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Preached at the Cedarcrest Congregation on Communion Sunday, June 1st, 2008 by Steve Pomeroy, Visiting Minister from the Renton Congregation
Matthew 7:21-29
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21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. |
In some ways, our focus scripture (Matthew 7:21-29) which has been read to us, really begins at the end. These few verses follow nearly three chapters in the Gospel of Matthew of instruction, lessons, and philosophy of life, expressed from God’s perspective, that we have come to call the Sermon on the Mount. I would encourage us to turn to those passages in prayer and study often as we each try to understand how it is we are to live our lives. The work of understanding that message puts in fuller context the admonishment we speak of today.
It seems as though we live in a world where people are always looking for an edge. We like to search for the secrets of success. We are fascinated by trying to discover whether there is a simple and easy key to unlock the doors of opportunity in life. Hard work is hard work – and if there is an easier way ……
If we are honest with ourselves, we probably have to admit to wondering, “Are there such keys or secrets that apply to Christianity as well?” “Why does it sometimes seem to be such a difficult lifestyle for us and so hard to fully understand?” It does seem that some people have greater success than others in living successful Christian lives. What makes that difference? Have they found some mysterious key?
You recall that among the Twelve disciples there were two who denied Jesus. Judas, no doubt, immediately springs to your mind. He is the one with whom we are most familiar in that context. But we should be careful not to forget that Peter also denied the Lord. Judas denied the Lord by betraying Him to his enemies; Peter betrayed the Lord by denying Him before others.
These two disciples both denied the Lord. Yet they ended up in two very different places. One life ended in tragedy; the other ended in restoration and victory. Was there something fundamentally different about their lives which made that difference? Did Peter find a secret, an edge, that Judas didn’t see?
What is the key to the Christian life? What makes the difference? What is the life-line through which the provision and power of God flows? What marks us as those who have a relationship with Jesus Christ? What gives us the ability to stand when others fall?
Jesus gives us the key to the Christian life in His closing statements of the Sermon on the Mount. He gives us the answer to the questions we have just posed. As a matter of fact, his words indicate to us that the key or secret can be summed up in one word – obedience.
Obedience is the natural outflow of a life which is surrendered to Jesus Christ. Obedience reveals who we are. Obedience reveals whose we are. And obedience gives us the power to stand in the tough times when others around us fall. Obedience gives us the foundation upon which to strengthen our faith. Obedience gives us the tools to use that faith to build our lives, our church, and God’s kingdom here on earth.
When we feel that we know best how to live for God, then where does that put us on the path to God’s kingdom? It may be that what we will have might be a called religion, but it will never be the real thing of a life with God. God is not calling on us here to commit to do a few more things for Him. He is calling us to surrender our lives. He is calling us to give up trying to do stuff for Him and to live for Him. He doesn’t want more of our spare evenings; He wants the whole of our lives. In exchange, He will give us His life. He will live through us and empower us, not to do a few more good works, but to do the greater works. He will enable us to really live and be a part of His kingdom.
Are we, though, ready to belong in God’s kingdom? Experience in our worldly journey tells us that not everyone who tries succeeds. Not every Indianapolis 500 driver wins the race; not every would-be inventor obtains a patent; not every child in school gets an adequate education.
Nevertheless, it comes as something of a surprise, even perhaps a shock, when Jesus, our gracious Lord and Savior, says, “Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven. How can this be, considering our Lord’s gracious invitations like, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy-laden and I will give you rest” or “Him who comes to me I will not cast out.”
Jesus’ words in our scripture passage then cause us to consider what is meant by being accepted and belonging in God’s kingdom. Right off, we can say that Jesus’ words are a solemn and serious warning against halfhearted or hypocritical devotion to God. Such attitudes and actions would be like those of Judas – who submitted to his own purposes and betrayed Jesus and then despaired.
Lest we rush to judgment about Judas only, we must confess that our own motives for church attendance or for doing acts of kindness are seldom unmixed. Perhaps even Judas rationalized and justified his actions.
Jesus’ warning that not all who call him Lord will enter the kingdom, therefore, demands self-examination from each of us. We find ourselves confronted by some serious questions: Is our faith true or mere sham, largely pretense, or a matter of words only? What do our actions reflect and what is our intent? The question is whether we are sincere enough in our faith in Jesus to seek to be the kind of people God wants us to be. Jesus calls us to commit ourselves to what God wants human beings to be like, as a mark of our sincerity in calling Jesus Lord. It is, indeed, a question of obedience.
Some of the words of Jesus by which he challenges the sincerity of our intent to call him Lord are among the plain words recorded as the Sermon on the Mount. “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” “Do not resist one who is evil but turn the other cheek.” “Do not lust.” “Be reconciled with your brother.” “Seek first the kingdom of God.” “Do not lay up treasures on earth.” “Forgive, or you will not be forgiven.”
These, and other plain words that Jesus gave us, provide a pattern for living that might cause us to echo the words of the great American humorist, Mark Twain, when he said: “Some people say they are troubled by the words of the Bible they don’t understand. What troubles me is what I do understand.”
We must realize that we will never belong in God’s kingdom because of what we have done. We have too many weaknesses for that to happen. We come into God’s kingdom only by grace, through faith — and in calling Jesus Lord, we dare not be insincere because our sincerity – or insincerity – will be evident to God by how we live.
In our scripture passage, Jesus goes on to present to us a striking picture of two classes of hearers of the Christian message – those who only hear, and those who hear and act. Both are placed before us, and their stories traced to their respective ends.
The one who hears Christian teaching, and practices what he hears, is like “a wise man who builds his house upon a rock.” He does not content himself with listening to exhortations to repent, believe in Christ, and live a holy life. He actually repents: he actually believes. He actually ceases to do evil, learns to do well, abhors that which is sinful, and holds to that which is good. He is a doer as well as a hearer.
And what is the result? In times of trial his foundation does not fail him; the floods of sickness, sorrow, poverty, disappointments, bereavements beat upon him in vain. His soul stands unmoved; his faith does not give way; his comforts do not utterly forsake him. His strength in Christ may have cost him trouble in times past; his foundation may have been obtained with much labor and many tears: to discover his own interest in Christ may have required many a day of earnest seeking, and many an hour of wrestling in prayer. But his labor has not been thrown away; he now reaps a rich reward.
On the other hand, the one who hears Christian teaching, and never gets beyond hearing, is like “a foolish man who builds his house upon the sand.” He satisfies himself with listening and approving, but he goes no further. He flatters himself , perhaps, that all is right with his soul, because he has feelings, and convictions, and desires of a spiritual kind. In these he rests. He never really breaks off from sin, and casts aside the spirit of this world; he never really commits to Christ; he never really takes up the cross; he is a hearer of truth, but nothing more.
And what is the end of this man’s foundation? It breaks down entirely under the first flood of tribulation, uncertainty, conflict, or personal misery; it fails him completely when his need is greatest. It leaves its possessor high and dry, like a wreck on a sand-bank. In such conditions, we find the truth in the meaning of what costs little is worth little! A professed belief in Christ which costs nothing, will always prove at last to be a useless thing.
The choice of where we want to place our foundation — where we want to build our lives, then, seems so obvious to us – and yet we struggle so much with the decision. Noted Christian author, C. S. Lewis, gives a remarkable illustration from his own life of why many people choose to “build their house upon the sand,” if you will. He writes:
“When I was a child I often had a toothache, and I knew that if I went to my mother she would give me something which would deaden the pain for that night and let me get to sleep. But I did not go to my mother –– at least, not till the pain became very bad. And the reason I did not go was this. I did not doubt she would give me the aspirin: but I knew she would also do something else. I knew she would take me to the dentist next morning. I could not get what I wanted out of her without getting something more, which I did not want. I wanted immediate relief from pain: but I could not get it without having my teeth set permanently right. And I knew those dentists; I knew they would start fiddling about with all sorts of other teeth which had not yet begun to ache. They would not let sleeping dogs lie.”
He continues:
“It is that very sort of thinking that keeps many people out of the kingdom: the price is more than they want to pay. They want their sins forgiven, they want to go to heaven, they don’t want to go to hell, but they don’t want Jesus messing with their lives! And they choose to go to hell rather than submit themselves to the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
We are called as individuals – and as a church – to submit ourselves to the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, to allow Jesus to “mess” with our lives. We come here to this table to personally recommit ourselves to that right relationship with him that led us into the waters of baptism and inspires us to seek to build with faith – lives that are true to the patterns his words and his examples have placed before us. Additionally, we come as a corporate body to renew our willingness to share that same Jesus with a collective message of compassion and sacrifice and peace, to bring action to a world that needs to do more than just hear.
As I began to ponder the theme for this service – “Build With Faith” – and knowing that I was going to be here to share with you this morning, my mind was flooded with remembrances of the struggles and hopes of your congregation as you embarked on your corporate journey from the old church in Everett to your meetings in the school, to sharing in each others’ homes, and, finally, to your present congregational home in this place. I know it was not an easy journey; your struggles in terms of obstacles, effort, and resources were huge – enough to make many such groups give it all up as too overwhelming to be accomplished.
But I also remember the great hope that carried you in those struggles – a hope that put aside old differences and looked to the future; a hope that looked at this growing area and saw opportunity; a hope that brought the joy of moving together in Christ as you began a new part of your journey. At that time in your life as a congregation, you were the epitome of “Build With Faith”! And so I wonder, where are you on your journey now? Have the hopes been fulfilled and the opportunities been realized? Or have struggles limited the sense of joy that you feel in this place?
Struggles, hopes and joy are part of the life cycles of every congregation – often all at the same time. Keeping the mix in balance is part of being a healthy, growing portion of the body of Christ. As congregations, we must also seek to build a spiritual depth that helps us to respond to our struggles and our hopes in ways that reflect the love that God has for all of creation and moves us towards the joy of being that which God calls us to be. And that call is clearly placed before us, as recorded in Doctrine and Covenants Section 163:
“God is calling for a prophetic community to emerge, drawn from the nations of the world, that is characterized by uncommon devotion to the compassion and peace of God revealed in Jesus Christ. Through divine grace and wisdom, this faith community has been given abundant gifts, resources and opportunities to equip it to become such a people. Chief among those is the power of community in Christ expressed locally in distinctive fashions while upholding a unity of vision, foundational beliefs and mission throughout the world.”
As congregations, that’s what we are called to be – the power of community in Christ expressed locally in distinctive fashions while upholding a unity of vision and foundational beliefs. How we answer that call demands the same kind of self-examination as a body that Christ calls us to individually. We must be willing to put aside our individual preferences and be open to the changes that will come if we allow the Spirit to lead us in giving life to our desire to be a part of building God’s kingdom.
Our former prophet/president, Grant McMurray, reminds us:
“There is much labor to be done. Reason together in love, and the Spirit of truth will prevail.”
“A prophetic people must work tirelessly to tear down walls of separation and to build bridges of understanding. You hold precious lives in your hands. Be gentle and gracious with one another. A community is no stronger than the weakest within it. Even as the One you follow reached out to those who were rejected and marginalized, so must the community that bears his name.”
As you minister in this place, build in trust – a trust that together you are stronger and greater than alone; a trust that efforts to grow will bring changes to be embraced, not feared; a trust that the Holy Spirit will lead you if, together, you seek it’s guidance.
Build with an eye to compromise – not of those foundational truths that deeply bind you together, but of those seemingly important, yet superficial differences that can split you apart. Recognize the need to negotiate and compromise differences for the greater good – whatever those differences may be.
Build with faith – entrust your lives to God; place in his hands your efforts, your resources, your talents, as well as your doubts and your fears. Turn loose of the minutiae and negative thinking that would distract you and blur your path. Believe in each other and the future you share.
May God bless each of you as you seek to anchor your foundation to His rock and build your lives and your congregation in His name.
