Jesus ends the Sermon on the Mount with this parable of the Two Builders. The comparison he makes between the successful building on rock and the disastrous building on sand would have been very familiar to his listeners. Much of Israel’s topography has areas of sandstone, basalt, chalky rock, and limestone. As a carpenter, Jesus and his audience, through either successful or bitter experience, know the importance of a house’s foundations. To dig deeply down to rock level ensures that the house will withstand storms and calamities. Jesus’ words pound the ears of his listeners with the staccato force of rain, floods, and gales. To build on the words of Jesus is to be founded on him. But it takes strong and deep action and mature reflection to raise such discipleship. The temptation is always there to “jerry-build”: to shallow digging, to satisfaction with the sandy rather than the rock level, and to the quick fixing of the foundations. This might seem adequate in the Palestinian dry season, but when the rains and storms inevitably come, the house will fall. The houses of both the wise and the foolish builder were buffeted by storms. Jesus’ disciples are not exempt from calamities: from the human, physical pain of illness and accidents; from personal disillusionment with others and with oneself; from social and ecclesial injustice; from failures in ministry and misunderstandings of authority. But being built on the foundation of Jesus, and continually sinking one’s life deeply into his Word, will enable the disciple who is a wise builder to stand firm and withstand the turbulence. This is much more than just propping up the individual disciple or the community of disciples, and it might make us reflect on what is being propped up in our own lives or in the church at the present time . . . and enable us to ask how wise it is to do that according to the wisdom of Jesus the teacher. Sr. Verna Holyhead, Welcoming the Word in Year A
Posted on: Thu, 27 Jun 2013 22:11:26 +0000
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