Where do you hang your heart? Easter 5 - Psalm 31; 1 Peter 2.2-10; John 14.1-14 Rev. Tiare L. Mathison, Pastor & Soul-Tender
Good morning, chosen race! How are you royal priesthood? You are a holy nation, God’s own people! Once you were no people, but now, now, you are God’s people. Once, you had no mercy. Now you are full of mercy. Full, right, full. It’s a declarative, it is plural, so it is for all of us who believe Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. And for us who doubt, and question, and remain. It is the reversal of the judgment against Israel, 500 years before, when the prophet/farmer Hosea named his children, Lo-ruhamah and Loammi, which mean not pitied and not my people. Now Israel and we are redeemed.
God’s evaluation is rooted in God’s grace. It’s nothing you’ve done or earned or deserve, for that matter. It is simply this free gift of love, given for your redemption through Jesus Christ. So you can see, really see, that other world. The world beyond the borders of pandemic, the world beyond the systemic evils and principalities of empire, the world of cruelty and rejection and oppression. Look up, Scripture always says. This grace is longer than my arms, it extends way beyond what I can reach or imagine. It is an invitation to let ourselves be built, present participle, into the lasting structure with Jesus Christ as cornerstone. It’s 90* angle is the basis for the whole building; its strength for the long haul and creativity for its beauty. Dear Holy Nation, you are magnificent. It is this mighty fortress that holds us in place, our time in God’s hands. Every day we can pray, Into your hands I commit my spirit, you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.
It is the power of this simple notion: God is for you. God is for you. In life and in death, God is four you. Where do you hang your heart? It is an act of humility to put your trust in God. It reverberates against all the culture messages that suggest we can do it all on our own, that we don’t need each other. In this other world, such hubris does not exist. In that place, our interdependence on one another is celebrated as a great joy. One thing the pandemic has exposed is how much we really do need each other. I go so far as to say God made us for relationship with Her and with one another and with the whole of creation and all the creatures big and small. Where do you hang your heart?
Do not let your hearts be troubled, Jesus says. Well, lets take a stop right there, shall we? Tell me, is your heart troubled this morning? With the mute on, you can just nod your head yes or no. My heart gets troubled when I look at the models of illness #’s in this pandemic. 70% of us will get sick, it looks like, 10% of us will die. These figures trouble our hearts as we gaze across the screen at one another, think of our loved ones, frontline workers, the elderly, people of color. We are sickened by the murder of Ahmad Arbery,a young Black man, gunned down by two white men southern Georgia. #Running while black the latest hashtag of fear. Our hearts are very troubled. We are dining at the banquet table of defeat. Where do you hang your heart?
Martin Luther, Reformer, wrote The Large Catechism. His very first question: What does it mean to have a God? His answer: God is what you hang your heart on.
We hang our hearts on The One who has promised eternal life. The One who brought back Jesus Christ from the dead for our salvation. The One who says I will not leave you bereft, but the Paraclete will come and dwell with you, right inside you and your daily life. It is not a distant wind-up God who remains aloof, but The One who gets in the muck and mess, who calls us out to be a royal nation filled with mercy. The One who creates this other world we catch a glimpse of now and then when we hear or read stories of extreme kindness: Tanisha Brunson-Malone, works at Hackensack University Medical Center in New York City, as a forensic technician, a morgue worker. 3 days a week she stops at the Metropolitan Plant and Flower Exchange to buy yellow daffodils, spending about $100/week. She takes them to her work, where 3 semi-trailers are parked, bodies in bags waiting... She walks the aisles of the dead, pausing at each new body bag, places a daffodil on top and moves on. Her flowers are for the dead rather than the living. She says, “I was kind of like their voice, because they were voiceless.” Where do you hang your heart? There is roominess in God, plenty of space for everyone. It is not a location of geography, rather a wide-open vista of time stretched as far as the eye can see and beyond, in this other world. It is the arena beyond the horizon, the mystery of the place of death, a realm not accessible, but where God dwells. The promise of Jesus is to accompany us home. Where do you hang your heart? I’ve chosen to end the sermon by sharing some music called The UK Churches sing The Blessing. I received it from one of my nieces earlier this week. Each and every time I watch it I weep. So those of you who are teary, best have the tissue nearby:) It’s a bit long, but soooo lovely. May you be richly blessed by the presence of Christ as you listen. Amen