Today, a scripture, a prayer, and a meditation.
"Everyone then who hears 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 beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell - and great was its fall!"
Now when Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.
- Mt 7:24-29 - NRSV
Walter Brueggemann has written a prayer specifically for this scripture:
No more sinking sand
God of heaven and lord of earth,
Tamer of heaven, lover of earth,
sovereign over the waters that surge,
provider for birds, beasts, and fish,
chooser of Israel and commander of all humanity.
Your vistas remind us
of how close and small we keep our horizons,
how much we blink at your power, and wince from your justice,
how much we waver in the face of your commanding mercy.
You, you, you only, you, God of heaven and lord of earth.
Comes the rain upon our parade,
and the floods upon our nations,
and the winds upon our personal configurations,
Comes your shattering and your reconfiguring
in ways we doubt or we fear.
We discover yet again, how sandy we are,
with the quaking of our foundations
and our fantasized firmaments.
We are filled with trembling and nightmares that disturb.
And then you-rock-solid-stable-reliable-sure
You rock against our sand,
You rock of ages,
You rock that is higher than us treading water,
You rock of compassion -
be compassionate for us, our loved ones
and all of our needy neighbors,
You rock of abidingness for our sick
and for those long loved, lingering memories,
dead and in your care,
You rock of justice for the nations,
fed up with our hate,
exhausted by the greed of our several tribes,
You rock of communion in our loneliness,
rock of graciousness in our many modes of gracelessness.
Come be present even here and there, there and here,
Move us from our sandy certitudes to your grace-filled risk,
Move us to become more rock-like
in compassion and abidingness and justice,
Move us to be more like you in our neighborliness
and in our self-regard.
Yes, yes, yes - move us that we may finally
stand on the solid rock, no more sinking sand.
God of heaven, Lord of earth,
hear our resolve, heal our unresolve,
that we may finish in sure trust and in glad obedience.
We already know what to do by our careful pondering
of you. Amen.
May we learn to be like a rock like God is a rock:
steadfast in resolve and in mercy,
strong in faith and flexibility,
loving through both compassion and justice.
May we realize that if we will be a rock like God is a rock:
Crashing waves and smashing storms
are to be expected.
Tumbling stones and careless birds
will scar and mark.
Heat will bake and frost will flake.
Still our steadfastness and shade
will be landmark and comfort to those
who have yet to dig down
to the real Rock.
The real rock on which we rest.
Imitate the Rock.
Imitate Jesus.
As unreal as it seems,
it pleases God for this to be the plan.
Grace and peace,
Ron
