St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church, Owings Mills MD
August 20, 2023
Year A, Proper 15: The 12th Sunday after Pentecost
Genesis 45:1-15
Psalm 133
Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32
Matthew 15:10-28
Sacred Hearts
You’ve probably heard of the very popular Roman Catholic devotion to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus – if for no other reason than the Roman Catholic Church over in Reisterstown is named “Sacred Heart.”
In this devotion, Jesus’ sacred heart is viewed as a symbol of God’s overflowing love of humanity – God’s unlimited love for all of us, no matter what.
We know from the gospels that Jesus has a deep concern about our hearts.
Jesus teaches that what is going on in our heart is most important – because it is a quick trip from what is going “in here” to what we actually do “out here.”
And we certainly hear this heart teaching in the first part of today’s gospel lesson.
It’s a familiar scene: a conflict between Jesus and religious leaders, in this case, the Pharisees.
Back in the first century, just like today, Judaism was diverse – there were lots of different groups with various ideas about how best to obey and worship God.
One of those groups was the Pharisees. We don’t actually know that much about them, but it seems they aimed to make everyday life holy by teaching people to take on various religious practices.
In the gospels, the Pharisees are almost always depicted as opponents of Jesus.
Jesus specifically criticizes the Pharisees’ emphasis on religious practices because he sees it as putting unnecessary burdens on already overburdened people. All that is truly necessary is to love God and love neighbor, Jesus teaches.
And, as we heard today, Jesus is skeptical of religious practices because there is the great danger that we will focus too much on the externals – saying and doing the “right things” - while not paying enough attention to what’s going on in our hearts – in our hearts, which are meant to be sacred but are often hardened and defiled by fear, hate, and greed.
Our sacred hearts are meant to be like Jesus’ Sacred Heart – a sign and symbol of God’s overflowing love for everybody, very much including people who are different than us, very much including people we don’t even know.
In the second part of today’s gospel lesson, I think we heard our brother Jesus’ heart grow in love and sacredness.
We’re told that Jesus is in or near Tyre and Sidon, a non-Jewish land, probably an unfamiliar and perhaps uncomfortable place for the Jewish Jesus.
As we heard, It’s there that a Canaanite woman desperately asks Jesus to help her daughter who is “tormented by a demon.”
Surprisingly, at first Jesus seems to ignore her.
And, the disciples, well, they continue their losing streak by being annoyed by her shouting. No compassion there. They ask Jesus to send her away.
And, surprise, Jesus seems to do just that – he dismisses this poor woman pleading for her daughter:
“I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” Jesus says.
But this Canaanite woman, this loving mother, this woman with a sacred heart of her own, she persists with heartbreaking words:
“Lord, help me.”
And then, in one of the most shocking moments in the gospels, a very un-Jesus-like Jesus seems to insult this pleading woman:
“It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”
But the woman responds with an extraordinarily bold comeback:
“Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”
Not everyone would agree with me about this but I believe in this moment, something shifts in Jesus – in this encounter with a pleading, loving, courageous foreign woman, Jesus’ Sacred Heart grows a little bit bigger and holier as he realizes that his mission is bigger than maybe even he had previously recognized.
Jesus’ Sacred Heart is a sign and symbol of God’s overflowing love for everybody – very much including a Canaanite woman willing to spar with God’s Son to save her daughter’s life.
Sacred hearts.
Well, we offer a number of spiritual practices here at St. Thomas’ – from Bible Study to Morning Prayer - but Jesus is clear that those practices only have value if they make our sacred hearts more loving.
Sometimes this may seem to be too difficult, or even impossible.
We don’t have to look far to see people whose hearts are hardened and defiled by fear, anger, and greed – plenty of people in public life, certainly – and, if we’re being honest with ourselves, sometimes our hearts are hardened and defiled, too.
Considering the state of our land and our world, it would be easy to conclude that this “heart work” just isn’t worth it.
And yet, over and over, God offers us examples of sacred hearts shining God’s overflowing love for everybody.
Just a couple of recent examples:
Last Sunday night, Robert Horne, 50 years old, a security guard at the Baltimore Convention Center, was driving on Interstate 395 near the Inner Harbor when he spotted a disabled vehicle stopped by the side of the road.
Mr. Horne – a husband and father – pulled over to offer assistance – not knowing the driver – not knowing what he would encounter but just willing to help.
This was not the first time he had done something like this. While most of us would just keep going and leave it to others whose job it is to help, Robert Horne stepped into the unknown, at great risk to himself, and offered help to a stranger.
Tragically, as you may have seen on the news, another car crashed into the disabled car. The impact sent Robert Horne over the side of the road and into the water below, where he lost his life.
Sacred Hearts.
That same day, a Jesuit priest named Fr. Jim Keenan died, at age 86, after more than 60 years of religious life. He was a very able administrator, and over his long career he led several Jesuit high schools in the Northeast, including serving as President of St. Peter’s Prep in Jersey City when I taught there.
But what all of us will always remember about Jim was his personal care and love for everybody.
He was famous for presiding at countless weddings of former students and at the baptisms of their children and grandchildren. And he was beloved for remembering – and making the time – to call people on significant days – birthdays, wedding anniversaries, the anniversaries of a loved one’s death.
Jim had a deep and booming voice – Prep kids used to liken it to Darth Vader – but his words were gentle.
Jim reached out to the many, many people he had encountered over the years – and that would’ve been enough – but he also reached out to people he had never even met.
Christopher Smith is a young Jesuit here in Baltimore and here’s what he wrote about Jim:
“Every year on January 19, without fail, the little icon indicating I had a new voicemail would pop up on my phone. When I’d listen, the same deep voice would greet me. The tenor of the message was always the same: he’d thank me for my yes to God, assure me of his prayers, and inform me that he had offered mass that day for the repose of the soul of my great-grandmother.
I never met the man. I never even remembered my great-grandmother’s anniversary prior to his yearly mass (because I didn’t even know her). This brother of mine had simply read an article that I wrote once, was touched by it, and remembered me and my family in prayer.”
On the day that Jim Keenan died, he had baptized one final baby – and I can’t think of a more appropriate way for him to conclude his ministry, leave this life, and enter eternity with God.
Sacred hearts.
So, with God’s help, this is what’s possible for us – for our hearts.
God has made our hearts to be sacred – to shine overflowing love into the world - love for the people we know – love for the stranger – love for absolutely everybody.
May it be so.
Amen.
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