WHAT WILL I BUILD ON MY FOUNDATION?

WHAT WILL I BUILD ON MY FOUNDATION?

a homily by

Blessed Fr. Athanasios Mitilinaios

on the theme

“Take care how you build”

Delivered at the Holy Monastery Komneniou, Larissa
on August 1, 1999

9th Sunday of Matthew (1 Corinthians 3:9-17)

(1 Corinthians 3:9-17 RSV) For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building. According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and another man is building upon it. Let each man take care how he builds upon it. For no other foundation can any one lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any one builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw — each man’s work will become manifest; for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work which any man has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If any one destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and that temple you are.

Saint Paul, my beloved, likens the faithful of the Church of Corinth with two images. He calls them “God’s field” and “God’s building”. The workers, then, of the Gospel are God’s farmers and builders. For example, Paul and Apollos; they tend to God’s field and God’s building. That is, they develop the spiritual life of the believers. Then, each believer tends to the field of his soul and cultivates it; but moreover, he is mindful to build his spiritual existence.

Before we proceed, however, we note that Paul, in using the image of the building, determines the foundation of the building. This, as we will shortly see, is of foundational significance. In the Epistle passage which we heard today, Paul writes:

According to the grace of God given to me, like a wise master builder, I laid a foundation (3:10).

He laid, he said, a foundation, but the foundation is “given”. Paul does not build this foundation; he simply takes and positions it. What does this mean? He says here:

It is not possible to lay any other foundation than the one which is Jesus Christ (3:11).

So can anything be laid as a foundation, the existence of every man? Therefore when he says “no other foundation can be laid”, the question arises: Is it possible for any other foundation to be laid down? And what might these foundations be?

Certainly, my beloved, very many foundation stones are used in the construction of every human being. The foundations of every person are laid according to their upbringing, whether at home, at school, in society or the times in which he lives. This is how he acquires the foundation of his existence.

So every man is created, is built, according to the times, his upbringing, etc, as I said. And thus we have the idealistic man, the materialist man, the one who builds with materialistic concepts or the one who builds with idealistic concepts. Moreover, he is the businessman. Every epoch forms the man. He is the man of technology, or the man of science, he is, moreover, the humanist, he is the knight of times past.

Here you see that in every epoch we have a certain ideal formation, and in accordance with the ideals of education, each man is made. Thus Paul defines what foundation he sets in people, those whom he baptizes and Christianizes, those whom he makes Christians. The foundation is CHRIST. This is what he says. CHRIST is the foundation.

But Paul adds: “There is no other foundation” (3:11). Other than Christ, it is those which we listed. But to replace Christ and lay another foundation, this cannot happen, because there is no other foundation. Zigavinos says:

The one who tries to lay down another foundation is not a believer; he is not Orthodox.

There is one foundation: CHRIST.

And it is a given that Christian families, when their children are growing up, will certainly include Christ in the education. Did you hear that? They will put Christ in the education. They will not put something else. We can, perhaps, take some elements, as we will see further below, which we will call “foundation” with some examples, just pedagogical, psychological, but only because, all of you have seen that the various forms of educational methods and the various psychologies that are circulating are moving away from the foundation Christ. Let’s not forget this.

And what does this foundation consist of? Zigavinos, again, tells us: “the teaching of Christ, or, faith in Christ”. This is the foundation. Christ, my beloved, is the cornerstone rejected by the Jewish builders as unfit. The Lord Himself put it to them. In fact, He will even say: “The stone which the builders rejected, this one was placed at the head of the corner” (Ps 118:22; Mt. 21:42; Mk. 12:10; Lk. 20:17; 1 Pet. 2:7).

In the old days, when we did not have cement, there were cornerstones, and the very best blocks were put at each of the four corners of the building. So, “the head of the corner” is what we call “cornerstone”, “the one that the builders rejected”.

For, I am the cornerstone. You who must build your people, you yourselves reject Him, the cornerstone. And He will continue:

And the one who falls on this stone will be broken; but the one on whom it falls will be crushed (Mt. 21:44; Lk. 20:18).

“Whoever stumbles,” He says “on this stone”. The scandal is what we call “stumbling”, because it literally means that we are scandalized, He is a scandal, an obstacle, I don’t see it, I don’t notice it, so where I am walking I happen upon it and I fall down…

It is like when I am scandalized by the subject of Christ’s Theanthropic nature. Is Christ God? Did God become man? If I stumble here, then I will fall on this rock. And the significance of this rock, then, is that it rises up as if it were a living thing, it rises, and “on whomever it falls, it crushes”; “He will be crushed,” He says. “It will crush him…”. It will crush this man.

So then, Christ is the living foundation for us Christians – not for outsiders, that is, for non-Christians. But what are we to understand when we say Christ is the foundation? We mean the entire teaching of the Gospel, both in dogma and in ethos. I cannot say that I am correct in the dogmas but not correct in the ethos, that is, in living the Orthodox life. I cannot say this. Consequently he must be ok in both of these, to live in harmony with the ethos of the gospel message and to believe whatever the Gospel reveals. And what does the Gospel reveal? Of course, very many pages of the Gospel refer to the ethos, and of course very many pages refer to dogma.

So we will accept the dual nature of Christ, the divine and the human, that is, that God the Logos became man. Therefore, he is Theanthropos. He is neither a mere man, nor God only (as Monophysitism would certainly like to say, for example). He is perfect God and perfect man. He does not lack in one or the other nature.

Moreover, I will accept the representative character of His death. Who did He die for upon the Cross?

Moreover, I will accept His sinlessness. You know, in our age there is a heretical notion going around from some archbishop outside of Greece, that Christ became what He was by progression. Heresy! Heresy! “By progression” he says, that He took care to correct Himself and was recognized by God. May the Lord God have mercy… It is total heresy. He does not accept that Christ was divine from the beginning.

I will also accept His death, which is redemptive, and His Resurrection, for we will also be resurrected with Him (those of us who are worthy), says St. Paul. God the Father will lead us also, together with Christ, on that Day, the great Day of the Second Coming of Christ and the resurrection of the dead.

We will, moreover, accept His Ascension and the sitting at the right of the Father.

So as we said, the entire Gospel, which describes the theanthropic nature of Christ as our Savior. And He is a real Savior. This is the foundation of a Christian, about which Theodoret says:

Do not therefore call yourselves of men, for Christ is the foundation. … Do not lay another foundation.

The man of science, the businessman (pay attention), these foundations are according to man. There is one foundation – CHRIST.

Today, my beloved, our Christians, by their baptism, laid a foundation which is Christ. From the time we are baptized, we have Christ as a foundation. The question is: If now I build upon His foundation, what am I to build? I have the foundation, but what do I build?

We have some Cyclopean walls here in Greece, those in the Peloponnese and in Crete, huge walls – and say I go there now to that very old foundation, an awesome one, which we admire when we imagine how they were raised, these huge stones, and now I go up these foundations to build my little house – what a pity! – my little one or two room house in order to go there for vacation. Do you go and build your little hut on such foundations? Your little house? Your summer house? Are you in your right mind, man?

The question, then, is: Upon his foundation, which we say is CHRIST, what does each one build? This matter not only pertains to the shepherd (as we will see further down), how the shepherd will help me build myself, but the matter is also for me, how I myself take care to build.

What is Paul doing here? He utilizes the image of a builder and makes a list: If any man builds upon (ἐποικοδομῶ) this existing foundation with gold, silver, valuable stones ­(the valuable stones are not diamonds and other such small rocks, but valuable stones such as marble, for example), wood, grass, reed”. He mentions six materials. He divides these materials, my beloved, into two categories. And what does he say? That everyone builds what? He is saying through an analogy, that he builds his character.

We say: He is an important Christian. He built upon the foundation CHRIST with gold, with silver, etc., while that other built his hut with insignificant things: wood, grass and reed. What can you do with wood, grass and reed? What can you do? This is what is important: When that day will come, Judgment day, the great Day, the Day which is fire, in this fire what will survive? That is, out of all the building I have done on my character, what will survive in eternity? Whatever is done and experienced in Christ Jesus, this will endure in eternity.

And Paul also says, “All that is not done from faith is sin” (Rom. 14:23). Whatever you did, not bound with faith, will not only be a loss on that day but is furthermore also a sin. Did you understand this?

So I do one purely charitable work. Is charity not a virtue? Certainly it is. But if I do not do it in the name of Jesus Christ but for my own name, then what? I do it to make me feel good, to make a good impression on others who see me do an act of charity, to have my name engraved on those plaques of donors and benefactors. What does this spring from? Self-love. Self-projection. So I did not do it for Christ. This is a loss. Not only is this a loss, but St. Paul also tells us that this is sin. So let us give some attention to this.

A glass of water… What could possibly be a more easily paid for thing to give someone? (One Evangelist even says “cold” water (Mt. 10:42), that is, freshly drawn from the well. But so I won’t get tired, I also go to the faucet there at my kitchen sink when someone asks me for some water, and I fill up a glass and give it to him. I will go and get it from the source.) And the Lord says, “I assure you, if you do this in the name of Christ, truly I say to you, this deed of yours will not go to waste.”

On the other hand, we may see a brilliant, elaborate cultural work, but if it is not bound to the name of Jesus Christ, it does not endure in eternity. It does not endure. Who would deny that the Hermes of Praxiteles is a marvelous statue? Who would deny that the Aphrodite of Milos has excellent symmetry. I wish I had the time to describe the symmetry of the statue to you. It is amazing! (which the French snatched from us – those smart Europeans, always smart – yes, and they have it in the Louvre. Well, let’s leave it at that.) The point is this: Whatever cultural works I construct, build, admire or acquire, there is no benefit from that which I do unless it is bound with Christ. If whatever cultural work it may be is done in the name of Christ, this will endure on the that Day as a work.

I run an orphanage. If I have done this for some reason other than to gather the orphan children, etc. etc., there is no doubt that it will be destroyed. If I did my good work in the name of Christ, my work will endure. If I did not do it in the name of Christ, but to make a good name for myself, it will go to waste.

So then, as we saw, St. Paul mentions two categories: precious materials and insignificant. The precious materials, we said, are the gold, silver and quality stones. Mansions and palaces are built with these. And the other materials: wood, grass and reed? These are usually combined to build worthless huts. Each material is tested by fire, as I told you. So with our works also, those which are built on the foundation CHRIST, the fire will test on that Day. Paul writes:

Every work will be disclosed for what it is; for a Day will be disclose it (the great Day of Christ), and every work will be disclosed by fire (it will be shown if the work survives the test of fire); fire will test each and every work. The one whose work withstands will receive a wage (3:14).

Notice something, if you will, he says “wages are received” (“the wage” is something beyond the scope of our subject). If Paul is saved, and I also am saved, can I compare my work with the work of Paul, and those others who were saved (assuming that I am saved). The reward depends on how much I labored.

“He will receive a wage.” It is known from various parables which Christ told us that not all wages are the same. Can I myself have first place in the Kingdom of God (I who am insignificant) in front of a Paul? Is it ever possible? St. Paul says: “One star differs from another star in glory” etc. (1 Cor 15:41).

Moreover, “If the work is burned up there will be a loss, but this one will be saved, but as though fire” (3:15). There are various interpretations concerning the last half of this verse. Perhaps the better interpretation is as follows: “He will be saved,” meaning, he will be found naked… how one moment I am asleep in my house, in my pajamas let’s say, and in an instant: Fire! Fire in the house! Are you going to tell me at that time: “I’m going to go get my shirt from the dresser”? Or will I be running out?

So the house burned down, with all its contents. And now, how do I remain? Naked. That is, without having a thing. This is how people will find themselves when they do not build correctly with the proper materials. They will remain naked, completely naked. And as Zigavinos says (pay attention):

The wood and the grass and the reed are the different kinds of worthless evil works.

So then, these inferior materials, wood, grass, reed, etc. are the worthless works – not the small works, as when we say the widow gave one penny, one or two pennies of charity (Mk. 12:42; Lk. 21:2). Not this small giving. Christ said most beautifully that the widow put in all that she had, her two pennies, and she is praised. So then, it is the worthless works.

St. Athanasios the Great adds: “The evil works.” What is this? When I place upon the foundation CHRIST my evil works: my fornications, my murders, my thefts. Yes, these.

St. Gregory of Nyssa says: “It is the nature of evil works that they are prepared for nothing else but to be consumed in the fire.” (PG 44-46, On Ecclesiastes, Homily 6)

And Origen says: “The evil works and the doing of them are, figuratively we may say, wood and the grass and the reed.” (PG 11-17, Vol. 8, Against Celsum, 4.13)

It is the evil works. Truly, how do we build the edifice of our existence, my beloved? How do we build?

This matter, however, is also for the shepherd. When they offer homilies, they make them secular in order to attract, but these worldly homilies do not save. –Beloved, have we realized the gravity of what was spoken by Paul?– This matter is for the ministers of the word of God, but it is also for every believer who builds in his existence the holy things or the evil things.

Do not be dazzled by a homily that is modern and charming. It does not save, because many times it is secularized. Such homilies do not endure in eternity and the shepherd does not lead the faithful to salvation. And the proper homily, which is supposedly anachronistic, we dismiss. “Oh”, he says “those ideas are old-fashioned.” Not so, my beloved.

I pray that we may all acquire genuine criteria for the building of our salvation, what will endure or what will burn, or else we will experience that great Day with many great surprises…

May the Lord show us mercy.

AMEN.

THE END – TO GOD BE THE GLORY