You've Gotta Have Heart!
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
Thom Shuman is writing about our faithful hearts. Who can we turn our heart toward? Who is our heart committed to? Thom is asking a lot of questions and will write on different answers. Paul Bresnahan writes about how Jesus ignites hope in all hearts that are willing to listen. Also included are illustrations, a worship resource, and a children's sermon.
You've Gotta Have Heart!
By Thom Shuman
With Valentine's Day falling shortly after this Sunday, what better time for a preacher to focus on the heart? After all, there will probably be more chocolate and candy hearts given and eaten that day, more hearts warmed by expressions of love, more broken hearts mended by flowers and apologies than on any other day of the year! Jeremiah (17:5-10) speaks of the devious heart, which can often turn away from God. And since in the Hebrew theology, the heart is the seat of wisdom and learning, Jeremiah is probably speaking of an intentional decision NOT to follow God, not a choice guided by emotion.
Paul, on the other hand, in 1st Corinthians (15:12-20), speaks of what might be called the "heart" of the gospel (or at least of Paul's preaching), that it is the resurrection of Christ, which is the basis for our faith. And so, we can believe, we can trust, we turn our hearts (logically and emotionally) toward God. Who is your heart committed to (turned toward) this Valentine's Day? How is that reflected in the life you live, in the love you give, in the love you are willing to receive?
THE WORLD
The other day, while driving, I heard the song "You Gotta Have Heart" on the satellite radio. Not five minutes later, they played "What the World Needs Now Is Love, Sweet Love." Which got me to thinking: how many songs have been written which have either the word 'heart' or the word 'love' in them? Maybe even google couldn't keep track of the numbers! We all have our favorite love song, we all have our favorite "heart" song, and we will be playing them, and singing them, and remembering them as Valentine's Day approaches. We will be making cards for our favorite 'valentine' or hallmarking them from a store; we will be giving our love heart shaped candy, or jewelry, or books. Even the U.S. Postal Service gets into the act each year with a special 'love' stamp (this year is my favorite -- a chocolate kiss on the stamp!).
From little kids in the throes of puppy love to adolescents struggling with raging hormones to crusty curmudgeons who only seem to tolerate one another, we all have that deep longing to share our heart. Giving our hearts to another, having our hearts broken by the person we thought cared for us -- all part of being human, of taking the risk to love and hoping to be loved, of being willing to place our deepest selves at the mercy of another, of daring to trust that we can reveal ourselves completely to another without being ridiculed or rejected. Even God was willing to risk having the divine heart broken, when the Word took on flesh and became one of us. And, according to scripture, God has a deep longing for us to turn our hearts to God, even while there is that deep awareness by the Holy One of how difficult that is for us to do!
THE WORD
The passage from Jeremiah appears to be a piece of wisdom writing that closely resembles the imagery we find in the Psalm 1. Both writings contrast the choices humans must make in the matter of trust. Shall we put our trust in what passes for human wisdom, or shall we trust in God? Not surprisingly, both the prophet and the psalmist come down on the side of trusting in God, but not so much for the purpose of finding happiness (or at least happiness as it is defined in today's culture). Rather, trusting in God allows us to journey on the road to blessings. When we make that intentional choice to trust in God, then we are able to avoid wandering the streets that are potholed with mistakes. Or put another way, when we trust in God, then the roots of our lives, can be planted (and nurtured) by the living waters which God is more than willing to provide for us.
Both the prophet and the psalmist seem to point to the fact that there are two hearts that compete for the affection of our hearts. Using language that may make some folks uncomfortable (wickedness; devious), both authors are clear that we have to make a decision. In a world in which self-centeredness is almost worshiped, and following one's own path is almost mandatory, how can one choose not to go down that path? Yet, that is the path of the wicked. According to John Bright, when one goes down such a path, the heart has turned away from Yahweh and is 'desperately sick.' No, humans must be wise enough to choose the least traveled path and so become blessed because their hearts are planted deep within God's.
For Paul, the faith that a Christian has is also that trust which is to be grounded in God. In this passage from 1 Corinthians, he centers it around how we view the resurrection. If we have doubts about Christ being raised, then we have doubts about God's ability to be in charge of the future. If we believe that the resurrection is only a story, then God's Word will have no power for our lives. It is the resurrection, and the trust in this completely unheard of event, which is at the heart of this passage. It is the resurrection which is at the heart of all hope; it is the trust in this event that is at the heart of the gospel, for Paul; it is the foundation for our heart's ability to trust in God. For Paul, the resurrection points to the future God has in mind for all humanity; it is this hope in God's future that is at the heart of the Christian experience.
CRAFTING THE SERMON
Even the most technologically challenged pastor (or congregation) has the tools to provide visuals for listeners on this Sunday. Drawing a simple heart on the front of the bulletin surrounding the words "Be Mine! -- God"; showing a handmade Valentine's Day card with the red construction paper backing, the white lacy heart, the extra glue still in globs on the sheet"; having the kids hand out baskets filled with hard candy hearts for each person to take one -- we can make it clear that we want to talk about the heart today! And not just any heart, but that human heart that we think is so sentimental, so romantic, so attuned to God's own heart.
For the scripture lessons challenge us about the assumptions we make about our hearts, and how we might look at our hearts, so that, indeed, they might be turned toward God. Jeremiah, Paul, the psalmist, each in their own way wants us to recognize how easy it is for the heart to become so sick ("devious" is the word Jeremiah uses) that we make those choices that only lead us away from God. The condition of our heart, the prophet says, shapes our understanding of and response to God.
We need to make clear to our people that when scripture speaks about the heart, it is not talking about sentiment, or emotion, or good feelings. It is talking about understanding and wisdom; about seeking God and the Truth God has to offer to us; about learning all that can be right and all that can go wrong with our lives. But especially, scripture is talking about TRUST.
Scripture clearly understands that not just happiness, but misery as well, are interwoven with our hearts. When we choose to follow God's ways (according to the prophet and the psalmist), we discover those rich, fruitful lives God intends for us, almost as if we were trees constantly sprinkled by living water, warmed by God's love, fed by God's grace. Tragically, we are so determined to walk other paths, to choose other gods, we find these idols 'nibbling' away at our hearts until they are so riddled with pride, with arrogance, with self-deception that they dry up in the drought of our callous selfishness. We do indeed deceive ourselves, Jeremiah warns, when we accept the culture's "wisdom" that we are the center of the universe.
That's why the psalmist uses the imagery of walking the path of wisdom or running down the road into the arms of the wicked. It is an intentional choice, which road we will follow, one that we don't make just at the beginning of the journey, but every single time we pick up one foot to place it in front of the other. It's like the vows that are said at a wedding. If we believe that a one-time speaking of them is good for the rest of the marriage, we can be sure we will hit a lot of potholes along the way. But if we see that the vows are but spoken confirmation of who we are, and which needs to be lived out each and every moment of that relationship, then we will truly give our heart to another.
Is it possible to give our hearts to God in a similar way? "Yes" would be the answer given through the Scriptures for this day. But it is a Yes that recognizes that we do have a choice between blessings and cursings, and the choice depends on where our heart is. It is a Yes that recognizes that one must want to place one's life in God's hands, to have one's life shaped by God's values, even as we were shaped by God at Creation. It is a Yes which implores God to fill us when we are empty, to feed us when we are hungry, to stand with us when we want to run away from the worst the world hands to us. It is a Yes that believes that God's heart is big enough to love each of us, fragile enough to be broken for us, determined enough to stick with us, loving enough to die for us.
For this is the way God is, and the way God operates. And while the temptation is always before us to turn away and find another god, another path, another heart, we only have to take that first risky step, that first hesitant move, toward God's heart, to discover our own.
ANOTHER VIEW
Come, Lord Jesus
By Paul Bresnahan
One of my favorite prayers in the Book of Common Prayer is the one that begins with this ancient biblical turn of phrase "Come, Lord Jesus" (Revelation 22:20). The prayer continues, "... and be my companion along the way; kindle my heart and awaken hope that I may know you as you are revealed in Scripture and in the Breaking of Bread." To say simply "Come, Lord Jesus" is enough to me to evoke the rest.
The phrase kindles in me a sense that Jesus is my companion along the way in my life and that is indeed what always kindles hope in my heart. Thus the reading of scripture and receiving communion always beckons me to Jesus, and that is where I most deeply wish to be. And so when we speak of hearts this Valentine's Day, this is the heart of the gospel for me. It is a good test for the human heart as Isaiah notes in today's Old Testament lesson: "I the Lord test the mind and search the heart."
St. Augustine was fond of saying that the human heart cannot come to rest until it comes to rest in God. Therefore constancy in prayer seems to make sense. It seems right to have one of those "breath prayers" that one can whisper deep in the heart to keep things at peace and in perspective especially as matters in life speed up to an anxious pace that seeks to disquiet the human soul. I have an irrepressible sense of joy and confidence in my life because I believe that my purpose in life is to be conscious of the fact that Jesus is indeed my constant companion.
So much of Christianity seems so panicky these days as the "End" approaches. At least that's what lots of preachers seem to be going on about on television and elsewhere. I confess to you that I have never been a fan of the "Left Behind" series of books. I always find myself skeptical about those who fearfully mention in a panicky way that the "End is at Hand!" There are just too many religious hucksters out there who seem to use theological terror as a way to recruit adherents. That frankly sounds dishonest to me. It may work in the short run, but I do not think this approach will stand the test of time.
That is why the German theologian Jurgen Moltmann appeals to me. He has placed Eschatology (a theological word that simply refers to our beliefs about our ultimate future) back at the center of our theology in a very creative way.
Moltmann grew up in a Germany that shook the very foundations of our understanding of civilization and our purpose for living. He became a Christian as he read the scriptures from his jail cell as a prisoner of war near the end of World War II. What changed his heart was that he discovered hope. His theology helped him see that the coming kingdom of God brought about a living transformation of the future. Christian hope makes possible an alternative outcome for the poor and the oppressed, those in prison and the downcast. He discovered that Jesus always taught that God had a special hope for those the rest of the world would cast away. That is why Jesus can say: "Blessed are the Poor." The struggle for social justice and the hope of God then became the central teaching for Moltmann. And, in fact, this hope gave much more than hope just for the downcast, it gives hope to all humanity.
Moltmann discovered that the Bible does not teach a human consciousness shaped by the past or even the present, but by a fundamental kind of trust and commitment to the promises of God. God's Promises are what ultimately change the world. And when the church courageously lives into those promises, the future changes and looks more and more like the dream that God wishes to see become reality. Now that is the kind of eschatology I can live with. My ultimate future is to live into the purposes that God has for this world. God seeks peace with justice for all. God wants freedom for those in prison. God wants healing for the sick. Jesus wants us to feed his sheep! There is much for us to do as we live into God's promises.
Imagine if you will a young man imprisoned by drug addiction. There is such a young man in my congregation who came to Christianity by reading the Bible. He had been a prisoner to drug addiction, but he fought his way courageously out of that dreadful and dark world. And it was God who finally gave him the power to escape from his imprisonment. When I told him to read the Sermon on the Mount and Mark's gospel, he came to me and said that what changed his life was the realization that God loved and forgave him... even him. "Imagine," he told me "God still loves me, even after all that I have done." That young man is now alive again. He has a heart full of hope. He is utterly committed to bringing good news to any who suffer from addiction of any sort and he is irrepressibly joyous! His baptism made more genuine sense to me that many others, and carried within it the hope that Moltmann teaches in his theology classes.
Perhaps Moltmann is right and certainly the Bible has it right, too. Our purpose in life is to live into the hope of God's future and guided by God's promises. Jesus came into the world we are told not to condemn it but that through coming to know Jesus we might indeed discover salvation (John 3:17). For me that is as simple as a prayer asking Jesus to be my companion along the way. I find that as I live into my future with Jesus by my side my hopes are high. I know God's promises. I have seen the cross and the crown. And Jesus is risen indeed! Blessed Paul the apostle insists on that in today's epistle. I am content to live the abundant life that Jesus promised me.
There's the end of the world for us that I can live with. It is an end that delights the heart of God because it seeks to live into God's promises. It is an end where Jesus is our companion. It is an end that continues to unfold forever in freedom, justice, and peace for all humanity. That is what it means to await the coming of Jesus once again. "Come, Lord Jesus!"
ILLUSTRATIONS
There's an old story about a woman who had a dream. In the dream, she asked God if she could be permitted to see what heaven and hell are like.
In an instant, God transported the woman to a room with a large round table at the center. IN the center of the table was a large pot of delicious stew. But all the people sitting around the table were hollow-eyed and emaciated.
The woman looked at them, and quickly discovered why. Each person sitting around the table had a spoon with a very long handle strapped to his or her arm. Because the spoon's handle was longer than their arm, none of them could get the spoons back into their mouth.
"This is hell," said God.
Then the Lord transported her to another room, identical to the first one -- except for one detail. Here, too, there was the kettle of stew in the middle of the table, and the same, peculiar spoons. Yet, in this room, the people appeared well-fed, and were talking and laughing together.
"I don't understand," said the holy woman. "Why are these people so much happier."
"It's simple," said God. "They have learned to feed each other."
***
When I lived up in Sylvania, Ohio ("Tree City, USA"), I used to walk, talk, and pray with my arborist reunion group brother in the woods around a Franciscan convent/college. One day in early spring, we had just prayed and were heading to our cars when the air was shattered by an explosive CRACK. We looked, and saw a beautiful tree under which we had just walked break in half, and fall. How could a perfectly healthy-looking tree fall so catastrophically, I asked my friend.
He told me that trees grow from the outside, but their structure is the heartwood -- the inside. We walked over to the tree, and saw that the heartwood had rotted out of the trunk. Green and alive, the tree was vulnerable to the next gust of wind. One small breath, and it failed, and fell -- not because it was dead, but because it was hollow.
-- Clay Allard, "Guest Viewpoint" in the Presbyterian Outlook, 09/18/2006
***
Dr. Michael DeBakey made history as a pioneering heart surgeon. He became famous as one of the first surgeons to perform coronary bypass surgery. Later, he developed an elaborate operation to repair dissecting, or torn, aortic aneurysms. In 1965, Time magazine honored his medical achievements, featuring him on its cover.
On February 9, 2006, DeBakey made history again -- this time, as a patient. At the age of 97, in the Methodist Hospital in Houston, he endured the same operation he himself had perfected, undergoing surgery to repair a torn aortic aneurysm. He is the oldest patient ever to undergo this operation. After seven hours in the operating room, and more than eight months of recovery, he was discharged from the hospital in September, and has since returned to his medical practice. Retirement, evidently, does not suit him -- not even at age 97.
Dr. DeBakey knows how to repair a broken heart. Now, aided by the same world-class medical team he himself trained, he has had his own broken heart repaired. Yet, as useful as DeBakey's surgical techniques are, they can only repair the heart muscle, and the arteries surrounding it. "The heart," as we use the term -- and as the Bible uses the term -- refers to so much more than an organ of the human body.
* * *
Henry Drummond, the author of The Greatest Thing in the World, says that there are three things in this world that are more important than anything else: faith, hope and love.
Faith is important because it gives us a relationship with the One who created us, who redeemed us, and who gives us a whole new life with him.
Hope is important because it gives a purpose to our lives. Jesus has promised that he will be with us always, and that we will be with him forever, and he calls us to follow him.
Love is important because it connects us, in a positive way, with those around us and with our Lord.
Drummond then goes on to say that of these three, faith, hope and love, love is the most important. Because someday we will see our Lord, face to face, and we will no longer need to have faith that he exists and that he cares for us.
And we will also no longer need to have hope, because we hope for that which we cannot see. But someday we will see him.
And so love is what goes on and on, throughout all eternity. Love, Paul says, never ends.
Love is the greatest thing in the world.
* * *
The Swedish theologian Gustaf Aulen, in his book Agape and Eros, talks about the three kinds of love.
There is phileo, brotherly and sisterly love, our caring actions and attitudes toward others around us.
There is eros, romantic love, which we tend to emphasize on Valentine's Day.
And there is agape, the love, the total, never-ending, unconditional kind of love that our Lord has for each of us, and that he calls us to share with others.
Jesus calls us to have this agape kind of love for one another. When he was asked, "What is the greatest commandment?" he replied, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and soul and strength, and your neighbor as yourself."
* * *
As we mentioned a few months ago, when Will and Ariel Durant finished writing their monumental eleven-volume work, The Story of Civilization, they were asked to summarize what they'd learned from their lifelong study of the world's history.
In response they wrote their small book The Lessons of History.
After they finished that task, they were asked to sum up, in one sentence, if possible, the wisdom they'd gathered from the ages.
They then condensed all the lessons they'd learned from the whole history of the world's many peoples into three words: "Love one another."
John 3:16 tells us that God so loved the world. Our Lord invites us to receive that love, and to share it, wherever we go, and in all we do.
* * *
We will have a better chance of finding our way into love if we start with the need to give love rather than with the need to receive love. Thomas Merton, whose religious writings have been meaningful to many, wrote: "Psychologists have had some pretty rough things to say about the immaturity and narcissism of love in our marketing society, in which it is reduced to a purely egotistical need that cries out for immediate satisfaction or manipulates others more or less cleverly to get what it wants. But the plain truth is this. Love is not a matter of getting what you want. Quite the contrary. The insistence upon always having what you want, on always being satisfied, on always being fulfilled, makes love impossible. To love, you have to climb out of the cradle where everything is 'getting,' and grow up into the maturity of giving, without concern for getting anything in return. Love is not a deal, it is a sacrifice. It is not marketing, it is a form of worship" (Love and Living, Harcourt and Brace, 1979, p. 34).
* * *
In 1989, a Bible scholar by the name of Bruce Birch was asked to write a study guide for a denominational group that was hoping to clarify their church's teaching on human sexuality. As he worked on the project, he came to realize that the Bible does not separate sexuality from the larger subject of human relatedness. He chose to focus his study on what the Bible says about human relationships, including sexuality, as modeled by God's relationships with us. He found that God relates to us in freedom, in vulnerability, in the fidelity of covenant making and covenant renewing, and in that kind of wholeness that the Bible calls "Shalom." He invites us to relate to each other as God relates to us. Bruce Birch titled his book To Love As We Are Loved (Abingdon, 1987).
* * *
Once a person has made a commitment of life to life, he or she has something to live up to. Herbert was a hardworking man. He went to work every day in denims and a straw hat. He operated a road grader to maintain dirt roads in a rural county. He explained his motivation simply: "Any time my wife and little ones come to the dinner table and there ain't nothing in the house to put before them, I'm gonna find me a job of work." Can you look behind the folksy grammar of that statement and see the heroic manliness that responsibility generates? Can you see in that simple statement the kind of commitment of mothers and fathers and other family members and citizens of communities that holds things together and makes them work at every level of human society? For those who love, responsibility is not a burden. It really is a joyful commitment. And living up to that commitment makes people grow into bigger persons even while they are making fullness of life possible for others.
Love involves responsibility, and responsibility is not popular among us. Some have tried to develop an idea of love that does not involve responsibility. As a song popularized by Glen Campbell puts it: "It's knowin' I'm not shackled by forgotten words and promises and the ink stains that have dried up on some line...that keeps you ever gentle on my mind" ("Gentle on My Mind," written by John Hartford). Lots of people want love without responsibility -- but it doesn't work. The theologian Alan Crippen has observed that one of the biggest questions our culture has to answer is whether it is the unencumbered self or the covenantally bound family that constitutes the basic unit of society ("The Biblical Christ in a Pagan Culture," in Who Do You Say That I Am? Christology in the Church, William B, Eerdmans, 1999, p. 108). How we think about that will make a big difference in the way we do lots of things in our society.
WORSHIP RESOURCE
By Thom Shuman
Call To Worship
Leader: Blessed are those who trust --
in God.
People: We come in trust,
to be grounded in God's love.
Leader: Blessed are those who hope --
in God.
People: We come in hope,
trusting in the One who gives us life.
Leader: Blessed are those who delight --
in God's Word.
People: We come to hear God's Word,
and to be healed of our brokenness.
Prayer Of The Day
God of our hearts,
Heart of creation:
we are blessed
when we feast on your Word:
that Word which embraces us;
that Word which teaches us;
that Word which transfigures us;
that Word which grounds us.
Give us your Word.
Jesus Christ,
Heart of God's children:
we are blessed
when we have your heart:
a heart for the poor;
for the hungry;
for those who weep;
for the rejected.
Give us your Heart.
Holy Delight,
Grace's Heartbeat:
we bear fruit
when we are filled with your spirit,
the spirit of generosity,
the spirit of emptying ourselves for others;
the spirit of bearing one another's burdens.
Give us your Spirit.
God in Community, Holy in One,
may our hearts beat as one with your heart,
even as we pray as one as Jesus has taught us,
Our Father...
Call To Reconciliation
Now if what we have heard from the world is true, we would have no need to come before our God. But in fact, the witness of scripture, and of the faithful, is true: God is to be trusted with the secrets of our hearts, as well as our brokenness. Join me as we pray to the One who is waiting to forgive us,
Unison Prayer Of Confession
We confess what we are afraid to confront, Blessing God, that the seductions of the world nibble away at our hearts. We have more and more to pick from at the supermarket, and so we forget those whose only choice is hunger. Our sense that we are your favorites cause us to make fun of those we believe are not. We are so consumed with saving enough for the future, we ignore those who have so little today.
Forgive us, Heartbroken God, for thinking we are the center of your world. Pour your living water into us, so we might send down roots into your heart, and so become those people who are blessings to others, as we have received new life from Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
(Silence is observed.)
Assurance Of Pardon
Leader: Blessed are you: for God forgives you and restores
your to new life. Rejoice in this day and dance
for joy.
People: Thanks be to God. Our faith is true and our hope
is grounded in the promises of One we can trust,
not only on this day, but in all the days to come.
Amen.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Happy to be hungry!
Object: a cake mix or brownie box mix
Good morning, boys and girls. How many of you have ever been really hungry? (let them answer) Were you happy when you were hungry? (let them answer) You probably were not happy when you were hungry. This morning's lesson tells us that you should be happy when you are hungry. That sounds strange, doesn't it? It says that for a very important reason. In a minute I'll tell you why.
First, I want to tell you the story about some friends your age who were very hungry. The friends were playing outdoors. They played all afternoon. Finally, one friend said to the others, "I'm starving. Let's go to my house and see what we can find to eat." The others thought that was a great idea. They all went to their friend's house. They were all very hungry. They looked all over the kitchen for something to eat. They searched and searched. They couldn't find a thing to eat. Finally, someone found this box of brownie mix. They were all very excited when they found it. They asked an older brother of the friend whose house it was if he would help them mix up the brownie mix and bake it. He agreed to help. The friends baked the brownie mix. When it came out of the oven they ate and ate and ate until it was gone and they were all satisfied. They were all very happy!
The story of the hungry child is like people who are hungry to hear about God's love. They aren't hungry for food. They are hungry to know about God. If you can imagine what it feels like to eat something when you are very hungry, then you can imagine what it must feel like when you really want to know about God's love so much that you are hungry for God's love. That's the kind of hunger Jesus was talking about in today's lesson. He said, that when you are so hungry for God's love, that you will search and search for it until you find it. When you find it you will feel happy and you shall be filled.
The next time you are hungry remember that Jesus says if you are hungry for God's love you will find it if you search for it. When you find God's love you will be filled with it and you will find happiness. Thank you for coming this morning.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, February 11, 2007, issue.
Copyright 2007 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 517 South Main Street, Lima, Ohio 45804.
You've Gotta Have Heart!
By Thom Shuman
With Valentine's Day falling shortly after this Sunday, what better time for a preacher to focus on the heart? After all, there will probably be more chocolate and candy hearts given and eaten that day, more hearts warmed by expressions of love, more broken hearts mended by flowers and apologies than on any other day of the year! Jeremiah (17:5-10) speaks of the devious heart, which can often turn away from God. And since in the Hebrew theology, the heart is the seat of wisdom and learning, Jeremiah is probably speaking of an intentional decision NOT to follow God, not a choice guided by emotion.
Paul, on the other hand, in 1st Corinthians (15:12-20), speaks of what might be called the "heart" of the gospel (or at least of Paul's preaching), that it is the resurrection of Christ, which is the basis for our faith. And so, we can believe, we can trust, we turn our hearts (logically and emotionally) toward God. Who is your heart committed to (turned toward) this Valentine's Day? How is that reflected in the life you live, in the love you give, in the love you are willing to receive?
THE WORLD
The other day, while driving, I heard the song "You Gotta Have Heart" on the satellite radio. Not five minutes later, they played "What the World Needs Now Is Love, Sweet Love." Which got me to thinking: how many songs have been written which have either the word 'heart' or the word 'love' in them? Maybe even google couldn't keep track of the numbers! We all have our favorite love song, we all have our favorite "heart" song, and we will be playing them, and singing them, and remembering them as Valentine's Day approaches. We will be making cards for our favorite 'valentine' or hallmarking them from a store; we will be giving our love heart shaped candy, or jewelry, or books. Even the U.S. Postal Service gets into the act each year with a special 'love' stamp (this year is my favorite -- a chocolate kiss on the stamp!).
From little kids in the throes of puppy love to adolescents struggling with raging hormones to crusty curmudgeons who only seem to tolerate one another, we all have that deep longing to share our heart. Giving our hearts to another, having our hearts broken by the person we thought cared for us -- all part of being human, of taking the risk to love and hoping to be loved, of being willing to place our deepest selves at the mercy of another, of daring to trust that we can reveal ourselves completely to another without being ridiculed or rejected. Even God was willing to risk having the divine heart broken, when the Word took on flesh and became one of us. And, according to scripture, God has a deep longing for us to turn our hearts to God, even while there is that deep awareness by the Holy One of how difficult that is for us to do!
THE WORD
The passage from Jeremiah appears to be a piece of wisdom writing that closely resembles the imagery we find in the Psalm 1. Both writings contrast the choices humans must make in the matter of trust. Shall we put our trust in what passes for human wisdom, or shall we trust in God? Not surprisingly, both the prophet and the psalmist come down on the side of trusting in God, but not so much for the purpose of finding happiness (or at least happiness as it is defined in today's culture). Rather, trusting in God allows us to journey on the road to blessings. When we make that intentional choice to trust in God, then we are able to avoid wandering the streets that are potholed with mistakes. Or put another way, when we trust in God, then the roots of our lives, can be planted (and nurtured) by the living waters which God is more than willing to provide for us.
Both the prophet and the psalmist seem to point to the fact that there are two hearts that compete for the affection of our hearts. Using language that may make some folks uncomfortable (wickedness; devious), both authors are clear that we have to make a decision. In a world in which self-centeredness is almost worshiped, and following one's own path is almost mandatory, how can one choose not to go down that path? Yet, that is the path of the wicked. According to John Bright, when one goes down such a path, the heart has turned away from Yahweh and is 'desperately sick.' No, humans must be wise enough to choose the least traveled path and so become blessed because their hearts are planted deep within God's.
For Paul, the faith that a Christian has is also that trust which is to be grounded in God. In this passage from 1 Corinthians, he centers it around how we view the resurrection. If we have doubts about Christ being raised, then we have doubts about God's ability to be in charge of the future. If we believe that the resurrection is only a story, then God's Word will have no power for our lives. It is the resurrection, and the trust in this completely unheard of event, which is at the heart of this passage. It is the resurrection which is at the heart of all hope; it is the trust in this event that is at the heart of the gospel, for Paul; it is the foundation for our heart's ability to trust in God. For Paul, the resurrection points to the future God has in mind for all humanity; it is this hope in God's future that is at the heart of the Christian experience.
CRAFTING THE SERMON
Even the most technologically challenged pastor (or congregation) has the tools to provide visuals for listeners on this Sunday. Drawing a simple heart on the front of the bulletin surrounding the words "Be Mine! -- God"; showing a handmade Valentine's Day card with the red construction paper backing, the white lacy heart, the extra glue still in globs on the sheet"; having the kids hand out baskets filled with hard candy hearts for each person to take one -- we can make it clear that we want to talk about the heart today! And not just any heart, but that human heart that we think is so sentimental, so romantic, so attuned to God's own heart.
For the scripture lessons challenge us about the assumptions we make about our hearts, and how we might look at our hearts, so that, indeed, they might be turned toward God. Jeremiah, Paul, the psalmist, each in their own way wants us to recognize how easy it is for the heart to become so sick ("devious" is the word Jeremiah uses) that we make those choices that only lead us away from God. The condition of our heart, the prophet says, shapes our understanding of and response to God.
We need to make clear to our people that when scripture speaks about the heart, it is not talking about sentiment, or emotion, or good feelings. It is talking about understanding and wisdom; about seeking God and the Truth God has to offer to us; about learning all that can be right and all that can go wrong with our lives. But especially, scripture is talking about TRUST.
Scripture clearly understands that not just happiness, but misery as well, are interwoven with our hearts. When we choose to follow God's ways (according to the prophet and the psalmist), we discover those rich, fruitful lives God intends for us, almost as if we were trees constantly sprinkled by living water, warmed by God's love, fed by God's grace. Tragically, we are so determined to walk other paths, to choose other gods, we find these idols 'nibbling' away at our hearts until they are so riddled with pride, with arrogance, with self-deception that they dry up in the drought of our callous selfishness. We do indeed deceive ourselves, Jeremiah warns, when we accept the culture's "wisdom" that we are the center of the universe.
That's why the psalmist uses the imagery of walking the path of wisdom or running down the road into the arms of the wicked. It is an intentional choice, which road we will follow, one that we don't make just at the beginning of the journey, but every single time we pick up one foot to place it in front of the other. It's like the vows that are said at a wedding. If we believe that a one-time speaking of them is good for the rest of the marriage, we can be sure we will hit a lot of potholes along the way. But if we see that the vows are but spoken confirmation of who we are, and which needs to be lived out each and every moment of that relationship, then we will truly give our heart to another.
Is it possible to give our hearts to God in a similar way? "Yes" would be the answer given through the Scriptures for this day. But it is a Yes that recognizes that we do have a choice between blessings and cursings, and the choice depends on where our heart is. It is a Yes that recognizes that one must want to place one's life in God's hands, to have one's life shaped by God's values, even as we were shaped by God at Creation. It is a Yes which implores God to fill us when we are empty, to feed us when we are hungry, to stand with us when we want to run away from the worst the world hands to us. It is a Yes that believes that God's heart is big enough to love each of us, fragile enough to be broken for us, determined enough to stick with us, loving enough to die for us.
For this is the way God is, and the way God operates. And while the temptation is always before us to turn away and find another god, another path, another heart, we only have to take that first risky step, that first hesitant move, toward God's heart, to discover our own.
ANOTHER VIEW
Come, Lord Jesus
By Paul Bresnahan
One of my favorite prayers in the Book of Common Prayer is the one that begins with this ancient biblical turn of phrase "Come, Lord Jesus" (Revelation 22:20). The prayer continues, "... and be my companion along the way; kindle my heart and awaken hope that I may know you as you are revealed in Scripture and in the Breaking of Bread." To say simply "Come, Lord Jesus" is enough to me to evoke the rest.
The phrase kindles in me a sense that Jesus is my companion along the way in my life and that is indeed what always kindles hope in my heart. Thus the reading of scripture and receiving communion always beckons me to Jesus, and that is where I most deeply wish to be. And so when we speak of hearts this Valentine's Day, this is the heart of the gospel for me. It is a good test for the human heart as Isaiah notes in today's Old Testament lesson: "I the Lord test the mind and search the heart."
St. Augustine was fond of saying that the human heart cannot come to rest until it comes to rest in God. Therefore constancy in prayer seems to make sense. It seems right to have one of those "breath prayers" that one can whisper deep in the heart to keep things at peace and in perspective especially as matters in life speed up to an anxious pace that seeks to disquiet the human soul. I have an irrepressible sense of joy and confidence in my life because I believe that my purpose in life is to be conscious of the fact that Jesus is indeed my constant companion.
So much of Christianity seems so panicky these days as the "End" approaches. At least that's what lots of preachers seem to be going on about on television and elsewhere. I confess to you that I have never been a fan of the "Left Behind" series of books. I always find myself skeptical about those who fearfully mention in a panicky way that the "End is at Hand!" There are just too many religious hucksters out there who seem to use theological terror as a way to recruit adherents. That frankly sounds dishonest to me. It may work in the short run, but I do not think this approach will stand the test of time.
That is why the German theologian Jurgen Moltmann appeals to me. He has placed Eschatology (a theological word that simply refers to our beliefs about our ultimate future) back at the center of our theology in a very creative way.
Moltmann grew up in a Germany that shook the very foundations of our understanding of civilization and our purpose for living. He became a Christian as he read the scriptures from his jail cell as a prisoner of war near the end of World War II. What changed his heart was that he discovered hope. His theology helped him see that the coming kingdom of God brought about a living transformation of the future. Christian hope makes possible an alternative outcome for the poor and the oppressed, those in prison and the downcast. He discovered that Jesus always taught that God had a special hope for those the rest of the world would cast away. That is why Jesus can say: "Blessed are the Poor." The struggle for social justice and the hope of God then became the central teaching for Moltmann. And, in fact, this hope gave much more than hope just for the downcast, it gives hope to all humanity.
Moltmann discovered that the Bible does not teach a human consciousness shaped by the past or even the present, but by a fundamental kind of trust and commitment to the promises of God. God's Promises are what ultimately change the world. And when the church courageously lives into those promises, the future changes and looks more and more like the dream that God wishes to see become reality. Now that is the kind of eschatology I can live with. My ultimate future is to live into the purposes that God has for this world. God seeks peace with justice for all. God wants freedom for those in prison. God wants healing for the sick. Jesus wants us to feed his sheep! There is much for us to do as we live into God's promises.
Imagine if you will a young man imprisoned by drug addiction. There is such a young man in my congregation who came to Christianity by reading the Bible. He had been a prisoner to drug addiction, but he fought his way courageously out of that dreadful and dark world. And it was God who finally gave him the power to escape from his imprisonment. When I told him to read the Sermon on the Mount and Mark's gospel, he came to me and said that what changed his life was the realization that God loved and forgave him... even him. "Imagine," he told me "God still loves me, even after all that I have done." That young man is now alive again. He has a heart full of hope. He is utterly committed to bringing good news to any who suffer from addiction of any sort and he is irrepressibly joyous! His baptism made more genuine sense to me that many others, and carried within it the hope that Moltmann teaches in his theology classes.
Perhaps Moltmann is right and certainly the Bible has it right, too. Our purpose in life is to live into the hope of God's future and guided by God's promises. Jesus came into the world we are told not to condemn it but that through coming to know Jesus we might indeed discover salvation (John 3:17). For me that is as simple as a prayer asking Jesus to be my companion along the way. I find that as I live into my future with Jesus by my side my hopes are high. I know God's promises. I have seen the cross and the crown. And Jesus is risen indeed! Blessed Paul the apostle insists on that in today's epistle. I am content to live the abundant life that Jesus promised me.
There's the end of the world for us that I can live with. It is an end that delights the heart of God because it seeks to live into God's promises. It is an end where Jesus is our companion. It is an end that continues to unfold forever in freedom, justice, and peace for all humanity. That is what it means to await the coming of Jesus once again. "Come, Lord Jesus!"
ILLUSTRATIONS
There's an old story about a woman who had a dream. In the dream, she asked God if she could be permitted to see what heaven and hell are like.
In an instant, God transported the woman to a room with a large round table at the center. IN the center of the table was a large pot of delicious stew. But all the people sitting around the table were hollow-eyed and emaciated.
The woman looked at them, and quickly discovered why. Each person sitting around the table had a spoon with a very long handle strapped to his or her arm. Because the spoon's handle was longer than their arm, none of them could get the spoons back into their mouth.
"This is hell," said God.
Then the Lord transported her to another room, identical to the first one -- except for one detail. Here, too, there was the kettle of stew in the middle of the table, and the same, peculiar spoons. Yet, in this room, the people appeared well-fed, and were talking and laughing together.
"I don't understand," said the holy woman. "Why are these people so much happier."
"It's simple," said God. "They have learned to feed each other."
***
When I lived up in Sylvania, Ohio ("Tree City, USA"), I used to walk, talk, and pray with my arborist reunion group brother in the woods around a Franciscan convent/college. One day in early spring, we had just prayed and were heading to our cars when the air was shattered by an explosive CRACK. We looked, and saw a beautiful tree under which we had just walked break in half, and fall. How could a perfectly healthy-looking tree fall so catastrophically, I asked my friend.
He told me that trees grow from the outside, but their structure is the heartwood -- the inside. We walked over to the tree, and saw that the heartwood had rotted out of the trunk. Green and alive, the tree was vulnerable to the next gust of wind. One small breath, and it failed, and fell -- not because it was dead, but because it was hollow.
-- Clay Allard, "Guest Viewpoint" in the Presbyterian Outlook, 09/18/2006
***
Dr. Michael DeBakey made history as a pioneering heart surgeon. He became famous as one of the first surgeons to perform coronary bypass surgery. Later, he developed an elaborate operation to repair dissecting, or torn, aortic aneurysms. In 1965, Time magazine honored his medical achievements, featuring him on its cover.
On February 9, 2006, DeBakey made history again -- this time, as a patient. At the age of 97, in the Methodist Hospital in Houston, he endured the same operation he himself had perfected, undergoing surgery to repair a torn aortic aneurysm. He is the oldest patient ever to undergo this operation. After seven hours in the operating room, and more than eight months of recovery, he was discharged from the hospital in September, and has since returned to his medical practice. Retirement, evidently, does not suit him -- not even at age 97.
Dr. DeBakey knows how to repair a broken heart. Now, aided by the same world-class medical team he himself trained, he has had his own broken heart repaired. Yet, as useful as DeBakey's surgical techniques are, they can only repair the heart muscle, and the arteries surrounding it. "The heart," as we use the term -- and as the Bible uses the term -- refers to so much more than an organ of the human body.
* * *
Henry Drummond, the author of The Greatest Thing in the World, says that there are three things in this world that are more important than anything else: faith, hope and love.
Faith is important because it gives us a relationship with the One who created us, who redeemed us, and who gives us a whole new life with him.
Hope is important because it gives a purpose to our lives. Jesus has promised that he will be with us always, and that we will be with him forever, and he calls us to follow him.
Love is important because it connects us, in a positive way, with those around us and with our Lord.
Drummond then goes on to say that of these three, faith, hope and love, love is the most important. Because someday we will see our Lord, face to face, and we will no longer need to have faith that he exists and that he cares for us.
And we will also no longer need to have hope, because we hope for that which we cannot see. But someday we will see him.
And so love is what goes on and on, throughout all eternity. Love, Paul says, never ends.
Love is the greatest thing in the world.
* * *
The Swedish theologian Gustaf Aulen, in his book Agape and Eros, talks about the three kinds of love.
There is phileo, brotherly and sisterly love, our caring actions and attitudes toward others around us.
There is eros, romantic love, which we tend to emphasize on Valentine's Day.
And there is agape, the love, the total, never-ending, unconditional kind of love that our Lord has for each of us, and that he calls us to share with others.
Jesus calls us to have this agape kind of love for one another. When he was asked, "What is the greatest commandment?" he replied, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and soul and strength, and your neighbor as yourself."
* * *
As we mentioned a few months ago, when Will and Ariel Durant finished writing their monumental eleven-volume work, The Story of Civilization, they were asked to summarize what they'd learned from their lifelong study of the world's history.
In response they wrote their small book The Lessons of History.
After they finished that task, they were asked to sum up, in one sentence, if possible, the wisdom they'd gathered from the ages.
They then condensed all the lessons they'd learned from the whole history of the world's many peoples into three words: "Love one another."
John 3:16 tells us that God so loved the world. Our Lord invites us to receive that love, and to share it, wherever we go, and in all we do.
* * *
We will have a better chance of finding our way into love if we start with the need to give love rather than with the need to receive love. Thomas Merton, whose religious writings have been meaningful to many, wrote: "Psychologists have had some pretty rough things to say about the immaturity and narcissism of love in our marketing society, in which it is reduced to a purely egotistical need that cries out for immediate satisfaction or manipulates others more or less cleverly to get what it wants. But the plain truth is this. Love is not a matter of getting what you want. Quite the contrary. The insistence upon always having what you want, on always being satisfied, on always being fulfilled, makes love impossible. To love, you have to climb out of the cradle where everything is 'getting,' and grow up into the maturity of giving, without concern for getting anything in return. Love is not a deal, it is a sacrifice. It is not marketing, it is a form of worship" (Love and Living, Harcourt and Brace, 1979, p. 34).
* * *
In 1989, a Bible scholar by the name of Bruce Birch was asked to write a study guide for a denominational group that was hoping to clarify their church's teaching on human sexuality. As he worked on the project, he came to realize that the Bible does not separate sexuality from the larger subject of human relatedness. He chose to focus his study on what the Bible says about human relationships, including sexuality, as modeled by God's relationships with us. He found that God relates to us in freedom, in vulnerability, in the fidelity of covenant making and covenant renewing, and in that kind of wholeness that the Bible calls "Shalom." He invites us to relate to each other as God relates to us. Bruce Birch titled his book To Love As We Are Loved (Abingdon, 1987).
* * *
Once a person has made a commitment of life to life, he or she has something to live up to. Herbert was a hardworking man. He went to work every day in denims and a straw hat. He operated a road grader to maintain dirt roads in a rural county. He explained his motivation simply: "Any time my wife and little ones come to the dinner table and there ain't nothing in the house to put before them, I'm gonna find me a job of work." Can you look behind the folksy grammar of that statement and see the heroic manliness that responsibility generates? Can you see in that simple statement the kind of commitment of mothers and fathers and other family members and citizens of communities that holds things together and makes them work at every level of human society? For those who love, responsibility is not a burden. It really is a joyful commitment. And living up to that commitment makes people grow into bigger persons even while they are making fullness of life possible for others.
Love involves responsibility, and responsibility is not popular among us. Some have tried to develop an idea of love that does not involve responsibility. As a song popularized by Glen Campbell puts it: "It's knowin' I'm not shackled by forgotten words and promises and the ink stains that have dried up on some line...that keeps you ever gentle on my mind" ("Gentle on My Mind," written by John Hartford). Lots of people want love without responsibility -- but it doesn't work. The theologian Alan Crippen has observed that one of the biggest questions our culture has to answer is whether it is the unencumbered self or the covenantally bound family that constitutes the basic unit of society ("The Biblical Christ in a Pagan Culture," in Who Do You Say That I Am? Christology in the Church, William B, Eerdmans, 1999, p. 108). How we think about that will make a big difference in the way we do lots of things in our society.
WORSHIP RESOURCE
By Thom Shuman
Call To Worship
Leader: Blessed are those who trust --
in God.
People: We come in trust,
to be grounded in God's love.
Leader: Blessed are those who hope --
in God.
People: We come in hope,
trusting in the One who gives us life.
Leader: Blessed are those who delight --
in God's Word.
People: We come to hear God's Word,
and to be healed of our brokenness.
Prayer Of The Day
God of our hearts,
Heart of creation:
we are blessed
when we feast on your Word:
that Word which embraces us;
that Word which teaches us;
that Word which transfigures us;
that Word which grounds us.
Give us your Word.
Jesus Christ,
Heart of God's children:
we are blessed
when we have your heart:
a heart for the poor;
for the hungry;
for those who weep;
for the rejected.
Give us your Heart.
Holy Delight,
Grace's Heartbeat:
we bear fruit
when we are filled with your spirit,
the spirit of generosity,
the spirit of emptying ourselves for others;
the spirit of bearing one another's burdens.
Give us your Spirit.
God in Community, Holy in One,
may our hearts beat as one with your heart,
even as we pray as one as Jesus has taught us,
Our Father...
Call To Reconciliation
Now if what we have heard from the world is true, we would have no need to come before our God. But in fact, the witness of scripture, and of the faithful, is true: God is to be trusted with the secrets of our hearts, as well as our brokenness. Join me as we pray to the One who is waiting to forgive us,
Unison Prayer Of Confession
We confess what we are afraid to confront, Blessing God, that the seductions of the world nibble away at our hearts. We have more and more to pick from at the supermarket, and so we forget those whose only choice is hunger. Our sense that we are your favorites cause us to make fun of those we believe are not. We are so consumed with saving enough for the future, we ignore those who have so little today.
Forgive us, Heartbroken God, for thinking we are the center of your world. Pour your living water into us, so we might send down roots into your heart, and so become those people who are blessings to others, as we have received new life from Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
(Silence is observed.)
Assurance Of Pardon
Leader: Blessed are you: for God forgives you and restores
your to new life. Rejoice in this day and dance
for joy.
People: Thanks be to God. Our faith is true and our hope
is grounded in the promises of One we can trust,
not only on this day, but in all the days to come.
Amen.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Happy to be hungry!
Object: a cake mix or brownie box mix
Good morning, boys and girls. How many of you have ever been really hungry? (let them answer) Were you happy when you were hungry? (let them answer) You probably were not happy when you were hungry. This morning's lesson tells us that you should be happy when you are hungry. That sounds strange, doesn't it? It says that for a very important reason. In a minute I'll tell you why.
First, I want to tell you the story about some friends your age who were very hungry. The friends were playing outdoors. They played all afternoon. Finally, one friend said to the others, "I'm starving. Let's go to my house and see what we can find to eat." The others thought that was a great idea. They all went to their friend's house. They were all very hungry. They looked all over the kitchen for something to eat. They searched and searched. They couldn't find a thing to eat. Finally, someone found this box of brownie mix. They were all very excited when they found it. They asked an older brother of the friend whose house it was if he would help them mix up the brownie mix and bake it. He agreed to help. The friends baked the brownie mix. When it came out of the oven they ate and ate and ate until it was gone and they were all satisfied. They were all very happy!
The story of the hungry child is like people who are hungry to hear about God's love. They aren't hungry for food. They are hungry to know about God. If you can imagine what it feels like to eat something when you are very hungry, then you can imagine what it must feel like when you really want to know about God's love so much that you are hungry for God's love. That's the kind of hunger Jesus was talking about in today's lesson. He said, that when you are so hungry for God's love, that you will search and search for it until you find it. When you find it you will feel happy and you shall be filled.
The next time you are hungry remember that Jesus says if you are hungry for God's love you will find it if you search for it. When you find God's love you will be filled with it and you will find happiness. Thank you for coming this morning.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, February 11, 2007, issue.
Copyright 2007 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 517 South Main Street, Lima, Ohio 45804.
