A Whole Lot of Shaking Has Been Going On! -- Sermon for Pentecost 11C (Hebrews 12:18-29)
There’s an old Jerry Lee Lewis song that goes back before my time, which describes what it feels like to go through an earthquake. "There's a whole lot of shakin’ goin’ on." I don’t know if you’ve experienced an earthquake, but having lived in Southern California, I’ve experienced a few of them. Fortunately, I’ve lived far enough away from the epicenters that while I experienced a bit of shaking, it wasn’t too frightening. However, my brother-in-law and sister-in-law did experience a whole lot of shaking from the 1989 Santa Cruz earthquake. They were at Candlestick Park, getting ready to watch the World Series, when the quake struck. They decided not to go back when the Series resumed, so I got to go to the make up game along with my father-in-law. When you live in California, earthquakes are part of life, just like tornadoes in Kansas and hurricanes in Florida.
Earthquakes are mysterious and dangerous. You never know when they’ll strike, but even people who live near fault lines can grow complacent and forget that a quake could strike at any moment, without warning. We keep hearing about the “Big One” that is supposed to devastate California, but so far it hasn’t hit. So, Californians go on with life, figuring if it happens, it happens. Nevertheless, these less devastating quakes serve as an occasional wake-up call, letting us know that a big one could happen at any moment. So, it’s good to be prepared!
The prophet Isaiah issued a wake-up call to the people of Judah that featured a bit of shaking of the foundations.
The Foundations of the earth do shake.
Earth breaks to pieces,
Earth is split in pieces,
Earth reels like a drunken man,
Earth rocks like a hammock;
Under the weight of its transgression earth falls down
To rise no more!
(Is. 24:18b-20, translation in Tillich, Shaking of the Foundations, p. 2)
Whether it’s an earthquake, tornado, fire, or hurricane, disasters remind us that even when we do our best to plan for the worst, some things lie outside our control. But there are some things that lie within our control and that involve the way we live our lives in the presence of God, who is, according to the Book of Hebrews, a consuming fire.
When we read the Old Testament, we encounter prophets such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, Micah, and Elijah. These prophets speak on God’s behalf, warning the people about what happens when they break the covenant God established with the people through Abraham and Moses. In the reading from Jeremiah, we hear God calling Jeremiah to prophetic ministry, even if Jeremiah didn’t think he was qualified. God appointed Jeremiah “over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant” (Jeremiah 1:9-10). Here’s the thing about prophets. They usually presented the people with options. If they followed the path God set out for them, they would experience God’s blessings. If they chose a different path, they would probably end up experiencing some form of disaster. Which path will you choose? That is the question.
We live in a different world from the one Jeremiah experienced, but humans are humans. So, the prophets still speak, and we may experience a whole lot of shaking going on in our lives. That shaking reveals the kinds of foundations on which we build our lives.
After the end of World War II, a war that included the dropping of atomic bombs on Japanese cities, as well as the fire bombing of German cities, theologian Paul Tillich preached a sermon he titled The Shaking of the Foundations. In this powerful sermon, Tillich called on the audience to consider the devastating power we humans had unleashed on ourselves. He reminded his audience that with the launching of the nuclear age, we now had at our disposal the tools of our own destruction. So far, we’ve not used our nuclear weapons, but it could happen, whether by choice or by accident. During the Russian war in Ukraine, we’ve heard Russian leaders raise the possibility of using nuclear weapons. So, it could happen. But nuclear war isn’t the only challenge we face. There is, for example, the ongoing threat of climate change. While scientific advancement has shaken the foundations of heaven and earth, do we have the right to unleash the sources of our own destruction? [Tillich, The Shaking of the Foundations, pp. 2-3]
Paul Tillich closed his sermon by declaring:
We happen to live in a time when very few of us, very few nations, very few sections of the earth, will succeed in forgetting the end. For in these days the foundations of the earth do shake. May we not turn our eyes away; may we not close our ears and our mouths! But may we rather see, through the crumbling of a world, the rock of eternity and the salvation which has no end! [Shaking of the Foundations, p. 11].
As the author of the Book of Hebrews reminds us, it is God’s kingdom that cannot be shaken. This is the proper foundation on which to build our lives. This is the “rock of eternity” that Tillich spoke of.
The question Christians face relates to how we share a prophetic word with a world that may not be interested in building on foundations that cannot be shaken. The starting point is simple. Our ability to share this word with the world starts with us, as we build our lives on the foundation of God’s righteousness. This is the word we hear in Hebrews 12:
"But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the first born who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel."
So, let us go up to Mount Zion and gather in the presence of God with all the company of heaven, including Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant. Jeremiah speaks of this new covenant, which he tells us God will write on our hearts rather than on stone. Therefore, the people on whose hearts God writes the new covenant will be God’s people. The good news is that when God does this, God promises to forgive our iniquity and no longer remember our sin (Jer. 31:31-34).
The Book of Hebrews reminds us that what has ultimate value is what is eternal. Years ago, a 6.0 earthquake hit my hometown of Klamath Falls. It came as quite a surprise because even though the city lies in a volcanic region, earthquakes rarely if ever occurred. Nevertheless, the quake damaged a lot of the buildings. However, the oldest building in town, the Baldwin Hotel, survived because it was built on solid bedrock and not on the sifting sands of reclaimed lake bed like much of the downtown area.
According to Hebrews, when God shakes the foundations of our lives, what survives is what is built on a solid foundation. That foundation is that which is the eternal. When an earthquake strikes, some things remain standing, and other things fall down. Although the construction of the buildings is important, even more important is the foundation. Therefore, what we construct will likely withstand the storms and earthquakes of life if we build on a solid foundation. So, don't neglect the warnings issued by the prophets, ancient and modern. Remember what Jesus said:
Everyone, then, who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. 25 The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall! (Matt. 7:24-27).
Turning again to Paul Tillich, he wrote that the prophets spoke with boldness because "their power sprang from the fact that they did not really speak of the foundations of the earth as such, but of Him Who laid the foundations and would shake them; and that they did not speak of the doom of the nations as such, but of Him Who brings doom for the sake of His eternal justice and salvation" (Shaking of the Foundations, p. 9)
So, let us build our lives on the solid foundation of God’s coming kingdom, rather than on the sifting sands of things that are temporary. They may seem attractive and enticing, but they won’t withstand the shaking of our foundations. So, let us put our trust in God, who is the rock of our eternity, as we come into God’s presence offering worship that is reverent and full of awe.
Preached by:
Dr. Robert D. Cornwall
Pulpit Supply
Tyrone Community Presbyterian Church (PCUSA)
Tyrone Township, MI
August 24, 2025
Pentecost 11C
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