Saint Luke's Lutheran Church

The theme for this year's Rally Day is Christians Under Construction. The idea for this theme came from the construction that has been going on in our Lower Level this past summer. This unfinished space, created eight years ago when the Celebration Center was built, is now finished and ready for the seven classes that will gather there today for the very first time. The theme, Under Construction, however, is not about classrooms or a building. It is about people. It is about children and youth and adults whose faith and life is under construction. It is not about a church made of wood or steel or concrete, but a church built of living stones, shaped and dressed by the Holy Spirit. It is not about the craftsmanship of carpenters and electricians and plumbers, but the work of the Holy Spirit who builds us as living stones into a spiritual house of God.

You don't have to go very far in Grand Rapids to see signs of construction - orange barrels along the highway, flashing signs to telling about lanes closed, billboards on busy intersections announcing the future site of a new business, and new homes and subdivisions popping up like mushrooms after a rain. These are signs of life and of growth. Look around St. Luke's and you will see construction signs as well - not just the signs of a new year of Christian education, but the signs of living faith, signs of people whose lives are being built up by the Holy Spirit.

Long before the advent of videos and Veggie Tales, parents would tell their children stories which taught some of the most basic lessons of life. One such fable is the familiar story of three little pigs. In this story, each of the three little pigs built a house for himself. The first two pigs settled for something quick and inexpensive - one built his house out of straw and the other built his out of sticks. The third little pig wanted something a little more substantial, and he was willing to work at it. He built his house out of bricks.

Of course, when the big, bad wolf came along looking for pork chops and bacon, he huffed and he puffed and he blew the straw house down. Then he huffed and he puffed and he blew the stick house down. But when he came to the house made of bricks, no amount of huffing and puffing could bring that house down. The lesson here is not about what materials to use when building a house - it is really a lesson about building a life. Jesus also tells a story about building a house in our Gospel lesson for today, but he focuses on the foundation rather than the materials. That is an even more basic issue. You can build your life out of the finest materials, with the finest craftsmanship, and have everything up to code, but if it is not on a solid foundation, it will not stand.

The parable of the wise and foolish builders comes at the end of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, a sermon full of great spiritual truths and profound life lessons. In this sermon, Jesus not only gives us the Beatitudes, the Golden Rule, and the Lord's Prayer, but he also teaches us to love our enemies, to let our light shine, to store up treasures in heaven, and not to worry about tomorrow. These words, Jesus says, are a rock solid foundation upon which to build a life. Those who build on this foundation will have a house that will withstand the storms of life. Those who build on other foundations are building their lives on shifting sand that will be swept away by the wind and the rain.

Our Christian Education programs here at St. Luke's are built on the foundation of God's Word. On Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings, we listen to this Word in order to learn about God, about ourselves, and about how to live in this world as people who belong to another. First of all, we learn about God. Someone once quipped that in the beginning God created us in God's own image, and that we have been returning the favor ever since. It's true. We want a God who is like us - a God who thinks the way we think, a God who likes the things we like and opposes the things we oppose, a God who does things the way we think they should be done.

The problem is that we do not get to make a god for ourselves. And the God who is, is not like us at all. The prophet Isaiah reminds us that God's thoughts are not our thoughts and God's ways are not our ways. So the only way for us to really get to know God is to listen to God's Word. In the stories of the Bible, from beginning to end, God has revealed himself as a God who is both just and merciful, a God who will judge and who will forgive, a God who is both far and near. But most of all, in this Word, we see a God of love - a God whose love for us took him all the way to the cross, a God who was willing to give his life so that we might have eternal life.

Secondly, we also learn about ourselves. Very few of us have an accurate self-image. In his book, Body Images, Thomas Pruzinsky says that people see themselves quite differently from they way they really are. Either they think that they are terribly unattractive when they're not, or they think that they are more attractive than they really are. While Pruzinsky is talking here about what people think of their outward appearance, it is also true of how people see their inner selves.

God's Word tells us the truth about ourselves. The Bible pulls no punches. It is a two-edged sword that cuts right to the core and exposes the deepest, darkest secrets of our sins. The Bible says that we are sinners - through and through - and calls us to repentance. But once we repent, the Bible also calls us saints - holy people, set apart by God for special purposes. We are, as Luther said, both saint and sinner at the same time. For a saint is nothing more than a sinner who has been forgiven. Through the cross of Christ, our sins are forgiven. That means that we don't have to cover them up any more. That means that we can be honest with ourselves and with others about what we have done wrong. But it also means that we are not burdened by our sins. They are forgiven. They are gone. So we are now free to live a new life.

This is the third thing we learn in the Word of God, how to live this new life. We live in a world that is filled with temptations and distractions - things that would draw us away from God. It is easy for sinners like us to forget that we are also saints. It is easier for us to fit in to our world than it is to go against the grain. But we are called to be in the world without being of the world. We are called to live a life that sets us apart from the world in which we live. So in Romans, Paul urges us not to conform to this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Good Christian education does not seek so much to teach information as to transform hearts and lives. So Christian education not only connects us to the fundamental truths of God's Word, but also connects us to the transforming power of God's Spirit. This is why on this Rally Day we define a Christian as someone "under construction" - a person being remodeled by the Holy Spirit.

Christians are always "under construction." God is not finished with any of us yet - no matter who we are or how old we are. This is why Christian education is not just for children and youth. This is why Christian education is not just for those who are new to the faith or to the church. Christian education is for everyone, because if we are not growing we are not alive; if we are not under construction we are deteriorating.

This is why we put so much time and effort into our Christian education programs here at St. Luke's. Christian education here is good, not because we have such a nice facility (which we do), not because we have such good curricula (which we do), not because we have such caring and competent teachers (which we do) - no, our Christian education programs are good because they are built on the foundation of God's Word.

In our parable for today, Jesus draws a distinction between the wise and foolish builder. Both of them listened to his Sermon on the Mount. The difference was that the wise man heard these words and put them into practice. The foolish man did not. So the question each of you will need to answer is this: Will I be a wise or foolish builder? On what kind of a foundation am I building my life? Amen.