Two Ways, Two Trees, Two Buildings

Brian and Kathy Emmet

Matthew 7:13-29

Fred Rogers (“Mister Rogers”), who appears to have known Jesus pretty well and modeled some pretty right-side up living in our upside-down world, said, “Life is deep and simple, and what our world gives us is shallow and complicated.”

Jesus makes things simple, which is not the same as making them easy!  But simple: there are just two gates, two roads, two kinds of trees, two kinds of builders and buildings.

Simple: either this or that.  But deep, especially when it gets down to me, to us, to Chatham Community Church.  Which way are we really on? What kinds of fruit are we bearing? What are we building, in our own lives, our families, our neighborhoods, in our church?

The broad road, the bad tree, the building-that-will-fall often have a lot in common.  They can be attractive and inviting: would you rather whisk along a high-speed superhighway or have to hike some pretty challenging terrain?  The wrong way/tree/house can look great: easy and comfortable, big and leafy, brand-new and the latest and hottest in form and fashion, but useless when you’re really lost, hungry or needing shelter from the storm.

Jesus ends this sermon with words that are both stern warnings and amazing invitations.  There are just two ways, and one leads to destruction – but you do not have to go that way!  There are many voices and all kinds of experts and “prophets”, but many are wolves – and you do not have to be taken in by them!  There are folks who claim to be Christ-followers but their “faith” is merely words not actions, and there are those who do the will of our Father in heaven – and you can be part of the second crew, not the first!

And you are building a house.  It’s called your life. It’s possible to build big and beautiful but on a poor foundation, or to build in a way that emerges whole despite the storms that life will definitely send upon it – and you can build a house, a life, that endures, a life that bears the good fruit of following Jesus, a life that leads you and others into a life that is life indeed, life abundant, life eternal.

So let us hear the warnings and receive the invitation.  There is just one gate, one way, to life, and that is Jesus himself.  Measure all that comes at you according to whether it bears the kind of fruit Jesus seeks or something else.

In particular, pay attention to your foundation.  The foundation—what it’s made of and into what it is  set—determines the health and stability of the entire house, of your whole life.  No one looking at a lovely house ever says “Nice foundation!” The foundation is largely hidden, but it will determine – it will determine—the strength of the whole house.

Simple!  But hardly “easy” … 

… until we get going.  As we get going, we see that the Jesus Way really is the only way there is!

Name two or three contemporary “broad ways that lead to destruction”? To which are you vulnerable?

Is there anything about your life’s foundation that concerns you?  How could you begin praying that concern?