mountainous terrain of eastern Kentucky. The building that served as the director’s home
stood perched upon a steep hillside overlooking the rest of the campus. For years that house had
presented one problem after another: persistent leaks in the roof, cracked walls, jammed windows
and doors, and dripping pipes. It turns out the house was slowly sliding downhill. Built quickly and
cheaply some decades earlier, the house lacked a proper foundation, and gravity was winning. With
every minute shift of the foundation, the house twisted and contorted, resulting in cracked plaster,
separated shingles, and leaky plumbing.
Because we had a tight budget, we continued to patch the house’s problems for a couple of years,
but we realized that was a losing proposition. So was establishing a new foundation. We bulldozed
the place and built a new house on a more stable site. The “money-saving” shortcut of building on a
poor foundation turned to be quite expensive in the long run.
Jesus the carpenter knew the importance of a firm foundation. Speaking of Christ, the Letter to the
Hebrews says, “In the beginning, O Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are
the work of your hands,” (Hebrews 1:10 NIV). The Greek word for “laid the foundations” carries
the root meaning of making stable or firmly establishing. A good foundation provides a sturdy,
enduring, unshakable surface to build on.
That applies to both buildings and people. The life that endures and prospers is the life established
on an unshakable foundation. Jesus told two stories about people with foundation problems. The
stories are similar, but they teach different lessons. Next week we’ll consider the version in Luke’s
Gospel, but today let’s look at the more familiar parable from the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel
of Matthew.
Everyone then 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 blew and beat on that house, but it
did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. 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. The rain fell, and the
floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall!
(Matthew 7:24-27 NRSV)
In ancient Palestine, building a house in a valley was easy. The land there tended to be flat because
centuries of wind and rain had filled the valley floors with sand and gravel washed down from the hills.
Also, water was more accessible. Wells didn’t have to be as deep, and sometimes a creek or river
might wind through the valley.
The alternative was building in a higher spot where the bare rock of the hills could serve as the
foundation of the house. This was a lot more work. The solid rock might have to be chiseled to
provide a flat surface. Even if a naturally level shelf were available, the builder still had to lug materials
uphill, and the homeowner might have to haul water as well.
Many people took the easy route; they built in the valley. Those houses served perfectly well as
long as the weather was agreeable. One might count on ten or twenty years of good weather, but
sooner or later the storms came and torrential floods roared through the valleys. Trickling streams
became raging whitewater. “The rain fell, and the floods came,” says Jesus, “and the winds blew and
beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall!” On the other hand, the house built high
upon the rock stood firm while the floods tumbled through the valley below.
Of course, Jesus isn’t offering a crash course in architecture. He’s talking about life, your life and
mine, real life. He’s challenging us to consider where we will build. And when we’re choosing where
to build a life, the stakes are high.
For instance, I might build my life on the pursuit of wealth. Money makes the world go around, so
the more money I make, the more secure I am.
Or I could make my career the basis of my life, devoting long days and nights, giving my energy
and creativity to the job, and postponing other priorities while I climb the corporate ladder.
Maybe winning the admiration of others is the lot I choose to build on. What is more gratifying than
praise and a good name in the community?
I could lay my foundation on having a good time, grabbing the gusto and seeking immediate
gratification in every occasion. Surely all those television commercials can’t be wrong!
Or I might stake everything on being a good person, piling up the brownie points, amassing good
deeds, and proving my value as a worthwhile person.
“What’s wrong with that?” you’re wondering. What’s wrong with wanting to be well-liked or
trying to be virtuous or making a lot of money? Nothing at all.
But none of those goals is adequate ground upon which to build a life. When the storms come—
and the storms surely do strike sooner or later—the life built upon reputation or pleasure will
collapse, and great will be its fall. The flood will sweep away the life built on money or hard work or
good works. Even the most worthwhile efforts are simply too uncertain and unreliable to establish a
foundation under our lives.
I recall asking an engineer about the best way to build on a steep hillside. He assured me it could
be done, and he told me some of the ways to go about doing it. Then he paused and said, “But if you
really want my best advice, here it is: Build somewhere else. There are pieces of land where no house
was meant to stand. Why risk losing everything?” Some plots look so attractive to the human eye, but
there are situations and priorities where God never meant us to build a life.
I did see The Passion of the Christ last week. Whatever nits I might pick with that movie, I will say
that it was a powerful and moving experience. I don’t know if seeing that movie will convert anyone
to Christianity, but at least it offers our increasingly shallow society the possibility of meaning and
purpose. The story of Jesus lifts up an alternative in a culture obsessed with Britney’s twenty hour
marriage, and what’s-her-name’s million dollar wedding with the groom she won on a TV show, and
who Donald Trump is going to fire this week. God help us if the stuff we watch on television really
represents our dreams and aspirations and values.
In a world where sand is the preferred spiritual real estate, God offers us something solid to build
on—no, someone solid to build on. The old hymn by Edward Mote points our way: “On Christ, the
solid rock, I stand; all other ground is sinking sand.” The apostle Paul is less poetic, but equally
fervent. Reminding his Corinthian friends of the fundamentals of Christianity, Paul writes, “For no one
can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ,” (1
Corinthians 3:11 NRSV).
To establish ourselves upon any ground other than Jesus is to build our lives upon gravel and
shifting sand. Of course, taking a stand on Jesus doesn’t spare us the storms of life. In the parable
both houses are beaten by the weather, but the believer survives the trials. The one who risks
everything on Jesus is still standing after the storm passes and after the flood subsides.
One day I visited a young man who had cancer. We talked about what lay ahead, and he
expressed his confidence that God would see him through.
“I’m at peace,” he said, “but I’m glad to have the chance to talk about this. I’ve tried to discuss my
therapy with my mother, but she can’t handle it. The D-word terrifies her. She accepts that I’m a
Christian, but she wants no part of it for himself. I have Christ to hold me up, but my mother has
nothing to fall back on. She’s a very successful woman and her career is rising like a rocket, but I
think she’s running scared.”
In those few poignant words, my friend laid out the alternative that lies before each and every one
of us. We choose where to build, and then we live with our choice. Next week, we’ll think about
what to do if we’ve made a poor choice, if we wish we had built elsewhere, if we’re stuck with
circumstances we can’t change.
But for today it’s enough to know that the Lord who laid the foundation of the universe, has
given us a foundation to build on—Jesus Christ, the Son of God. No other ground can uphold us to
the end and beyond the end.
Those who build on the sand, build for fair weather.
Those who build on the Rock, build for eternity.
Soli Deo Gloria!