Given Russia’s recent Communist past I suppose that it’s entirely possible that the planners behind one of the stadiums hosting World Cup matches in 2018, were unaware of a parable Jesus told about not building on sand. At a cost of €260m the Kaliningrad Stadium was built in the middle of the city on one of the country’s last great wetlands. While plans were made to lay a foundation of six metres of sand, in the end 3 metres of loam were used, and as a consequence the stadium has already started to sink. All being well it will still be afloat for the England match against Belgium on 28thJune, but it may not become the home of the local football team for as long as had been hoped.
When Jesus told the parable he obviously didn’t have football stadiums in mind, but he was speaking about the lives that all of us build and was asking questions about the foundations on which they rest. Are they solid enough to withstand the storms of life? Is our identity and security based on what other people think of us, with all the inherent instability that that brings? Or are our lives rooted in the knowledge that we are created and loved by a faithful, unchanging God?
