We have before us today the conclusion of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. In this brief section, Jesus is telling the gathered crowd what they are to do next. They have been listening to Jesus speak about a variety of topics – giving instructions about them. Now the question that remains is – Now What?

Jesus answers that with the story about the two builders. One built his house on a rock foundation and it withstood all the storms. The other built his house on sand and when a storm came along, the house fell. Now this is not Jesus’ lesson to contractors about good building practices. I think that the part of this story that gets emphasized is building one’s house on the rock of faith that we have been given through Christ. But is that all Jesus is saying?

The metaphor at use here is that the person who listens to Jesus’ words and does them is like the man who built his house on a solid foundation. The person who merely listens to Jesus’ words is like the man who built his house on shifting sand. The difference in these two builders is that one of them listens to what Jesus has to say and acts upon them and the other merely listens to what Jesus has to say and does nothing. So rather than being a lesson on maintaining structural integrity in one’s house, this is a lesson on maintaining structural integrity in one’s life. What does it mean to have one’s life built firmly upon the gospel preached by Christ?

In Paul’s letter to the Christians in Rome, he addresses this idea of justification by faith. This is a good Presbyterian passage because this is a cornerstone for our theology as a denomination. What Paul is telling his readers is that Christ’s death was an act of grace that God gave to everyone – Jew and Gentile. Through faith in God, we are all put right with God. Faith is the solid ground that we stand upon. Because of the actions of God through Christ we can have a solid rock upon which to build our lives. Our faith becomes the bedrock of our lives that will hold firm amid the storms that life sends our way.

During Noah’s time they didn’t have the advances in modern meteorology that we have now. They would have known many of the signs that a storm was coming but there wasn’t an advanced warning system in place. Even though there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, Noah trusted God and built the ark. Noah’s faith in God caused him to act.

The partnership that Jesus is putting forth at the conclusion of his Sermon on the Mount is a two-step process for the structural integrity of one’s life. The first step is to listen. The second step is to act.

The order of these steps is critical. One must listen before one can act. The listening cannot be half-hearted or done while multi-tasking but must take one’s whole attention. How many of us have been involved in conversations where we were only half-listening to what the other person was saying to us? Or have you been on the other end and only half-listened to what the other person was saying? The act of active listening is quickly becoming a dying thing as we are bombarded with more and more distractions to genuine human interaction.

The second step is to act. This step of action isn’t just to do what you were already going to do before you started to listen. The step of acting is to take what you have listened to and from that figure out the proper action to live out what you have heard. From the base of what you have heard, then you decide the next steps forward.

So many times we go into meetings with our own expected outcomes. From this meeting we expect that x, y, and z actions will be agreed upon. These are the only solutions as far as you are concerned and therefore they can be the only possible outcomes of this meeting. Sometimes we come to meetings so prepared to win others to our way of thinking that we don’t even listen to what the others have to say. But one of the foundational ideas of the Presbyterian system of governance is freedom of the conscience. In all of our meetings, we emphasize the importance of truly listening to what the other people have to say and then coming up with actions based on what was heard during that meeting. At least this is what we strive for.

For this reason, when we send a commissioner to presbytery or General Assembly we do not tell her or him how to vote on any given issue. That commissioner is not a delegate bound to vote according to the will of those who selected him or her. They are commissioners who are to go, be a part of the discussion and study, participate in the worship, and listen to hear the will of God. The hope is that God’s Spirit will be at work in the gathered group as people share ideas and listen to one another. From this act of listening, the hope is that actions that are agreed upon may represent our best understanding of God’s will.

So now Jesus has instructed the people listening to him preach to now go and act on what they have heard. Now some of these things that Jesus has included in his instructions in the Sermon on the Mount are pretty surprising, if not downright crazy by the world’s standards.

Just think, in this sermon Jesus has instructed the crowd that they should reconcile themselves with their brother or sister if they have an argument. Jesus told the people that if someone strikes you on the cheek you should turn your head and offer the other cheek up to them as well. He told them to offer up our cloak when our coat is taken away and to walk a second mile.

Jesus told the people that they should love their enemies and pray for those who persecute them. He said that the poor will be blessed, those who mourn will be comforted, and the people who work for peace will be lifted up as children of God. Jesus tells the people that they shouldn’t be showy about giving alms or praying. Jesus tells the people that they shouldn’t worry about their possessions but should concern themselves with God’s kingdom instead.

This is pretty radical stuff! Some of it might not seem so radical to us because we have heard it so much and that familiarity has watered it down for us. But if we really listen to what Jesus is saying we can’t help but be a little put off or taken aback. I mean, Jesus can’t be serious about all this, can he?

Does Jesus really mean that we should love our enemies? But certainly we can get away with making a distinction between loving our enemies without having to like them. And what does he mean by our enemies? Does he just mean those people whose faces we know who are mean to us? That boy who pushes you into your locker or that girl who talked about you behind your back? Or does he include that group of people that we have lumped together and thrown up a wall a fear around? Those people who are so different from us – in race, religion, nationality, or any other way. Does Jesus really want us to love them?

Does Jesus really want us to offer our cheeks up to be struck? That "eye for an eye" stuff was really great we could understand that. But Jesus, do you really mean to say that is not the way to go? Come on, revenge is what makes sense to us – don’t we want a little payback? Do you really mean all that stuff about forgiveness? Come on, Jesus, you can’t be serious! Can you? I mean it’s great to come and listen to you speak and everything – after all, Jesus is a really good preacher. But he can’t expect us to really go out and do these things he’s talking about, can he?

William Barclay in his commentary on this text wrote, "Knowledge only becomes relevant when it is translated into action…Knowledge must become action; theory must become practice; theology must become life."

It’s all fine and dandy to listen to and study these words of Christ but that second step of action is where we truly show our foundations. This is not to say that we are justified with God through our actions – indeed God’s grace and our faith justify us to God. But when one truly has faith, then doing that second step, though it will not be simple or easy, will come nonetheless.

When we are not afraid to dig down a little deeper in order to find solid rock upon which to root ourselves, then we can find a faith that can withstand any storm. When we only want a little show of faith – you know just enough to fit in – then instead of digging deep down to rock we build houses on the shifting sands that seem so firm right now but move and shift at the first sign of turmoil.

When Jesus had completed his sermon, the people reacted with astonishment. They had never heard anyone preach like that before. He truly had an authority about him. It is because Christ is who he is that he can preach with such authority. It is because Christ is the Son of God who came to be God-with-us that he can say these things. It is because these things were said by Christ and Christ is our solid rock of a foundation that we can have the courage and faith to do the things he said. To act on Christ’s words is to build a life with structural integrity upon the rock of our salvation.

Sure some of the things that Christ tells his followers are difficult and opposite of what the world tells us to do but because we have faith in Christ and the way that Christ showed us, we can not only hear but act upon what we have heard. If the words were said by another then acting upon them would truly be an act of radical foolishness but because these words came by one speaking with the authority of God, acting upon them is an act of radical faith.