We are coming to the end of the church calendar. Next week we celebrate The Feast of Christ the King and the following week is the First Week in Advent, the beginning of a new church year as we change over to the readings for Year A and the Gospel of Matthew.

We take comfort in the things we can see, touch, hear and smell. The sounds of a newborn baby, the smell of a bouquet of roses, the touch of a loved one’s hand in ours. Through architecture we see what is important to a community. We look with wonder at the architecture of the great cathedrals and basilica’s the Europeans of the Middle Ages built – St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Austria, Cologne Cathedral in Germany and of course St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. The people of Jesus’ time spent forty-six years constructing the temple. In today’s reading they are marveling at the beauty of the temple, but Jesus is telling them it will all be gone. When we look at our own lives, we can name the places that we rely on and appreciate for their beauty and comfort: our homes, churches, schools and national monuments. These structures are all good, but none of them are permanent. They can be destroyed by any number of forces, most beyond our control: earthquake, fire, wind. 

My friends, to be the person God created us to be, we need to have a solid foundation. There are earthly things pulling us in different directions. Many people today try to build their foundation on earthly things like: 

Popular Culture. If it’s popular that’s what I’ll do. But what’s popular today won’t be popular tomorrow. You might remember the Pet Rocks of the 70’s or Cabbage Patch Kids of the 80’s.

Reason. God gave us the ability to reason, and we should use the gift He gave us. But we mustremember that our reasoning is not infallible. A good argument reaches conclusions based on facts and evidence – that is, on solid reasoning. Faulty reasoning offers a conclusion that is not supported by such data. Faulty reasoning is often illogical, overly general or biased. Only God can be trusted to be right all the time.

Emotions.  Trying to live by your feelings will have you bouncing back and forth based on your mood. Your emotions can take you from love to hate and back to love again depending on how you feel.

So, my friends, what are we to do? What should we build our foundation on? 

The Word of God. 

It was by God’s grace that St. Paul preached the Gospel of Christ, telling us “no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ.” Trying to build our foundation on Popular Culture, Reason or Emotions is like the man who built his house on sand. When the rains came, and the winds blew his house fell. 

When we build our foundation on the words of Christ, we are laying it upon stone and neither winds nor rains can destroy it. It is in Jesus that “we live and move and have our being.”

As we come to the end of our church year, we should think about what we are building our foundation on. Popular culture changes, reason can be faulty, emotions bounce us back and forth. But the Word of God never changes. We may not always understand it. We may not always like it. But it is the only thing worth building our foundation on.