Clayton Presbyterian Church
September 10, 2006
Rain
[The sermon was preceded by a video entitled, “Rain,” by pastor Rob Bell from a series called Nooma. The series will be the subject of our small groups. One of the points that Bell made in the video was that we are have “rain” in our lives, that is suffering, hardship, struggles, etc.]
It rains in our lives… a lot. I think that we all have experiences in life that are very similar to Rob Bell’s. It is a beautiful day. The sun is shinning brightly on our lives and then at the worst time, the time when we are the furthest away from our security and shelter, it starts to rain. And it rains and rains and rains.
This was the situation five years ago tomorrow—9/11—a beautiful morning that saw such suffering and sadness.
The book Firehouse, by David Halberstam, tells of Manhattan's Firehouse 40/35, from which 13 men responded on September 11th and only one returned. One who did not return was Captain Frank Callahan. Halberstam describes effective leadership by exploring Captain Callahan's wielding of authority. Halberstam writes:
A few years [before Callahan arrived] an officer had come into the house determined to make his mark by letting the men know who was in charge. He was a strutter; one of these officers, the men said, who swaggered when sitting down. He operated from the start as a hard nose, always showing everyone how tough he was and how they had better shape up to meet his high standards. What was worse was that they did not like what they saw of him as a fireman. Words in a firehouse matter much less than deeds. That captain did not last—he did not pass the firehouse leadership test.
The captain's character is elemental to the code of the firehouse, for he holds in his hands the men's very survival, regularly making decisions of life and death. By tradition the captain is the first in and the last out of any fire.
The officers lead the men into the fire and share their dangers. Thus leadership and title are not merely hierarchical with firemen; they are the basis of a sacred trust. Week by week, month by month, [Captain Callahan] won their trust. His leadership was all by example.
--Adapted from David Halberstam, Firehouse (Hyperion, 2002), pp. 31-34
As Callahan led his men into the towers that day, they respected him and trusted him. His life reminds us that Actions matter. Trust matters. Obedience matters. This is nowhere more true than in crisis situations, when the rains come into our lives.
This is the point of Jesus’ story in our sermon text this morning.
Scripture: Matthew 7:24-27
24 "Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. 25 The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall!"
It has been rightly said that crisis doesn’t create character, it reveals it. In Jesus’ parable the character of the house was determined before one single drop of rain fell. It was actually determined before the roof was put on. It was determined before any construction had happened. It was determined when the builder chose the site.
You can imagine a man looking for a place to build a house. In the summer they come across a flat sandy spot in a gully. He is pleased that it is a protected spot and it’s already flat and smooth so he can get right to building, and not have to do any leveling. This site is more attractive the one on the high, hard soil which would require a lot of work to get it ready for building. Everything would look great in the summer, but when the winter rains came and the gully was flushed with a torrent of water and the house is swept away.
The rains will come in life. There is no one who can avoid them. It always rains. But what we don’t want is to be the house built on sand. We don’t want to have our lives swept away by the current.
Jesus wants our lives to stand strong against the storms when they come. He tells us how. In verse 24 he says that anyone who hears these words of his and acts on them will be like the wise man who builds his house on a rock. Listen to his words and act on them—that’s the secret.
“… Let Him Hear.”
One of the great difficulties of the church today is how little we about what Jesus said. Biblical literacy is very low, and seems to just keep getting lower. Most people have a belief that the Bible is just too hard to understand without some advanced degree. It is ironic that Protestants think this way, because one of the hallmarks of the Reformation in the 16th century was the belief that the Bible was not just to domain of the priests, but it was meant for everyone. The Reformers had a strong belief that normal people with some education could profitably read and understand the gospel. They believed this even when most people couldn’t read at all!
It was as a result of their believe that God’s Word was meant for all of God’s people that literacy spread as fast as it did throughout Western Europe, since they began to found so many schools. We are so much better educated today and yet we have no confidence that God can speak to each one of us through his Word. Therefore, we don’t read it and we don’t receive the life-giving Words that he has for us.
You can just imagine that the man who built his house on the sand could have asked around to people who knew the area and who had built houses before. He could have greatly benefited from the words and wisdom of others. He would have said him catastrophic ruin. But he didn’t want to listen.
Walking the Talk
The other half of what Jesus’ said is that we need to “act on his words.” We need to put them into practice. While there may be some passages that are difficult to understand, there are multitudes that are painfully easy to understand. Do not lie. Do not commit adultery. Forgive your enemies. Love your neighbors. Honor and submit to your spouse in love.
What we have to do is not just take them as mere platitudes, but as the very words of life—words to live by.
Is there any word in which hearing and doing are summed up? There is such a word, and that word is obedience. Jesus demands our implicit obedience. To learn to obey is the most important thing in life.
Biblical Scholar William Barclay tells the story of a sailor in the Royal Navy who was severely punished for a breach of discipline. So severe was the punishment that in certain civilian quarters it was thought to be far too severe. A newspaper asked its readers what they thought.
One who answered was a man who himself had served for years in the Royal Navy. In his view the punishment was not too severe. He held that discipline was absolutely essential, for the purpose of discipline was to condition a man automatically and unquestionably to obey orders, and on such obedience a man’s life might well depend. He cited a case from his own experience. He was in a launch which was towing much heavier vessel in a rough sea. The vessel was attached to the launch by a wire hawser. Suddenly in the midst of the wind and the spray there came a single, insistent word of command from the officer in charge of the launch. “Down!” he shouted. On the spot the crew of the launch flung themselves down. Just at that moment the wire towing-hawser snapped, and the broken parts of it whipped about like a maddened steel snake. If any man had been struck by it he would have been instantly killed. Bu the whole crew automatically obeyed and no one was injured. If anyone had stopped to argue, or to ask why, he would have been a dead man. Obedience saved lives.
It is this kind of obedience that Jesus demands. But it is not for nothing. He gives us his words so that we can avoid the worst of the storms. He gives us his words as a way to full and abundant and eternal life. It remains for us to hear his words and to act on them.
As we move forward in these next few weeks, we will continue to look at what the Bible says about how to prepare for the storms that will inevitably come into our lives. So that we will not only survive, but thrive.