Upon the Rock: May 29, 2008 Youth Group News

On memorial day, my family enjoyed a hike on one of the many cliffs that decorate Wisconsin's landscape. David decided it would be fun to run up the last steep incline and I relished in beating him to the top (though I guess he had a tougher time with Ian on his shoulders). Standing on the cliff, heart racing, full of breath and life, I watched the familiar preeminent structures fade into a background of a much larger vision, where sky stretched wide and colored long smoothing lines against the rough edges of earth, where birds flew--not above us--but next to us, in the same wind that cooled our faces.
Rocks, cliffs and mountains have filled the religious imagination for ages. People have climbed the tallest heights to be closer to heaven, to find perspective, to see far off into the distance and into the depths of their lives. Questing to see more clearly allows us to unveil the everyday illusions, to put things in their proper size and allow new sights to come into focus.
In this week's gospel, Jesus calls his followers to hear the good news and live it. Jesus had just preached his Sermon on the Mount and he was probably standing on high ground over looking the stones of Palestine as he was telling folks to build their lives on the rock, on this new vision of God's Kingdom.
Recently we've all seen many homes destroyed by storms, cyclones, tornados, and earthquakes. We've watched fragile cities with feeble infrastructures crumble on top of its people. Even as we respond and rebuild, our faith in a good God who values us more than the birds of the air can be shaken to the core.
In this country we know how to make strong buildings that can withstand most storms. In the same way, we are called to build strong faith, one that is not constructed with crumbly answers or weak-kneed avoidance. May we have the courage to quest the mountains that lay before us, especially when the the rock is in our stomach rather than under our feet.