Grace mercy and peace to you from God our Father..
Dear friends in Christ. You all have heard the story of the Three Little Pigs, one who built a house of straw, one who built a house of sticks, and one who built a house of bricks. One day the Big Bad Wolf was hungry and came and blew down the first two houses and ate the pigs, but the last house has a firm foundation, the last house was built of sturdy materials and the wolf was not a welcome guest there.
Friends, in our text, St. Paul is asking the Corinthian congregation the question, “What is your foundation, and with what is your faith built? With sticks and straw, or with the Gold and Silver bricks of Christ and him Crucified, knowing that in faith,
GOD BUILDS CHRISTIANS WITH HIS MANY GIFTS.
What about you, dear friends? Do you build with sticks and straw, or with gold and silver? Do you build a flimsy house on a weak foundation, or are you built by Christ as a sturdy house on a solid foundation? From hearing the question, you can already start to see the answer. It really matters on who is doing the building, on who is the one constructing the house of your faith.
So often as people in this world, we like to trust our own building techniques. We like to think that we are in charge of our own faith and that we determine what we believe just by deciding it. And so we may say, “I have decided to follow Jesus” as if what we decide really matters. Or maybe we decide and say, “I don’t need to come to church every Sunday, after all, I could better use that hour fishing or shopping. I don’t need to come to church because I already know all that stuff. This pastor just preaches the same things as the last pastor. I don’t need Bible Study, because it’s just a waste of my time. Instead, just think of all the things that I could do. I could clean my house, or mow the yard, (or more likely shovel snow). I deserve that time, after all it is my weekend. Can’t I use it to take care of me.”
Friends, as we do this, we begin building our own faith, and we do so with sticks and straw. We begin to build like the first two of the three little pigs, without concern of what we are build. If we are the ones doing the building, we know that our faith will at some point fail. How do we know this? Because on our own we are poor miserable sinners. On our own, all our works are as dirty rags. In our sin, we like to think that we deserve things, that we ourselves are the center of what is important. And friends, if we are what is most important, if we are the center, then God takes a backseat, and we are left to build the house of our faith. In our sin, we try to be our own God.
Can’t you see how foolish that is? To give you an example, lets look at me. In the last few months at the parsonage, we have needed a new hot water heater, a new front door, and fixed the roof. If I acted the way with them that we so often do with God, I would have tried to do it myself, and the basement would be flooded from the leaky hot water heater. The front door would be hung crooked, and the roof would still be leaking. We need an expert builder, we need someone who knows what they are doing, and has the tools to do the job, just like I need the experience and expertise of the trustees… especially when I accidentally hit the bottom of the garage door with the top of my car.
We need expertise. We need someone who knows what they are doing to build our faith. And friends, that means we need Jesus. Jesus knows how to build trust and faith. Jesus knows how to forgive sinners. Jesus knows what the price is that must be paid.
Jesus himself lays the foundation of our faith, spending his life serving us and teaching us. In the pages of scripture Jesus is pointing us to himself, pointing us to his own suffering, dying and resurrection for the forgiveness of all our sins. He tells us, “I must suffer and die for you.” That is the foundation of our faith.
And on that foundation, Jesus builds with sturdy and precious materials. In baptism, he laid the first bricks of your faith, as he joined you to himself, and killed you on a cross, and resurrected you into everlasting life with him in heaven. In baptism he put his own name upon you and said, You are mine. You belong to me. Daily since, Jesus has drowned all the sin in you with those waters of baptism received so very long ago.
On those first few layers of bricks, Jesus continued building with as our text says Gold and Silver and precious stones, as you studied his word, learning the catechism, attending church and hearing the word of God preached to you. He continued working in your as you studied the bible, reading learning and inwardly digesting it. And in Christ’s building the Holy Spirit nurtured you, pointing you ever back towards your strong foundation in the death and resurrection of Jesus.
And as you were confirmed, you began receiving the Lord’s Supper, the very precious body and blood of Jesus Christ in with and under the bread and the wine for the forgiveness of sins. That gift God continually even today gives you, and that gift is more precious that all the riches of the entire world more important than everything. And Jesus will use these things to continually build you up until finally one day, the fullness of Christ’s promises are realized, and you enter glory.
Dear friends, if Jesus builds your life, if Jesus creates and sustains faith in you, if he purchases and wins you with his own blood and death as the foundation, nothing can overcome you. No big bad wolf, be that the world, or satan or death can harm you. You are safe in the house that God builds in your faith. With Jesus doing the doing, you are a temple of God, brightly and richly adorned in the blood of Jesus, with the jewels of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper shinning forth in the Son who has given his life for you.
Amen.
