This is our last week in the Sermon on the Mount. Next week are in Lent, and from Lent 2 until the end of Easter we explore John’s Gospel. The trouble with the way we read these little bits of readings each week is that we forget that they are part of bigger sections which are set within a book with a particular plot line. In this instance we forget that what we are reading is part of the Sermon on the Mount, and should be read at least in the context of the whole sermon and not on its own. And the trouble with finishing where we are going to this week is that we not only miss out the rest of the Sermon, and especially the end. I invite you to read the whole of the Sermon on the Mount and to ask what Matthew was trying to say about Jesus’ teaching? Matthew has Jesus finish with a comparison of the wise and foolish person. “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts of them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock….” The crucial difference between the...
