The Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany

The Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany – February 15, 2004

Jeremiah 17:5-10

How was Valentine’s Day for you yesterday?

When you think about it, Valentine’s Day is the perfect “Hallmark” card holiday. Not too religious, though it has religious roots. Lots of money is spent for cards, candy, dinners, gifts, and especially flowers. My grandfather was a florist, so I know that days like February 14 are especially busy for a florist. And grandpa never complained!

By coincidence, Jeremiah speaks of the heart today. He does not have in mind the lovely red box which candy arrives in for your sweetheart. Jeremiah has the center of our lives and faith in mind.

Is he talking about you and me? You bet he is. “The heart is devious above all else; it is perverse – who can understand it?” That’s what Jeremiah says about his heart, your heart and mine. While we might set aside one day each year to celebrate romantic matters of the heart, the other 364 days we spend trying to figure out what is happening with our hearts.

Our hearts are devious and perverse, says Jeremiah.

Ouch! That hurts a bit. And the hurt deepens some when you begin to think about the truth of these words that address us.

Devious? Me? “No, Jeremiah couldn’t be speaking about me.” Then you remember how Isaac got old and decided it was time to bless Esau, the first born son, with his inheritance. Only Jacob, Esau’s younger twin dresses up and tricks the old man who had failing eyesight.

It was a devious moment in the stories from the book of Genesis. When we read it, we know that we are only a heart beat away from being Jacob and stealing the inheritance. At least we are tempted, aren’t we?

A perverse heart? Me? Look in the dictionary it will tell you that “perverse” is being “obstinately or unreasonably wrong; refusing to do the right, or to admit error; self-willed.” Yikes, do we fit that definition? Are we self-willed?

That is what Jeremiah is getting at as he does the “compare and contrast” in the opening of chapter 17. Jeremiah compares trusting in yourself and trusting in God. When you trust in yourself you are like a shrub in the desert. When your heart turns away from God you are like the struggling little bush that barely grows in the dry ground.

On the other hand, when you turn to God, when you trust God, Jeremiah says you are like a tree planted by a stream, not in the parched lands. Such a tree is full of life, with green leaves and is even drought resistant. It is a tree that bears fruit. That is what it is like for believers, for you, as life brings moments of drought you remain full of life, full of the waters of grace.

And you know that you are full of life because of God’s will being done on a tree. Yes, the cross of our Lord Jesus is the tree that gives life. It is there that forgiveness blossoms and life comes forth from death.

This tree, the cross, is the one always present in the waters of Holy Baptism. There, in baptismal waters, forgiveness brings life to all of us. These waters sustain us in our moments of drought. These waters let us bear fruit. Luther said it well, when each day he awoke he always remembered his baptism, knowing that he thus began the day with forgiveness and clean start.

So, by the tree of the cross we are not “shrubs” barely existing in the parched desert. By the cross we are trees living strong in faith and love by the forgiveness of God. Our hearts are made new by that forgiveness and we do God’s will. The deviousness and perversity of our hearts is cleansed by God, only as it can be, and we are no longer self-willed, but God-willed.

And God is calling you. God calls you to be ambassadors for Christ. This calling to be an ambassador for Christ can be very concrete. God calls you to feed others. Bishop James Mauney is God’s messenger to you as we close the Epiphany season and begin the season of Lent. He wrote a letter to us and asked that we consider Ash Wednesday as time to make an extra gift to the World Hunger Fund to feed others.

We live by grace, so whether you do that or not is your decision. Remember, though, Jesus said to his disciple Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” when the 5,000 were fed. Philip’s answer to our Lord was to say it was impossible. But, trusting God, our Lord Jesus fed the 5,000.

Our Bishop brings the Word of God to us. We are being asked to buy bread for others. Will we trust God? I wonder if we will? Loved by God I wonder if our hearts will love others?

And when we pray today later in worship, “Thy will be done,” will we think about the opportunity we have to follow the example of our Lord Jesus and the encouraging words of our Bishop? Whose will shall we follow? Will the hungry be fed? Amen.

Pastor Robert F. Holley