Year A
Matthew 5:21-37
The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn
The Law of Good Heart Health
Last week, a seminary colleague of mine, a priest who was just 53 years old, died of a heart attack. It’s been a great shock to all of us who knew Anthony. I don’t know any of the particulars of what happened to him but for me, I became more aware that I could not neglect my heart health when I was in my 40’s. Out of the clear blue sky, my heart began to beat not faster but so hard at times I could feel it. I went through all the tests and nothing out of the ordinary was found. I took medication for several years until one day I realized I had forgotten to take my medication for a few days and I did not feel any heart beats. I stopped the medication and have not had any trouble since. But that experience caused me to be more aware of what I need to do to focus on my heart health for it is a matter of life and death.
Just as the heart is central to our physical health, it is also the key to our spiritual well-being. Now I’m not speaking about the muscular organ that pumps the blood through our bodies, even though there are many studies that show if our physical health is not good, it effect’s our spiritual and mental health as well. I’m referring to that mysterious inner part of a human being which is the seat of our loves and loyalties, our personality and our nature. This is the time of year when we focus on that inner part of our hearts with Valentine’s Day just a day away. And all our lessons today focus on this inner part of our heart and the importance of its condition.
We may even find that our lessons today prove diagnostic as we consider the condition of our hearts. For they speak to the power of choosing love and life, both in our outward actions and inward dispositions. They remind us of the power of choice in Christian life and invite us to mature, conscious, and godly love for self, others, and God. In Deuteronomy today the word for human response is “choice.” The choices offered by Moses in his farewell speech with the people of Israel as they are preparing to enter the Promised Land after wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, do not sit well. The generation born in slavery while in Egypt, have died and a new generation has been born into the covenant God made with the people through Moses.
So Moses reminds this new generation of their history, the law, and the promises God made to them. His speech focuses on choice and promise, he presents the consequences if the wrong choice is made and he exhorts the people to choose life. Choose to love God with heart, mind, and soul and this choice will result in blessings, in good heart health. They can choose to be stubborn, to ignore God’s pleas, to turn their backs on “life” instead of accepting God’s love, a love that offers fullness of life. It is an offer that cannot be forced on anyone but that can be chosen. This choice of life or death issue is not just for Moses’ immediate generation alone.
Rather, what his people choose will impact generations to come, whether for better or for worse. So Moses exhorts them, saying, “Choose life so that you and your generations may live.” The late John Donne an English poet, scholar and priest, famously declared that no man is an island, neither is any generation a self-contained unit. Each one is heir to its ancestors and each one leaves some sort of legacy to its descendants. So Moses encourages the people to leave a legacy of life. Through Christ, God has chosen to draw us into this covenant many generations later. It is this choice that we can make to be drawn into God’s covenant through faith in Christ, that makes life “eternal life” possible.
You may have seen the T-shirts with the words, “Christian under Construction,” printed on it. We can talk about the differences faith in Christ is supposed to make in our lives and about how it is supposed to work with the choices we have made. But, most of us know that we are not yet what God wants us to be. At best, we are Christians under construction. And, this is all right. The way it is supposed to be. The changes that God makes in our lives don’t happen all at once. It is a good thing to know that we are in the process of becoming what God wants to make us and therefore our choices are very important in allowing us to participate in this process.
The Christians in Corinth to whom Paul is writing, are still Christians under construction. The Corinthian church presented Paul with a great many questions, issues, and problems to address and we are richer so many centuries later because they chose to listen to the counsel, instruction, and correction from the apostle. It could not have been easy for the people of Corinth to hear Paul label them “immature” and least of all to people who fancied themselves rather advanced. Sometimes knowing we are not yet what God wants us to be can feel like an unhappy experience. Yet, knowing this can also teach us to be more aware of taking care of our heart health as we continue to look forward with anticipation to the fuller life that God still has yet to give us.
Keeping this in mind and that we are always under construction, Jesus has definitely been pointing this out in the past several weeks in his Sermon on the Mount. We might note an interesting parallel between the actions of Moses’ ascent of the mountain to receive the law from God and in today’s OT text, he presents the law to the people and Jesus’ ascent of the mountain to deliver the new interpretation of the law in his sermon on the mount. This and next week’s readings contain six antitheses, each of which will contrast “you have heard it said” referring to the law of Moses, with Jesus’ more radical teachings about anger, adultery, divorce, swearing oaths, retaliation, and love for enemies.
As we know Jesus does not lighten the expectations. Rather, the fulfillment of the law with Jesus, asks for a deeper connection between the inner attitude and the outward actions. For those who see the law today as presented by Jesus as a threat—break it and be punished—Jesus ups the ante but for those who see the law as a gift, Jesus’ teachings offer new insight into what is needed for good heart health and good choices into peaceable life with self, others, and God. For following Jesus is more complicated than simply observing a list of rules. It requires following when he leads, to a new understanding of the covenant with God and to a new standard of judgment which cannot be easily deduced to a written code. Rather, it gives us a good heart foundation for a loving life with God, neighbor, and self.
Good or bad, the root of every behavior is planted and nourished in the heart and Jesus’ teachings point to matters of the heart: anger, lust, reverence, integrity, and such. Likewise, many generations before Jesus’ earthly ministry, Moses addressed the heart of the matter with the people under his care, as well. He cautions them about their hearts turning away from the Lord, which can be the first step toward every manner of trouble. As Christian’s under construction, we struggle to make the right choices in our actions and habits, until our hearts are changed. How does this change come about? Fortunately today, Moses, Paul, and Jesus give us the answer….right choices, practicing justice and showing love, and so it is easy to remember the heart condition that is both our goal and our key: Love the Lord your God and light will guide your path all your days.