Faith and Life's Tsunamis

Who doesn't remember the idyllic, perfect morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001? Before 9:00. Isn't it interesting that all the survivors of the Tsunami on December 26 last year agree that on that day too, it was an idyllic morning -- a perfect morning. People were eating breakfast, going scuba diving, digging their toes into warm sand. But meanwhile, shockwaves were forming from the sudden vertical thrust of the Burma tectonic plate. The deformed sea floor thereby displaced billions of gallons of seawater that had to go somewhere. By the time the shock waves reached shallow water, they mounted up into one or several giant sea waves, or tsunamis, that can reach 100 feet in height. The combined energy of these towering waves marched onward many miles inland. They crushed everything in their path. Including people. Some 150,000 people died on that idyllic morning.

We continue to find this whole thing pretty hard to fathom. And we ask, "What could have been done to reduce this terrible loss of life?"

Mangrove forests are God-made wetland ecosystems located along marine coastlines. They're comprised of 60 or so species of trees, shrubs and other plants that thrive in extreme conditions. Their unique aerial root systems protect coral reefs, they function as filters to protect soil, they provide a habitat for all kinds of wild life. At the same time they supply food, medicine, wood and clothing for people. Mangrove forests, in combination with coral reefs, sand bars and sand dunes, buffer inland areas against the ravages of storms, typhoons and tsunamis. They protect fragile shorelines from erosion. They save countless human lives. Those areas covered with dense mangroves suffered fewer human casualties and less damage to property compared to nearby areas without mangroves.

But Mangrove forests have been disappearing at an alarming rate over the last 50 years. They've been dismantled to make way for hotels on sandy beaches and large-scale shrimp farms that cater to western tastes. Roughly one third of Mangrove forests in Asia and Indonesia were replaced by commercial shrimp farms between 1986 and 1996. 80-95 percent of all farmed shrimp are exported to the United States, Japan, and the European Union. A shrimp farm lasts ten years tops. After the farm has been abandoned, the land is barren, contaminated, and unusable for decades. Even rice won't grow on these lands. Even mangroves do not re-grow. But mangrove forests are what can prevent the loss of human life on those rare instances when tsunamis occur.

Jesus meets us today at the very end of the Sermon on the Mount. And he says, "Everyone who hears these words and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock." (Matthew 7:24) He contrasts the wise man with the foolish man who built his house on the sand. A house built on sand cannot withstand the rain and floods and winds. He uses the metaphor of a house built on sand to describe the hypocrisy we so often find in religion. He's challenging the appearance of faith as opposed to the reality of faith. The reality of faith he compares to a house built on rock.

And yet this sort of thing happens all the time. You may remember this story. A new housing complex was hurriedly built by a Nicaragua president for hundreds of his poorest citizens to impress a visiting American president. Suddenly Hurricane Mitch hit. The ground didn't provide an adequate foundation. The houses were too hastily constructed. 2000 people died when their homes were swept away in mudslides. Jesus would have no shortage of material for telling such parables today.

So what does it mean, spiritually speaking, to build our house on the rock? Picture two houses -- one built on rock and one built on sand. One peasant's shack protected by the Mangrove Forest but still standing, or one demolished, fancy beach front hotel on the Indian Ocean after the Tsunami. Which one looks like your faith? Your spiritual life? Which most resembles your life? Does it have characteristics of each? What tsunamis of life are raging against you? In what way do you feel yourself tottering? How can you stand firm? What makes the difference? How can Jesus become your sure foundation, your solid rock? How might Jesus be your mangrove forest -- not to prevent the tsunamis of life, but to keep the tsunamis from destroying you?

I first heard the following riddle from the principal at West Middle School in Plymouth at our son Matt's graduation from 8th grade. And I think this riddle gives us the answer to these questions.

Who am I? I am your constant companion. I am your greatest helper or your heaviest burden. I will push you onward or drag you down to failure. I am completely at your command. Half the things you do, you might just as well turn over to me, and I will be able to do them quickly and correctly. I am easily managed; you must merely be firm with me. Show me exactly how you want something done, and after a few lessons I will do it automatically. I am the servant of all great people, and alas, of all failures as well. Those who are great, I have made great. Those who are failures, I have made failures. I am not a machine, though I work with all the precision of a machine, plus the intelligence of a human being. You may run me for profit, or run me for ruin; it makes no difference to me. Take me, train me, be firm with me and I will put the world at your feet. Be easy with me, and I will destroy you. Who am I? I am a HABIT!

It is our habits that make the difference in the long run. Christians call these habits practices or disciplines. These are the things we do day and in day out that either build up or tear down or fake our faith and our relationship with God. Day by day, brick by brick, our spiritual disciplines build the house that will withstand the winds and the rain. They develop the root systems that prevent us from being destroyed by the tsunamis of life: disciplines like prayer, Bible study, fellowship, sacrificial giving, faithful worship, gathering as the community of faith around Word and Sacrament week in and week out, and leaving here to BE the body of Christ in the world.

I have to clarify something very important here. These practices, these disciplines, these habits that form and fortify our faith are not to be confused with works that supposedly win us god's favor, or with laws that we try follow to make ourselves right with God, or with the strength of our will. All of these, even the strength of our wills, count as sand when it comes to a foundation for a life of faith. But what our disciplines, our practices, our habits do is open the door. They allow us to place ourselves before God so that God can transform us. Richard Foster, in his classic book Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth, calls these habits "the path of disciplined grace." It is "grace because it is free; it is "discipline" because there is something for us to do. Jesus says the same thing today. He refers to all he just preached and taught in the Sermon on the Mount: three chapters in the Gospel of Matthew. "Everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock." The acting on his words is our part. The acting on his words is practicing the habits that allow us to place ourselves before God so that God can transform us. And it is our own faith that is being built in the process. We never know when what begins as a beautiful, idyllic morning may bring a tragedy or a tsunami of untold proportions. And we will need a life built on the rock of Jesus Christ. We will need to have been transformed by God so that the house of faith in which we live will stand firm in the storm. Shortcuts or appearances or hypocrisy don't get us there.

A very rich man became very rich because he built and sold houses, and they were excellent. They were excellent because he had a master builder who built his houses. Over 30 years the master builder had been building for him. He wanted to be relieved and to retire. But the rich man was interested in moneymaking and he said, "No, no, what is the hurry?" One more year." Then "One more year," and on it went. Finally, the master builder said, "No boss, I have to go." The rich man said, "Alright, one favor you do for me. Make one last house, and then you can retire." Now the builder had, all his life, worked with pride in his heart, pride in the things that he was building, never taking any shortcuts. But in this last house, he was disappointed that his boss was squeezing him like a lemon. His heart was not in it. So the house was like many other houses whose builders take shortcuts to maximize profit: he cheapened the concrete mixture, he used cheap wood instead of good wood, iron screws instead of brass screws. So somehow he built a house; in about eleven months he completed it. He went to his boss, gave him all the accounts, gave him the keys to the new house. The next day the boss had a party for the builder's retirement. He praised him and honored him and everybody spoke about his excellence. Then the boss took the keys to this newly built house. He gave the keys to this last house to the builder himself. He said, "This house was built for you."

So do our own habits, our own practices, our own disciplines, build the houses of faith in which we ourselves live. AMEN.

Pastor Dana Runestad
29 May 2005
Second Sunday after Pentecost/Proper 5
Holy Cross Lutheran Church
Livonia, Michigan

Sources:

Living the Scientific Life, Sunday, January 2, 2005, "Tsunamis and Mangroves: The Shrimp Connection" http://Girlscientist.blogspot.com/2005/01/ tsunamis-and-mangroves-shrimp.html

David Jeremiah, "Rock or Sand?" http://www.learnathome.com/

The Spiritual Formation Bible, NRSV Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1999, p. 1281.

"John DiLemme on "I Am a Habit" http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/Lemme2.html

Richard J. Foster, Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth San Francisco: Harper, 1988, pp. 4-9.

SRCM -- Recent Lectures http://www.srcm.org/literature/lectures/040208_Goa.htm

Back to home page