[Preached at Luther College Chapel - September 15, 2021]
In July of 2012, astrophysicist Summer Ash underwent open-heart surgery to repair an aortic aneurysm caused by a congenital heart defect known as bicuspid aortic valve disease.
Her successful surgery left her with a healthy heart and a healthy body once again. It also left her with what she refers to as her “bionic” heartbeat. Her heartbeat is so strong now that she can feel her heart thumping against her chest. She can hear it. People who hug her feel their bodies rock in response to it. When she leans her chest against the edge of a table, ripples echo through water glasses. Friends sitting still in a quiet room with her can actually hear it. No stethoscope required. It’s like living in an Edgar Allan Poe story.
Now, doctor after doctor has assured her that her heart is healthy, strong, and doing perfectly what it is supposed to be doing. And yet one quite knows why it is beating so loudly or so strongly.
For Summer, her physical recovery from open-heart surgery has been far easier than dealing with the emotional and psychological repercussions of having an impossibly loud, impossible strong, impossible to ignore heartbeat.
She says, “My heart, the organ that gives me life on a moment to moment basis, lied to me. It violated my trust. When it was in grave danger it sat in silence. Now it’s perfectly healthy and it won’t shut up.” (Heart Wars Trilogy Part 1: The Bionic Heartbeat)
When my heart was in grave danger it sat in silence. Now it’s perfectly healthy and it won’t shut up.
The heart is the center of our body, the life-giving muscle that gives warmth to our extremities and carries oxygen to our brain. It beats in rhythm, keeping time, circulating life through our very being.
In the same way, we speak of the heart when we are trying to express or represent the source and seat of our inner life. The heart is the metaphorical center of our soul, our passion, our deepest longing. When we are speaking our deepest truths, we describe our words as being "heartfelt." When we experience the pain of loss, we talk about having a "broken heart."
The Bible says, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart." God says to Ezekiel, "I will give you a new heart and a new spirit." The Psalmist sings, "Create in me a clean heart, O God.” Jesus says, “Blessed are the pure in heart.” When John Wesley, theologian and founder of Methodism, had a deep experience of God's presence, he described it as feeling his "heart strangely warmed."
One of the challenges of living an integrated, authentic life, is bringing the inner and the outer parts of ourselves into alignment. Letting our deep-seated values and our innermost experiences of faith affect the way we live in the world. Being open to having a change of heart when we are faced with the sufferings of others. Recognizing that sometimes, what we need is not simply some extra spiritual cardiovascular exercise, but that what we need is full-blown open-heart surgery, maybe a full-blown heart transplant, an actual new heart and new spirit, that God talks about with Ezekiel.
This is how we are transformed. And this is how the world continues to be transformed through us and around us.
God seeks to work in us constantly to destroy the evil intentions of our unchecked hearts: our selfishness, our impatience, our greed, our carelessness with one another and our creation; to move away from violence and cruelty, anger, revenge, dishonesty, neglect, wastefulness; to release our grudges, our prejudices, our desire for haphazard justice - "you get what you deserve."
God is always working on our hearts us by the Spirit, so that, like the Grinch who Stole Christmas, we might feel our hearts grow three sizes, transforming us into people who, from the very depths of our being, are loving and gracious, kind, generous, perceptive, helpful; slow to anger, patient, dutiful; careful, peaceful, forgiving, merciful, and compassionate; self-giving, modest, humble, and honest.
I'd be straight-up lying if I were to tell you that this transformation of the heart is anything other than slow and painstaking work. Beautiful work, certainly, but work that takes a lifetime. God is freeing your heart and mine from layers of brokenness and shame, fear and regret. God is breaking down the walls around your hearts so that it can grow and change; so that you can grow and change. God wants your heart to beat through your chest, that every good deed and every good intention might come straight from the word of grace that has been spoken into the center of your being.
Can you hear your own heart? That is the challenge and calling for us. To hear God working in us, as loud as a bionic heartbeat. To live an outer life that reflects the deepest concerns and graces of our inner life. To put up with a heart that won’t shut up, that beats for the sake of the world.
Amen.
Ezekiel 36:24-28
I will take you from the nations, and gather you from all the countries, and bring you into your own land. 25 I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances. 28 Then you shall live in the land that I gave to your ancestors; and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.
——
I will take you from the nations, and gather you from all the countries, and bring you into your own land. 25 I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances. 28 Then you shall live in the land that I gave to your ancestors; and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.
——
In July of 2012, astrophysicist Summer Ash underwent open-heart surgery to repair an aortic aneurysm caused by a congenital heart defect known as bicuspid aortic valve disease.
Her successful surgery left her with a healthy heart and a healthy body once again. It also left her with what she refers to as her “bionic” heartbeat. Her heartbeat is so strong now that she can feel her heart thumping against her chest. She can hear it. People who hug her feel their bodies rock in response to it. When she leans her chest against the edge of a table, ripples echo through water glasses. Friends sitting still in a quiet room with her can actually hear it. No stethoscope required. It’s like living in an Edgar Allan Poe story.
Now, doctor after doctor has assured her that her heart is healthy, strong, and doing perfectly what it is supposed to be doing. And yet one quite knows why it is beating so loudly or so strongly.
For Summer, her physical recovery from open-heart surgery has been far easier than dealing with the emotional and psychological repercussions of having an impossibly loud, impossible strong, impossible to ignore heartbeat.
She says, “My heart, the organ that gives me life on a moment to moment basis, lied to me. It violated my trust. When it was in grave danger it sat in silence. Now it’s perfectly healthy and it won’t shut up.” (Heart Wars Trilogy Part 1: The Bionic Heartbeat)
When my heart was in grave danger it sat in silence. Now it’s perfectly healthy and it won’t shut up.
The heart is the center of our body, the life-giving muscle that gives warmth to our extremities and carries oxygen to our brain. It beats in rhythm, keeping time, circulating life through our very being.
In the same way, we speak of the heart when we are trying to express or represent the source and seat of our inner life. The heart is the metaphorical center of our soul, our passion, our deepest longing. When we are speaking our deepest truths, we describe our words as being "heartfelt." When we experience the pain of loss, we talk about having a "broken heart."
The Bible says, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart." God says to Ezekiel, "I will give you a new heart and a new spirit." The Psalmist sings, "Create in me a clean heart, O God.” Jesus says, “Blessed are the pure in heart.” When John Wesley, theologian and founder of Methodism, had a deep experience of God's presence, he described it as feeling his "heart strangely warmed."
One of the challenges of living an integrated, authentic life, is bringing the inner and the outer parts of ourselves into alignment. Letting our deep-seated values and our innermost experiences of faith affect the way we live in the world. Being open to having a change of heart when we are faced with the sufferings of others. Recognizing that sometimes, what we need is not simply some extra spiritual cardiovascular exercise, but that what we need is full-blown open-heart surgery, maybe a full-blown heart transplant, an actual new heart and new spirit, that God talks about with Ezekiel.
This is how we are transformed. And this is how the world continues to be transformed through us and around us.
God seeks to work in us constantly to destroy the evil intentions of our unchecked hearts: our selfishness, our impatience, our greed, our carelessness with one another and our creation; to move away from violence and cruelty, anger, revenge, dishonesty, neglect, wastefulness; to release our grudges, our prejudices, our desire for haphazard justice - "you get what you deserve."
God is always working on our hearts us by the Spirit, so that, like the Grinch who Stole Christmas, we might feel our hearts grow three sizes, transforming us into people who, from the very depths of our being, are loving and gracious, kind, generous, perceptive, helpful; slow to anger, patient, dutiful; careful, peaceful, forgiving, merciful, and compassionate; self-giving, modest, humble, and honest.
I'd be straight-up lying if I were to tell you that this transformation of the heart is anything other than slow and painstaking work. Beautiful work, certainly, but work that takes a lifetime. God is freeing your heart and mine from layers of brokenness and shame, fear and regret. God is breaking down the walls around your hearts so that it can grow and change; so that you can grow and change. God wants your heart to beat through your chest, that every good deed and every good intention might come straight from the word of grace that has been spoken into the center of your being.
Can you hear your own heart? That is the challenge and calling for us. To hear God working in us, as loud as a bionic heartbeat. To live an outer life that reflects the deepest concerns and graces of our inner life. To put up with a heart that won’t shut up, that beats for the sake of the world.
Amen.