Jesus said, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

“No More Sinking Sand”

From Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth by Water Brueggemann

God of heaven and lord of earth,

Tamer of heaven, lover of earth,

sovereign over the waters that surge,

provider for birds, beasts, and fish,

chooser of Israel and commander of all humanity.

Your vistas remind us

of how close and small we keep our horizons,

how much we blink at your power, and wince from your justice,

how much we waver in the face of your commanding mercy.

You, you, you only, you, God of heaven and lord of earth.

Comes the rain upon our parade,

and the floods upon our nations,

and the winds upon our personal reconfigurations,

Comes your shattering and your reconfiguring

in ways we doubt or fear.
We discover yet again, how sandy we are,

with the quaking of our foundations

and our fantasized firmaments.

We are filled with trembling and nightmares that disturb.

And then you-rock-solid-stable-reliable-sure

You rock against our sand,

You rock of ages,

You rock that is higher than us treading water,

You rock of compassion –

be compassionate even for us, our loved ones

and all our needy neighbors,

You rock of abidingness for our sick,

and for those long loved, lingering memories,

dead and in your care,

You rock of justice,

fed up with our hate,

exhausted by the greed of our several tribes,

You rock of communion in our loneliness,

rock of graciousness in our many modes of gracelessness.

Come and be present even here and there, and there and there,

Move us from our sandy certitudes to your grace-filled risk,

Move us to become more rock-like

in compassion a d abidingness and justice,

Move us to be more like you in our neighborliness

and in our self-regard.

Yes, yes, yes – move us that we may finally

stand on the solid rock, no more sinking sand.

God of heaven. Lord of earth,

hear our resolve, heal our unresolve,

that we may finish in sure trust and in glad obedience.

We already know what to do by our careful pondering

of you. Amen.