9th Sunday A:House built on the rock

What we read today as our gospel is a conclusion to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. He concludes it saying: “Anyone who listens to these words of mine and obeys them is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” Let us analyse these words. Who is the wise man here? Wise man is the one who builds his house on a solid rock. In this context, wise man is the one who listens to 'these words of mine' (Jesus' words) and obeys them. So, listening to the words of Jesus and living them, is like building your house on solid foundation. Obeying or living Jesus’ sermon on the mount or his manifesto is like building your house on a solid rock.
Tell a modern young man that following Jesus' sermon on the mount is like building your house on the rock? He will stare at you and will say:
Are we building our houses on rock if we are poor in spirit or rejoice in our poverty, if we are meek and humble rather than asserting ourselves in this world of competition, and allow ourselves to be persecuted for righteousness' sake and rejoice in it? Are they strong foundations?
Are we building our houses on rock in this modern world by turning the other cheek, walking the extra mile, and forgiving as our heavenly father forgives?
Or are we building our houses on solid rock when we stop worrying about what we will eat or wear tomorrow, avoid judging other people, and ask God for those things that we need?
Enough, he will say. It is a strange rock to build your house upon. Indeed, following words such as these in our modern times is more like building a house on quicksand. How will we ever get on in life if we build on this foundation? Friends, this is the genuine concern of the modern man? Sometimes even we wonder and say “Is it really possible to obey the Sermon on the mount today?”
I'll say “yes”. How? If we understand them properly. Often the problem is not with the principles that Jesus taught us, but it is with the way we understand them. Let me give you an example to illustrate my point. It is a Sardarji joke. Sardarji is a character used to make fun of stupid or less intelligent people. The story goes like this:
One day when Sardarji visited his GP for his obesity problem the doctor told him “if you run eight miles a day for 300 days you will lose 10 stones of weight.” Wonderful. He went away. And at the end of 300 days, Sardarji rang up to the doctor to report that he lost the weight but he has a problem. Doctor asked him “what is the problem?” He said “I’m 2400 miles away from home.”
In this story when doctor told him to walk 8 miles a day he did not ask him to walk 2400 miles away from home. He could have easily walk up and down 8 miles from his house. But our Sardarji understood it as walking away from home. That was his problem. So also for example, when Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount asks you to turn you left cheek when some one strikes you on the right you can understand it as a call to be submissive or a call be master of your emotions. (i.e)Don’t be a slave to other’s emotions. Let me explain. Suppose someone is angry and strikes you on your cheek, you get angry and you strike him back. What is happening here is you are reacting to the action of the other. You are being influenced by his emotion and you react. You are not the master of your self. Where as when you turn the other cheek when some one strikes you, you are not reacting to his action but you are acting and saying “I will not be controlled by your emotion of anger but I will be a master of my self. You cannot influence me. I am what I am and not what you want me to be.”
Now, this principle that Jesus taught 'that you be the master of yourself'; is it not a strong rock on which you can build your house or life upon? Yes it is. It’s a wonderful and fantastic principle of life on which you can build your whole character. We can analyse every other principle contained in the Sermon on the Mount; it ultimately comes up to character-building based on strong principle of Jesus. It is this building of character that is referred to in the gospel today. Build your character based on the principles laid down by Jesus in his Sermon on the mount. It is this building that cannot be shaken by storms of doubt, gales of scientific onslaught on religion, winds competition from other religious traditions. It will not fall because the principles laid down by Jesus are far above all religions and sciences. Knowing this is the beginning our salvation. Amen.