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“Foundationally Speaking” Vance L. Toivonen

Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the LORD guards the city, the guard keeps watch in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives sleep to his beloved.

READING Matthew 7:24-27(The Message, Peterson )

(Jesus said), “These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit – but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock. But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don’t work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach. When a storm rolled in and the waves came up, it collapsed like a house of cards.”

SERMON

When my family moved here 8.5 years ago, we were faced with the task of buying our first home. I had spent my entire ministry living in parsonages to that point, so we had no equity built up. We had to cash in some small mutual funds in order to garner a minimum down payment. We inquired with a local banker, and found out that it was quite possible that we would indeed be able to take out a mortgage on a home.

Then came the house shopping. We scheduled a day with a realtor and drove to Sturgeon Bay. The realtor was pleasant, but realistic about homes in our price range, so he chose three homes for us to look at. The first house was a real disaster. The dining room floor literally sagged, and the basement looked more like a cave than the lower level of a house. The second house was built right next to a manufacturing plant, but was well built and nicely remodeled. The third, and last house we looked at that day was in an upscale neighborhood, a ranch style home with a full basement that was far from perfect. It was a kind of anomaly in the neighborhood, but it had everything we needed.

Everything, that is, except for a water view. We were moving to Door County, after all, where waterfront and water view property is the golden goose, the pearl of great price. When I asked about a water view, the realtor jokingly replied, “If you want a water view, put a pan of water in the back yard.”

So, we ended up nowhere near the water, which could be a good thing in the long run. In fact, we ended up on a hill, and on rock, which Jesus suggests is preferable in that second reading today. Certainly we have seen much destruction levied upon homes built along the coastline. But for some reason we are attracted to the water. It’s beautiful. It can seem vast. It can have that beautiful blue color on a sunny day. It is indicative of life, since we spend the first nine months of our lives surrounded by it. Baptism uses water, so water is a sign of rebirth in the same way that it is a symbol connected with birth. There are, I suppose, many reasons why we are drawn to water.

I am grateful to live in a house that is built on a solid foundation. But Jesus is not really selling houses here. Jesus is alluding to the foundations upon which we build our lives. Now, as a good, patriot, capitalist American, I might build my life upon self-sufficiency, pulling myself up by my own bootstraps and setting a course for my self-defined destiny; the captain of my own ship, the manager of my own stock portfolio. As a relatively intelligent person, who is surrounded by people of even greater intelligence, I might build my life upon pure reason, using thought and rationality to navigate my way through the waterways of life. As a caring person I might build my life upon the foundation of service, letting good deeds be the building blocks upon which my life is constructed.

Now, there is nothing inherently wrong with any of these foundational elements. But let me suggest that all of the above are more like building materials than foundations. Self-differentiation, reason, and service are all stuff we use to build our lives, to repair our lives, and to keep our lives in good working order. These materials are essential. And yet, without a solid foundation upon which to build our lives, these materials can end up being wasted when the wind gusts too strong or the rain pours too hard.

So what foundation will we build upon? Let me suggest faith as a possibility. On November 3^rd, my Dalai Lama tear-off calendar page read,

Faith dispels doubt and hesitation, it liberates you from suffering, and delivers you to the city of peace and happiness. It is faith that removes the mental turbidity and makes your mind clear. Faith reduces your pride and is the root of veneration.

The great theologian Paul Tillich refers to the object of our faith as our ultimate concern. The object of our faith, according to Tillich, must be something beyond ourselves. He writes, “Faith is a total and centered act of the personal self, the act of unconditional, infinite and ultimate concern.” (Tillich, Dynamics of Faith). What Tillich suggests is that our ultimate concern cannot be finite, since it is ultimate, and therefore infinite. He writes,

The fundamental symbol of our ultimate concern is God. It is always present in any act of faith, even if the act of faith includes the denial of God…God is the fundamental symbol for what concerns us ultimately. (Tillich, Dynamics of Faith).

So, the recommended foundation upon which we are invited to build our lives is something that is infinite and ultimate. For simplicity’s sake, I will call this ultimate concern God. And the words that Jesus suggests must infiltrate our lives shall be for me God’s words. The foundation upon which I am invited to build my life is, then, a foundation that is ultimate, and infinite; a foundation that is both beyond me and deep within me, a foundation that is greater than my self, greater than my thoughts, and greater than my deeds.

I have spent a good chunk of my adult life resistant to this foundation. God has been for me an object for debate and cogitation, questioning and doubting the existence of God, challenging the idea of God, and taking a lesser interest, if any interest at all, in the guidance or direction of God. I have given God lip service, but especially in recent years have not even bothered to do that.

My reason was that God is a word so often abused that it might be better to simply avoid its usage. But what I was really avoiding was not the usage of the word God. I was avoiding the primacy of God. I was avoiding God as my ultimate concern. I was avoiding seeking God’s voice, and resisting letting the will of God seep into my soul. I have been a kind of free radical bouncing around, tossed about by my ego, my so-called intelligence, and my difficulty in finding proper motivation to care about anyone other than myself.

So, as I said when last I addressed you, God is now in my vocabulary, to be sure. But even more so, God is once again the foundation upon which my life is built. I say “once again” as if to imply that this has been true at other times in my life. I think it has. But somehow it now seems different, deeper, and more real to me.

Two weeks ago, the Sunday I preached about healing, I sat before the sermon, knowing what I was about to say to all of you. Between the two readings Camille played a song on the piano. I’m not sure what was listed in the bulletin. At any rate, I did not know what she was about to play. Then the melody emerged. In just a few notes the music spoke to me, and it was as if God were speaking directly to me. And God was saying to me, “Be still and know that I am God.”

My eyes were closed, so no one noticed the tears I was fighting. In that moment there was confirmation for me that God is real. No matter my doubts, fears, or anxieties, God is greater than these. I am not telling you this so that you will now believe in God. The path I have walked to date has been circuitous. Having God as a foundation in one’s life is difficult, perhaps even dangerous. But oh, what a joy to wake up one day from a good night’s sleep to discover that the foundation upon which you are resting is infinite, beyond reason and doubt, beyond ego and id, beyond what you have or have not done. What a delight to dine on the words God wishes to speak to you, to make those words your nutrition for daily living, and to begin each day knowing that your life is in the loving hands of a power greater than your self.

I want to close with a poem that I have grown to love this week. It was written by Susan W. N. Ruach who, I discovered via the web, is the Director of Conference Spiritual Leadership Development at the General Board of Discipleship of The United Methodist Church, Nashville, Tennessee. Her Website is called “Leading from the Center,” by which she means leading from that spiritual center, that God center which is greater than any leadership I could possibly provide. As a leader here at Hope Church I must also answer the question, “What are we building this life together upon, foundationally speaking?”

So, the poem, titled, “A New Way of Struggling.”

To struggle used to be

To grab with both hands

and shake

and twist

and turn

and push

and shove and not give in.

But wrest an answer from it all

As Jacob did a blessing.

But there is another way

To struggle with an issue, a question –

Simply to jump

off

into the abyss

and find ourselves

floating

falling

tumbling

being led

slowly and gently

but surely

to the answers God has for us –

to watch the answers unfold

before our eyes and still

to be part of the unfolding.

But, oh! The trust

necessary for this new way!

Not to be always reaching out

For the old hand-holds.