Wenn Der Herr Das Haus Nicht Baut - Ps 127

7/27/2019 Wenn Der Herr Das Haus Nicht Baut - Ps 127

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22nd Sunday of the Year 30 Oct 2011

Dr Lutz Ackermann (Christ Church, Polokwane)

Unless the Lord builds the house

(Ps 127)

Good morning. Let me begin by introducing myself quickly. My

name is Lutz Ackermann and I am licenced as a community priest at

Christ Church Cathedral. I live in Polokwane, but originally I come

from Germany. It is now more than ten years ago, since I came to

South Africa in 2001.

And during those years I have made an interesting observation. At

first, of course, I didnt know Polokwane (or Pietersburg, as it was

then still called) and it took a while for me to get to know it more or

less. But then, once I had lived there for some time came a point

where I got the impression: now I know more or less what is to know

about Polokwane. And that didnt change.

But then, in the last couple of years I made another observation: this

place, Polokwane, was still changing and growing. In fact, growing at

a surprising rate, it would seem. Whole new parts of town sprang up,

new shops, a new stadium, new houses, now even a new mall came

into being. Yes, of course, a lot of that was due to the 2010 world cup,

but its not really like it had dies down since. I get the impression

Polokwane is still very busy growing.

Now, I dont know about Lepalale, but from what I have heard it is

also one of those places that is growing fast. A power station here, a

shopping center there and, of course, lots of new houses. Is that

right? Now, why am I mentioning all this? Well, when I prepared for

this service I read the Psalm for today, Ps 127, which we prayed

2011 DR LUTZ ACKERMANN CHRIST CHURCH, POLOKWANE


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together, earlier. And there it speaks of building houses. But let me

read to you the first two verses of that psalm once more from the GN:

If the LORD does not build the house,

the work of the builders is useless;if the LORD does not protect the city,

it does no good for the sentries to stand guard.

It is useless to work so hard for a living,

getting up early and going to bed late.

For the LORD provides for those he loves,

while they are asleep.(Ps 127:1-2)

Though these words have been written some two-and-a-half thousandyears ago, to me they sound surprisingly similar to our own, modern

experience. People are very busy, building houses (and all sorts of

other buildings); people are concerned about the security of their city,

so they engage someone to watch; people are very busy, they get up

early in the morning to get to work, and they stay up long, before they

call it a day. It seems that in some way, not a lot has changed: certain

things are just part and parcel of the pattern of urban life that we live;and it seems, they always have been, even in biblical times.

So in a sense, all this is a normal part of life: the building, the

watching, the working and the toiling, and here is nothing wrong with

that. But have you noticed the strong, almost condemning, words this

psalm uses to describe them: useless, no good (other translations

say in vain, to no purpose, for nothing). Have you noticed that?

It is useless to build houses; it is useless to watch and guard a city; it

is useless to get up early and work hard, late into the night. It is

useless.

Now even though these are hard words, we can find some sort of truth

in them. Think of a house that is half finished. Maybe it doesnt habe

a roof, because some contractor ran out of money or something like



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that. And now the house stands there, in ruins, as it were, before it

was ever finished. Over the years, that house will start falling apart.

What a frustrating experience.

Or think of the security issue: maybe you have your house well

secured, with burglar bars in front of your windows, with an alarm

system and you even engage a Security Company to watch it for you.

But then, you come back from you holiday and you find that someone

broke the burglar bars, short-circuited the alarm; and the watchman?

He fell asleep and noticed nothing. What a frustration!

And then, what about work? Havnt we all experienced just that: wehave so much to do, so we get up early. We are working hard, maybe

to meet a deadline. We even stay over-time to make sure that we get

the job finished. And then a computer crashes, a project is

cancelled; or the report you worked so hard for ends up in a drawer

and no one ever reads it. Eish, thats tough. All that hard work for

nothing!

If you think of it, thats probably quite a common experience: that

people try to achieve something; they really make an effort, they work

hard, and in the end the outcome is zilch, nothing. In other places in

the bible we hear people crying out their frustratin: all is in vain, all is

useless, for nothing. But is it that which we read in our psalm today?

No! The psalmist is not saying: building, watching, working that is all

useless! No, it is useless without the Lord.If the LORD does not build the house,

the work of the builders is useless;

Because, you see, with all the things that we have looked at, that keep

us so busy, it quickly happens that we do them in our own strength.

That we try to achieve what needs to be achieved in a way, that only



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takes into account human possibilities. We tend to get stuck in a

perspective that sees things only with human eyes.

But the good news is: for us as Christians, as the Children of God our

heavenly Father, the possibilities dont end with our human

limitations. If the Lord does not build the house, that also means:

there is this possibility that Godself will build the house. There is this

possibility that Godself will protect and guard the city. There is the

possibility that with God things dont turn out as frustrating as they

would have to, from a purely human standpoint.

In the Gospel of Mathew, Jesus teaches his followers:

"This is why I tell you: do not be worried about the food and

drink you need in order to stay alive, or about clothes for

your body. After all, isn't life worth more than food? And

isn't the body worth more than clothes? Look at the birds:

they do not plant seeds, gather a harvest and put it in barns;

yet your Father in heaven takes care of them! Aren't you

worth much more than birds? Can any of you live a bit longer

by worrying about it? "And why worry about clothes? Look

how the wild flowers grow: they do not work or make clothes

for themselves. But I tell you that not even King Solomon

with all his wealth had clothes as beautiful as one of these

flowers. It is God who clothes the wild grass---grass that is

here today and gone tomorrow, burned up in the oven. Won't

he be all the more sure to clothe you? What little faith you

have!

(Mat 6:25-30)

I think, these words of Jesus give us the key to unlock this mystery: it

is all about faith! We are called to put our faith in God, to trust in

God. We are trusting God not just for our eternal salvation, but for



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all those things that we need for life. Whenever we pray the Lords

prayer, it is an exercise of trust: for our daily bread, we trust you, oh

Lord, to provide. For a place to live and be secure in we trust you,

oh Lord, to provide! For the fruit of our toil and labour, for all thiseffort we have made not to be useless, not to be in vain we trust

you, oh Lord.

Now you may say, thats not how life works. If you want to build a

house, you have to buy the bricks, lay the foundations and put brick

upon brick upon brick. You could sit there all day long, praying for a

miracle to happen, but the bricks wont start moving by themselves,

right? You have to do it, otherwise its not going to happen. So where

is God in all this?

But thats not what it is all about. Where the Lord builds the house,

thats not some kind of hocus-pocus. Our God is not the Genie from

the bottle fulfilling our wishes so we can lay back and wont have to

work hard any more. Where we have faith, where we trust God, we

can experience that in, with and under the work of our hands, God isat work. As we commit our efforts to God, God will be in them. God

will build the house through our hands. God will watch the city

through our eyes. In our work God will be there. Even in our sweat,

in our frustrations God will be there.

Maybe we can learn both at the same time: to work, as if we did not

know how to pray; and to pray, as if we didnt know how to work. As

Christians, we can start our day, committing all our work, our hopes

and our efforts into Gods hands. God will be in them. And maybe we

can close our days, bringing back to God all our frustrations, where

we worked in vain; and all out thankfulness, where we experienced

success. And then we can learn from an old prayer that goes like this:

May the virtue of our daily work

Hallow our nightly prayers. 2011 DR LUTZ ACKERMANN CHRIST CHURCH, POLOKWANE


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May our sleep be deep and soft

So our work be fresh and hard.

I will lie down and sleep in peace

For you alone, Lord, make me dwell in safety.

(St. Aidan Compline, Northumbria)

Amen.


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Wenn Der Herr Das Haus Nicht Baut - Ps 127