Word to the Wise
Saturday, September 10, 2011 - Saturday in the 23th Week in Ordinary Time
[1 Tim 1:15-17 and Luke 6:43-49,1066]I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, listens to my words, and acts on them. That one is like a man building a house, who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock; when the flood came,the river burst against that house but could not shake it because it had been well built. But the one who listens and does not act is like a person who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the river burst against it, it collapsed at once, and was completely destroyed.
Sometimes Mother Nature cooperates in the preacher's task! Here in the United States we have been watching news stories of flooding for weeks! The amount of damage is enormous. The pictures from the Northeast in the aftermath of tropical storm Lee are particularly graphic. Jesus' image of a flooding river destroying a house without a sound foundation seems to find some physical demonstration at this time!
The image of the sound foundation is part of a larger exhortation in today's gospel scripture which includes the image of good or rotten trees and the kind of fruit that results from either of them. Both the tree and the foundation parables graphically demonstrate the difference between simply hearing without acting and hearing AND acting on what is heard. Teachers, parents and preachers especially know what this means. Students, offspring and congregants will say "I understand!" and show by subsequent conduct that their understanding does not mean that they will act on what they understand. In short, the understanding is not part of the essential character of the person but remains superficial. Under stress and danger the understanding falls apart and moral decision making becomes chaotic! In the case of buildings, engineers and architects might use the term "structural integrity" to describe what enables a building to withstand great pressures and stresses.
Jesus' challenge to us is to ask how deep our commitment truly is to him and his teaching. If this commitment is part of our very identity, we cannot help but act according to it. But if it is only one of many "options" that are here today and gone tomorrow, disaster is sure to come. AMEN