Posted on by Cheryl Norman

Where is Your Heart?

Pastor Sherry’s message for Ash Wednesday February 22, 2023

Scriptures: Joel 2:1-2, 12-17; Ps 51:1-17; 2 Cor 5:20b-6:10; Matt 6:1-6, 16-21

John Wesley began his small group meetings with the question, “How is it with your soul?” As the founder of our Methodist denomination, we know Wesley as a passionate evangelist. Even though ordained an Anglican, he had experienced the Church of England—in the 18th century–as spiritually dead. So he left church buildings and preached in fields, in town squares, or wherever he could find a responsive audience.

But he wasn’t just content to bring people to a saving knowledge of Jesus; he wanted them to be discipled in the faith. So he began to set up small groups, which he called “Bands.” These were like Cursillo or Emmaus Walk “Reunion Groups.” They met once a week to challenge themselves to move deeper into their faith. Cursillo and Emmaus groups ask, “When this week did you feel closest to Christ?” Sometimes the question is, “Where are you in your walk with Jesus?” Or, as Jesus asks in today’s Gospel (v.21), Where is your heart?

Today, the church season of Lent begins. For the 40 days leading up to Easter (not including Sundays), the Church—Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Episcopalians, Lutherans, and Presbyterians—commemorates Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness. Remember, following His baptism, the Holy Spirit drove Him out into the wilderness to fast, to pray, and to be tested. We too are encouraged to fast, pray, and to develop the strength to resist temptations, as Jesus did. The intention of this is to help us to take inventory of where we are spiritually, and to make course corrections. You could say the 40 days of Lent invite us to ask daily, “How is it with my soul?” or “Where is my heart?”

Our Scriptures today all speak to this issue:

A. In our Gospel lesson (Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21), Jesus directs our attention to our motivation as we give (service or money), fast, or pray. Our understanding of our heart is that it is a very important physical organ that may or may not work well. We also see it as a metaphor for our tender feelings. We say, “She has a good heart,” meaning she is generous or compassionate. Or we say, “He has a tender heart,” when he is known for rescuing stray animals or showing kindness to children. We just celebrated Valentine’s Day, a day to focus on romantic hearts.

But the Hebrew understanding of heart was very different: To them, it is not just an important physical organ. The people of Jesus’ day considered the word heart as a metaphor for the whole self. They believed you decided with your heart rather than your brain. They saw the heart as the core of our identity (not race, gender, or nationality). Our heart, according to them, is what drives or motivates us. So, when Jesus says (v.21) For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also, He means we can each rightly discern our priorities by noting where we spend our time, attention, and money. Our priorities can be on acquiring physical things, like a fancy car, a fine home, an expensive item of clothing or of jewelry. Our priorities may be our spouses or our kids, our “grands,” or our pets. Our priorities may also be such values as success, security, happiness, or romantic love. None of these is bad in and of themselves; they become problematic when these treasures/priorities come between us and our relationship with Jesus.

So to spiritually wean ourselves away from whatever interferes with a heart-felt relationship with our Lord, we may choose, for 40 days…

a. to give up social media; TV; chocolate; eating out; etc. I recently read of a woman who decided to pare down the number of knickknacks and decorating items she had by donating a bagful a day to recycling shops. I think the Lord would approve of her desire to simplify her life’s distractions and clear away her clutter; but He probably would not be impressed if this were just another self-improvement project disguised as a Lenten discipline. He would want her to do whatever she does in order to draw her heart closer to Him.

b. Or, we may decide to take on a new spiritual discipline: I am taking (instead of leading) a Bible study on Zoom with some friends from Tallahassee beginning Monday night. You could take a walk daily with the purpose of having quiet time to talk with the Lord. You could read some Christian books—fiction or nonfiction–to increase your faith, etc.

The traditional disciplines, or methods of self-restraint, are what Jesus cites in verses 1-6 and 16-21: (a) Almsgiving or giving of your time, talents or cash to others; (b) Fasting; and (c) increased prayer. The point is to draw our hearts closer to Christ, not to impress others.

B. Briefly, the authors of our other lessons today encourage us to draw our hearts closer to Christ in the following ways:

1. Joel says (2:12-13) we draw closer to the Lord when we …return to [the Lord] with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning. Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and He relents from sending calamity. This return to the Lord involves demonstrating repentance.

We acknowledge our sins and turn away from them.

2. King David implies, by his example in Psalm 51, that we can return to a close relationship with God when we honestly acknowledge our sins. As we recite tonight verses1-17, we can clearly perceive his sincere grief and regret over what he has done. His sins were grave: coveting his neighbor’s wife, adultery with her, and murder of her husband. We know from Psalm 32:3-4 that he suffered emotional pain and agony as long as he covered up those sins. He openly begs for God’s forgiveness, asking for mercy. He also recognizes that it is only God Himself who can cleanse him (v.10) Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. He also affirms his faith that God will forgive him because he has asked (v.15) O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare Your praise, and (v.17) The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken spirit and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

3. Paul, with his typical zeal, exhorts us to (2 Corinthians 5:20b) Be reconciled to God. In chapter 6, verses 3-10, he reminds the Corinthian Church (and us) that we are to faithfully turn our hearts to Jesus no matter how dire or how happy our circumstances. We are to stay close to Christ because (5:21) God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

So, this Lent—beginning tonight—let’s ask ourselves, daily, “How is it with my soul?” or “Where is my heart?” Let‘s each take an honest inventory of our spiritual health. And then let’s engage in the attitudes and behaviors that will bring us right up, tucked up to Jesus.

And all God’s people say, “Amen!”

©️2023 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams

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Posted on by Cheryl Norman

Ash Wednesday Message: God’s Forgiveness

Pastor Sherry’s message for March 2, 2022

Scriptures: Joel; 2:1-2, 12-17; Ps 51:1-17; 2 Cor 5:20-6:10; Matt 6:1-6, 16-21

Chuck Swindoll relates a story about John D. Rockefeller, (worth 418 billion in 2020 dollars) who built the Standard Oil gas and oil empire of 1870-1911. He was told one day that one of his executives had made a $2 million mistake (a big deal today, but even bigger in the 1880’s-1890’s). As with many such powerful men, Rockefeller was a perfectionist and a workaholic. He worked hard himself, and he demanded hard work and perfection from his employees as well. All the other executives were sure he was enraged and would definitely fire the man who had made the costly error. They all did their best to avoid the boss the day the costly error came to light–except for one vice president who had a scheduled appointment with Rockefeller that afternoon.

When the associate entered the boss’ office, Rockefeller eyed him and asked if he had heard of the massive loss. The vice president steadied himself, said he had heard, and braced to witness the boss’ explosion.

Instead, Rockefeller, replied, “Well, I have been sitting here listing all of our friend’s good qualities on this sheet of paper, and I’ve discovered that in the past he has made us many more times the amount he lost for us today by his one mistake. His good points far outweigh this one human error. So I think we ought to forgive him, don’t you?” (The Tale of the Tardy Oxcart, Word Publishing, 1998, p.215).

How magnanimous of Rockefeller! Kind of reminds us of our God, doesn’t it? Let’s see what our readings tonight tell us of God’s forgiveness.

1. In Joel 2:1-2, 12-17 the minor prophet is prophesying to the Southern Kingdom that The Day of the Lord—the day of judgment –is coming. In the short term, Judah will be overrun by locusts, resulting in widespread famine. But this is also a metaphor for the long-term prophesy that the Babylonians will invade/take over the Promised Land, unless they change their ways. So his message—from the Lord—is that they need to repent while they still have time. They can avoid locusts, famine, and a Babylonian takeover if they will…

a.) Return to the Lord (stop their worship of idols);

b.) Confess their sins; and

c.) Declare a holy fast, to demonstrate their renewed commitment to God.

Joel reminds them—and us–that God will give them another chance: Verse 13b says He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love…[and] He relents from sending calamity. In other words, God loves them and wants them to draw near to Him, to avoid His judgment. Our culture today is in a similar fix: We have stopped worshipping the One True God. Instead, we have made idols of money, influence, power, materialism, our own intellects, sexual experiences, etc. Like them, if we want to please God, we need to humble ourselves before Him, admit our sins and failures, and ask His forgiveness.

Thankfully, it’s still not too late to avoid God’s wrath and discipline, but they—and we–need to get busy! We need to ask ourselves, in the past year, have we been more concerned with the things of this world than with the things of God? This past year has the Lord always taken 1st place in our hearts? Or have we allowed other priorities, or our worries, to crowd Him out? Have we been so focused on those priorities and fears that we have neglected to nurture our vital relationship with Jesus?

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent, a period of spiritual house-cleaning lasting 40 days. Scholars have traced its observance to the early 100’s (Irenaeus of Lyons wrote of it). The 40 days are a reminder of the time Jesus fasted in the wilderness. Ashes are applied to the forehead, in the sign of the Cross, to remind us of the truth from Gen 3:19 (as told to Adam and Eve by God) Remember you are dust and to dust you will return. The ashes are a sign of our repentance and our sorrow for our sins. As such, they remind us of the need to maintain our commitment to love and please Almighty God.

2. David’s sorrow for his sins is perfectly recalled in Psalm 51.

The prophet Nathan has confronted him about his sins of coveting Uriah the Hittite’s wife, the beautiful Bathsheba; and of his subsequent adultery with her and murder of her warrior husband. His lament to God provides a perfect example of how we should feel about our own sins. He takes personal responsibility—he doesn’t blame Bathsheba or any others. He humbly pleads with God to forgive him and to cleanse his heart (v.10) Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast [right] spirit within me. David ended his life as a man after God’s own heart. This means that despite his sins, he pleased the Lord. We too, following David’s humble and heartfelt example, restore ourselves into God’s favor.

3. Paul calls for us to be reconciled to God in 2 Corinthians 5:20-6:10. We do this by remembering that Jesus, who was sinless, took on all our sins so that we could stand before God with clear consciences and clean hearts. Paul also tells us we do this by not allowing anything to displace our focus on God.

Do you recognize the theme running through these passages? Remember what Jesus has done for us. Keep God 1st in our lives. Humble ourselves, taking frequent inventories of our sins. Seek God’s face and ask His forgiveness.

4. In Matt 6:1-6, 16-21, Jesus tells us how to best go about fasting and doing good in God’s name. We are to fast and practice good deeds quietly, without fanfare. He assures us that even if no one else notices, God does. And that this is how we store up lasting treasure for ourselves in heaven. It’s not how we get ourselves to heaven because Jesus has already done that for us. But it both blesses God’s heart and draws us closer to Him.

Again, today we begin the season of Lent. Instead of the usual agreement to fast, I am asking us all to add something. This will involve a sacrifice of time and energy, but you will be amazed at how it will bless others, and at how God will bless you because of it. I am asking you to pray daily for the people on our prayer list; for the women, children, and elderly of the war-torn country of Ukraine; and that our country would return to Christ.

Rather than pray, you may choose instead to make a list of all those you have not forgiven, and make a commitment to forgive them–a practice that will draw you closer to Christ. Let’s please the Lord by being as magnanimous as John D. Rockefeller. Let’s please the Lord by praying for others. Let’s please the Lord by forgiving others as He has forgiven us. Amen! May it be so!

©2022 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams