a united heart

Monday, March 9, 2009

(Ps. 86) Jer. 1:11-19; Rom. 1:1-15; John 4:27-42

And I will declare my judgments against them, for all their evil in forsaking me. They have made offerings to other gods and worshiped the works of their own hands.
(Jer. 1:16)

unite my heart to fear your name.
I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart,
(Ps. 86:11-12)

to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations
(Rom. 1:5)

Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”
(John 4:36-38)


For me, the "uniting" theme in the Scriptures today is that line from the psalm (again, I am not following the daily psalms in the Daily Office), "Unite my heart to fear your name. I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart." Picking up on yesterday's gospel where heard about denying ourselves, truly following, about losing our lives for Jesus and the gospel to save them, I recognize once again the dividedness in my own heart. I have not utterly "forsaken" the Lord (Jer. 1), but I do forsake him in many lesser ways, in trusting in other things (ie. idols), including the "works of my own hands."

I trust that it's because the Spirit dwells within me, because I have been immersed into Jesus Christ, that I desire to have a united, whole heart in loving, serving, and worshiping the Lord; that I desire the maturity of "the obedience of faith" (Rom. 1).

And further, even this truth about co-laboring (Jn. 4) reveals a dividedness of heart. My pride wants to cut myself off from all those who have gone before, all those who are laboring now, and even that the Holy Spirit can do his work without me (! ... cf. Bruce Almighty). A united, whole heart is a heart big enough, open enough, trusting enough to include and receive that great communion of saints whom I need to make it as Christ's disciple. Paul says it this way, "that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine" (Rom. 1:12). This begins with my spouse and moves out from there.

In the end, these longings for a united heart, an undivided heart, only find any resolve at all when I simply offer all my brokeness, all my unintegrated heart to God as the only sacrifice I have to give. Only in surrender to and adoration of him whose heart was broken for us and for our salvation. The wounds that my brokeness caused are the very wounds that heal my dividedness ("our unhappy divisions," 1928 BCP). He receives it, he even delights in it; he holds my heart in his great heart of lovingkindness, and continues the wholeness and healing - his restoration project. Thanks be to God.

16 For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;
you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
(Ps. 51)