Wellspring UMC; Third Sunday after Pentecost; June 1, 2008: “The End of a Sermon”:

-Psalm 46; Matthew 7: 24-29

Sometimes one has to simply call a spade a spade, and that spade for us today is to admit that as hard as it is, this is a season of endings. For weeks now, Teresa and I have been packing up the house, and this week I start on my office. The staff and leadership are implementing transition plans. A week ago I had my last worship planning meeting. I’m in the process of making final visits to those who are homebound and sick in the congregation. Today is the last Sunday we’ll partake of communion together. In just a few weeks I’ll preach my last sermon as your pastor. It’s hard for all of us to accept, and yet, one of the wonderful things is that more often than not, and certainly in this case, endings lead to beginnings.

Endings lead to something different, something new, some blessings which we cannot name at the outset but can see with clarity on the other side. Endings are a fact of life, but more powerfully, so are beginnings, and we rest in the truth that God is a God of beginnings. As the story of Creation proclaims and reminds us that each stage of God’s beginning ends up being “good.”

I begin this sermon this way, not to depress us or bring a pall over our worship, but because our Gospel reading is actually an ending...an ending which leads to a new beginning, not just for the disciples, not just for the Jewish leadership, but for the world, even for you and for me.

Recently we held our spring new member classes, and I begin that class with a discussion about basic Christianity based upon Matthew, chapters 5-7, otherwise known as the Sermon on the Mount. When was the last time you read this first sermon of Matthew’s Gospel? If it’s been awhile, I recommend it, but I warn you, it’s a harder pill to swallow than how I began this sermon.

Jesus’ sermon begins with the Beatitudes, those confounding sayings proclaiming that the losers of the world will be the recipients of the Kingdom. Odd and hard, one can imagine that as soon as Jesus opened His mouth and spouted out this list of “blessed are...” sayings, people either took note or they walked away. But Jesus doesn’t stop there.

No, Jesus goes on to talk about being salt and light in a dark world, standing against the darkness, often times by ourselves. He gets moralistic, telling all not to murder, commit adultery, divorce, lie, or fight, and is bold enough to command that His followers do more than just live in peace but instead love our enemies. This whole section focuses on being in relationship with others, often at our own expense.

Then He digs a bit deeper, not leaving us to think about those around us, but instead turns a finger at us saying, “You, give to the poor, pray, fast, store up treasures in heaven, not on earth, don’t worry, don’t judge, then when things get tough, ask so God might hear and respond.” Anyone here do all of these consistently? Even inconsistently? These are hard lessons, for they force us to take account of our lives and our relationship with God, and they move us to a place where we humbly realize where we are in light of God’s power and love.

Then, as the topping on the cake, or more appropriately the final nail in the coffin, Jesus says, “The gate to heaven is not wide, it’s narrow. It’s hard to get in! And by the way, is the fruit you bear good or bad? Be careful who you follow.” Then, we come to our passage for the day, this parable of the men who built their houses...built their faith...one on rock and one on sand. In telling it Jesus is saying, “You better build your faith on me, not anything else, for everything else simply washes away in the storms of life.” What a way to end a sermon! Then again, it’s not the tamest sermon preached.

I remember when I was in college, I was having lunch with the dean of the Chapel, Will Willimon, and the topic of the Sermon on the Mount came up. I was really puzzled by it, and Will in his dry, sarcastic way said, “Oh, I think Jesus was just having a bad day when he preached that one!” For a long time I took that and ran with it, but now I realize Will’s sarcasm. He was actually telling me the opposite. That Jesus wasn’t having a bad day, instead this was the beginning of a ministry which would end, only to create the greatest beginning ever.

We come into these verses with Jesus saying, “Therefore anyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice...Anyone who has heard this call to true discipleship, this hard way of life, this new way of being, and actually does this...is like a wise man who built his house on a rock, on a solid foundation.” “Because,” Jesus says, “When the rains come, the foundation is sure. When the endings of life come, then the One constant is there. When the change and transition is upon you, then the One who is found in the midst of the change, will hold you up.” At the end of the sermon, Jesus says, “You know I’ve laid all this out as a guide for right living, and if you do it, I’ll be there and you’ll be okay.”

“But if you don’t,” He goes on, “Well, it’s like building on a flood plain, and when the storms come, your house will be washed away, and so will you. When the end of an era comes about, you’ll be lost. When there is a shift in the way things have been, you’ll be tempted to look to self and not to the source, and when that happens, the risk is for failure and even destruction.” Jesus is even so graphic as to say that if one builds on sand, it will come down “with a great crash!”

You’d think folks would be discouraged. You’d think they’d be disgusted, or simply write Him off as crazy, but it says “the crowds were amazed.” Translated from the Greek it means they were “astonished to the point where, as should happen in a good sermon, they went home pondering what He meant and what it all meant for their lives. The end of the sermon left them wondering, but as they wondered, I’m sure there were many who wandered with Jesus.

I’m sure there were many who decided to follow and see, to take His advice and live in a different way. They saw and experienced the healings, listened with intention to His wisdom, and some even walked to the foot of the Cross, only to realize later that that intended ending was not the end but was instead a beginning. And out of that beginning came the Spirit’s descension, then Christ’s ascension, and the creation of the Body of Christ, the Church.

Have you ever taken the time to look at our order of worship? Have you ever noticed that the sermon is not the last thing in the order? It actually comes in the middle of our worship. What comes before it prepares us to hear the Word, then what comes after it is given as a response to the Word. The offering, special music, communion and prayers are all shared as a response to God’s grace revealed in the Word.

Though it sounds obvious, that means that the end of the sermon is not the end of our worship, instead, it really is the beginning of our week. The end means we take home with us what we’ve heard and experienced. We hopefully mull it over in our hearts and minds, but we don’t stay where we were, receiving for ourselves. Instead, we respond, through communion and prayer, and in doing so we build a relationship with God. It’s like...building our spiritual house on the solid rock of God’s grace. Trusting and knowing that it’s not the end, but the beginning of our next faithful step, and God’s next step with us.

In a few minutes we’re going to be invited to come forward to receive the Holy Meal. That invitation, however, is about more than just coming to the Table, it’s also about accepting an invitation to build our lives and faith upon the foundation of God’s love. It’s about taking the ending and living into a beginning. It’s about the end of the sermon, the end of time together, the end of what was and has been, and being transformed into God’s affirmation that in all things and all ways, God is with us, changing us, and shaping us, to not just hear but to be the sermon Jesus shares with the world.

This is a season of endings, and that is a hard thing, but it is also a season of new beginnings. It is a time to respond to the sermon that has been preached among us these last five years, that in doing so, our lives, the life of this church, and all who are touched through this place will stand on solid ground, continually amazed and astonished at all God has done, is doing, and will do as we grow to become all God would have us be. Amen.