Psalm 31:1-8

Mashpee June 1, 2008                                                           Matt 7:21-29

“When the Storms Hit”

          Here’s an important announcement:  the liturgical year has ended and we are now in ordinary time.  I know that the news is shocking and that many of you may be concerned, but, trust me, things will be all right.

          In truth, this is news pretty much for the preachers who follow the lectionary.  Here’s another way to put it:  the big holy days are over and the summer season has begun!

          Here’s more breaking news:  from now until the end of November, all the sermons will be based on readings from the Gospel of Matthew!  Big news , right?  If you want to know, by the way, what is coming for the summer just check out our web site.  The sermon texts, titles and themes are all there!

The Sermon on the Mount

          Speaking of sermons, today’s reading comes at the end of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.  You will find the Lord’s Prayer in the Sermon on the Mount along with other teachings in practical piety, but what we hear today is the finale.  Jesus addresses two groups of people who are at high risk:  first, are the people who think that because they have knocked themselves out doing all the right things, that they will automatically gain admission into heaven. Jesus says that acts alone don’t do it.

          Secondly, are the people who have heard the sermon, who get the message, but then head home and go back to business as usual.

          The image of the storm relates to the second group and that’s who we will look at this morning.  The first group…well, when you get back home read the text again and make your own observations.

          So, here’s the deal:  Jesus tells us that to be a true Christian we have to not only hear the word but do it.  This is his final point of his amazing Sermon on the Mount.  These are his final words.

          The message, of course, gives preachers this morning a little extra edge for we dare to climb into our pulpits and suggest that we, in Jesus’ absence, are delivering to you the very Word of God.  That’s an ego trip waiting to happen if ever I saw one!  Then again, being a preacher can be a very humbling experience.

From Eastport to Temple

          While I was a student at Bangor Theological Seminary after I completed my first semester of studies, I was given the opportunity to guest preach in churches throughout the state.  Walter Cook was the Field Placement Officer.  Do you know how in some areas, day laborers gather at a central location in the city where they hope to be picked to work with a crew for the day?  Getting a Sunday preaching assignment with Dr. Cook was something like that. 

          On Tuesday mornings at 9:00 students could go to his office and try to get a Sunday morning gig.  Often there was a line.  As the students came out of the office, those in line would ask, “What did you get?” and the answers would be:  Millinocket, Bucksport…Eastport….”Eastport, I wanted that this week!”….Temple…”Temple?  Where’s that?” and so on.

          The upperclassmen got the better paying assignments, which was okay.  After all, they were more experienced.

          But I remember thinking how important I was becoming:  I am being deployed to go out into the vast mission field and bring to the lost souls of Maine the very word of God.  Little did I know.

          In my senior year, Dr. Cook was facing retirement and so he decided to write a book, the title of which totally deflated my ego.  While I had it in my immature brain that we preachers were nothing less than saviours to rural Maine, apparently the people in the churches saw us a little differently.  The title of the book was an actual quote from a head deacon looking for a guest preacher:

          Send us a minister; any minister will do.

          What Jesus tells us at the very end of his unmatchable sermon is that hearing the Word of God doesn’t mean a thing if you don’t apply it.  For awhile the one who listens only and who on occasion even knows how to talk the talk will come out looking pretty good.  The weekly ritual of going to church and hearing the Word through the mouth of the preacher can get you down the road pretty far.  But, when the obstacles in the road suddenly appear and the word doesn’t get pressed into service, then there can be a real problem.  We may be looking at what some call, “Fair weather faith.”

          Jesus closes the Sermon on the Mount with the clear instruction that hearing and doing have to go hand in hand.  Jesus tells us that we should not be anxious about life and that God loves us more than we can know.  “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.”  The message is clear:  if God loves even these lilies, think how much more he loves us.

          That’s the word we hear.  The challenge is to live out that message of hope when the storms of life come crashing in around us.  How do we keep that hope? How do we stay with it when we start to face hopeless situations?

In The ER, a Sign of Hope

          A few nights ago Diane and I saw a portion of a show featuring actual footage from an emergency room in a New York City hospital.  One of the patients was a 25-year old woman with terminal cancer.  As the doctor spoke with her about ways she might treat the pain, the woman was smiling!  With five years, at best, to live she was thanking the doctor for his care.  25 years old!  Her faith was clear.  She was an inspiration to all the people who loved her and cared for her.  The storm testing her faith was cancer.

          Jesus tells us that those who hear his words and do them are like a man who builds his house upon a rock.  When the floods come and the winds blow, the house remains firm.  As we live out the message Jesus has for us, our own faith stays rock solid.

A Lesson of Faith

          When I first entered the parish ministry as an ordained Pastor, I was quite young and had much to learn.  I still have much to learn, for that matter.  At any rate, I was barely on the scene of the church when I received a call from the administrator of a nursing home.  I was told that a member of the church was there for rehab after having suffered a stroke.  The administrator said that my new parishioner hoped that I might visit her some time.

          Off I went the next day to visit Harriet.  What would I say?  Would she be able to talk?  Just how would I handle the situation having never met her before? I could feel my anxiety growing.  Little did I know how well she was handling her personal storm, her test of faith. 

          After receiving directions at the front desk I headed down the long hall trying to decide reassuring things I could say to an 82-year-old woman who had just experienced a stroke.  In her room, she sat in the far corner clearly anticipating my arrival.  I was thankful that I was not late.

          I introduced myself and asked her how she was doing.  Immediately, I could read the strength of her faith; the sparkle in her eyes said it all.  Here she was, a stranger to me, already demonstrating the depth of her belief in a loving God.

          “I am so blessed,” she said.  “God has blessed my life in so many ways and I know that he wants me to work on getting better.  I believe I can.”

          With that, she stood up, grabbed hold of her new walker and took one step.  “You see, God is already helping me to regain my footing.”

          By the time I left, I had learned an important new lesson in ministry:  it’s not just the preacher who can inspire people.  In fact, Harriet had inspired me.  Whenever I returned to see her, she would have her walker ready and would be on her feet to show me her progress.  Each time she went a step or two further.  I had originally gone to be a pastor to her.  By her faith in action, by her hearing and doing of the word, she became a minister to me.  As she faced the rising waters and the roaring winds of her stroke, she prevailed because she was standing on the rock of Jesus Christ.

          I know that every one of you here this morning could tell a similar tale of how you have been inspired and supported by a person of faith who knows how to live that faith out even in the toughest of times.  God calls us in the person of Jesus Christ to live out the gospel, the gospel that tells us that “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.”  These are words not only at which to shake our heads with approval, but words by which to live every day of our lives.

          Our closing hymn says it well:

          When darkness veils his lovely face,

          I rest on his unchanging grace.

          In every high and stormy gale,

          My anchor holds within the veil.

          On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.

AMEN