Sermons
"Create in Me a Clean Heart."
As the psalmist cries out:
Create in me a clean heart O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
It's all about plaque:
plaque in our arteries
-plaque on our teeth
-plaque in our souls.
Plaque
-that build up of bacteria
that clogs our blood vessels,
nestles between our molars,
and silts across our souls.
Plaque that blocks the blood,
denies tissue air,
decays our teeth
and stultifies our soul.
Plaque.
As my dentist Lester Appell describes it
-it's the snowflake effect
-all you need
is a few small bits to stick
and then
it roughs up the surface
just enough
for a few more to stick
and the next thing you know
-the crevice between your teeth,
the gap
where the tooth brush bristles
once peeked through
where the tip of your tongue used to explore
is no longer a space,
no longer a rough opening,
but a smoothed over casing
-a hard shell protecting the bacteria
-enabling it
to burrow down under those old fillings,
beneath the gum line
-into the dark, moist recesses of our mouth.
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your loving kindness;
in your great compassion blot out my offenses.
It's all about plaque
-it's all about sin
-it's all about our souls.
How's that for a day brightener?
Wash me through and through from my wickedness
and cleanse me from my sin.
Jewish theologian and philosopher, Martin Buber, in his book The Way of
Man:
According to the Teaching of Hasidism tells the following story. It begins:
"Where is the dwelling of God?"
This is the question
with which the Rabbi of Kotzk
surprised
a number of learned men
who happened to be visiting him.
[Where is the dwelling of God?]
They laughed at him:
'What a thing to ask!
Is not the whole world
full of God's glory?'
Then he answered his own question:
God dwells
Wherever man [humanity] lets him in.'
This is the ultimate purpose:
to let God in.
But we can let God in
only where we really stand,
where we live,
where we live a true life.
(Martin Buber, 1966 The Way of Man: According to the Teaching of Hasidism.pp40-41.)
According to Buber and to the psalmist
-we connect with God
-have a holy moment-a sacred time-
when we create a space for God in our lives.
But not just any old space
-but a space where we really stand,
where we live, where we live a true life.
A true life
is one that has been
flossed of our iniquities;
a place that has been
brushed clean of our transgressions.
That comes from
Prayer, conversation and confession
from
personal accounting and introspection
by ourselves and perhaps with another person.
The reality is
that for some of us
-many even of us-
are helped by having a conversation
with another trusted individual.
When someone we trust
can
gently,
accurately
and pastorally
name our flaws
can be incredibly illuminating.
It's also helpful
to have an extra set of eyes
to enable us to distinguish
from actual sin-and
the world's prejudice.
For there are times
when we fall short of perfection
and confuse that failing
with a legitimate sin.
Not being perfect
and sinning
are two different life events.
An extra set of
Impartial, objective eyes
can enable us to sort out
our ways, the world's ways and God's ways.
Martin Buber writes,
If we maintain holy intercourse
with the little world entrusted to us,
if we help
the holy spiritual substance
to accomplish itself
in that section of Creation in which we are living,
then we are establishing,
in this our place,
a dwelling for the Divine Presence.(Buber)
Then it is God who dwells
in the cracks and crevices of our lives-
that fluoride fortifying ourselves from decay.
Create in me a clean heart of God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
Caste me not away from your presence
And take not your holy
Spirit from me.
This lent,
may we make space
for God in our lives.
May we chip away
at the plaque t
hat blocks and obscures
the nooks and crannies where God may dwell. This lent-may we make space
for God to nestle into
the crevices of our lives.
Open our lips O lord
And our mouths shall proclaim your praise.
Amen.