Easter 5—July 1, 2023
INTRODUCTION
We all know how a troubled heart in the chest negatively affects our physical Health.
Troubled hearts , in our spiritual bodies also affect our spiritual health.
Both hearts are known to be located at center places in our lives. Our spiritual hearts are so central in our spiritual lives that often we use heart and soul interchangeably…
Both of our hearts require attentionand suffer from neglect. We don’t have to see either of them to be able to experience their health .
Both hearts don’t hesitate to let us know when they are out of kelter. Heart Trouble, physical or Spiritual , doesn’t normally ring the doorbelbefore
entering! …but,
I. Hearts do predictably get cluttered, or dusty…brittle, dry, even cracked sometimes
Jesus, with his 20-20 spiritual vision could recognize a Troubled Heart a mile away … Remember Zacchaeus?…. The little man on the high branch of the Sycamore tree?
Jesus picked him out of a large crowd, straining to hear Jesus from quite a distance. Jesus noticed right away that Zaccheaus had a serious case of heart trouble from the guilt he felt scamming folks with his tax collecting.
The disciples were up-close and personal,when Jesus took note of the their Heart Trouble at the Last Supper,… no need for 20-20 vision then.
His friends had had good reason to be troubled,… but calling the dis-ease ,by name, out-loud, didn’t work like a magic wand to whisk the Trouble away.
Uninvited ttroubles usually have a hard time leaving by their own will!
Radar clearly predicted tornados in the Mississippi Delta and acknowledged the presence of Trouble in the form danger. The towns folk in Rolling Fork had good reason to have troubled hearts, but the TV forecasters, just telling
folks NOT to be troubled, didn’t work like a magic wand to whisk the trouble away either .
Uninvited troubles usually have a hard time leaving by their own will!
…….Any easier than when Pastor Scott compassionately told the church that the Landrums were moving to SC. You all had good greason to have troubled hearts, but with all the confidence that you must have had in the strength of your community of faith, Scott’s compassion couldn’t work like a magic wand to whisk the trouble away.
Uninvited troubles usually have a hard time leaving by their own will !
…but keep in mind,
II. Troubled Hearts are not permanent conditions, which are double-stitched to the linings of our hearts!
Even though…Jesus DID name the Trouble to his friends….and, He DID promise to leave them with Dwelling Places…. And, He DID tell them that after he slipped out of his skin and was reborn into transformed presences they Could find Him in those places,The problem was ….he DIDN’T give them a marked Google map with where these Dwelling Places would be. BUT Even without a map, they finally found those places!…like,
Mary , who had a troubled heart on Easter morning. She met a Gardner near Jesus’ tomb. He became a Dwelling Place for her because she recognized the Christ in that man. The Gardner,didn’t look like Jesus, but recognized Jesus presece in him.
People can be Dwelling Places for us too! We just have to remind ourselves to recognize the Christ in folks…
The 11 disciples had troubled hearts too, even after Easter day. They were huddled in a room, biting their nails for fear of what the crowds would do to them. Then, as quick as a wink, Jesus, like a misty vapor ,came through a locked door passing them his peace, like a magic eraser erasing their Troubles . ( John 20:24 ff ) .
Gathering together can be our Dwelling Places too . We just have to remind ourselves to expect Jesus to be present among us.
Stephen surely had a troubled heart when his vulnerable body was being martyred. He experienced the presence of God in a vision as his Dwelling Place ….draining all Trouble from his heart, replacing that presence with Peace.
Visons can be our Dwelling Places. We just have to remind ourselves to notice that rainbows and dreams are like visions and might be where God is intersecting our lives.
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III. Even if Dwelling Places are readily available, they are very personal to the Troubles we are experiencing at the time.
- Just the Words of the 23rd Psalm at a funeral can be a Dwelling Place for a grieving family.
- Just a compassionate note from my sister, when her friend’s husband is admitted to a dementia unit can be a Dwelling Place for a lonely wife.
- Just simply lying in a bed of pine straw in the woods, watching the sway of the Pine Trees in the wind can be a Dwelling Place for a questioning teenager.
Decades ago, a friend gifted me by telling me about one of her Dwelling Places.
A Catholic sister at St Richards asked me, “ Do you pray mostly in words?”
I asked her
“Why do you ask?”She said
” I just notice you talk a lot and assumed that you talk a lot to God.”I asked, “ What’s the alternative? “
She responded
“Some of the best prayers I pray are without words at all,just being still, giving God a CHANCE to speak to me… or even better…”
she said, “ just sitting still with God, neither of us speaking.
I think that God might just appreciate my company, without any distractions,….some times”
Silence is definitely a welcoming DWELLING PLACE!
All of these thin. veiled places, where a presence of living God is almost close enough to touch, are as plentiful as we can imagine
Conclusion
DO NOT LET OUR HEARTS BE TROUBLED , GOD HAS PREPARED DWELLING PLACES FOR US…
We are close to a Dwelling Place right now! the Meal, Communion truly is a Sacramentally nourishing Dwelling Place