Latest / St. Paul Podcast / Strong Foundations 5.31.26

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Strong Foundations 5.31.26 · St. Paul Podcast

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Hi everyone and welcome to the St.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Paul Podcast.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Mark Neethammer, senior pastor at St.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: Paul Lutheran Church, located in Davenport, Iowa, part of the Greater Quad Cities area of Iowa and Illinois.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: Right here, each week, you will find beautiful music and a message of hope and good news to guide your life.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm hopeful that this podcast can inspire you and help you on your journey of faith as you grow in love and trust in our God.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: It presents a decidedly clear ethic for how to live our lives in community.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: The reading we will hear in just a moment includes the final words of that sermon, and Jesus wraps it up in surprisingly simple terms.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: It all, as he says, comes down to the foundation of what our lives are built on.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: Take a listen.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on a rock.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on a rock.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was its fall.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when Jesus had finished saying these words, the crowds were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: It sounds pretty easy, doesn't it?
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: Build your lives on something solid, presumably on the grace of God, and all will be fine.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm not sure it's that easy.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm quite confident that Jesus knew as much.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: So here's my sermon on foundations, furniture building, and discipleship.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: People of God, grace to you and peace in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: In the year 1321, Dante Alighieri published one of the most influential poems of all time called The Divine Comedy.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: In it, Dante described nine levels of punishment and torture.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe we call them hell.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: And unfortunately, this is where most people get their theology of an afterlife.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's from Dante, not from the Bible.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: That's another sermon for another time.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: But what most people don't know is that there is a tenth circle of punishment, of despair, even.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: However, this tenth circle is one that people regularly enter voluntarily and in fact pay for the punishment.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's the circle of DIY furniture.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: In this circle of punishment, people go to big box retailers and Scandinavian superstores buying excessive amounts of pressed wood and mislabeled hardware.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: Inevitably failing to construct what is in the picture or on the showroom floor or what you dreamed that it would become.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: Never again, I told myself, never again will I enter that circle of punishment.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: Never again would I pay money to put that stuff together.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: Never again until I needed a new standing desk for my office here at the church.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: But I justified it in my head.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: I sit most of the day.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: We know how bad sitting is for you, so I'm gonna take matters into my own hands.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: I'm doing this for my own good.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna get a standing desk.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: Shortly after ordering it, my economically priced desk arrived, and I had high hopes.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: I opened the box.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: I laid out all of the pieces in alphabetical order, assuming that's how I would need them.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: That's not how they were used.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: I laid out the hardware also in alphabetical order, assuming that's how it would be used.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: That's not how it was used.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I got to work.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: The packaging said it would take me 90 minutes to assemble the desk, but I'm an overachiever.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: I accomplished it in only four hours.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: And it was still wobbly.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: Really, really wobbly.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: Why is it wobbly, you ask?
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for asking such a kind question.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's wobbly because I apparently did not tighten the right brace, the right phase.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I will forever get seasick as I attempt to write sermons just like this one from my wobbly standing desk.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: But I know I'm not alone in this.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: Whether it be a wobbly desk or a board put on backwards or one loose support in any of this type of furniture, maybe of little tiny mistakes magnify the instability of this type of furniture.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: Now, while DIY furniture was not necessarily on Jesus' mind as he began his ministry, this gospel reading we had for tonight is all about building things.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I want us to look at.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: We're in the seventh chapter of Matthew's gospel, which is right at the very end of Jesus' seminal Sermon on the Mount, this grand speech that takes up Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7, in which Jesus outlines so clearly and precisely what a faithful life looks like and how people were meant to live together.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: There should be no question for what our lives should look like after hearing this sermon in uh in Matthew's gospel.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: And here Jesus is winding it down.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: He's kind of summing things up a little bit for us.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: He gives broad strokes of what this discipled ethic is all about.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: And now in this little section we have, he goes back to the basics.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: He goes back to foundations and what people build their lives on.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what we really need to take notice of tonight.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: In this little vignette, Jesus tells us about two builders who appear on the scene, two builders who seem to build otherwise pretty solid houses, two builders who construct their homes, but on two very different foundations.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where things, of course, go awry.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: One of these builders builds a house on rock, on something stable, on something that will not erode or fade away, something that is solid, a good base.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: The other builds on sand, ground that easily washes away.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: It erodes.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: It gets dispersed by the winds of time.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, the metaphor here is what his listener, Jesus listeners, and you are building your lives on.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus does a brilliant job here of making you think that you even have a choice in the matter.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: See, on the surface, this reading can come across as a therapeutic monologue, if you will, with instructions on how to build a better life.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: Kind of like those simplistic how-to books.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: How to become closer to God in five easy steps, something like that.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: In this reading, it feels like you have a choice in the matter.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: Just build on a rock, it seems to say.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: That's easy.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm not sure any of us really have that kind of choice.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'll come back to that in just a minute.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: Within Jesus' whole sermon, again, this is three chapters long, Jesus has described a life so beautiful and demanding that none of us can fully live it.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: He says things like, forgive your enemies.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: Stop judging others completely.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: Forgive generously.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: Keep your promises.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: That should be simple, but it's not.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: He tells us to love without retaliation ever.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: And if we're honest, most of us fail with the first item before we finish even trying the list.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: So here Jesus presents what feels like a choice, and it sounds great.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: Build your life or your house on sand where it will wash away when things get hard.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: Or build on a rock where you'll always be stable.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's easy, we say, of course.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to build on a rock.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: We just sang that beautiful hymn.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: Easy.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: But can we do it?
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus still calls us to lives of mercy and faithfulness.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: But our hope tends to rest not in how perfectly we build, but on the one who refuses to abandon us when our foundations crack.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: People don't on purpose put their Scandinavian pressed wood furniture together with a board facing the wrong way.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: We're fallen people.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: We're broken humans, and we all make mistakes, no matter how strong we think our own foundation that we've made is.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: And we unwittingly always build our lives on the sand.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: And then we start putting our trust in those likes and those affirmations.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: And then we put our trust in ourselves that one day our name will be in the lights.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe it will be.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: But what if it's not?
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: And what happens when the lights go out?
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: What's next then?
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: Or we put our worth in our bank account, striving for another comma.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: And it's when, it's never if.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: If it were only so easy to choose to build on a rock.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: But here's the good news that Jesus is really getting at in this seemingly easy choice of sand or rock.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus knows something that we don't.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: He knows that we will always put our hopes and trust on ourselves and on our own efforts.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's that bootstrap mentality that so many are brought up on.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: And then when storms do come, when those hardships descend, when the bad news hits, and you realize that on your own you can do nothing.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: That's where Christ, your rock, shows his face and says, I'm here.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: I've always been here.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: You are forgiven your beloved.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: He gives us something better.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: He gives us assurances that when life around you seems to be eroding away, that he is still there.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: And he made that promise to you on a Friday afternoon when the world went dark, when he showed up three days later walking with his grieving disciples, leaving that tune empty in his wake.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the rock that our lives are built on.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: Or more specifically, he is the rock that you are already on.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: His grace will not let your foot be moved.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: So build away.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: Put that furniture together, build a life, shoot for the stars.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: And when you feel that it is slipping away, or that life is a little wobbly, or things are going all wrong, the forgiveness and joy of a loving and grace-filled God is already here, holding you up, even and especially when you can't hold yourself anymore.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: Storms don't determine what your foundation is, they reveal them.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: And the love of Jesus will never forsake you.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: Give us today our daily bread.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: Save us from the time of trial, and deliver us from evil.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: People of God, I wanted nothing more than to give you a sermon today on building your life on a firm foundation, and how when you do that everything will be fine.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: You probably wanted to hear that sermon too.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: But we all know it's not that easy.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: What's more important than our own foundations, though, is that when our own efforts give way or erode, the grace of God is there to pick us up.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: It always has been, and it always will be.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: And that seems too easy, doesn't it?
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_00: That's because it is.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's what the grace of God does for us.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: Our commitment to endeavors that lend hope to other people stretches across the country and around the world.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: We hope that in a good way you feel a part of that reach.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: Tune in next Thursday for another edition of the St.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: Paul Podcast.