The Gospel for The Second Sunday after Pentecost (May 29, 2005)
Matthew 7:21-27
‘It is not anyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” who will enter the kingdom of Heaven, but the person who does the will of my Father in heaven. When the day comes many will say to me, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, drive out demons in your name, work many miracles in your name?” Then I shall tell them to their faces: I have never known you; away from me, all evil doers! ‘Therefore, everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a sensible man who built his house on rock. Rain came down, floods rose, gales blew and hurled themselves against that house, and it did not fall: it was founded on rock. But everyone who listens to these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a stupid man who built his house on sand. Rain came down, floods rose, gales blew and struck that house, and it fell; and what a fall it had!’ -- The New Jerusalem Bible. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1995, c1985
Actions Speak Louder Than Words
The principal reasons that hypocrites grate on us so harshly are that our expectations are raised, then smashed -- and that we see our own failings reflected in the [in]actions of others.
A Reflection
Jesus poses for us the case in which human beings don't act the way that their words pretend they will.
The difficulty with us human creatures is that we think we're going to do something and then we do something else, often entirely something else, the opposite on the good-bad scale from what we thought about doing.
The Law was set up to chase people into goodness. If one followed the Law completely, then YHWH would keep the covenant. Otherwise, all bets were off; Israel's history is rife with bad things happening to Israel, all of them attributed by various prophets to YHWH's being pushed past the brink.
Christianity, on the other hand, poses an "attractive force." We are encouraged through Jesus' gift of his own life and love to draw nearer to our Creator by drawing nearer to God's other creations, and to do so in the same way that Jesus would.
The New Jerusalem Bible's translation pulls no punches: the person who acts ethically in following Jesus is deemed "sensible." On the other hand, one who talks the talk but doesn't walk the walk is called "stupid." In particular, the circumstances of the one who claims "stupid" become dramatic in their unraveling: comparing it to the house on an unstable foundation, Jesus remarks, "what a fall it had!"
We are given grace to set our sights high and to fail from time to time; we need to know that lowering our sights is a bad option to avoid failure. Instead, we need to look past the sights, to Jesus, to the one who calls us to His presence. There we will find the encouragement and further grace to love one another as He has loved us.
The Collect
O God, your never-failing providence sets in order all things both in heaven and earth: Put away from us, we entreat you, all hurtful things, and give us those things which are profitable for us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
2:49:57 PM 
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