Are you going away on vacation this summer?  When I was a boy, we lived in a big and busy city- even bigger than Vancouver!  So we longed to get away to the quiet and fresh air of the seaside.   We would cram into our old car, with the luggage piled high on the back, and we would set off towards Perranporth, on the north coast of Cornwall.  Our car was very, very old, so it took us a long, long time to get there.  Sometimes, we had to stop at the top of a hill, just because the rad was boiling!  I had a soft toy called Jimmy the Beefeater.  He was just like the retired soldiers who lived in the Tower of London.  And Jimmy (like me), got very very tired of that long, long journey.  Both of us were always looking anxiously out of the car window to get our first glimpse of the sea.
   
But Perranporth was a wonderful place when we got there.  There were rock pools with sea-anemones and small fish.  There were very dark, cold caves, where there might be smugglers, or even pirates' treasure.  But the place I liked best was the beach- kilometers and kilometers of beautiful sand- even better than the beach here in Brackendale.
   
When the tide was going out, all sorts of little rivers appeared in the sand.  So I took my beach spade and I dug furiously.  I was determined to build the biggest dike in all of Cornwall, with a huge lake where I could sail my boat.   But what I didn't know was that sand was porous. The water ran through the dike, and even under it.  So quite quickly, the dike collapsed, and I lost my wonderful lake.   We saw the same thing happening in Brackendale a couple of winters ago.  I am sure Calvin remembers the mess the floods made in his home.  The water kept just below the top of the dike, but it began to go underneath, and people from the works department had to come very quickly and tip rocks to block the underground streams.  If they hadn't done this, very soon the whole dike would have collapsed, flooding most of Brackendale and Squamish.

Do you know what sort of a job Jesus had before he became a great teacher?  Well, his dad had a small building and carpentry business- a bit like Wilhelm or Walter- and Jesus used to help out in the shop.  And do you remember the story he told about water and sand? One day, his friend David had some great news.  "Hey, Jesus, I'm going to marry Sarah.  She's said yes, and even her dad has agreed.  So I'm going to build the best house in the world for her, and for the family we're going to raise."  "Do you want me to help?" asked Jesus.  "Things'll slacken off here at the shop in a couple of weeks or so, and I'm sure Dad can spare me then."  "Oh, no sweat" said David, "I think I can handle it all by myself."  Now David worked in the tax office down at the docks, and I don't think he knew too much about building.  Well, the realtor sold him what seemed a wonderful building lot, right down by the river.  "Look," she said. "beautiful views right up to the mountains!  No neighbours for miles!  And so flat you can build right away.  No need for dynamite or bulldozers."  So David went down to the so hard on his house, like a good father-to-be.  He was out there every evening, right throughout the spring.  He made a shady grape arbour on the roof, for those really hot days.  And there was space out the back to build more bedrooms as the children came along.  All through the summer, David enjoyed fishing by the river, or just sitting on the roof, looking at the snow glistening on the mountains. In the fall, they celebrated the feast of Succoth, the grape harvest. David built a little booth on the roof, and he picked some wonderful juicy grapes.  But soon it was November.  The sky grew dark and angry.  The clouds came right down to the ground.  And it began to rain- heavy rain that never stopped.  The river got bigger, and bigger, and bigger.  "The floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell, and great was the fall of it."  Matt. 7 ²⁷ Yes, all of the foundations were washed away, and the house came crashing down. 
   
That's the reason that developers tip big mounds of gravel in Brackendale and in Dentville before they begin building.  They are trying to squash water out of those underground streams and make sure the land is strong enough to support a house or even a large apartment building.
   
Now when Jesus told this story, he wasn't thinking just about people building houses- he was also thinking about the way we build our lives.  If things are not going to come crashing down and get in a terrible mess, we need a solid foundation.   This is what our Fathers and Mothers give us.  And this is what Jesus teaches us, through our lessons in Sunday School and in Church.  So I hope that each of you will try to build your lives on a strong foundation, listening carefully to the teachings of both Jesus and your parents.