St Andrew's Church

Not the headline you might imagine but it’s good to get behind a common cause or a common celebration. It helps to lift our spirits, joining in celebrations, cheering on our team, building up to the big event – like those for the Jubilee which we’ve been celebrating this year – and while I think of it thank you to all who came and helped us celebrate at St Andrews over the long bank holiday weekend, we had a great time together.

It’s all good! And it all helps to lift our spirits. I heard one person say how it was good to have so much to look forward to – and it is! We all enjoy celebrating and enjoying life when the sun is shining and fun things are happening, but I wonder if life is really any different? I know that for most of us – and I include myself  – that life hasn’t really changed. It’s tempting to build life on the highs that we look for in celebrations, holidays and big events, but it’s the foundations on which our lives are built which really matter – and foundations take hard work.

Jesus tells the tale of two men who build houses. The first man, he says, built a firm foundation for his house on solid rock – it was hard work getting it right, but once the hard work was done he had a house he could live in and enjoy in the sunshine and that would protect him in the storm.  The second man also builds a house but can’t be bothered with doing the hard work and just builds his house on the sand. When the sun shines and everything is good with the world, the second man also enjoys living in his house. But when the rains come, they wash away the foundation, his house collapses and he is left with nothing. He calls these two men, the wise man and the foolish man.

It takes hard work to build a good foundation for life: getting relationships right, putting aside some of our own wants to address the needs of others, managing our money, striving to improve ourselves through education or training, working hard when the opportunities arise and putting our trust in the right places. It’s easy to go for the quick fix, living for the moment,  the convenient relationship, the credit card culture and simply looking after number one; but we risk everything when the rains come and wash our easy foundations away.

Jesus speaks of God and himself being the rock on which we can build: the foundation we can trust, that if we build on faith in him that he promises to sustain us, not just in the good times but also in the hard ones. To have such a foundation means we can enjoy life and all the joy it holds, firm in the knowledge that when the sun stops shining we have a safe refuge.

It might be that your life has its firm foundation and that’s great, or you might be like the rest of us and sometimes wonder if that foundation needs strengthening. My prayer is that God will help all of us be wise and do the hard work of building a good foundation. It might be that you’d like to talk about that and we’d love to help build with you and ask for God’s help too.

May God bless you with his wisdom and be with you in the sunshine and rain this summer,

Revd Chris Ramsey