Sermon: What's written on your heart? (Reformation Day, 2016)

Reformation Day

Oct. 30, 2016

Jeremiah 31:31-34

            As Michael and I try to wrap our heads around the reality that in just a few weeks, we will once again have a newborn living at our house, I have been trying to remember what it was like last time we had a newborn. I remember Grace being pretty easy, as newborns go, pretty agreeable, pretty compliant, even a pretty good sleeper. But of course, there were some nights where she was much more interested in being held and cuddled than being left alone in her crib. I remember one night in particular when I sat there rocking her, bouncing her, and singing every song I could think of. At some point, I ran out of Beatles and James Taylor and Carole King songs, and I thought, “Hmm, what other songs do I know by heart?” And then it came to me: and I spent the next chunk of the evening singing every liturgy I could recall from growing up in the Lutheran Church. I sang Marty Haugen’s Holden Evening Prayer. I sang LBW Settings 1, 2 and 3, and a few from the ELW, as well – Kyries and Hymns of Praise and Holy Holy Holys and Lamb of Gods. I think it was this night that I began

the tradition of singing the chanted Lord’s Prayer to her each night as I gently trace a cross on her forehead.

All of these – these are the songs and the words and the faithful expressions that are written on my heart. They are my go-to prayers, they are my comfort, they are the words of my faith. They are words and phrases that appear in my sermons and public prayers whether I’m trying or not, because they are what have provided me with a way of talking about faith. That’s what going to church every single Sunday of my childhood has given me: my heart became a tablet on which God could scribe His Word, His law, His promises, so that they would become a part of me.

God, after all, promised to do that, centuries before Jesus ever walked the earth. Jeremiah tells us so, in our first reading today, in these remarkable words: “This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days [those days of rebellion and turning away from me], 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.” Such a promise leaves me breathless! First of all, that God would make such a covenant with such a rebellious people! Those who made it through reading the Old Testament this year will recall, that the history of the people of Israel has been riddled with failure upon failure to follow God’s law. God has continually tried to give them what they want and need, and they have repeatedly turned away to follow their own whims. At this point in Jeremiah’s prophecy, Jeremiah is witnessing one of the most heart-wrenching times of Israel’s history: the exile, in which all the Jews were exported out of the promised land, out of Jerusalem, and into far-away Babylon. And yet out of this heartbreak, he shares this promise: “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.” In other words, God says, “I know times are tough right now and the future looks grim, but know this: I have not given up on you.”

And then he offers this greatest gift: God will write, right on their hearts, right on their very souls, His life-giving word. God will put it where they cannot forget it. God will relentlessly give them exactly what they need to find and experience life. “And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” God will not desert them in their hour of pain and doubt and separation. God will remain as their God, and God will continue to claim them and love them as His people. They will not be alone.

What is written on your heart? What is so ingrained in you, you couldn’t forget it if you tried? The words of the Lord’s Prayer? The 23^rd Psalm? The words and tunes of the liturgy? Something your parents or grandparents used to always say? What is written on your heart, and how has it shaped who you are – as a person generally, and as a person of faith in particular? What is written on your heart?

Maybe, if you grew up in the Lutheran Church and went to confirmation class, you have the

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words of the Small Catechism written on your heart. That was Martin Luther’s intention, that children and families would have his little manual on faith memorized. And so, back in the day, confirmation students were required to memorize the entire Small Catechism – the Lord’s Prayer, the Creed, the 10 Commandments, and all the explanations thereof. I admit I didn’t have to do that, but I memorized enough of it to be able to say, “We are to fear and love God so that…” and, “This is most certainly true!” Anyone recognize those phrases? They are quintessentially Lutheran phrases, and yes, they, too, have become a part of my faith lexicon! A couple weeks ago I asked our current confirmation class just to memorize the Apostles’ Creed – not the explanations, just the Creed itself – and oh, the groans I got! “More homework!” “Ugh, it’s so many words!” Now, I try to be a gracious teacher, understanding of their workload at school and the stress they are under with their various extra-curriculars. But on this, I will not budge. They need to know those words! These are the words of faith! These are the words five confirmands will speak from memory next week when they are confirmed. These are the words they will return to again and again when they face challenges and struggles in their life and faith. These are the words that will be written on their hearts, that they will continue to wrestle with all their lives but which are, nonetheless, a part of them, a part of their relationship with a loving, caring God, a God who will never, ever desert them, who will continually forgive them and hold them close.

What words are written on your heart? What words do you wish were written on your heart? What words do you need written on your heart to help you remember God’s abiding promises?

In the book, Sensible Shoes, one of the women, Mara, who has struggled with her self-esteem,

sense of security, and identity, decides that having something written on her heart is not enough. She wants it written on her body. She is compelled by the name Hagar gives to God, after Abraham has just sent her and her unborn child away to a desert wasteland. In that place, pregnant, frightened and hopeless, God reveals Himself to Hagar as “El Roi,” the God who sees – who sees Hagar and her fears and her struggles. The story resonates with Mara’s own, and so Mara has tattooed on her wrist an eye, the eye of God, as a reminder that God always sees her – sees her for her failings, yes, but also, she comes to realize, sees her as a child of God who is worthy of love. God is the one who sees, and who loves, and she wants that written on her heart, and her wrist.

What is written on your heart? How has God revealed Himself to you in your life – through what words, images, songs, or experiences has God become real for you? What imprint have those words left?

I love the post-Easter story in which Jesus shows his disciples his scars. Those scars – they are the marks that were left after claiming eternal life for God’s beloved people. Sometimes those things that are written on our hearts did not get written there easily. Sometimes we may confuse the word of God with the hurtful words left on our hearts by someone else. But this I can assure you: while human words can indeed hurt us, contrary to what the child’s rhyme would have us believe, God’s word – the word that is written deep inside our hearts – is always, finally, a word of life. It is a word of forgiveness – as Jeremiah also tells us today, “I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more.” God’s word is a word of grace, and of love. And that life, forgiveness, grace, and love – that word of God that is written on our hearts – is a word that frees us from fear, from death, from our own self-doubt, from all that would hold us captive.

What, dear people of God, is written on your heart? What words has God scripted on your heart to remind you every day of His love, grace, and assurance of forgiveness? In what way does what is written on your heart become apparent in your living and your loving? What is written on your heart?

Let us pray… Lord God, you have put your law within us, and written it on our hearts. You have promised to be our God, and we your people. You have forgiven us and forgotten our sin. Help us to live by the promises you have written on our hearts, to cling to your love within us, and to live all of our days as your beloved, forgiven, and free children. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.