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Grace, mercy and peace be unto you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Beloved in the Lord!
The text from this morning comes from the Gospel reading.
A man who had spent 45 years in the office of pastor, preaching and proclaiming faithfully. I was introduced to him when I first got out of the Seminary. He was in our circuit. Watching this man I was thinking, “Man, he seems to have his stuff together.” His parish and he seem to be working in a beautiful union like husband and wife. Things seem to be going on there that weren’t going on elsewhere. Financially, they were very secure and doing some great things. Education program and confirmation program was booming! Parent involvement in those kids coming were greatly appreciated.
And so I thought there must be some sort of secret kernel of truth that this man had. And all that I needed to do was to find out what this secret kernel of truth was and then I, too, would be able to accomplish the things that he had accomplished.
It’s like that in all of our lives, isn’t it? A co-worker, a parent, a friend, a family member that you look to and you see their life and it seems as if everything they touch turns to gold. And it looks as if there aren’t any struggles in that individual’s life. It seems to always turn out good. They seem to always accomplish much. You and I seem to pale as we compare ourselves to them.
What is it? Why is it that way? And how then do I get that which they seem to have?
Well, the problem in going such a place is that if we were to succeed in the same things, to what would we owe then the success we had garnered? Would we then end up looking inwardly to ourselves and to our accomplishments as to why that which we touched turned to gold? Or would we really be all that humbled to say it is only God who has done this?
And if we fail, if we fail to what then do we blame? God? Or do we go right back searching this dead and decaying heart trying to find something there that was the reason why it failed? And then we get out the whip and beat ourselves.
We have very sincere desires to accomplish great things for God in our lives, but we forget – we forget that with which we are dealing – and that is a dirty, decaying heart.
In this morning’s Gospel reading, Jesus speaks very clearly about our heart when he says, “From within, out of the heart of man come evil thoughts, sexual immortality, theft, murder, adultery” and so on. The laundry list of bad deeds.
Well, if someone does not struggle with the deed of adultery, have they really beaten adultery within their heart? If someone has come upon and triumphed over alcoholism, have they really beaten it within their heart? If someone has been able to curtail their tongue from sarcasm, cursing, or other things, have they really curtailed it within their heart?
Moses, in the book of Genesis said, from God’s obvious proclamation: “Every inclination of the thought of man in his heart is only evil all the time.”
We can polish the chrome all we want, there is still rust beneath it. We can strip it bare and put on primer, but it’s still an old chunk of steel. We can refurbish it with wallpaper and with fantastic paint, but it’s still an old house.
Jeremiah even said, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” “Who?” indeed.
Finally after a few years of discussing and talking to this senior pastor who seemed to have his whole stuff together, and I finally had the courage to say, “You seem to have all of your stuff together. There doesn’t ever seem to be frayed edges.” And he laughed. He goes, “You’re only judging by what you see on the outside. If you only could see what was in here, you would be ashamed of me, as I am ashamed of me.” Because he knows his own heart.
Do you know your heart? What really is inside of your heart?
We are tempted to think that this struggle and battleground within our heart is merely the ability to polish, repaint and refurbish. Discipline and reform. That’s all that is needed. And woefully shy and lacking is such a mindset because it does not deal with the decrepit nature of what lies within your bosom and mind. Damnable, is it?
In the collect that Pastor prayed in the very beginning, which is a great summary prayer of the entire service, one of the petitions in there was to, “Keep us from sinful pride.” And if you look at one of those mentionable sins of the twelve that are there, pride is one of them.
If I had achieved that nugget, to what would I give glory to then – myself or God? And how long, if I gave it to God, would it last? For when God would choose to pluck that glory and pluck that pride, then unto which would I go? Back to that empty dead heart and blame myself again?
The turmoil in which you and I find ourselves is not flesh and blood. That’s legalism. Trying to make sure we can keep everyone from seeing that which what we really are in the inside. That’s Pharisee, self-righteous legalism. But boy does it feel good when our stuff shines. And boy does it feel bad when we are revealed as to what we really are on the inside.
Paul said it very clear in the Epistle reading: “Our struggle is not with flesh and blood.” Then it would be nothing more than crossing your “t’s” and dotting your “i’s” each and every time. Discipline, discipline reform, reform, fix and fix and fix. That would be all that a Christian life would be and it is not, for Paul would not have said such things. It is with spiritual matters of which we are in a battle, of which your heart is continually struggling.
Paradox indeed, listen:
If the heart is as our Lord described it, “Deceitful above all things, inclination is only evil all the time” and yet, we are supposed to love God with all of our heart. That is a paradox.
And it is your unresolvable paradox until you are resolved of such paradox when you close your eyes in faith and die and are freed from this life in Christ. That we live in this world and are free not so much from that, as it is from the spiritual things with which we struggle, here!
Now being bent already, we are already curved in to look upon ourself so that when things go well, we end up looking, “It must be because of my understanding of this kernel of truth.” And if things go bad, “It must because I am not doing something that I ought to be doing.” Either way, the focus is where? Not on Christ. Get over yourself. Get over myself.
Listen and gather around of what our Lord speaks. David, in the 51st Psalm said, “Create in me a clean heart, O God; renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from Thy presence; take not Thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation; uphold me with Thy free spirit.”
The only kind of heart that God loves is a broken and contrite heart, a heart that sees itself for what it is and sees its peace and its forgiveness outside of itself. There is no kernel of truth that you can be successful and glory filled in this life. There is only one truth.
Well, the problem is when we look at Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, we’re thinking, “Put on an armor.” That sounds warrior-like and that gets us pumped up like guys banging heads with their helmets in football season and popping those shoulder pads and grunting.
Sadly, if you want to be putting on the armor of God you’ve got to lay down on the gurney as a dead and dying soul and you’ve got to have that sleeve rolled up to receive the chemotherapy for your dead and dying flesh. There. Here in this word.
To be a warrior does not mean you go out in your strength, it means you realize what you are. And therein is peace. Therein is peace. For the secret isn’t within you, it’s within Christ and what he’s done for you.
There’s the food that brings eternal life. That’s a broken and contrite heart. That’s one that’s empty of itself. And that’s one that says like that pastor, “If only you could see what I know and see within myself. My glory is not in what I’ve accomplished, it is what God continues to take me back. The chief of sinners.”
When you look at that armor, look at everything that is mentioned. It is all things that come to you from outside of you! Nothing that you do, nothing that you stir up, nothing that you create or fashion. You received those pieces of armor. They’re not yours that you’ve created, but have been bestowed upon you in faith to wage such a battle. Not with flesh and blood, but with spiritual things.
But the world does not see. It scoffs at it. And intellectuals deny.
Every sermon end with this statement about your heart:
“The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” And peace, there is no peace, except that which is found in your forgiveness and in your reception of God’s life and salvation. Eat and drink such peace and know that your heart is cleansed, that heart with which you wage battle until finally your Lord says, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Come inherit the Kingdom prepared from the foundations of the word.” Amen.
The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and your minds on Christ Jesus until life everlasting. Amen.
