St Martin's & St Paul's
Parish Canterbury
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In 1635 John Donne, poet and Dean of St. Paul's wrote a poem entitled A Hymne to God the Father containing these words:
I have a sinne of feare, that when I have spunne
My last thred, I shall perish on the shore;
Sweare by thyselfe, that at my death thy Sunne
Shall shine as it shines now, and heretofore.
If we find the Gospel reading (Matthew 7:21-29) today slightly chilling, it may be some comfort to know that we are in company with one of the great Christian poets."Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in Heaven". It's the sort of statement from Jesus that has the immediate effect of unsettling us, raising questions and doubts. We've been going to Church for years, following the liturgical journey, paying our dues, helping at the Christmas Fayre, trying to lead a Christian life, and hoping that when we do pass from this life we'll find that, without sounding too confident or complacent about it, we might find ourselves recognised and known and welcomed into that realm we call 'Heaven'.
When I was a teenager I used to read Jackie; there, I've come clean about it! There was one week I remember when it talked about depression and it described a girl having tea at her boyfriend's and quite suddenly feeling very alone and thinking: 'Nobody here knows what it is like to be me'. It's a moment of utter desolation; then boyfriend's Mum says, 'Like another cup of tea dear?' and she's back in the familiar world and she knows who she is and who these people are and that they all care about each other. But perhaps when she thinks about it, she feels just a little bit wiser, a little bit older. It's like a premonition of the truth that one day we will go where no-one can come with us.
Jesus challenges us to the core when he talks about saying 'I never knew you'. But then He goes on to talk about these two house builders, one who built his house on rock and one who built his house on sand, and the inevitable consequences. I don't think I fully understood the impact of that parable until I saw it presented in the animated film about Jesus, The Miracle Maker;. Using a very vivid cartoon we see the real difference between these two men: one can't wait to have his house and he builds it quickly on a nice flat sandy surface and is soon sitting outside it enjoying the sun; he laughs at his neighbour who is bashing away at the hard ground digging out this great foundation and then slowly building a house of blocks of white stone. When the storm comes there is no shelter for the one who is washed away while the other hides within the stone walls and in the morning open the shutters to view the beautiful day - safe.
The problem is that we sometimes give the impression that building your house on rock - ie on the truth of Christ, is as easy as building it on sand. For most people life as a Christian will be a struggle comparable to digging foundations and building walls; sometimes it will be a struggle with depression and doubt; few important things in life are easy; what is simple is the one thing required of us as we approach the task of building our house of faith: and that is trust. Trust that what Jesus achieved on the cross he achieved for us; trust that when we have to let go of life, he will be there; trust that when we go through shadowy times we are in fact not alone even if we can't see him.
We need to take the opportunity his harsh words present us with to reassess from time to time where we are on the journey of faith and vocation. As far as we can tell, of course. But remember that we follow a faith of paradoxes, one that includes the equally unsettling reminder that it is when we feel weak that we might be at our closest to being strong, because his strength is made perfect not in our strength but in our weakness.
Amen.
