“Standing on the Solid Rock”
Matthew 7: 24-27
Pastor Deb Troester, STHPC, March 22, 2026
Recently my friends Will and Judith, workers with Wycliffe Bible translators, announced the joyous news that two brand-new translations of the New Testament have been dedicated in the Central African Republic, or CAR, Cameroon’s eastern neighbor. You might be asking, “Why can’t people just read the Bible in French or even Sango, the trade language?” But I’ve been there, and many people don’t speak those languages well enough to understand the Bible. How many of you studied a language in school, but probably couldn’t read the Bible in it? Having the Bible in your “heart language” makes it much easier to understand.
Yet, having a Bible in your language, doesn’t necessarily guarantee that you will read it. And reading it doesn’t necessarily guarantee that you will follow it. As Will and Judith wrote in their recent newsletter, the dedication of a new Bible translation “is the beginning of a new phase in the life of the church and language community – it’s more like a wedding day, or the birth of a baby, with all that lies ahead, than the “end” of the translation project. …Pray for the local launch events, literacy and Scripture Engagement activities, and for each person who gets a copy of the New Testament to soon be able to read them well, or listen with open ears, so that God can speak into their lives in a new way.” It’s not enough just to read the Bible. We must understand and put it into practice.
That reminds me of what our confirmation class has been doing. Six young men of our congregation have been learning about their faith over the past several months. We have talked about the Bible, what it is, how it came to be, why it is important. We have learned the history and beliefs of the Presbyterian Church, Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, worship, prayer, and the Ten Commandments. Most importantly we have talked about the importance of a personal commitment to Christ. Up until now, they have been nurtured and taught by their parents and other adults in the church, but now it is their turn to say, “yes, I believe – not just because my parents told me to, but because I want to follow Jesus. I want to profess my faith myself.”
The six of you have learned a lot, I hope – at least you asked a lot of good questions, and I tried to answer them. But the proof of your faith is not what we do here today, but how you live your lives from now on. Jesus said, “Everyone, then, who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. 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 rock.” When then winds and rains of life fall, will your faith stand? Will our faith stand?
When you build a house, it must have a solid foundation. My husband Joe, the geologist, knows something about that. Joe had noticed a few places on the hillside where our house is built where there have been landslides, although you can’t really tell unless you know what to look for. So, before we bought our condo, he checked a geologic map to see that our building was built on bedrock. Thankfully, it was. Bedrock provides the safest foundation, especially in an area prone to landslides or earthquakes.
It wasn’t any different in Jesus’ day. He told of a foolish person who built their house on sand. When the winds and waves came, the house collapsed. A wise person builds their house on solid rock. What does that mean? The foundation of our faith is Jesus Christ. A wise person builds their life on the rock that is Jesus. As the Apostle Paul wrote, “According to the grace of God given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation... Let each builder choose with care how to build on it. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 3:10-11). Choose with are how you build your life. Build it on the foundation of Jesus Christ. These past few weeks we have been learning about the Sermon on the Mount, especially the Beatitudes. The parable of the wise and foolish builders comes at the very end of Jesus’ great sermon. He sums it up in Matt. 7:12: “In everything, do to others as you would have them do to you.” Now he reminds his listeners: You have heard my words, now follow them! As the Apostle James later wrote, “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only” (James 1:22).
Yesterday we celebrated the World Day of Prayer. Each year it focuses on a different country - this year Nigeria. We learned how Christians and Muslims are striving to get along as neighbors despite religious differences. We heard how widows there have joined together to support one another and their children after losing their husbands. It reminded me of something I witnessed in the Central African Republic. A group of Nigerian Christians – women from the capital of Abuja – got in a mini-bus and drove to the Central African Republic to attend a Women’s Church Conference there. They brought shoes, wrappers, musical instruments, pots and pans, and many other gifts for the Central African women. They brought home-made soap, fruit juices, and jewelry-making items to teach the women in the CAR how to make these items, so they could sell them and have money to help feed their children and to pay their school fees. Nigeria is not a wealthy nation by U.S. standards, but these women wanted to encourage their sisters in the Central African Republic, one of the poorest countries on earth, which has been ravaged by war and conflict ever since its independence in 1960. This is putting feet to prayer.
A final example of not just hearing the word, but doing it: most of you know how the citizens of Minneapolis-St. Paul have been helping their immigrant neighbors in the recent onslaught of ICE agents. Journalist Thomas Friedman, originally from Minnesota, went there to see what was happening. He found people driving their neighbors’ kids to school when parents were too afraid to go outside or neighbors buying groceries for those too afraid to go shopping. A Reform Jewish synagogue, and a Lutheran Church worshiped together as a show of solidarity. They jointly raised a million dollars to aid immigrant families who could not pay rent or buy food. Friedman wrote that he had never seen such a “spontaneous uprising of civic activism propelled by a single idea — I am my neighbor’s keeper, whoever he or she is and however he or she got here.” Minnesotans have even invented a new word for this, “neighboring.” This is putting Jesus’ words directly into action:
“Do to others as you would have them do to you…Love your neighbor as yourself.” As our youth are confirmed, one of the best prayers we can pray for them is that they may not only be hearers of Jesus’ words, but doers also. As we pray for them, may we also take Jesus’ teachings to heart. May we be like the one who built their house upon the rock – one who hears Jesus’ words and acts on them. When the storms of life come, we will rest secure in Christ’s loving arms.
Amen.
Sermon @Deborah Troester, 2026