Sermon for February 24th, 2013: "The Heart's Desire"

Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18
Psalm 27
Philippians 3:17-4:1
Luke 13:31-35 

All quotations from scripture come from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA, with the exception of the Psalms, which come from The Book of Common Prayer, 1979. Not all scripture passages from the lectionary may be quoted or referenced in a given Sunday's sermon. For more information on the lectionary used in The Episcopal Church, please visit http://www.lectionarypage.net/.

“The Heart’s Desire”

The Rev. Nicholas S. Szobota

February 24, 2013
Christ Church, West River, Maryland

Second Sunday in Lent

Take a moment to ponder the greatest desires of your heart. I imagine that I could ask each person here and get a range of desires. Some might desire a life companion, some security for their family and loved ones, some peace and quiet. If we were to catalog the desires of our nation as a whole, the list might include prosperity, security, and social justice.

Today’s readings deal with the desires of people’s hearts. In the reading from Genesis, Abram tells God that he and his wife Sarai desire a child of their own. They have no biological offspring, and Abram has willed his possessions to one of his slaves. While many people today adopt children and treat them as their own, Abram and others of his time viewed the situation differently. You see, during Abram’s time people did not have a clear sense of the afterlife. They weren’t sure about any concept of heaven or eternal life. When a person died, she or he was dead. That’s it. No more. The way one achieved some sort of immortality or eternal life was through one’s offspring, descendents who would remember the names of their ancestors and keep their memory alive. Part of Abram’s desire for a child comes from a need to be remembered.

God does better than just promising Abram a child. God promises that Abram will have as many descendants as there are stars in the sky. Remember, this was before light pollution, so that would have been a lot of stars for Abram to count! To seal this promise, God asks Abram to sacrifice a heifer, a female goat, a ram, a turtle dove, and a pigeon. The mammals, at least, are valuable animals that could increase Abram’s prosperity by providing him with more livestock. Abram sacrifices some current wealth to show God that he trusts God’s promises for the future.

In today’s gospel reading, Jesus also talks about the desires of his heart. However, he starts by talking about Herod. Herod ruled Galilee in Jesus’ time, but Herod did not truly have a king’s status. Herod had been put in place by the Roman Empire. He lived in a palace, ate well, and partied while the Romans oppressed his people. Jesus calls Herod a fox, because Herod is like an animal that hides in the shadows while larger predators feast on prey. When he sees his chance, he runs out and grabs a bite while can only to cower back in the shadows again. The kings of the Jews were known as lions, and the Lion of Judah is one of Jesus’ nicknames. This may be one reason why C.S. Lewis chose Aslan the Lion as an image for Christ in The Chronicles of Narnia. Jesus insults Herod by calling him a lion and not a fox.

Jesus does not refer to himself as a lion in this story, though. Instead, he compares himself to a hen. I’m no farm boy, but one of my aunts lived in Alabama and had chickens once, and there were some hens on that farm I would not have wanted to mess with. Jesus talks about wanting to gather the people of Jerusalem as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. This represents one of the few times Jesus, or God, has a feminine designation in the Bible. Jesus calls himself a hen, not a rooster, and it’s a wonderful image of the feminine side of God. Jesus says he desires to gather the people to him, but they were not willing. The desires of their hearts have not yet been tuned to the desires of God’s heart.

There is a comic strip on the internet called Coffee with Jesus. Each strip features Jesus, dressed in a business suit according to today’s fashion, having coffee with equally well-dressed friends. A recent strip featured a friend asking Jesus, “Why does it take so long for you to answer my prayers? I’m tired of waiting.” Jesus responds, “The answer will come sooner once you stop assuming it will be yes.” One can have faith in God answering prayers, but one also needs to prepare one’s heart to receive God’s answer.

This Lent, each one of us can practice tuning our hearts to God’s desires. Perhaps this might come in the morning, when we wake up, or drink the morning coffee, or brush our teeth. A simple prayer asking God to turn the desires of our hearts to the desires of God’s heart does the trick. The practice of one day becomes the practice of a week, and then the practice of a week becomes the practice of a month, until the practice of a month becomes the practice of a year, and the practice of a year becomes the practice of a lifetime. God desires us to tune our hearts to God’s heart, but God has patience. May we accept that patience and draw near to the one who seeks to gather us under the wing. Amen.