Mtr Mary Trainor

On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand…*

Dear friend,

Remember The Three Little Pigs? I loved this story as it was told to me in early childhood. In a nutshell, there were three little pigs who built houses, one from straw, one from sticks, and one from bricks. It was my father who shared the story with my brother and me, and it was always the same--except his version may have differed from the one you remember. In our father’s version the pigs had names: Philip built with straw, George from sticks, and Robert from bricks.

The pigs, of course, had a common enemy. The Big Bad Wolf came along, huffed and puffed, and blew down the straw house. Poor Philip. Next, the wolf huffed and puffed and blew down the stick house. Poor George. But the Big Bad Wolf was no match for the brick house, for it withstood his heartiest huff and puff. Gleeful Robert.

All other ground is sinking sand…

In today’s Daily Office Gospel from Mark, Jesus talks about things that will perish and things that will last. 

Outside the temple, his disciples were impressed by its structural strength. They told Jesus to look at the “large stones,” the “large buildings.” Jesus said, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.” He continued, with a litany of natural disasters that would be visited upon the world, only to conclude: “This is but the beginning of birth pangs.”

All is transitory except God alone. The most massive human construction will come tumbling down. Storms and wars and earthquakes and famines will come and go. But God in Christ is what matters, is what lasts. And, indeed, the temple fell, Rome fell, people died in earthquakes, perished in famines. Still do to this very day.

But Jesus said these are birth pangs. A new world order--the Kingdom of God--is being born, even as I write this meditation, even as you go about your morning tasks. We are all part of God’s amazing plan of birthing a new creation out of the old one.

All other ground is sinking sand…

The world is able to beguile me with its imperfect wisdom if I am not vigilant. It can try to convince me in myriad ways that my ingenuity, my wit, my skill, will secure me. Scripture identifies this as utter folly.

Even simple children’s stories have contributed at an early age to form us to this way of trusting in our own strength and ingenuity. If the temple fell, surely my little house made of bricks will topple, also.

By the way, I was a young adult before I realized something was amiss in the way my father relayed the story of The Three Little Pigs. Only in my father’s version did the little pigs have names. A further note of chagrin: Philip, George, and Robert, were the names of my father and his two brothers. Robert, my father, of course, was the one who built a house from brick.

Mtr Mary

*”On Christ the solid rock I stand,” Number 99 from Lift Every Voice and Sing, an authorized supplemental hymnal of The Episcopal Church.