As I See It

by Fr. Vin

Building on Sand

“…like a fool who built his house on sand.  The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house.  And it collapsed and was completely ruined.”

-- Jesus in today’s Gospel [Mt 7:27]

We on Long Island know about inlets and bays, salt marshes and seashores.  And we know about our seasons: to expect changeable springs, hot summers, falling leaves in autumn, some snow in winter, and the occasional summer hurricane, fall Nor’easter, and winter blizzard. 

The people to whom Jesus spoke knew the Palestinian weather – dry summers, and almost all the yearly rain coming in the winter months.  They knew that the winter rains in the hills would turn the sandy streambeds that served in the dry seasons as roads into raging rivers – and that only a fool would try to put a house in one of those only-temporarily-dry sandy areas (called wadis).  That’s what they understood when they heard Jesus talk about “building on sand.”

We know people who take risks with the weather. Even to live on Long Island’s south shore is to play the odds with hurricanes, and people who build houses on the barrier islands are, we know, taking special risks.  But the torrent in a wadi isn’t a risk – it’s a guaranteed disaster for a home set there, since the floods are known to come year after year.  So what’s Jesus’ point?

It helps to know that this Gospel is the very end of the summary of teaching we’ve come to call the “Sermon on the Mount.”  (We missed hearing most of that part of the Gospel this year because of when Easter fell, determining the dates and the special readings for the Sundays right after Easter.  We heard the Beatitudes – the very start of the Sermon – in February, and now we get the wrap-up.)  So Jesus’ point concerns the entire body of his teaching: beatitudes, love of enemies, forgiveness of those who harm us, trust in providence.  The wise person builds on rock – that is, takes these teaching seriously.  The fool thinks they’re somehow optional, and because of that his or her life will end – like the house in the gully – in certain disaster.

Human beings are notoriously poor at long-range planning.  Our brains seem to be wired to count near-term pleasures and pains, even if minor, as more important than bigger ones in the distant future.  (You can perhaps see this most clearly by thinking back to your teen years.  Part of growing into being an adult is learning to choose against our instincts so that we can defer gratification and plan wisely for the long-term.)  Jesus is calling for short-term (even if lifelong) sacrifice for the sake of the common good and of our eternal life. 

We deceive people when we tell them they’ll be happier if they “find Jesus.”  Discipleship is not easy, and it goes in many ways against our fallen human nature to act as Jesus wants us to act.  Jesus’ point is that “building on sand” is easy; it’s not so easy to build on “rock,” but a life built that way has staying power.  And we build not with our ideas and hopes, but with our daily decisions.  The “house built on rock” of what used to be called “good character” is, in the traditional way of thinking, itself built on good values.  Good values are built up by forming good habits.  And good habits come from consistent good choices.  In a word: Good actions build good habits; good habits build good values; and good values build good character.  This is the life that has a foundation that will last, whatever the changing seasons of life throw at it. 

You might want to read the whole Sermon on the Mount this week, to remind yourself of what that “rock” is.  It’s in Matthew’s Gospel, chapters five through seven.  Until next week, peace.