Lent began on Ash Wednesday with the recitation of Psalm 51 as you came forward to receive the imposition of ashes on your foreheads. Now on the Sunday before Holy Week begins, we have recited a portion of Psalm 51 again. As I read the Scripture lessons on Wednesday, the opening verse, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me,"[1] caught my attention.
This morning I am going to talk about the heart. Not just any heart, but the heart that is mentioned in Psalm 51, the heart that the Psalmist is asking God to clean.
The heart is an interesting organ, made of muscle, with chambers and valves that work together to sustain life, not only in humans, but other creatures as well. This is how we usually think of the heart, as an organ which provides and sustains physical life. Yet to the Hebrew people of the Old Testament, and even for Jesus, the heart that God placed in human beings does more than sustain physical life. It is the very essence of a person, and it is the place where the soul of a person resides.
Thus, when scripture says, as in Psalm 33, "he who fashions the hearts of them all,"[2] and in Psalm 51, "Create in me a clean heart, O God,"[3] it is talking about more than just the physical organ of the heart. And when Jesus in the Beatitudes talks about those who are "pure in heart"[4] he is not talking about the physical heart. In scripture the heart is the central and unifying organ not only of physical life, but the spiritual life as well. The heart is the innermost center of a person, the source of the physical, intellectual, and emotional aspects of us. It is also the dwelling place of the soul and will. But above all, the heart is the place to which God turns. As God reminded the prophet Samuel when he was looking to anoint the next king of Israel, "(man) looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart."[5] And as King David reminded his son, Solomon, "the Lord searches all hearts, and understands every plan and thought."[6] When, in the Book of Acts, the disciples chose Judas' replacement, they prayed to God, "…Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which one of these two you have chosen."[7]
It is from the heart that faith in God arises. Paul, in his letter to the Romans reminds us, "For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with this mouth and so is saved."[8] And in his letter to the Ephesians he writes, "I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love...to comprehend...the breath and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.[9]
The heart is the "inner tabernacle," the “Holy of Holies,” in which God's spirit dwells in us and through which God encounters us. And it is the heart, which discerns and responds to the presence of God. It is this understanding which prompted St. Jerome in the fifth century to declare, "Plato located the soul in the head; Christ located it in the heart."[10]
The subtitle of Psalm 51 is “A Psalm of David, when the prophet Nathan came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.” While David may not have actually written this Psalm, the author is obviously aware that it is sin that causes disease in the heart.
When we get chest pains we run to the cardiologist. He performs tests to determine if we have had a heart attack. Are the arteries clogged, is there a bad valve in the heart, or has the heart muscle been damaged by a stroke? With his expertise he can usually determine the cause of the pain and through medication or surgery help us on the road to recovery.
As you are well aware, I am pursuing the wrong type of doctor for what ails the heart that I am talking about this morning. No medical procedure or medication will help restore the heart to spiritual health.
Yet so often in today's world, we are more concerned about our physical well being than our spiritual well being. We spend millions of dollars and hours on research, medication and surgeries to improve our physical health, and feel that somehow God will take care of our spiritual health with little effort or investment on our part.
We know that with the proper diet we can avoid many heart-related problems. But, sometimes it takes a heart attack before we take the doctor's advice seriously, never-the-less, we know that quite often our diet and habits are the cause of our health problems.
The same is true of the heart as understood by the Hebrews, Jesus and Paul. We can avoid many heart-related problems with the proper diet and healthy habits. We do not need to spend millions on research and medication, the Bible has already given us the prescription for a healthy heart. It is captured in Jesus' response to what is the greatest commandment, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind... and love your neighbor as yourself..."[11]
In the case of King David, he had been warned about his lust for Bathsheba. He did not heed the advice, and put his life in jeopardy. It is only when he felt the pain of emptiness in his heart that he turned to God to ask for forgiveness and mercy. He did not ask God for a heart transplant, but he asked the Creator, to create within him a clean heart - a heart free of sin.
"Create in me a clean heart, O God." We are not talking about clogged arteries or any other type of heart disease. The author of this Psalm has come to the realization that he has contaminated his heart through sin, and now appeals to the only surgeon who can restore his heart to health - God.
When the disease of sin enters our hearts, hardening and contaminating the “inner temple,” “the Holy of Holies,” thereby separating us from God, there is only one surgeon who can help.
C.S. Lewis, in his book Mere Christianity, writes, "It costs God nothing, so far as we know, to create nice things; but to convert rebellious wills cost Him crucifixion."[12]
Our first heart is free, it is a gift from God. To cleanse our hearts, to make them pure again, when we rebel against him, cannot be performed in the operating room, or through medication. It can only occur through the skillful hands of God's Son as he is lifted up with his hands nailed to the cross.
St. Jerome was right. God gave us a soul because he loved us. He did not put it in the mind, because the mind cannot love. The soul resides in the heart, because it is only the heart that is capable of perceiving love and returning it.
The cross is God's expression of love for us. It makes no sense to the mind, and it was never intended to. The cross speaks to the heart.
[1]. Psalm 51:11
[2]. Psalm 33:15a
[3]. Psalm 51:10a
[4]. Matthew 5:8a
[5]. I Samuel 16:7b
[6]. I Chronicles 28:9b (NRS)
[7]. Acts 1:24
[8]. Romans 10:10
[9]. Ephesians 3:16-19 (NRSV)
[10] Tony Castle, The Hodder Book of Christian Quotations (Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1982) p.110
[11] Matthew 22:37-39 (cf Mark 12:28-34; Luke 10:25-28)
[12]. C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, (Macmillian Publishing Co. Inc., New York, 1977) p. 179.