Well-Built: Foundation and Flexibility

Readings: Luke 6:44-49, True Christianity 245 (see below)
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Photo by Adem Percem on Unsplash
Today we explore a section of Jesus’ teaching in the gospel of Luke which concludes what is known as the Sermon on the Plain. In this Sermon, he teaches his disciples the Beatitudes, saying Blessed are the poor and those who mourn, he teaches them to love their enemies, to judge not lest they be judged, to be merciful and not hypocritical. Jesus has provided his followers with a lot of learning, both in that Sermon, and through other experiences. Now, he ends on the point that while a lot of learning can be a foundation, it is most important to live according to it. Which can often be trickier that we might first think.

Jesus uses two everyday metaphors to make his point. The first metaphor speaks to the goodness and usefulness of what we are able to accomplish. The second speaks to its resilience or longevity.

The first metaphor is one Jesus uses often: the fruit tree. While we are more likely now to pluck our fruit from a bin in the produce aisle, the experience of growing and picking fruit directly would have been very familiar to people in an agrarian society. They would understand what it is that makes a “good” tree able to bear good fruit: the compost, the pruning, the condusive environment. Jesus is drawing an implicit parallel between all the teachings that he has just delivered and the compost, good soil and water that is necessary to create a fruiting tree. But he is also implying that part of the picture is our willingness. We can give as much compost and water as we want to a thornbush or a briar but it will never produce figs or grapes. Likewise, if we have the heart of a thornbush or briar, we won’t be able to produce truly good actions. But the combination of good teaching, what we might in a religious context call Truth with a capital T, and a good heart filled as best it can be with love and good intention, this will produce good fruit in action.

The second metaphor is about building a house. This would also be very familiar, especially to Jesus, who was a carpenter himself, or who was at the very least a carpenter’s son. The durability of a structure depends on the quality of its foundation. Deep foundations are particularly important when building on a flood plain. Such foundations must not only be able to withstand water but also the soil erosion caused by a flood. So, Jesus calls upon the durability of rock. Again, he is comparing good and true teaching to the rock itself, something that we can build upon. Build what? The structure and purpose of our life. Life sometimes will throw a torrent of water at us, a flood of hardship that can take many shapes. And Jesus is saying via this metaphor, that when we can reach down to rely on our most cherished values, then these hardships don’t have to take us apart. These hardships don’t have to lead to us taking others down with us as we struggle. A life without a strong foundation of values is vulnerable to the uncertainty of hardship, just as a house built on sand might be.

So, an unshakable foundation leads to an unshakable structure. An unstable foundation leads to a unstable structure. I do want to push in on one aspect though. Because I can see how this metaphor might lead us mistakenly to a sense that we are shooting for imperviousness in the face of hardship. We imagine the steadfast little house withstanding the rushing waters, nothing getting in, nothing causing rupture or damage, and standing just the same as the waters fall away. There is indeed something about that idea that might help us to be brave. But it also might convince us that the goal is to always remain completely unchanged, that it is always better to be stoic, defended, utterly rational, immovable and unquestioning. 

For there is another way to imagine the metaphor, another way to picture hardship in our life that shakes us up, that has the potential to topple our life, and that is an earthquake.

Earthquake-resistant building requires a completely different style of design. Flexibility of structure is intentionally sought in order to absorb seismic energy. The building rests on flexible bearings instead of being fixed to the foundation. Diagonal bracing helps absorb lateral forces to prevent the twisting of the structure. Materials are used that allow the structure to bend, and designs generally seek a low center of gravity. And yet still, a foundation of bedrock rather than soil is essential, for soil can essentially liquify during an earthquake. The key is the combination of a solid anchor and a flexible structure, where the building is kept in place but the design intentionally dissipates the destructive seismic energy.

As we bring this understanding to Jesus’ original metaphor, we see the continued importance of the bedrock as foundation. We see the essential benefit of cherished values, of true teaching, of compassionate insight. This is the bedrock of our lives. 

But the structure of our lives, the selfhood that we build, the good works that we try to achieve, the habits we rely on, the opinions that we hold; these must be designed for flexibility. Hardship will change us, and this is a good thing. With a strong foundation based on truths that teach us to love God and to love others, this change will hopefully lead us in hopeful and expansive directions. Hardship will always be terrifying and disorienting. Whether we are surviving the equivalent of the torrent of water or the earthquake, the goal is to withstand the hardship not to conquer it. The goal is to make it through intact without surrendering our humanity.

Now, there are times when we need a certain amount of imperviousness. We want to be able to keep out certain things that show up in hardship: perhaps negative self-talk, the expections of others, pessimism, avoidance, temptations towards cynicism, self-centeredness, and lashing out. We want those things to just flow on by, while we hang on tight to our bedrock of trust, the value of dignity for ourselves and others, the importance of rest and kindness, humility and curiousity, honesty and accountability.

And then there are other times when we will need to be flexible to make it through hardship. We will need to remember that God built us for resilience, to withstand metaphorical earthquakes, but only if we are willing to let go of our iron grip on “how things are supposed to be” or “what we imagined life would be like” or “what we think it looks like to be right, or to be strong, or to be holy, or to be worthy.” We still need that bedrock. We still need that belief and trust in dignity, integrity, compassion, caring, honesty, humility and love. But as hardship teaches us, as hardship changes us, we also need our selfhood, and the structure of our life - the building of our life - to be able to shift enough in place so that we can see how those things can come to us in new ways. To see how we might have misunderstood them. To see how we may have misapplied them. To see how we might have thought that maybe we didn’t need them. 

And this reminds me of one of my favorite passages from Swedenborg:

But those motivated by good are so to speak flexible; and when they humble themselves before the Divine they bow right down to the ground. For truth without good is utterly rigid; but when it regards good as the end in view that rigidity starts to change into flexibility. (1)

The rigidity of truth is important but it can only take us so far. When we try to apply truth to life, when we try to do good and be good, when we look to what good and worthy goals for any situation might be, rigidity must change into flexibility. Not all the way. An earthquake-resistant building doesn’t just float off like a balloon when the earthquake starts. It is the combination of steadfastness and flexibility that is the magic, that is the way to being truly resilient, that is the way to keep our house standing.

The text uses the phrase well-built. There are many ways to understand what well-built might mean in our particular lives. Only we can know the times when we need to hunker down and be  impervious, and the times that might call for more flexibility and learning. The key is looking towards the ultimate good. The key is thinking about what will produce the good fruit from the first metaphor Jesus uses. The answer will always be some portion of relying on our bedrock and building with wisdom and adaptability. How much of each? Well, that’s the trick isn’t it? That’s what we get to live into. Amen.

(1) Emanuel Swedenborg, Secrets of Heaven #7068


Readings:

Luke 6:43-49

A Tree and Its Fruit
43 “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit.
44 Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers.
45 A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.

The Wise and Foolish Builders
46 “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?
47 As for everyone who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice, I will show you what they are like.
48 They are like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built.
49 But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.”

True Christianity #245

As everyone knows, the church depends on its body of teaching and its body of teaching is based on the Word. Nevertheless, it is not the body of teaching itself but its integrity and purity, and therefore an understanding of the Word, that forms the church. The church in miniature that is in us as individuals is also formed and established not by a body of teaching but by our faith and by our living our faith. Likewise, what forms and establishes the church in miniature in any of us is not the Word; it is the faith based on true perceptions and the life based on good actions that we individually draw from the Word and apply to ourselves.