Straight from the Heart
Proverbs 4:23; Jeremiah 17:9; Matthew 15:10-20
This morning’s focus is upon the human heart, a very popular subject in music and poetry. There are hundreds of songs about the heart! Here are just a few which may keep you humming some tunes throughout this morning’s sermon. “With A Song in My Heart”, from the 1929 musical, Spring is Here. “With a song in my heart, I behold your adorable face.” “Your Cheatin’ Heart”, by Hank Williams. “Your cheatin' heart will make you weep. You'll cry and cry and try to sleep.” Or how about the rock punk song by Blondie in the late 1970s. “Once I had a love, and it was a gas. Soon turned out, had a heart of glass.”
Playwrights, poets and theologians have focused on the heart over the centuries as well. 15th-century Protestant church reformer Martin Luther (1483-1546) wrote, “I am more afraid of my own heart than of the pope and all his cardinals.” The beloved bard himself, 16th-century playwright William Shakespeare (1564-1616), in his “Sonnet #46,” was torn between his desire for beauty and his need for love. In part, he wrote, “Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war, how to divide the conquest of thy sight. Mine eye my heart thy pictures sight would bar, my heart the freedom of that right…” 19th-century Irish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) wrote, “The heart was made to be broken.” Current American author Scott Westerfield wrote, “The human heart is a strange vessel. Love and hatred can exist side by side.”
Most of us think of our hearts as the place where deep feelings and emotions live. For example, when I first saw my future wife, Paula, I felt something physically stir in my heart. My heart aches when a friend, family member, or congregant dies. This idea of the heart being the keeper of our deep feelings has existed for thousands of years. We can see that belief demonstrated in both passages from Hebrew scripture this morning.
In Hebrew, the heart is called "lev” (לֵב), representing the center of thought, emotion, will, and moral decision-making. Lev (לֵב) literally means "heart," but its meaning extends far beyond the physical organ. It encompasses the mind, will, emotions, and inner self, serving as the seat of understanding, wisdom, and moral discernment. (Strong's Hebrew Concordance)
There are over fifty passages in Scripture that speak about the heart. Today, fortunately for you, we will focus on only three, so the sermon is not two hours long. I don’t want to make your hearts sad, bored, or yearning for the sermon to end.
Let’s begin with the brief passage from Proverbs 4:23. “Keep your heart, with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.” The book was attributed to King Solomon, but is more likely a later collection of wisdom sayings compiled by sages in the 6th century BC. This passage teaches that we must vigilantly guard our hearts, because our thoughts, feelings, and intentions shape our actions and ultimately determine the course of our lives. Proverbs 4:23 emphasizes that everything we do originates from the heart, making it crucial to protect and cultivate it with care.
What are some practical ways to keep vigilance over our hearts?
- Be careful what you feed your heart. What your eyes see and ears hear affects what then flows from your heart. For example, when I watch the evening news, I limit my access. Although I occasionally watch one of my favorite pundits discuss the day's politics, I do not make those shows part of my daily viewing. I read through Ashland.news and check in with NPR regularly in the morning. I watch a 5:30 national news broadcast, and try to watch the 6 pm local news when able. I want to be informed, but not cause my heart to feel too heavy or angst-ridden. To balance things out, I also ask my Alexa to play my favorite music when I get home. I view a YouTube video on the Buffalo Bills, Medieval music, ancient history and archeology, 70s rock, or old video gaming, so that my heart also sings😉
- Work your heart out by serving others. My heart is in better physical shape than it was because I regularly walk the Oak Knoll Golf Course with my dog and consistently play golf on my day off. Volunteering at a Habitat build day, bringing food donations to our Little Free Pantry, helping out at the Ashland Community Food Bank, or sharing God’s love and compassion in some other way will build your heart muscles of hope and justice.
- Feed your heart with good, loving things. Being regularly connected to worship is a good way to feed your heart. Go through the 57-plus passages that speak about the heart in the Bible. You can easily generate a list on a computer search engine. Focus on your heart in prayer, asking for vigilance, so that what flows from it is full of God’s hope and compassion. Focus your heart on good intentions of love, truth, and gratitude. Careful attention to the spiritual condition of your heart is foundational for living a life of purpose, peace, and hope.
Next comes our passage from Jeremiah. The prophet Jeremiah lived in the 7th century BC during a time of great upheaval for the Hebrew people. The Assyrians were no longer the dominant force in the region, but the Babylonians quickly took their place. Eventually, thousands of Israelites were taken into captivity to Babylon. Jeremiah stayed in what was left of Jerusalem, speaking words of hope to those who remained. Jeremiah saw three kings, led by pride in their hearts, die in battle rather than be led by God.
In a poem early on in his book, Jeremiah writes of his frustration over these kings, mere mortals who make flesh their strength, and whose hearts turn away from God. After contrasting these kings with those who trust in God, he writes, “The heart is devious above all else; it is perverse-who can understand it?” You can hear Jeremiah’s frustration with those who tried to lead the people, but whose hearts led them astray. What can this passage teach us this morning?
Jeremiah 17:9 teaches that the human heart is inherently devious and perverse, beyond our own understanding, highlighting the need for God’s guidance and transformation.
Let’s take a closer look at the two descriptive words about the heart in this passage. The word Devious-עָקֹ֥ב (okbaw)is an Adjective, meaning “insidious, deceitful, crooked,” literally “tracked by footprints.” Perverse-וְאָנֻ֣שׁ (awnash) is a Verb meaning “desperately wicked, frail, incurable.”(Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance)
If the heart is the core of human nature, where intentions, motives, and moral choices originate, above all else, Jeremiah says that core is led above all else by deceit and is incurable. This suggests that there is a corrupt spirit within the human heart, rooted in its very nature. And you will find the actions of that heart in tracking the footprints that have been stomped all over people and creation. Our hearts can mislead us, rationalize wrongdoing, and hide true motives from ourselves.
This passage from the prophet underscores the need for divine intervention. Seeing our hearts as they truly are aligned calls for humility and self-awareness. Once we see our hearts in this way, we can seek God’s guidance, allowing God to create a heart aligned with God’s love and holiness.
Our final passage for consideration this morning comes from Matthew’s gospel. Jesus addresses the crowd after a confrontation with Pharisees over ceremonial handwashing (vv. 1–9). The key issue here is that the Pharisees equated external rituals with true holiness. Jesus shifts the conversation. He moves the focus from external purity to internal reality.
The core teaching here from Jesus is, it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.”
The word, Defile in Greek, koinow koinow, means “to pollute.” What pollutes human beings isn’t a bag of chips or hot link. Jesus says being holy isn’t about dietary laws or ritual washing, but moral and spiritual corruption. External contact does not by itself corrupt the soul. However, internal overflow reveals the heart.
This morning, Jesus calls us to stop measuring holiness by appearances, and begin measuring it by the fruit of our words and actions.
So, I invite all of us to ponder this question. The mouth is the microphone of the heart. If someone could only know us by our words, what would they believe about our hearts?
In closing, what will you put into your hearts this week?
Rocks-
Hate- Will you put hate in your heart this week? Will you hate others because of their words and actions? American poet and playwright Archibald MacLeish wrote, “A person who lives not by what they love, but by what they hate, is sick.”
Fear- Will you put fear in your heart this week? In one of the Star Wars movies, Yoda said, "Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” Yoda was right.
Envy- Will you put envy in your heart this week? The famous Greek philosopher Socrates (470 BC-399) wrote, “Envy is the ulcer of the soul.”
Anger- Will you put anger in your heart this week? American relationship consultant and author Barbara De Angelis wrote, “The more anger towards the past you carry in your heart, the less capable you are of loving in the present.”
Empty heart bag.
What if, instead, we filled our hearts with the following?
Faith- American Trappist monk and theologian Thomas Merton (1915-1968) wrote, “Ultimately, faith is the only key to the universe. The final meaning of human existence, and the answers to the questions on which all our happiness depends cannot be found in any other way.”
Hope-American poet Emily Dickinson (1830-66) wrote, “Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul - and sings the tunes without the words - and never stops at all.”
Love- The Apostle Paul wrote, “and now faith, hope and love abide, these three. But the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:13)
Peace-Filling our hearts with faith, hope, and love can bring us peace. This peace is other- other than what the world around us calls peace. Philippians 4:7 tells us, “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
May God bless us and be with us as we seek good things to place in our hearts. Alleluia. Amen.
