In the spring the light comes out full bore. The sun stands steadfast above the horizon gazing down like a giant eye that blinks slowly - once - to mark every twenty-four hours. The energy flow is constant. One can almost feel the solar wind on one's face. Plants leap out of the ground. The sky is as big as forever. And tourists arrive like seven-year locusts - plentiful and voracious; filled with more energy than sense.

They are hungry for adventure: star-struck by the romance of the frontier. The light of the long days gets to them. The land calls their name. Many of them strike out into the woods to build cabins. The cabins they put up are real enough but they are also pithy metaphors. These urban woodsmen have come hoping to build new lives.

Most of the newcomers have never built a cabin before. Many have never built anything. So they bring their favorite "How to Build a Cabin" book and carry it around as they buy axes, adzes and other tools they have never heard of, much less handled. These baby cabin builders are like ardent disciples of different denominations cradling their favorite translations of the bible.

As with bibles, so too with cabin building books - some versions are better than others. Building a cabin in Alaska is much different than building one in Ohio. And no matter which book a person picks, it is still a long road from reading about a cabin to actually building one and learning how to live in it. Some of the new would-be cabin builders give up when their calluses begin to bleed. Some give up when the weather changes faster than they can - winter does not stay at bay for very long.

Some discover they had built what appeared to be the perfect cabin, but there was a fatal hidden flaw. It was not the trees they had chosen. Those were solid enough. They had learned to notch and fit the timbers well. The joints were good. One by one they had lifted the logs laboriously into place and caulked them with moss, or mud, or more modern stuff designed to last a thousand years. In time there were lintels and door-posts, a threshold and a door. Frequently it was not until they were finishing the roof that the trouble began to show.

Logs are not light. As you stack them up upon one another the same perimeter footprint presses down harder and harder on the earth. In winter the ground is like iron in Alaska, but as the months slip by some pieces of earth become more like mush than metal.

Permafrost is the bane of out of state builders. They did not know the lay of the land and they do not realize, at first, that their work has no stable foundation. But they learn. While they build the sun pours down light and heat. After many weeks the logs begin to hunker down and the soil parts like a slow motion Red Sea. Whole cabins do not get swallowed like the horse and riders of Pharaoh's armies. But cabins built on permafrost list and lean out of square, jamming their front doors shut and making them every bit as useless as Pharaoh's chariots stuck in the mud.

Foundations matter. Whether one is building a cabin or a life, everything else is supported by what lies beneath the surface.

Neither the tools we use nor the materials out of which we craft our lives determine the ultimate value of our endeavors. We can possess the best of both but find it all collapsing inward if we have based our lives on foundations that cannot bear the weight.

How can we learn to see what is bedrock and what is permafrost? What makes a suitable foundation for a life?

Let us learn from those who have built before us. Moses brought Ten Commandments down the mountain. Escaping from the Egyptians was only one part of building up the people of Israel. Freedom without boundaries is like a building without solid footings. God sent Moses down with two stone tablets- enough to form the foundation of holy living. Do these things and you will remain in relationship with God. Do these things and you will be blessed. Stray from these commandments and you will be building on lesser things.

But hearing words and having them become part of your life are two different things. Moses knew this. We tend to pay attention to things we can touch and see. That is why sacraments have outward and visible signs - some way of reminding us of God's presence and power. Moses told the people to take the words he brought them and bind them as a sign upon their hands and an emblem on their foreheads. This became the practice of tying on small cubicle boxes that held prayers on parchment on the forehead and hand. How might we keep God word in front of us daily?

If wisdom is to survive a generation, parents must teach their children. Teaching occurs best when it is part of the fabric of life, and regular in its presence no matter what else is going on. Talk about the things of God at home and when you are away from home, Moses said. There is nowhere that God is not, so sanctify space by acknowledging God's presence wherever you are. Sanctify time too. Speak of the things of God when you wake up and when you prepare for sleep. Hallow the limits of the day by acknowledging God at the beginning and at the end. Finally, Moses said, mark the door posts of your house and the gates that lead out into the world. Remember God knows your coming in and your going out. Remember God as you move through your life.

It is no different now. Moses' words still ring true for us. If we want a solid foundation to our life we have to remember the words of God and act on them, day in and day out - whether we are at home or on vacation. If we want the best for our children we have to not only tell them about the words of God but also live them out in front of them. However effective our Sunday School may be, our children are only in it a little over an hour a week. Most of the time our children are learning about God from watching us.

Behavior matters. This morning's reading from Matthew is the summing up of the Sermon of the Mount. It is also a suitable capstone for the stones from Deuteronomy. Jesus makes three distinctions -those who speak pious words, those who act "in Jesus' name", and those who actually live the words they say.

Saying words is not enough. Anyone can say "Lord, Lord" or repeat pious phrases from the bible or the prayerbook. Words must move into action if they are to become manifest in reality. Talking about cabins is not the same as building them. Winter comes whether shelter has been built or not. Those without adequate shelter do not survive.

But good deeds alone are not enough either, even ones that are done while invoking God's name - if actual allegiance to God is lacking we are just "branding" our own actions to pretty them up. Trust in, and obedience to, God's will is required or we have no adequate foundation for the work we have taken on.

Without a firm foundation, the decisions we make and the stances we embrace will be forever shifting like sand in the face of a storm. We will vacillate to ease the pressures we feel, or give in to whatever option gives us some temporary advantage or makes us look good at the time.

This is like building a cabin on permafrost. There is neither warmth nor stability in such foundations. Let us instead turn to God and seek the foundation He offers. So how do we begin to find bedrock rather than mush?

We start by practicing prayer and by learning to listen. We read scripture and study it so that we might learn more about how others have built a holy life. We take good care of the people and places that God has put into our lives. We allow ourselves to be more open to the suffering of others, giving more generously for their benefit.

When we listen for instruction, then act out of obedience we are laying a foundation for our life, stone by stone. Christ the cornerstone, is God's free gift. The other stones may be sharp or hard to lift, but we will not be broken by their weight, only strengthened. We are God's building - living stones rising from a sure foundation and rising toward the Son.