Hearts Surely Fixed

The following text is the raw, unedited transcript from a sermon given on March 16th, 2024 at Iona Community Anglican Church in Vancouver, WA. You can also listen to the audio. Better yet, subscribe to the podcast! 😄

Well, we are still well into our season of Lent, which, as you may recall, is a season of preparation. At one time, it was a season of preparation for people who were new believers to eventually become baptized. They went through this season. At one point in history, they went through multiple years of learning God's ways, learning God's word. And some of that had to do with the fact that at one point, you could die for being a Christian. That's still true today in some parts of the world. In our part of the world, that's not so much true, but they just wanted to make sure that you were legit. So it took a lot of time. It was also a time of preparing along with a reminder preparation alongside of those who were going to become baptized, at which time people would often repeat their baptismal vows. I went to our Diocese of Cascadia clergy retreat this week, and part of that retreat is, as always at the end, as part of a Eucharist service that all the priests do together, is a repetition of the vows that we took as deacons or as priests.

And it's just a very powerful moment. Sometimes I wonder if we regularly retook marriage vows, if that would remind us what we signed up for. But I digress. The The Colict today reminds us that as part of this season of preparation and getting ready, that in this time of focus, to prepare as we dedicate that our wills, that part of us that drives determination, are unruly. Anybody identify with that? You have an unruly will? Therefore, what we are determined to do sometimes gets off track, out of whack. Our affections, the things we desire at any given time, are also unruly. Therefore, our feelings can be flippant. Basically, it's about spiritual ADD. It's like, Oh, something shiny, something new in the world, and a new singer, and Taylor Swift has a new song, big deal. And there's all this politics is happening. Oh, my gosh. There's all kinds of distraction. The things in the world around us change so quickly and in any direction. We need to be reminded. We need to pray together that, Man, my will can be so easily distracted. And the things that I am affectionate for can change so easily. This world, the things that Jesus came, the thing that Jesus came to save, this world, the thing he sends us into to bring the good news of a new life in Jesus Christ, to bring the gospel, can distract us from our mission.

And the point isn't to get away from the world or get out of the world, because this is where we're sent to, isn't it? Rather, we need to prepare. We need to discipline ourselves. We need to be reminded of what sometimes what does it take? What are the disciplines we need? What are the things we should focus on? The collect, our collective prayer together for us as individuals and as a community of believers reminds us that we are to love what he commands, which doesn't change. That we are to desire what he promises, which doesn't change. That we can seek to have our hearts surely fixed. It's a great phrase, isn't it? Hearts surely fixed or strongly anchored, unchanging in the wind and waves of this turbulent world. Just have it anchored down. It's not going anywhere. Where true joys are found, not false, fleeting happiness, but true joys are found in Jesus suffering, his crucifixion, his resurrection, and his ascension. It's all one. It's all one package. It's all one thing. Okay, how? How do we do that? Well, I'm going to dip a little bit into each of our readings today. Each one of them, man, could do deep dives on each one of these passages as Bible studies, but I just want to hit some highlights.

But the short version is, how do we do this? It's as we let God in, which means we have to make room, we have to get rid of other stuff to make room for God to come in, to rewrite our hearts. It's as we recognize and repent of our sin, as we seek reconciliation and let God do his work of restoration. It's as we realize, and the word realize is a weird word. It's not that we make it real, it's that it already is real. We just have to walk in it like it's actually real. Anybody has just been blind to either on purpose or an accident to stuff happening in the world? And, Oh, no, that's really a real thing. I need to live my life as if that's real. Well, it's true with Jesus. As we realize who Jesus is and what he did. Because it really happened. If it didn't really happen, what are we doing in this really hot room right now? Come on. And finally, as we follow his example, not just in our heads, where, yes, I believe Jesus, where it might be an intellectual thing, not just in our hearts, where it might just be a feeling thing, but in our words and in our deeds.

I don't expect everyone to get everything out what I'm going to say today, but I hope everybody gets one thing, something from what I get to share today. So in Jeremiah, God, through Jeremiah, talks about an old covenant and a new covenant. And I'm not a big fan of those words because we live in such a disposable society that things become old and we get new ones real quick. Throw that old phone away, throw that old computer away, throw that Old people away happens. It sounds funny, but it's true. It's not old and worn out and useless and something's new and shiny covenant. Rather, when you have a Bible and it says Old Testament and New Testament, it's not that the old one was, We're done with that one. We got a new one. Rather, it's the beginning of and the completion of. The Old Testament, the Old Covenant is still in effect. It's just It's now completed and fulfilled in Jesus. So it's not done and gone. It's very present and very alive and very real. Same idea here. In the Old Covenant that God is talking about, some very intimate language. It says he took Israel.

The Old Covenant, he's going to do away, but the new one is not like the old one, where he took Israel by the hand. Holding somebody's hand is a very personal, intimate thing. It's something we do with loved It's something we do with children. It's something we do with somebody we have deep affection for. God says, I took Israel by the hand. He says, I was their husband. Like a wedding, almost, like a marriage, like when The Red Sea part, it's like this room where there's an aisle down the middle and there's stuff on both sides. He took Israel by the hand and walked her through to the promised land eventually. A covenant that they broke. Did God break his covenant? No. The people did. Israel did. We break. Anybody ever made a deal with God? God, if you would only... God, if you get me out of this, if you fix this thing, if you heal this sickness, if you save this... I will... That's a deal with God. That's a covenant. That's the covenant he wants to do away with. What God's talking about is basically a broken and lifeless marriage. That was no good.

The new covenant, the fuller one, the more complete one, is going to be one where he puts his law within his people. He writes it in their hearts. That's not conditional upon them or us. That's just something God says, I'm going to do this. He says, I will be their God, and they will be my people. It's a very clear relationship. And who is the one doing all the work? Are we doing any work so far? Are God's people doing any work so far in this relationship? No, it's something that God is doing. I'm going to be their God, and they're going to be my people. He says, He will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more. So this new covenant is something that God just does. Now, I'm not saying that means everyone forever is always saved. We're not going that far, but it's deemphasizing the work and the obligation and the chance for dead-heartedness to be involved in this relationship. It's God saying, You know what? I know people are messed up and broken, but I'm going to do this anyway. This is my gift. This is why we call it grace.

So there's this idea of a new covenant as we let God rewrite our hearts. Well, what starts to happen? Psalm 51. Oh, my gosh, we could spend the whole time and days on Psalm 51. It's my favorite. Psalm 51. I don't want to spill the whole backstory. Go and read. Oh, my goodness. Is it Chronicles or Samuel? This is off the cuff. 2 Samuel 10, 11, 12, somewhere in there. What happens? But this is David's Psalm is just this pouring out of his heart of repentance. And man did I miss. He committed murder, he committed adultery, and he lied. A lot. Bad king. Bad follower of God. Bad example. But what he points out and has pointed out in other psalms, and really God points out points out himself in other places in the Bible is that acts of sacrifice, even the ones he gave us to do in the Old Testament in the law, this sin offerings, acts of sacrifice really mean nothing to God unless the heart is in the right place. Again, acts of sacrifice mean nothing to God unless the heart is in the right place. So what sacrifice does God want?

When we recognize that we have sin, what does God want from us? If he doesn't want us to do something, even if it's something that is in the law with animal sacrifice and all that stuff, what are we supposed to do? He wants a broken spirit. Another way to say that would be to be repentant for sin, not just repenting of sin, that's just going through an action, but being repentant for sin. It means recognizing that that was sin I blew it. I own that. I messed up. Now, it's not saying to spiral out into a pity party, into a shame spiral, but really, man, how much today do we just try to say it wasn't my fault, it was somebody else's fault? That's the way my brain is. We try to fawn off responsibility for our own mistakes and our own sin on anything else but us. God says, No, broken spirit, somebody who's repenting for sin, a broken and contrite heart, which has to do, to me, with reconciliation and restoration of relationships broken by sin, a restoration and a reconciliation of relationships that were broken by sin. For David's sin, for Psalm 51, there's a lot of messed up relationships that need fixing.

The consequences of his sin due to the relationships of the people involved haunt him for years to come. So what about us? When we sin, who's involved? Well, sometimes, remember, Jesus says things like that if you look at your brother with hatred in your heart, you're guilty of murder. If you look at somebody with lust in your heart, you're guilty of adultery. So sin is not just the action. Sin begins between the ears or in the heart. And that means that sin is not just horizontal to other people, against other people. Sin is always, always. There's no exception. Sin is always, first and foremost, vertical. Because what does David pray in this psalm? Against you amongst others. No. Against you only have I sin. Again, Has people murdered? Commits adultery? Lies to so many people. Against you only? Have I sinned? How can you say that? Because that's where sin is first and foremost. That's the relationship it breaks first, is the vertical one. So seeking restoration and reconciliation of that relationship along with the horizontal ones. And as we do that, God rebuilds and restores. The end of the Psalm, David talks about God God, rebuilding the wall and restoring Jerusalem.

And it's at that point God accepts the bullets, the animal sacrifices, because the action and the heart are both in the right place. It's not like, Oh, well, I repented and I'm good to go. It's like, no, there needs to be a change of behavior. I think we've talked about before how the word repentance doesn't mean just feeling bad and stop it. It means changing the way you think in order to change the way you act. That's what God's talking about. When we do that, the action and the heart become one. I love that God delights. We don't use that word very often. My grandma used it all the time. Everything was delightful. Ice cream is delightful. God delights, takes pleasure in those sacrifices when the heart is right. Hebrews, some highlights from Hebrews. Oh, my goodness. So there's this new covenant where God wants in. He's going to rewrite our hearts, write his law, which is his best for us. It's his heart, it's his mind for just relationship, how to relate to others, how to relate to him. We repent of sin. We then go on to live repentant lives because of our sin and walk in that newness of life.

And then we get to what Jesus does. Jesus is a high priest. Now, the word priest, it's different than the priest I am, or Father Mike, or Father Bob, or whoever. It's different. I got hung up on this when I was new to Anglicanism. I'm not a priest like Jesus is a priest. I don't stand in that gap, and no person stands in. Jesus is the high priest. I was like, Well, the priest, the priest that I am, is one who presides. That's priest, one who presides over, one who gets to be in charge of. It's connected to the word, and this might be a dirty word in our country now, the word president. A priest is one who presides, is president over. It's more specifically what this is. But at the same time, we're all a kingdom of priests like Jesus is. So in a sense, we all have this stand in the gap. Not that our death and sacrifice means anything to saving somebody else's sin, but we are the ones who to deliver the message of that sacrifice, of that standing in the gap. So Jesus is this high priest, this called by God priest.

His priesthood, now, if you know your Old Testament, you know that priesthood came from the line of Aaron, Moses' brother. Moses and Aaron were of the tribe of Levi, so priests specifically came, you had to be a Levi, and then you had to be a descendant of Aaron to be one of the priests in the temple that was built and historically is gone now, and maybe they'll come back. That's a rabbit trail I'm not going to get into today. But priests were from Aaron. Well, Jesus is the lion of the tribe of which tribe? Judah, not Levi. So how is Jesus a priest? Well, as we read today, he is a priest according to the order of Melchizedek. And again, if you know your Old Testament, Melchizedek is this person who just He shows up for one little bit and then is gone. Who was that? I don't know, but he's a big deal because he was a priest of God and he was a king of a city called Salem, which would later come to be called Jerusalem. So he is both a priest and a king. The name of the city is Salem, which means peace, Shalom, Salem.

So he's a king of peace. Is He's reminding you of anybody. His name means king of righteousness. I'm not saying Melchizedek was Jesus. I'm just saying there's this amazing parallel that God used this person out of nowhere to be the head, you might say, of Jesus's order of priesthood. Not to mention that Abraham offered bread and wine to him. Go have a look at Melchizedek and get back to me in 5 or 10 years and let me know what you find. Jesus is a priest. Now, here's the fun part. He is both the one making the offering, and he is the offering. Priests would offer animals that had to pass inspection, and they were He's temporary. This blood didn't actually save people from sin. It was a foreshadowing of what Jesus would do. The priest would have to make sacrifices for his own sin and then make sacrifices for the sins of the people. Jesus, who did not sin, really didn't have make sacrifices of anything for himself, but instead he sacrificed himself for our sins to save us. That's pretty huge. That's, again, a big deal. Jesus is the one who offers and is the offering himself.

So God rewrites our hearts. He wants in. He wants us to be repentant, to follow after him, to make the right sacrifices with the right heart. Jesus himself is this high priest is the offerer and the offering. And as we see in the gospel passage, that Jesus paints a very clear picture, to me, of two things. That he is this sacrifice like a seed goes into the ground and dies, and up comes something new that is very fruitful and multiplies. He said, If the seed just goes and stays there in the ground, it's alone and doesn't do anything, so what? But this seed, he goes into the ground, he dies, and he comes back to life as something new and is fruitful. Now, not only does he say that, he says, My followers are going to do the same thing. If you follow me, you're going to go where I go. You're going to do What I do. Where I am, my followers are also. The point being that it's not just something that we believe and have, again, in our heads or feel in our hearts. It's something that we actually follow and do.

So wait, Jesus suffered? Yeah. Guess who else is going to suffer because of Jesus? Not just me. Your hands are invisibly up. You didn't know that. All of us who are following him. There will be times when it feels like death is happening to us But out of that comes something new. What Jesus did is what we follow and repeat and mirror and mimic and do. And not easy, not simple, not what the world would have for us, which is why it comes to us and distracts us from doing it ourselves, let alone from sharing other people that news. I want to close with the call that we prayed earlier, because it is, to me, a reminder during this season of where to look, and especially when we get lost or confused or distracted. What is it we're supposed to be paying attention to? Almighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners. Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise, that among the swift and varied changes of this world, our hearts may surely there be fixed, where true joys are to be found through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Lord, I pray that we would, for those of us who are easily distracted, that you'd help us to focus. For anybody who's facing challenges or questions or decisions that can be very distracting, that help them to put you in the middle of that situation and see what is produced. Help us, help me to put you in that scenario, having suffered and died and resurrected and ascended to the right-hand of the Father. And what sense does that situation make? And if we're distracted, if we don't even know what we're doing, I don't know what we're supposed to be paying attention to. Help us, Lord, to again look at Jesus and get focused and get recentered and go where he's going instead of where the distracting squirrels and chickens of this world would have us drift off to. It's in your mighty name that we pray in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy spirit. And everyone said, Amen.