Sixth Sunday after Epiphany

February 16, 2020

Places in the Heart

St. Matthew 5:21-37

Happy [belated] Valentine’s Day – hope you did not forget to share a gift or card with your spouse, friends, or significant others.  The Gospel reading for today goes straight to the heart.

The Gospel continues with Jesus’ teachings from the Sermon on the Mount.  Matthew is portraying Jesus as the new Moses – bringing insight into the Torah – the Law of God’s people.  Two Sundays ago we heard the Beatitudes – Jesus declaring those who God blesses and values – the poor in spirit, the meek, and the peacemakers, those persecuted for righteousness sake.  Last Sunday Jesus declared:  You are the salt of the earth.  You are the light of the world.

And now the Sermon on the Mount continues with a series of teachings that interpret the Law:  “You have heard it was said…” – “but I say to you…”

In interpreting the Law – Jesus is taking us to places in the heart.  Like the prophets before him, Jesus challenges the way of the Pharisees and those who insist on legalism and ritual observance as the best response to God.  Jesus challenges the way of those who observe the letter of the Law, but miss the spirit of the Law.  In other words – Jesus challenges outward observance of the Law as opposed to a change of heart.

Peter Woods – a Pastoral Therapist, Writer, and Conflict Mediator tells the story of a colleague who posted his distress over losing a member and friend from his congregation.  The member had gone off to a right wing fundamentalist church.  The friend shared:  “I work hard all week, and when I come to church, I really don’t want to think.  In my church that just tell me what to do.”

That is human nature – there is a place in each of our hearts that simply wants to be told what to do.  That is a path that leads to spiritual diminishment.  I never grow up if I never have to figure out the rules and apply them to my own life. 

If our faith is all about observing external rules – than our hearts can remain untouched and we can either pat ourselves on the back for obeying a rule, or we can feel the pangs of guilt when we don’t live up to the rule.

Then the Confession and Absolution in our worship become nothing more than a giant eraser erasing our sins from the black board for yet another week.  But by next week the board will be full and another time for erasing sins will be necessary.

God’s grace is not some giant eraser that wipes out my sins off my personal blackboard each week.  The Christian faith is not about external observance of laws but about places in the heart. 

Wearing a clerical collar can be dangerous.  So often people of the clergy are seen as moral experts – “Is this wrong?” or “Is this right?” is not only asked by parishioners but by strangers who see the clergy as moral experts.  Outer observance of rules has all too often become the mark of Christianity.

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus takes a different path.  Jesus takes the path to places in the heart.  Walking the path to places in the heart is nothing new for this Jewish Rabbi named Jesus.  He is taking a cue from such prophets as Jeremiah who proclaims:

The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt — a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, "Know the LORD," for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.  Jeremiah 31:31-34

Follow along in the Gospel reading today and you will see the places in the heart that Jesus invites us to visit.

§  Visit the place of anger and have a change of heart that is open to forgiving and extending the hand of peace. 

§  Visit the places in which we turn people into objects of love rather than loving them as persons – whether it be adultery or divorce. 

§  Visit the place of contention and have a heart check-up that leads to open and honest dialog.

This will not be a pleasant visit for it calls us to look at the dark places in the heart and turn them over to God – crying to God to change our hearts of stone and give us hearts for love alone.  That is called repentance and turning toward God.

There in those dark places in the heart we will hear God’s word of forgiveness, love, and acceptance.  God does not abandon us but heals and restores us – when we face our brokenness God’s unconditional acceptance makes us new – giving us hearts for love alone.

Biblical scholar, theologian and activist Walter Wink tells this story:

Two peacemakers visited a group of Polish Christians 10 years after the end of World War II.  “Would you be willing to meet with other Christians from West Germany?’ the peacemaker asked.  “They want to ask for forgiveness for what Germany did to Poland during the war and to begin to build a new relationship.”

At first there was silence.  The one Pole spoke up.  “What you are asking is impossible.  Each stone of Warsaw is soaked in Polish blood!  We cannot forgive!”

Before the group parted, however, they said the Lord’s Prayer together.  When they reached the words “forgive us our sins as we forgive…,” everyone stopped praying.  Tension swelled in the room.  The Pole who had spoken most vehemently said, “I must say yes to you.  I could no more pray the ‘Our Father,’ I could no longer call myself a Christian, if I refuse to forgive.  Humanly speaking, I cannot do it, but God will give us the strength!”  Eighteen months later the Polish and West German Christians met together in Vienna, establishing friendship that continues to this day.

[Source:  What’s So Amazing About Grace? by Philip Yancey, p. 123]

Jesus invites us to go inside to places in the heart.  In the cave of the heart we can hear again that we are indeed God’s beloved children. 

Secured in love we are empowered by God’s unconditional acceptance to heal broken relationships – and when humanly speaking we cannot do it – we ask God for the strength.

Amen