Rev. Tom Sorenson, Pastor
May 29, 2005

Scripture:

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

I know that some of you have a problem with one of the things I often say around here. Well, actually, some of you have lots of problems with lots of the things I say around here; but this morning I want to talk about just one of them. I am a universalist. That means that I believe that through the cross of Jesus Christ all people, without exception, are saved, or to use the more technical term, justified. I base this belief in part on the theology of the Apostle Paul and specifically on passages like Romans 3:23-24, which we just heard: "Since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus...." All have sinned. All have been justified by God’s grace through the redemption in Jesus Christ. Paul said it, I believe, it, that settles it, to paraphrase a really obnoxious bumper sticker that perhaps you’ve seen.

Some of you have a problem with that because it seems that if everyone is saved no matter what, then what incentive do we have to behave ourselves? Why not do whatever the heck we want? We’re saved anyway. Well, I don’t know if what I have to say this morning will help you with your problem with my universalism or not, but let me give it a try.

This morning we have an Epistle lesson and a Gospel lesson that seem on their face to contradict each other. Paul says we are saved by God’s grace through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ made effective through faith. He says we are not saved by doing the works of the law. In our reading from Matthew, on the other hand, Jesus is quoted as having said that no one will enter the Kingdom of Heaven except the one who does the will of God, except the one who hears his words and acts on them. For Matthew’s Jesus, it’s all about what we do. Not, perhaps the works of the law exactly, but still: Whether or not we enter the kingdom is up to us. It depends on how we act, how we live. So which is it? God’s universal grace or how we act in response to Jesus’ words? Here’s the answer I’m going to try to develop in the rest of this sermon: We, all of us, are made right with God through God’s free gift of grace in Jesus Christ. We make that free gift of grace effective in our lives through faith. That, I believe, is Paul’s fundamental message, the message that lies at the heart of Protestantism. We make faith effective in our lives and keep it alive in us by acting on the words of Jesus, by living the kind of lives to which he calls all people. That is the message of Matthew’s Gospel. Let’s take a closer look at this morning’s passage from Matthew to see how that works.

Jesus says that everyone who hears his words and does them will be like a person who built his house on rock. A house built on rock will stand no matter what calamities nature may hurl at it. It is built on a solid foundation. It is anchored in place. It will not be moved. Even so, our Scripture tells us, if we hear the words of Jesus and act on them, we will be like that wise man who built his house on rock. We will build our lives and our faith on rock, on a solid foundation. We and our faith will then be able to withstand whatever comes our way. However the world assails our faith, whatever calamities we may experience, we, like that house built on rock, shall not be moved.

On the other hand, Jesus tells us, if we hear his words and do not act on them we will be like a foolish person who built his house on sand. When the rain and the floods, and winds come, that house falls because it has no solid foundation. If we do not act on the words Jesus gives us, our lives and our faith will not be able to withstand the trials and calamities that invariably come our way in this life. Like that house built on sand, we will fall, our faith will fail, and we will be lost.

Paul is right that our faith makes God’s grace, which is always there whether we believe or not, effective in our lives. Matthew’s Jesus isn’t denying that. Rather, he is addressing the question of how we maintain that faith, the question of how we found it on rock, how we give it the foundation that it needs if it is going to survive in a hostile world where pervasive secularism and the reality of evil and suffering constantly threaten to undermine it. His answer is: Act on what he calls "these words of mine."

Now at this point you may well be asking: "What words of yours?" I mean, in our passage this morning he doesn’t really give us any words to act on. He just tells us to act on them if we want to be like the wise man and not like the foolish one, but the passage does contain a clue as to what words Jesus means. After he has quoted Jesus about the houses built on rock and on sand, Matthew says: "Now when Jesus had finished saying these things...." In Matthew, that phrase, which appears five times in the Gospel, signals that Matthew has finished relating a major block of the sayings of Jesus. In the case of our passage this morning, the words "Now when Jesus had finished saying these things" signals the end of the first and biggest block of Jesus sayings in the Gospel, the collection of saying that we know as the Sermon on the Mount. Our passage this morning is in fact the very end of the Sermon on the Mount, and the phrase "these words of mine" refer, I’m sure, to the entire Sermon on the Mount. We build our faith on rock when he hear and act on the words of the Sermon on the Mount.

Now the Sermon on the Mount takes up three full chapters in Matthew, and it covers a bewildering variety of topics. I can’t possible tell you everything that’s in it this morning. There are, however, two important subjects that Jesus covers in the sayings that we call the Sermon on the Mount that I want to lift up for your consideration. One of those subjects is the poor. In the Beatitudes with which the "Sermon" begins Jesus says: "Blessed are the poor." Mt. 5:3 Now to be honest, in Matthew’s version he says "blessed are the poor in spirit," but in Luke’s version of the same saying it’s "blessed are the poor," and the scholars say that Luke’s version is probably more authentic than Matthew’s. So I’m going to take it that what Jesus said was "blessed are the poor." He also says in the Sermon that if someone wants your coat, give your cloak as well. Mt. 5:40 And: "Give to everyone who begs from you...." Mt. 5:42 He assumes that his listeners give alms when he says "When you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing." Mt. 6:3 These words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, and other words of his elsewhere in Matthew’s Gospel, put a strong emphasis on care for the poor. Caring for the poor is one primary way that we act on the words of Jesus and build our house of faith on rock and not sand. If you need an example of that, look at Mother Teresa. Her faith flourished amid unjust suffering that you’d think would destroy faith. Her faith was solid and held firm because she was acting on the words of Jesus to care for the poor.

Another major theme of the Sermon on the Mount is nonviolence. The Beatitudes include the famous "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God." Mt. 5:9 In the Sermon Jesus says: "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you...." Mt. 5:44 He says: "Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also...." Mt. 5:39 He meant: Do not resist violently. He did not mean, acquiesce in evil, but that’s a topic for another sermon. Jesus’ words call us to lives of nonviolence and peace. Working nonviolently for peace is one primary that we act on the words of Jesus and build our house of faith on rock and not sand. If you need an example, look at Martin Luther King, Jr. He worked nonviolently for peace between the races and for peace in Viet Nam, and his faith held firm in a world that could easily have overwhelmed it.

The lesson for us, I think, is this: Faith is a very fragile thing. It is hard to find and easy to lose. In particular, faith is a very hard thing to hold on to by ourselves. It is very hard to maintain faith if we live in isolation, if we live in idleness. In particular, faith quickly disappears if we act on beliefs or principles that are inconsistent with our faith. If we hear Jesus’ words about the poor but do nothing to relieve their plight or to change the social and economic structures that keep them poor, we’ll lose our faith. We’ll lose it because our lives become a living contradiction of it. The tension we then create between our faith and our lives will not hold. There will be a break, and our faith will be lost. If we hear Jesus’ words about peace and nonviolence but participate in, support, and do not resist governments that engage in war, we’ll lose our faith. The tension we then create between our faith and our lives will not hold. There will be a break, and our faith will be lost. On this Memorial Day weekend it is particularly appropriate that we hear Jesus’ words about peace and nonviolence and commit ourselves to act on them to the end that one day Memorial Day will become a recollection only of deaths and sacrifices of the ancient past and not an ongoing recollection of ongoing deaths.

We all are indeed justified by God’s grace made effective in our lives through faith, as Paul says. That’s the universalist part. Faith, however, thrives when we act on it. It thrives especially when we act on it together with others who share our values. When we hear the words of Jesus and act on them, our faith is grounded on solid rock. The rain may fall, the floods may come, the wind may blow, but our faith will hold and not fail if it has been nourished and strengthened by action. Action grounds it and gives it roots. Let us be like the wise man who built his house on rock. Let us hear the words of Jesus, and act on them. Amen.