The Other Six Days: Building a Foundation
A Sermon in The Other Six Days Series
Rev. Mark Schaefer
Kay Spiritual Life Center
October 17, 2004
2 Samuel 7:1-17; Luke 6:46-49

2 Samuel 7:1 ¶ Now when the king was settled in his house, and the LORD had given him rest from all his enemies around him, 2 the king said to the prophet Nathan, “See now, I am living in a house of cedar, but the ark of God stays in a tent.” 3 Nathan said to the king, “Go, do all that you have in mind; for the LORD is with you.”
4 ¶ But that same night the word of the LORD came to Nathan: 5 Go and tell my servant David: Thus says the LORD: Are you the one to build me a house to live in? 6 I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent and a tabernacle. 7 Wherever I have moved about among all the people of Israel, did I ever speak a word with any of the tribal leaders of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?” 8 Now therefore thus you shall say to my servant David: Thus says the LORD of hosts: I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep to be prince over my people Israel; 9 and I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. 10 And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may live in their own place, and be disturbed no more; and evildoers shall afflict them no more, as formerly, 11 from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover the LORD declares to you that the LORD will make you a house. 12 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. When he commits iniquity, I will punish him with a rod such as mortals use, with blows inflicted by human beings. 15 But I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. 16 Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever. 17 In accordance with all these words and with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David.

Luke 6:46 ¶ “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I tell you? 47 I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, hears my words, and acts on them. 48 That one is like a man building a house, who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock; when a flood arose, the river burst against that house but could not shake it, because it had been well built. 49 But the one who hears and does not act is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the river burst against it, immediately it fell, and great was the ruin of that house.”

I. INTRODUCTION

Back in the days before children had to wear bike helmets and ride around in special seats in cars, we used to make fun for ourselves in fairly reckless ways. Crabapple fights. Riding bikes down the side of a big hill with only a narrow trail. Things like that.

At one point, they expanded our development and built some new homes at the end of it. That’s when we discovered a fun new activity: climbing around in houses that were under construction. We’d walk around the unfinished floor, stepping across the open spaces from one beam to another. We’d climb up and do the same thing on the second floor. Then later, when the new kid would move into the house after it was finished and invite us over to see his house, we’d all say, “Seen it.”

You learned some interesting things doing that. You saw how walls were made. Saw which ones were necessary for the structure and which ones were placed simply to create a room. And the most interesting thing was that the whole thing was held up by the basement. The foundation of the house is what I had always thought of as the walls of the basement.

The house is held up by the part of the house that you can’t really see from the street. Maybe a foot or so of it, but even that is often obscured by bushes or hedges. What keeps the house upright and stable is not the part that we were climbing around on—not the two by fours and two by eights—but the concrete foundation underground.

II. TEXT

That is what Jesus is talking about in his parable. The strength of the house is in its foundation. Listen again to those words:

I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, hears my words, and acts on them. 48 That one is like a man building a house, who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock; when a flood arose, the river burst against that house but could not shake it, because it had been well built. 49 But the one who hears and does not act is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the river burst against it, immediately it fell, and great was the ruin of that house.”

Jesus describes for us a house of faith and the proper foundation for that faith. He talks about digging deeply and laying the foundation on rock.

If you’ve been watching them build the Katzen Center across the street you noticed how deep they dug into the ground before they started to build. In order to build a solid building you have to dig deep and lay a solid foundation.

III. THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH

But what are the foundations of faith? How do we build a solid foundation for our faith?

Jesus tells us in no uncertain terms: the one with strong faith is the one who “comes to me, hears my words, and acts on them.”
It can be so tempting to think that a strong faith is one based in having the right beliefs, in believing in the unseen, in assenting to a theological truth. That is certainly part of faith. But Jesus identifies something else as the foundation of faith. The foundation is in acting upon Jesus’ words.

It’s hard for us protestants to remember that because it sounds so much like “works righteousness”—so much like the thing Protestantism was rejecting: the idea that salvation is the result of our own works.

But Jesus is not saying that salvation is the result of works—he is defining faith as a faith that is lived out.

It’s the same kind of thing that we hear about in the Epistle of James: “But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.” (1:22) and continues:

James 2:14-17 ¶ What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

Jesus reminds us that our faith is not built on a solid foundation if it is not lived out, if it does not respond to Jesus’ words to show mercy to ‘the least of these’.

IV. I HAVE NOT LIVED IN A HOUSE

This is the second sermon in our “The Other Six Days” series, our social justice program designed to help us as a community in tying together the word that we hear and the actions that we do.

This month we focus on homelessness and the Christian response to it. We begin with this worship service and follow it up on Wednesday with the National Council for the Homeless Speaker’s Bureau. How do we as Christians respond to homelessness? First, we need to know something about it:

A. Homlessness

According to the Stewart B. McKinney Act, 42 U.S.C. § 11301, et seq. (1994), a person is considered homeless who "lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate night-time residence and; and... has a primary night time residency that is: (A) a supervised publicly or privately operated shelter designed to provide temporary living accommodations... (B) an institution that provides a temporary residence for individuals intended to be institutionalized, or (C) a public or private place not designed for, or ordinarily used as, a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings." 42 U.S.C. § 11302(a) The term "'homeless individual' does not include any individual imprisoned or otherwise detained pursuant to an Act of Congress or a state law." 42 U.S.C. § 11302(c)

Numbers: There are several national estimates of homelessness. Many are dated, or based on dated information. For all of the reasons discussed above, none of these estimates is the definitive representation of "how many people are homeless," but the best approximation is from an Urban Institute study which states that about 3.5 million people, 1.35 million of them children, are likely to experience homelessness in a given year (Urban Institute 2000).

B. Who Are the Homeless? (Statistics from National Council for the Homeless, http://www.nationalhomeless.org/who.html (internal citations omitted)),

AGE: In 2001, children under the age of 18 accounted for 25.3% of the urban homeless population. On a national level, approximately 39% of the homeless population are children. A 1987 Urban Institute study found that 51% of the homeless population were between the ages of 31 and 50 (Burt, 1989); other studies have found percentages of homeless persons aged 55 to 60 ranging from 2.5% to 19.4% (Institute of Medicine, 1988).

GENDER: Most studies show that single homeless adults are more likely to be male than female. In 2001, the U.S. Conference of Mayors' survey found that single men comprised 41% of the urban homeless population and single women 14% (U.S. Conference of Mayors, 2003).

FAMILIES: families comprised 40% of the homeless population, a definite increase from previous years (U.S. Conference of Mayors, 2003).

ETHNICITY: In its 2003 survey of 25 cities, the U.S. Conference of Mayor found that the homeless population was 49% African-American, 35% Caucasian, 13% Hispanic, 2% Native American, and 1% Asian (U.S. Conference of Mayors, 2003).

VICTIMS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE: Battered women who live in poverty are often forced to choose between abusive relationships and homelessness. In a study of 777 homeless parents (the majority of whom were mothers) in ten U.S. cities, 22% said they had left their last place of residence because of domestic violence (Homes for the Homeless, 1998). In additions, 34% of cities surveyed by the U.S. Conference of Mayors identified domestic violence as a primary cause of homelessness (U.S. Conference of Mayors, 1998). Studying the entire country, though, reveals that the problem is even more serious.

VETERANS: Research indicates that 40% of homeless men have served in the armed forces, as compared to 34% of the general adult male population (Rosenheck et al., 1996). In 2003, the U.S. Conference of Mayors' survey of 25 American cities found that 10% of the urban homeless population were veterans - however, this does not take gender into account (U.S. Conference of Mayors, 2001).

PERSONS WITH MENTAL ILLNESS: Approximately 23% of the single adult homeless population suffers from some form of severe and persistent mental illness (U.S. Conference of Mayors, 2003). According to the Federal Task Force on Homelessness and Severe Mental Illness, only 5-7% of homeless persons with mental illness require institutionalization; most can live in the community with the appropriate supportive housing options (Federal Task Force on Homelessness and Severe Mental Illness, 1992)..

PERSONS SUFFERING FROM ADDICTION DISORDERS: Surveys of homeless populations conducted during the 1980s found consistently high rates of addiction, particularly among single men; however, recent research has called the results of those studies into question (Koegel et al., 1996). Briefly put, the studies that produced high prevalence rates greatly over represented long-term shelter users and single men, and used lifetime rather than current measures of addiction. While there is no generally accepted "magic number" with respect to the prevalence of addiction disorders among homeless adults, the U.S. Conference of Mayors' number was 30%, and the frequently cited figure of about 65% is probably at least double the real rate for current addiction disorders among all single adults who are homeless in a year.

EMPLOYMENT: Declining wages have put housing out of reach for many workers: in every state, more than the minimum wage is required to afford a one- or two-bedroom apartment at Fair Market Rent.(1) (National Low Income Housing Coalition, 2001). In fact, in the median state a minimum-wage worker would have to work 89 hours each week to afford a two-bedroom apartment at 30% of his or her income, which is the federal definition of affordable housing (National Low Income Housing Coalition 2001). Thus, inadequate income leaves many people homeless. The U.S. Conference of Mayors' 2003 survey of 25 American cities found that 17% of the urban homeless population were employed (U.S. Conference of Mayors, 2003). In a number of cities not surveyed by the U.S. Conference of Mayors - as well as in many states - the percentage is even higher (National Coalition for the Homeless, 1997).

C. A Homeless God

In the Old Testament lesson we heard earlier, there was something in that story that leapt out at me. It is the story of how David desired to build a temple—a “house made of cedar” for God. At that time, the Ark of the Covenant, the symbolic throne of God, dwelled in a tent in a moveable structure called the “Tabernacle”. The tabernacle had moved with the Israelites on their journey through the wilderness. It moved around the countryside once the Israelites had entered the land after the Exodus from Egypt.

But David is starting to feel guilty about the fact that he is living in a fine house and God is dwelling in a tent. So he plans to build a temple for God. But God speaks to the prophet Nathan and says:

Are you the one to build me a house to live in? 6 I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent and a tabernacle. 7 Wherever I have moved about among all the people of Israel, did I ever speak a word with any of the tribal leaders of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?”

God is not interested in having David build houses for God. God reminds David “I have not lived in a house”—God is not contained in any one place, but moves about “among all the people of Israel.”

It is also a reminder for us, as well: God does not dwell in this house, in this sanctuary. God dwells out among the people. In cardboard boxes propped up against heating grates. In shelters throughout the city. Under overpasses along the highway. On the streets. In MacPherson Square and in Dupont Circle. God is present among those he calls us to serve.

Sometimes we can be concerned with making sure God has a nice enough house, and yet forget about those who are made in the image of God who have no house.

V. BUILDING A FOUNDATION

Christians, then, cannot simply hear statistics like those we heard earlier and do nothing. We cannot simply be hearers of such words and not act upon them. We cannot look at the scourge of homelessness in our society and not take action to do something about it. Now, how do we solve this problem? I don’t have an easy answer for that. But it means that we as a Christian community have to struggle with this issue and cannot let it go unaddressed.

When we reach out to the homeless, to the least of these in our society, to those whom Christ has called us to serve then we put action to our faith, then we build for our faith a solid foundation.