What’s Our Heart?
March 14, 2008
Lent is all about preparing our hearts for Jesus’ Lordship-something we celebrate every Palm Sunday with the blessing and processing of palms, crying “hosanna” (save us, we pray!). The big question: have we really pursued what we pray in the Collect for Ash Wednesday-and should be praying daily in Lent:
ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who hatest nothing that thou hast made, and dost forgive the sins of all those who are penitent; Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of thee, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Consider what we asked the Father to smith in each of us-knowing He does not hate us, but has good things for us. Hear Him speak through Jeremiah, to Israel, suffering in captivity:
10 For thus says the LORD: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. 11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, says the LORD, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the LORD, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive.
What great news! Even though we richly deserve God’s judgment–as Israel received here–like God’s People of the Old Testament, He wants to bring us out of captivity, and has blessings in mind for us-and will bring us to that place we, once were…a place where He dwells with us, and blesses us in worship and life. How do we return? Our collect for Ash Wednesday-Lent’s “everyday prayer” shows us:
” If we are penitent-derived from Middle English, French & Latin, feeling or expressing humble or regretful pain or sorrow for sins or offenses, we are naturally led to ask Him to…
” Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, which implies a work of the Holy Ghost to change our inner motivations-becoming the new creatures described in 2 Cor 5:17 and Galatians 6:14-16.
” If we will allow the Holy Ghost to lead us and change us, (worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness) then we can be led to real, heartfelt…
” Repentance-a word stemming from penitence-meaning, to turn from sin and dedicate oneself to the amendment of one’s life. This is not just “being good,” (nobody can do that all the time!), but instead of following our own flesh and the Devil’s World around us, following the Spirit’s lead-what St. Paul taught as “walking after the Spirit” in Romans 8 and Galatians 5. In Galatians, in fact, God provides us a stark contrast between what the Spirit crafts in us, and what we are like, when left to our own devices:
19 Now the works of the flesh [emphasis mine] are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit [emphasis mine] is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. 24 And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. [emphasis mine] 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
The Church Fathers that wrote our prayerbook understood the Spirit walk. They knew that the “rubber meets the road” for us as Christians when we allow the Holy Spirit to show us if have we really laid our hearts open for Jesus to enter as King. Do we have new and contrite hearts, or are we, like the mob that turned on Him, after that triumphant palm-covered entry to Jerusalem, instead sending Him to crucifixion? Are we “walking after the Spirit” or fulfilling the desires of the flesh? As our Lenten examen turns down the home stretch to Resurrection Sunday, we have to ask the Holy Spirit to show us all if are truly the new creatures Jesus came to make us.
What’s our heart? Do we walk after the Spirit - or remain captive to the flesh? Hosanna, Lord - save us!
All love in the Beloved,
Chip+
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