Sermon for Pentecost 13
August 30, 2009
Mark 7:14-23
Pastor Curt Dwyer, St. John’s Lutheran Church, Lafe AR

Grace, mercy and peace be yours from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Dear Friends,

  I asked for suggestions for hymns this week for hymn sing. If you sent me a suggestion for one of our hymns this morning, raise your hand… Exactly. No one did. I admit, it was a little frustrating. I know that the quality of the music impacts many people’s experience of worship. As any number of people in the pew and people in the pulpit will tell you, the appropriate choice of music for a given Sunday is essential for making the service ‘good.’ I was hoping to get some ideas of what people like to sing. Don’t know why nobody said anything. Maybe it’s an issue more in my head than anywhere else. (Many modern worship songs are much more singable that many of the songs in the traditional, Lutheran body of hymns. Yet, many of those old, 400-year-old hymns have content that simply isn’t matched by any other song, modern or not. So, we are doing some of both today. One song was written in the 1700’s, another was written since the turn of this century. ) Maybe, it’s something else. Maybe the songs we sing aren’t the real reason you came to church today. At least, I hope not. And I hope the pastor isn’t the reason you came to church. I hope you didn’t just come to impress your friends, either. I hope you came here because you need a new heart. That is, after all, the point of what we do on Sunday morning, regardless of what it is.

  You all know, probably, about my father and the health struggles he has had over the past couple of years, especially. Last year, the week after Mother’s Day, Dad went to Kansas City to be evaluated for a heart transplant. He had had heart trouble for a number of years, and it finally reached the point that his cardiologist at home decided a transplant was worth investigation. So they went for a series of in-patient tests to determine his eligibility. While he was there, undergoing the testing, he had a heart attack. That began a 13 week hospital stay, that was followed by a couple months in a nursing home for convalescence. You see, after that heart attack on the Wednesday after mother’s day, it became apparent to everyone that Dad would never leave the hospital with his own heart. His heart was too badly damaged. It was barely pumping enough blood to keep him alive. For several days during his stay, he even needed an external pump to help his heart continue pumping. He needed a new heart; without a transplant, he would never have left the hospital. (Thanks be to God and the miracle of modern medicine, he is doing well today.)

  Our situation is something like his…we need a new heart, and we aren’t getting off this world alive without one. Jesus points out in the gospel lesson just how bad our hearts are; “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.

  Did anyone see themselves in that list? Did anyone not see themselves in that list? Our hearts are bad. Evil, even. So corrupt that they have defiled our whole body. Just as my dad’s weak heart caused all sorts of complications with all sorts of other bodily systems last year, our bad hearts have caused all sorts of complications in our lives. We argue with and berate those we love the most and break up our family. We want what we know isn’t ours to have and live discontent lives. We conspire to make someone else’s life hard, to get our petty revenge for some injury they caused us. We lust after other women, or any woman who will go out with us. We lie so we can get our way. In other words, we destroy the good that is around us by giving in to the bad the comes from our hearts. Our families, our friends, our co-workers, our world all suffer the consequences of the evil in our hearts.

  With hearts like this, we will never get out alive. Our bad hearts prevent us from being God’s people. Our bad hearts keep us out of His kingdom. We won’t leave this world alive without a new heart. That’s why Christ performed a heart transplant on you. Christ is in the heart business. That’s why he got so impatient with the people who insisted on talking about all these silly, external things like ritual hand washing and kosher food laws and ceremonial cleanness. He didn’t care so much about those things. They were all simply external shows of false piety. What Christ was concerned with was the heart of the person. If the heart was right, everything else would be right.

  So Christ spent his earthly ministry healing hearts. He forgave sinners. He befriended the friendless. He gave good news to those who were used to hearing people tell them how bad they were. And then he literally gave up his own heart for you.

  The cross is the place where Christ performed the perfect heart transplant. On that cross Jesus found the cure for evil hearts as he took on himself all the evil our hearts contain. Christ let our heart disease kill him. And in us, he replaces our evil, sick hearts with a pure heart, filled with His life, His love, His blood. The clean heart that David so earnestly asked God for is given to him and to us through the cross.

  In Paul’s letter to the Galatians, he also writes about the evil hearts we all have; and his list of bad that comes out of an evil heart is in many ways just like the list that Jesus gives here in our Gospel lesson. But then, Paul goes on to make a further point, the fruit, now, of a clean heart, a heart filled with God’s spirit, is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. These things don’t need laws, Paul says, because this is how a heart is supposed to be. With a new heart, new life is possible. With a new heart, our lives become focused where God intends them to be focused; on faithfully following Him and living as His children in peace with one another.

  And that new heart means that we will make it out of this world alive. This new heart He gives us means that we are now able to l ive eternally with Him. This new heart, given to us through the cross, is the beginning of true life, perfect life as God’s holy child.

  That is what Christ was concerned about as he talked with the Pharisees and scribes about hand washing and other traditions. They aren’t really important. They weren’t important then, and they still aren’t important now. Ultimately, the point of coming together to hear God’s word and celebrate His sacraments is to seek from Him the heart transplant that we need to live as His people today and always.

In Jesus’ name. Amen.