Pentecost 13

Pentecost 13 SOMEWHERE “IN HERE”! 8/31&9/3/06

About one week ago my 80 year old father in law had two heart procedures to discover and, then, repair blockages in his heart. Following each procedure, over the course of two days, the doctor gathered the family around an electronic screen and talked us through a dozen or so moving pictures of my father in law’s heart…we could see it beating, we could see the various veins and arteries, we could see the wire bands holding his sternum together from two previous open heart surgeries, we could see the blockages discovered on Thursday, we could see the “balloon” procedure to open the blockage & the stint put in place on Friday to prevent future blockage, and we could see the rich and rapid flow of my father in law’s blood through his rapidly pumping heart. This was all so remarkable to me and to my family.

The human heart is a remarkable organ, beating approximately 100,000 times a day, 365 days a year. In the average lifetime the heart beats more than 2.5 million times and pumps more than 1 million barrels of blood—that’s more than enough to fill three ocean-going super-tankers. The human heart is equally impressive as a metaphor. The “heart” is a metaphor for love and compassion. We speak of “broken hearts,” “heartache”, “from the bottom of my heart”, and “with all my heart”. We speak of someone who lacks compassion and feeling as being “heartless” or “hard-hearted.” The novelist Joseph Conrad entitled his great study of evil, Heart of Darkness. We read the word “heart” in the pages of holy scripture more than 450 times, and repeatedly in our lessons for this week.

In our O. T. lesson Moses tells God’s people never to forget all they have seen God do in, through, and for them. “Be careful,” Moses said, “and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart (not “mind”!) as long as you live.” (Deut. 1:9) Moses even offers a teaching tip, telling God’s people that it will help them to remember if they teach their children, and their children after them, about God and His greatness! In our reading from James, the word “heart” is not actually mentioned, but the author clearly and specifically identifies “all the moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent” and admonishes his readers to “get rid” of it all and---in its place---humbly accept the word planted in you.” (Jm. 1:21)

Jesus, recorded in the Gospel, addresses the timeless topic regarding whether human evil enters us from the world around us or enters the world around us as we release it from within….inherited or acquired? I’m not sure why this argument continues to exist. Jesus provides the clear answer to the question: “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. Nothing outside a man can make him ‘unclean’ by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him ‘unclean’.” (Mk. 7:15) Is this unclear? His disciples think so and, a few hours later, they request clarification. Jesus seems shocked by their request: “Are you so dull?” (Mk. 7: 18) Jesus asks them. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him ‘unclean’? For it doesn’t go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body.” (Mk. 7:18-19) Jesus is right on “the edge” of giving us more detail than we might desire, what today some call “TMI”---“Too much information”! Wanting to prevent further “dullness” on the part of His disciples, Jesus continues: “It is what comes out of a person that makes him unclean. For from the inside, from a man’s heart, come the evil ideas which lead him to do immoral things, to rob, kill, commit adultery, be greedy, and do all sorts of evil things; deceit, indecency, jealousy, slander, pride, and folly…all these things come from inside a man and make him ‘unclean’.” (Mk. 7: 20-23 TEV)

The residence of evil in this world, and in our lives, in not somewhere “out there,” but Somewhere “In Here”. It is only human to look outside ourselves for excuses for our bad behavior, and it’s been going on from day one. Adam sins, blames God and then blames the woman God gave him; Eve sins and blames the serpent who “tricked” her (Gen. 3: 12-13). You and I have created our own lengthy, but worthless, list of rationales and reasons for why we live less than Christ-like lives. It’s always someone else’s fault! I believe far more suffering is caused by human unfaithfulness, dishonesty, greed, anger, and deliberate cruelty---the list Jesus presents and Mark records in 7: 20-23 and things over which we have some measure of control---than by the natural disasters that receive so much time and space in the media. It is Mahatma Gandhi who urged the faithful “to be the change” they desire to see in society… “Be the change!”

It is toward this spiritual goal that we sing: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” The problem, the source of sin, my friends is not somewhere “out there”… the problem is Somewhere “in here”… “within me.” Amen.