Historic First Lutheran Church of Pasadena

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Today is “Show and Tell” Sunday. I brought with me a coffee cup. Now that fact in and of itself is not that unusual. As many of you know, I would say that 99 percent of the Sundays that I stand in this pulpit I have a coffee cup sitting somewhere behind me within 20 feet. This coffee cup, though, is special. First of all, it was a gift from Shelly Daniels. Secondly, it’s the only place in the world where the “Leaning Tower of Pisa” stands straight. They accomplished that amazing feat by taking the coffee cup and skewing it at an angle.

It was in 1173 that the Italian architect Bonnano Pisano began work on what would become his most famous project, an eight story bell tower for the adjacent Cathedral. Early on in the construction a problem was discovered. The soil was much softer than they had anticipated and the foundation was far too shallow to adequately support the structure. Even during the construction, the tower began to tilt. During the 176 of construction, engineers tried to compensate. The foundation was shored up. The upper levels were actually built on an angle to try to make the tower look straight. Nothing worked. For the last 800 years the tower has leaned 18 feet from where it should be – that’s 10 degrees from the vertical for you engineers out there. One day, experts say, the Leaning Tower of Pisa will fall because it wasn’t built on the right foundation.

Jesus told a similar story, didn’t he? Jesus’ story was not an eyewitness account. Jesus’ story was theoretical, a parable, but it might as well be true because it is so true to life.

When people ask me what I do for a living, I always answer that I am a pastor. Some people know what that is. Some people have an idea what that is, but figure that I only work 1 hour a week. Some people ask me further, “Well, what exactly do you do?” That’s when I will often say that I deal with broken people, that I am like “all the king’s horses and all the king’s men.” I try to put people back together again. People usually get a laugh out of that, not realizing how truly serious I am when I answer in that way.

But, you know, that answer is only half accurate. I do indeed deal with broken people, people who have built a portion or all of their lives upon unsure foundations and they start to lean during life. I also get the privilege, fortunately, of working with many people who have become accomplished students of life construction. They’ve built their lives properly and securely.

After Hurricane Andrew hit South Florida in 1992, a television crew captured an eerie scene. In a literal sea of destruction, one lone house stood on its foundation. The owner of the house was cleaning his yard when approached by the reporter. He was asked why his house was still standing. The owner answered, “I built the house myself. I built it according to the Florida State Building Code. When the code called for 2x6 trusses, I used 2x6 trusses. I was told that a house built according to the code could withstand a hurricane. I did and it did.”

When the storms of life hit you, when the rain comes down and the streams rise and the winds blow and beat against you, what do you look like the next day? Are you still standing tall, maybe a little weather worn? Are you leaning? Are you completely in shambles?

Jesus has told us how to properly order our lives. He has published the definitive building code. It’s called His Word. It’s the Bible. It’s the account of how God interacted with human beings. It is the story of that loving interaction that God says to fix in your hearts and minds, to tie it on your foreheads, to teach it to your children, to write it on the doorframes of your house [Deuteronomy 11:18-21]

What, in particular, is that all-important message? Well, St. Paul defines that message [Romans 3:21-28]. We call it the GOSPEL. Here’s the “Gospel” in a nutshell:

<strong>All have sinned.

All are saved by grace through Jesus Christ, Who suffered, died and rose again.

Far beyond the daily storms of life that each of us faces is a coming storm. It’s the perfect storm, the hundred year storm. Its intensity is far beyond anything we face on a daily basis. It’s the storm called death. It usually claims one person at a time, but it leaves many victims in its wake.

Fifteen or more times every year, I get to deal with those victims. Without exception, simply by listening, I can tell what the deceased person has done with the Gospel during his or her life. Without exception, simply by listening, I can tell what the surviving victims have done with the Gospel. Those who have followed the command of God to make the Gospel the very foundation of their lives may suffer a little windburn in the storm of death, but that’s about it. Those who have considered the Gospel hogwash begin even themselves to notice that something’s wrong, something that they thought would always support them has started to cause them to lean and maybe even completely implode. Try as they might, try as much as the engineers have tried with the Leaning Tower of Pisa, they just can’t upright themselves. They will never recover and one day they will fall.

There’s fortunately a lot of comfort I can provide to those who have made the Gospel their foundation in life. There’s honestly not a lot I can do besides putting on a black shirt and saying some empty words to those who have chosen not to build on the foundation of the Gospel.

To all of us here today I say, I beg, I plead, “Believe the Gospel”: All have sinned. All are saved by grace through Jesus Christ. Make the Gospel your foundation. Meditate on it day and night. Tell it to everyone you come across. Tell it to them with the prayer that it will become their foundation because beyond the good that the Gospel brings to our daily lives here on earth, it is the Gospel that makes the difference between eternal life and eternal death to every person who walks the face of the earth.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Pastor Christopher Schaar
Historic First Lutheran Church of Pasadena