Sermon Matthew 6:24-34 How Firm’s Your Foundation?
By Fr. Bill Wigmore
(This sermon was delivered to a group recovering from alcohol and drug addiction.)
Well good evening once again and welcome hows everyone doing tonight?
Step Five says, We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being
the exact nature of our wrongs.
My first time in the program, I gotta tell you, that step scared me!
There were some things I had done
and a few things that I had left undone
that I fully intended to take with me to the grave.
Nobody was ever gonna get to know all of me.
And so after I left treatment that first time, you know what happened:
The rain fell, and the floods came
and when somebody popped open a can of beer
the wind from that can was so strong that it blew me
over and I said,
Dont mind if I have one too!
My foundation was definitely of the sandy variety;
and in less than three months I was drunk
and dragged out to sea once again.
But a year and half later – when I finally washed ashore –
and this time a lot further downstream than the first,
I was fortunate enough to receive a second chance.
This time I knew my foundation needed to be a whole lot stronger than before.
So when the time came to face that searching and fearless moral inventory
I finally did it.
I put it all down on paper
and then, one Saturday morning, I sat in front of my sponsor still scared –
but this time, willing to spill all of the beans.
Floyd said some things to me that day that Ive never forgotten.
Before we began, he said that he was there with me
because the step required another human being to be present;
and since the rest of the human race couldnt all make it,
he was going to be sitting in on their behalf.
He joked and he put me at ease.
Then he said it was important for me to know that
he wasnt there to forgive me
That part, he said, would come from God and maybe from
some of the people Id harmed.
But he was there to accept me –
because when it had come his time to do this very same thing,
another man in the program had been there to accept him
and so he came to listen.
And then after all the secrets and the shame and the tears came
pouring out of me,
Floyd looked at me and said:
Bill, welcome to the human race! Welcome home!
I dont believe I ever in my life felt
more at home in my own skin than I did that day.
A huge weight had been lifted off my soul.
Another human being knew me knew all of me!
He knew the good, the bad and the ugly!
And that other human being had accepted me just as I was
No worse – or no better than himself.
Just another ONE OF!
There are no dues or fees for membership in this program
all it costs us is everything weve got.
Now I bring that story up tonight because I think thats what most of us experience
when were finally willing to do an honest Step Five.
But tonights gospel reminds us of still another part of that Step
And its a part that probably doesnt get near the attention from most of us
that it deserves.
You see, the Step also says we admitted these very same things to our innermost-selves and to God too.
Now in tonights gospel story, Matthew paints an imaginary scene
where Jesus is welcoming his followers into what he calls the kingdom of heaven.
The other gospel writers always refer to it as the kingdom of God;
or an ever better translation:
theyre being welcomed to the reign of God
welcomed to living under the rule of God
The kingdom of God isnt so much a place that we go to after we die
The kingdom is much more a relationship
a conscious connection with God that were invited to experience right here and now.
Jesus knew it well he entered the kingdom and he lived in it
It was the consciousness in which he lived, and moved, and had his being –
Now he wants his followers to enter into that very same consciousness too
In describing his relationship with God,
I think Jesus would definitely agree with what the Big Book tells us
that God is either everything to us or else, he is nothing.
For Jesus God was everything.
Jesus allowed God to be the ruler and the Father and the King of his heart
And now he says to his followers:
Listen-up, cause Ive got some really good news to tell you
The God and the Father and the King that Ive gotten to know so well
Hes 100% for us
Hes not against you or me at all not in the least.
But heres the thing!
He wants to get to know you so you too can become his sons and daughters –
And he wants to come and make his home in you
in your heart and in your consciousness –
so he can become your God and Father too.
For Jesus, living in the kingdom of God meant living on the most intimate terms <
with no one less than the Creator & LORD of the whole Universe.
And if, as a human being, that thought of doing the same blows your mind <
Jesus meant for his words to do exactly that.
Now as drunks and addicts, <
for us to try and get a better handle on this scene from tonights gospel
we might imagine the words and the message being played out <
with a bunch of 12 Steppers who are meeting their Creator
and expecting to be handed their just reward.
And first one up is Bobby the Booze Hound with no fewer than 25 years in AA
Hes healed the sick and hes raised the dead from detox
Hes gone on 12 step calls at 4 in the morning
and hes given himself completely to this simple program.
In the eyes of everyone, including himself, hed be considered a real winner.
Yet Jesus says, Sorry Bobbyyou cant come in Why?
Because: I dont know you.
And there standing next to Bobby is Josie, the Joyous Junkie
And shes got 20 years clean-time in NA
She rides her Harley to meetings seven nights a week
And shes hauled hundreds of junkies right along with her –
Shes truly helped save the lives of thousands
But yet she too hears the very same message.
Sorry Josie you cant come in Why?
Because, I dont know you.
Now if we look at this story as an end of life deal
then it hardly feels fair at all.
See, these guys in the story, Jesus says, have done some really terrific things
These are really good & deserving people
But yet Jesus says: theyre not Kingdom people!
They havent changed their consciousness yet.
They still dont yet know what its like to have God as their Father,
or God as their Friend, or even, as some of the saints experienced,
God as their Lover
In short, they still dont know what its like to be really intimate with God
to spill their guts to him, to do their 5th Step with him and then, <
to enter into conscious contact with him
just like our 11th Step invites us all to do.
This gospel isnt about getting our selves into heaven
Its about opening ourselves up to what the Big Book calls
the Fourth dimension of Gods Reality
Its a Reality & a Presence thats right here & now
Its a consciousness waiting to come alive <
inside the heart and mind of each and every one of us here.
Jesus says thats what God wants from us He wants all of us!
He doesnt just want our holy-self — He wants our whole self!
He wants the good, the bad <
and maybe most especially what we believe to be the ugly & the unacceptable parts hiding inside us.
Turn that over to him and watch what he does with it!
Bring him our character defects, our shortcomings, our sins
Bring em to him in the morning, and at night, and throughout the day.
Bring them to him like a small child would bring a hurt or a fear to her Mommy or Daddy.
Bring them so he can do what only he can do
Love us, and forgive us and transform us
God alone can change our consciousness
because God alone can overcome our deepest fears.
Thats why he gets to be God
and thats why we always wind up with our house collapsed on top of us <
whenever we try to do it by ourselves.
When Bill Wilson was washed ashore into detox for the fourth time
hed finally had enough ego-stuffing knocked out of him that he turned to God <
and asked him to reveal himself to him.
It was now or never.
Thats when Bill had his famous spiritual awakening.
He says, the room lit up with a great white light
and then he suddenly felt himself standing in the presence of his Creator.
For the first time in his life: God felt real and close
and Bill felt himself living in his presence.
Wilson knew immediately that hed found the long soughtafter
solution to his alcohol problem hed found God
Not a distant and abstract sort of God
But a God as close and as present as if he were standing
right next to him.
And with that personal experience of his Creators love and
presence in his heart, Bills life was never the same
and he never drank again.
As alcoholics & addicts,
we all have a special interest in finding & maintaining that union with God
that Bill Wilson experienced
because without it the Big Book tells us
we probably wont stay sober.
And so Jesus asks: Who is it that gets into Gods kingdom?
Is it the ones who do all sorts of good works?
Is it the ones who tell prophesies, and cast out demons, and perform miracles?
Good works are nice telling prophesies and doing miracles are really fine
But that doesnt get us into Gods kingdom
What gets us in is knowing God and letting God come to know us too.
Bill Wilson wrote in that first reading
that if we build our life linking ourselves to God
through self-examination, meditation, and prayer
then we would have an unshakeable foundation for life.
But like Jesus says if weve built our house on sand:
then the winds will blow and the floods will come and that house
and us along with it are gonna be washed away.
Maybe when they find us down stream
theyll discover a little crack in our foundation! Pardon the pun!
But if we do this thing right
if we get ourselves rightly related to God
where he is our perfect strength and we are not
then the winds can blow and the rains can come
and all sorts of problems and tragedies can beat against us
and we will not fall and our house will stand firm.
The fella who wrote tonights Psalm sounds like he might well have been one of us.
He says:
You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day
A thousand may relapse and fall at your side,
ten thousand at your right hand; but it will not come near you.
Because you have made the LORD your refuge, the Most High
your dwelling place, he will give his angels & his sponsors
charge over you to guard you in all your ways.
On their hands they will bear you up, and get you to a meeting,
and teach you to pray, lest you dash your foot against a stone, or a bottle or even against a giant rock of cocaine.
If you want to build a house thatll stand
then getting to know the Carpenter who knows how
to build em is a really good place to start.Amen.
Copyright 2008 Bill Wigmore. Used by permission.