Thursday of the First Week of Advent

Lectionary: 178

Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them
will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.
The rain fell, the floods came,
and the winds blew and buffeted the house.
But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock.

Jesus concludes his Sermon on the Mount with this parable about the house built on rock. He is speaking, as usual, common sense. If you live by his teachings you can expect a reasonably good life. Storms may blow about you but you will be safe within his teaching. There is no substitute for a calm assurance when troubles abound. Without that assurance a person doesn’t need troubles from other people or situations; she will create them for herself.

I read this metaphor as a teaching about infrastructure. It costs a lot and is essential to life. It is complex and time-consuming. There are many wrong ways to build it and no right way. Everyone has an opinion; no one is right. It invariably entails complicated agreements, sacrifices and compromises. It is dreadfully boring. If it is well-built it will be taken for granted, which is always a mistake. If not well-built, the community will suffer.  

Louisville is a river city. It is subject to periodic floods – always was and always will be. So the city built a flood wall. Good idea. Some kids like to make tracks on the flood wall with their dirt bikes. Bad idea! They don’t remember the last flood; they think it will never happen again. “That was the old days.” they say. A few years ago, as the water came up, the city had to close one of the gates in the wall. No one knew where the key was. Someone forgot to tell where it’s kept when he retired; someone else forgot to ask. Infrastructure is all about knowledge of the past and planning for the future.

A spiritual infrastructure includes a religion that is built on the solid rock of the gospel. Life does not permit us to say that everyone is right. As Saint Paul insisted, some religious teachings are worse than wrong; they’re dangerous.

A magnificent tree
at MSF, unfortunately
situated by the dumpster.

If you get married but allow an opening for divorce you will probably keep sending signals of your availability. If you think abortion may be okay under certain circumstances, you might scream at your child in a moment of great stress, “They told me to abort you!” If you don't know that suicide is a sin, you're more likely to toy with the idea. 

A spiritual infrastructure built on the rock of faith prevents such things. They’re hardly imaginable. Just as a family feels secure within their well-built home during a storm, so do we feel when the culture around us habitually divorces, aborts, commits suicide and shoots people. We can hardly imagine how they think such thoughts.

A spiritual infrastructure, like the other kinds, requires sacrifices of time, talent and treasure. The Gospel requires dedication, learning, loyalty and love. It promises in return everlasting life.