This sermon was preached at Glenwood and Canoe Ridge Lutheran Churches, Decorah, Iowa on March 3, 2019. It’s based on Jeremiah 17:5-10 and Luke 9:28-36. If you’d prefer to listen to it, find it at https://soundcloud.com/stacey-nalean-carlson/.
Jeremiah 17:5-10
5Thus says the Lord: Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals and make mere flesh their strength, whose hearts turn away from the Lord. 6They shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when relief comes. They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land.
7Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. 8They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit.
9The heart is devious above all else; it is perverse—who can understand it? 10I the Lord test the mind and search the heart, to give to all according to their ways, according to the fruit of their doings.
Luke 9:28-36
28Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. 29And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. 30Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. 31They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. 32Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. 33Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah”—not knowing what he said.
34While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. 35Then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!” 36When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.
Last year, with Ash Wednesday falling on Valentine’s Day, there was some terrific humor floating around. I saw one drawing that included several Valentines and a few candy conversation hearts. Those hearts were the best: mea culpa (my fault), repent, and oops. I think the prophet Jeremiah would have approved.
The heart is devious above all else; it is perverse—who can understand it? This is the word of the Lord, spoken through Jeremiah to a people whose hearts had turned away from their God. The word translated here as perverse is better translated as desperately sick, incurable. Later in Jeremiah, this same word is used to describe the hurt and the pain of the people. Your hurt is incurable. Your pain is incurable. But I will restore health to you, and your wounds I will heal, says the Lord (Jeremiah 30:12, 17).
The word translated as devious is used only three times in scripture, most famously in that beautiful promise from Isaiah that we hear in the season of Advent, where the word is translated not as devious but as uneven: Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken (Isaiah 40:4-5).
The heart is uneven above all else; it is incurable—who can understand it? It sounds like a rhetorical question. God, throwing God’s arms up in the air in defeat and disillusionment: this human heart, who can understand it? It refuses my love. It doesn’t trust me. It’s afraid and anxious, even though I’m right here. Who can understand it? I give up.
Except, it’s not a rhetorical question. And God doesn’t give up. Who can understand the uneven, incurable human heart? I the Lord test the mind and search the heart. I the Lord. I.
God knows my heart, when it whispers insidious lies, when it tells me I’m not enough, that I’m too broken to be whole.
God knows the hearts of the nations, when fear creates threats that aren’t really there, causes hoarding of resources when there’s more than enough to be shared, and makes scapegoats of beloved ones created in God’s image.
God knows your heart, when in its hurt it hurts others, when it just can’t trust God’s goodness, when it leads you to believe that you are anything less than absolutely and unconditionally loved.
Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals and make mere flesh their strength, whose hearts turn away from the Lord. They shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when relief comes. They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land. This isn’t a threat from the God who loves you. This is reality. This is life when deceitful, incurably sick hearts get the best of us.
We’re parched. We think we’re alone. We can’t even see when relief comes. We can’t see the love of God in the love of our family and friends. We can’t see the support that’s all around us. We can’t see the answered prayers and the incredible blessings.
But God sees us.
Who can understand the uneven, incurable human heart? I the Lord test the mind and search the heart. I the Lord. I.
God sees our broken hearts and responds.
Later in Jeremiah, the word of the Lord comes again: I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord; and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart…I will rejoice in doing good to them, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul (Jeremiah 24:7, 32:41).
Our future hope—our present reality—depends not on our hearts, but on God’s heart.
In Jesus, God’s heart broke wide open for all the world. His moment of true glory came not on that mountain where his appearance changed and his clothes became dazzling white, but on the cross, where he demonstrated once and for all that there is no limit to God’s love.
There is a prayer for this day in the church year that asks God to transform us: Holy God, transform us into the likeness of Christ, who renewed our humanity so that we may share in his divinity. On this Transfiguration Sunday, we thank God for transforming us into the likeness of Christ by replacing our incurable hearts with the heart of Christ.
The heart of Christ, dwelling in us, silences the lies of scarcity.
The heart of Christ, dwelling in us, displaces fear with trust.
With the heart of Jesus transforming and renewing us, we are like trees planted by water, sending out our roots by the stream, not fearing when heat comes, not anxious in the year of drought, never ceasing to bear fruit.
In Jesus, we have been given God’s heart—a heart that sees and believes what is true. There is no limit to God’s love. Amen.
*Thanks to Carl Johengen for the Ash Wednesday Valentine’s Day art work posted at https://www.facebook.com.