Soften Your Heart
“Soften Your Heart”
Second Sunday after Pentecost, Year B June 3, 2018
1 Samuel 3:1-10 (10-20) Mark 2:23-3:6
First Presbyterian Church of Sandpoint, Idaho
Pastor Andy Kennaly
Today is the first installment of a larger sermon series I’m calling Be(e) Keeping: A Journey Into Contemplative Faith. The word Bee has a double meaning, involving the insect such as honey bees, but also spelling the word with one less letter e this is simply b-e, and involves being. We are human beings, not human doings. Contemplative practices help us learn more about who we are and help us discover anew what God’s intentions are for us as we claim our place in God’s larger creation. Through contemplation and focusing on being with God, comes action, but not in reactive ways but rather in ways that involve response.
Be(e) Keeping: A Journey Into Contemplative Faith will look at important aspects of awakening and growing in Christ, along with aspects of cleaning up our lives in Christ, what the church refers to as sanctification. This sermon series will look aspects of this journey deeper into unity by focusing on what I’ve experienced in my own journey, and as I share these discoveries, we will look at how it helps when we can: Be Honest, Be Aware,
Be Humble, Be Patient, Be Quiet, Be Thankful, Be Loving, and finally, just Be. Maybe other topics will get revealed along the way as well. I don’t profess to be an expert in all of this, and there are mystics who have developed entire systems and frameworks that help us become more articulate about spiritual growth and life. This series is what most sermons are, as pastors share with people in particular contexts a larger conversation about what’s involved with paying attention to God’s dynamic, creative purposes. It’s a dialogue with scripture and story, and an exploration through inner experience into the Living Christ.
Contemplative Prayer through Bee Keeping was the overall theme for the 2017 Sabbatical in which my wife and I traveled through Ireland, Scotland, and England, along with several countries in Europe with a focus on visiting people and places that have developed the art and practice of bee keeping. Monasteries, for example, have kept bees for hundreds of years to have wax for candles used in worship services, along with products from the honey such as sweets or distilled beverages. In Slovenia, bee keeping is a huge part of that country’s culture and their language reflects the importance of this part of agriculture. For example, we call her the Queen bee; in Slovenia, they call her the Mother. We call the group of bees living in the hive a Colony, but they call it a Family. Giving honey bees the same status as human beings challenges the typical ways we often view the larger creation as a commodity or a natural resource for human use. Yet bee keeping is one form of art, I like to call it the Poetry of Agriculture (which I heard somewhere along the way). As an Art, as poetry, it invites us to learn from it, to open ourselves to deeper lessons as we come alongside ancient rhythms and systems that are larger than ourselves. Like other art forms, what is intended is an opening of the heart, a humbling and renewing of the mind, and nurturing the ability to perceive at a soul-level, a perception of the heart.
The scriptures we look at today from 1 Samuel and the Gospel of Mark have stories that point beyond themselves to the human need to quiet our distracted mind, to humble our prideful ego, to listen as we make space for divine connection, and to take action as a response to and in partnership with God’s action and activity in life. A key aspect of all of this is the focus of this morning’s theme as we are invited to be(e) honest. If we are not honest with God, with ourselves, and with others, then we miss the point as God graciously invites us to abundant life sharing love, grace, hope, and peace.
As we look to be(e) Honest, it’s because there is a better way, but it is not as easy as it may seem. This better way is as God intends, and not limited by our interpretations which are often corrupted.
In 1 Samuel 3 we are reminded that sometimes it takes a while for God to get our attention. The boy, Samuel, hears a voice multiple times during the night and goes to Eli, who gives instructions. But it took both of them several times to realize what was going on. Only after their awareness was peaked, and after they chose to respond to the voice rather than react to the voice, did they take the posture of listening. Samuel listened. Later, Eli wants to know the message that was shared in the night. Eli the priest uses a threat to provoke the boy, Samuel to share what was revealed by God. “So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him.” As the passage concludes and Samuel’s authority as a prophet is solidified because the LORD is with him, the one quality that is lifted up as a defining factor in what makes Samuel’s words powerful is that he is “trustworthy.”
Trustworthiness, the importance of being honest, even if this includes difficult situations; this is one aspect involved in the vulnerability of being available to God, of inviting God to speak into your life, and of seeking to serve the LORD.
The other passage from the Gospel of Mark, the end of chapter 2 and beginning of chapter three, mentions the disciples walking with Jesus through the grainfields, and they began to “pluck heads of grain.” It doesn’t say what they did with them or how intensely this harvest was, and plucking doesn’t sound too bad. But it was the Sabbath, so no work was legally allowed. The Pharisees, who prided themselves on knowing and observing all the letters of religious law, called them on it. Jesus goes to the roots of their own tradition to share an interpretation of God’s generosity and provision and God’s desire for people to experience wholeness. Jesus says, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need of food?” Of course, they had read it, and the text is showing a hint of sarcasm in Jesus’ question. Sarcasm is a form of anger, so the author is hinting that perhaps Jesus is upset with narrow interpretations that actually seek to limit and control God’s life-giving intentions.
The next scene is in the synagogue and the Pharisees are on the prowl trying to accuse Jesus of healing on the Sabbath. A man is there who has a withered hand, which qualifies as a condition that prevents full participation in society. As someone with a physical blemish or disability, he would have been condemned as being punished by God for sin. But Jesus give this man permission to “come forward” and take a position he had been excluded from by those narrow interpretations of the law. Jesus asks the Pharisees a question about the law, which they are supposedly experts at, and they are silent in their response.
If our earlier suspicion was that Jesus used sarcasm to express anger, this is only confirmed as Mark blatantly states, Jesus “looked around at them with anger.” Jesus is angry! He’s glaring at them! But he’s also honest in his emotions and Jesus in his anger gives us a valuable lesson that speaks volumes as it echoes through the ages hoping people will hear it with their hearts. Jesus does not react to his anger. He doesn’t get violent with them. He’s not the one conspiring to do harm. Jesus reveals that behind anger is often other emotions, a deeper source of pain. In this case, even as he looks around, his glare is mixed with pity; his frustration is mixed with a yearning and desire for the Pharisees to have the benefit of a larger vision and experience of God. Mark says,
Jesus “was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’”
Jesus grieving at their hardness of heart shows us a couple things. One is that being honest about core emotions is important, as Jesus shows in his anger with its source coming from the pain of grief and desire for healing. Another is the invitation to soften our hearts because whatever it was with the Pharisees that hardened their hearts is something we are being warned to avoid. Hard hearts implies rigidness, walls, impermeable closure. Living life abundant blooms through softened hearts that are open, nurtured, and loved. It’s important for us to be honest with ourselves to recognize those times we are tense and closed, not willing to budge from the way we think, or the process of thinking that led us to that locked stance. It’s important for us to not just react to anger, but to look behind the anger to see what’s triggering it inside us? What values are we clinging to that seem compromised; what pain is getting reinforced by not being honest with ourselves?
One last observation involves the Pharisees going out and conspiring with the Herodians to find a way to destroy Jesus.
Mark 2:23-3:6 Disciples pluck heads of grain out of the grain fields (to eat them? sell them? make bread?), but it is on the Sabbath and they get accused of violating Sabbath law. Jesus heals a man’s hand in the synagogue, gets angry with the Pharisees, grieving deeply over their hardness of heart. Pharisees conspire with the Herodians in an unlikely partnership, because they didn’t get along, they were enemies. These people were allowing their hatred to blind them, living dishonest lives to push their way.
Be(e) Honest. Soften your heart. Grieve well. Base your response to what life brings your way on God’s goodness and healing presence through Christ. Recognize holy discontent, a righteous anger that recognizes corruption of God’s loving purposes, but be honest in and loving in exploring the source of this discontent. It’s easy to react in anger. It’s easy to exclude others. It’s takes more effort to creatively respond with courage and humility in ways that build others up. Even in his anger, troubled by grief, knowing the likely result from those with hard hearts, Jesus still invites the man to healing by stretching out his hand.
Even surrounded by a world that seems chaotic and misguided, locked in polarizing attitudes and the corruption of greed and profits of violence; the unitive consciousness of Christ calls out with inviting words of healing Presence. As Richard Rohr’s Center for Action and Contemplation organization states as one of their core principles, “The best criticism of the bad is the practice of the better” (https://cac.org/an-alternative-community-2018-05-11/). If we are honest with ourselves, like that un-named man with the withered hand, we will admit our need, recognize our desire for something meaningful, and reach out our hand, saying “Here I am Lord, your servant is listening,” as we try and practice the better through a transformed heart, drenched in loving spirit.
In the week ahead, ask God to help you be honest, with yourself, with God, and with others. Invite the Holy Spirit to lead you, to show you a better way, and to help you even when it gets difficult. As the Living Christ calls us to come forward, we bring our frailty and present our brokenness, we’re invited to face our fears, to recognize anger and pain. Christ receives us, and the process of unity and love changes us as we practice the better.
Thanks be to God for healing, courage, love, and grace for each moment. As we seek to be(e) honest on the contemplative journey of experiential faith, allowing God to work in our inner life, may God be glorified, now, even as forever. Amen.