“Building Our Spiritual Houses”
Matthew 7:21-29
Several weeks ago, four of us from Cane Creek joined a group of about eighty other workers to put a new roof on Crossroads Baptist Church. The existing roof was somehow pushing out the sides of the building. The new roof had engineered trusses. These engineered trusses replaced the existing design and transferred the weight of the roof so it didn’t push the sides out, but pushed straight down to the foundation. Crossroads Baptist has a whole new prospective on making sure the design is resting on a solid foundation. What about the designs of our own personal and corporate spiritual houses? What kind of foundations are they resting on? Are any of us in danger of spiritual collapse?
In 2001, a movie starring Kevin Cline entitled, Life as a House,[1] was making the rounds in the theatres. Does the title make you curious? If you haven’t seen it, it would be a good rental some evening. The movie uses building a house as a metaphor for life. To set the movie up, in a single day, George Monroe (who’s played by Kevin Cline), is fired from his job after twenty years, and is diagnosed with an illness that leaves him with four months to live.
He decides to keep his condition a secret and
uses his remaining time to replace the shack he has been living in with a new
house he’s always dreamed of building since he was a student. He also decides to enlist others in his building
project. First is his estranged son
Sam, an angry self-destructive teenager.
Along the way, others get involved: his ex-wife Robin, a neighbor named
Colleen, and her teenage daughter Alyssa.
At the end of the movie, the last scene is of this newly built gorgeous
overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
There are some themes that emerge from the
movie that I think connect to what Jesus was saying in our text today.
First, building the dream house for George
requires demolition. The old shack must be removed before building may
proceed. In the film, this functions
not only as a practical necessity, but also as a metaphor for clearing away failures
and disappointments in life.
Jesus says that not everyone who calls out
“Lord, Lord” will enter into the kingdom of heaven. Some may have trouble reconciling these words as coming from
Jesus. Isn’t he supposed to be about
love and acceptance? Oh yes, but Jesus
has always been very clear about distinguishing those who say the right
words…even do the right things…with those follow him with their hearts. Jesus wants us to say the right words, and
do the right things, but they must grow out of an authentic faith in Him. That authentic faith makes our spiritual
house strong. Do you have an authentic
faith in Jesus?
Too many of us live in spiritual shacks. Too often, our words and our actions are
simply words and actions. When that’s
the case, the foundation of our spiritual house is weak. So we need to tear down the old shack of
shallow faith.
What might you need to demolish today? Is your faith a façade with little or no
authenticity? When you cry out “Lord,
Lord” will Jesus know you as one of his own because of a faith the forms the
core of who you are? Now’s the time for
all of us to make sure that our spiritual house is solid…resting on an
authentic faith in Jesus. If that’s not
where you’re at today, then it’s time to get out the spiritual sledgehammer of
confession. If you need to confess that
your faith is not real, not genuine, then do so. Tear down that shack today.
The second theme that I think comes out of
the movie is that once demolition is over, rebuilding begins, and it’s focused
on relationships. When George involves
his son in the project, his intention is to restore that relationship…he’s not
simply trying to secure an extra set of hands for the rebuilding of the house. But the rebuilding also ends up extending to
his ex-wife Robin, her two young sons, his neighbor Colleen and her daughter
Alyssa. Sure, there are snags along the
way but reconciliation formed a solid foundation for relationships that he
wanted to restore, and also some relationships that just seem to happen along
the way.
When we decide to get our spiritual houses in
order, the foundation is centered on relationships. Through our authentic faith in Jesus Christ and his death and
resurrection, our relationship with God is restored. People become Christians because there’s a felt-need to have a
relationship with God restored that has been fractured and ruined through
sin. But the funny thing is, when we
get right with God, there’s often other relationships that end up being
beneficiaries too. Parent child
relationships can be better.
Friendships can be renewed.
Husbands and wives can fall in love all over again. The foundation of our spiritual houses is
focused on relationships: first with God, then with others.
There’s no question there will be bumps in the
rebuilding process and it won’t be easy.
In the movie, George has to deal with hostile neighbors, zoning codes
that were hard to meet, his own illness, and fractured relationships. But he sticks with it and succeeds because
the foundation is secure. Jesus says
that when storms come against houses with the strong foundations, they stand
firm. For whatever rebuilding you might
need to do today, start with your relationship with God, then turn your
attention to others. You might be
amazed to find out that as we get right with God, God is already working in the
hearts of others, preparing those relationships for renewal.
A third theme that was evident to me in Life as a House, and that also applies
to our spiritual lives is this: building is a personal but not solitary
endeavor. In the movie, George needs
others, even more than he knows, to accomplish his vision. The house raising starts as a solitary,
long-held dream, proceeds next as a two man project (George and his son Sam),
and concludes as a community effort.
Isn’t this also how our spiritual house
grows? We each have a personal
responsibility to account for our lives before God. But we also have a collective responsibility to our
community. As individuals, we need
others to grow in our faith. This
community needs all of us in this church to stay strong.
216 years ago, a group of people in the
community officially formed a church.
Through the years, there have been those who have continually attended to
this spiritual house (and I’m not talking about a building here, I’m talking
about this church’s presence and influence in the community). Every now and then, some renovation has been
needed. Some things have needed
fixing. Some other things have needed
replacing. Some additions have been
added. But always, this spiritual house
has been a work in progress. You can’t
just leave it alone or things start to fall apart.
Right now, our spiritual house here needs
some attention. Individually and
collectively we have some work to do.
Some need some demolition work.
Some need to rebuild foundations based on relationships – God first,
then others. Some simply need to be
encouraged that although we each have individual work to do, we’re not working
alone. What part of your spiritual
house needs attention today and what are you going to do about it?
Amen.
[1] For more info about the movie see: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0264796/ My information about this movie initially came from an article in Lectionary Homiletics, Volume XVI, Number 3, pp. 73-80. I’ve modified some of the suggested connections between the movie and the text for this sermon.