Whenever we read or deal with historical texts, such as the Scriptures, one thing we always have to remember is that the people who wrote them and the people they were written for didn’t think in the same way that we do today. Their understanding of things was different, their attitudes were different, their way of life was different. And so, when we read things in ancient texts, the words don’t necessarily have the same meaning for us as they did to and for the people in the time when those words were written. And one very good example of that is what the Scriptures mean when they speak about the heart.
The heart, obviously, is the organ that pumps blood round the body and keeps us alive. But sometimes when we speak about the heart, and especially the things of the heart, we’re actually talking about emotions and feelings aren’t we. And so, if we have a decision to make and we’re torn between our feelings and our reason, we say; ‘The heart says one thing, the head says another.’ In other words, we feel emotionally drawn to one course of action but our reason and intelligence, those things we associate with the brain, urge us to a different course of action. But for the people of ancient Israel, and other ancient peoples too, that wasn’t the case; for them the heart was the centre of all things, including reason. For them, everything that a person experienced in life entered the heart and it was in the heart that it was analysed, the appropriate response was devised, and from the heart that actions sprang. And when we realise that this is the way the people of ancient times understood the heart, it helps us make proper sense of the fourth thing we find in the list that the Book of Proverbs tells us are hateful to God: hearts that devise wicked plans.
I think we must say that a lot of wickedness does come from the heart, in a sense at least. A lot of the wicked things that people do come from emotional responses to things, from knee-jerk reactions to things. Something happens that upsets us and makes us angry, and we react without thinking. But that’s not what Proverbs really means. What’s hateful to God are heart’s that devise wicked plans, that plan wickedness by careful thought. So, although wickedness that springs from emotional, knee-jerk reactions is still sinful and wrong, what’s hateful to God is deliberate wickedness that’s planned with malice aforethought.
I think that most of the wickedness we’re guilty of is the result of thoughtless, emotional reactions to things that have hurt or upset us, at least I hope it is! But we do also devise wicked plans at times, we might not think we do, but we do, we all do. For example, as Christians, we know that we’re supposed to forgiving, but in reality, how many of us bear grudges? If someone hurts or upsets us, don’t we often have difficulty in letting go of the anger and resentment we feel towards that person? Don’t we often want to take revenge on those people, to pay them back in kind for what they’ve done to us? We might not let our anger and resentment lead us into any concrete action against those people, but how often do we think about doing it and how good it would feel to do it? And what’s that other than our hearts devising wickedness? We might think that to plot revenge is a very different matter to taking revenge, but doesn’t Jesus tell us that the thought is as bad as the action? How else can we make sense of this, for example:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
I think we must assume that cuts both ways and the same applies to women who look at men in that way too!
One way we show the wickedness our hearts are devising is through a changed attitude towards those who’ve hurt us in some way. As Christians, we’re called to love our neighbour as ourselves but, if someone has hurt us, don’t we often treat them differently afterwards, and don’t we do that quite deliberately? We might not do them any harm in return, but we probably won’t want to do them any good either. When we’re in a situation when we could do something for someone who’s done us harm in the past, don’t we often say, “Why should I after what they’ve done to me?” Might we actually enjoy seeing that person in difficulty, enjoy seeing them suffer and do nothing to help because we think what’s happening to them is ‘poetic justice’ for what they’ve done to us, or to others? We might actually say that, and one way we very often do take revenge is through our words. When someone hurts us, don’t we often speak ill of them, and do it quite deliberately?
One very common situation in which we find hearts devising wicked plans is in the workplace. It’s a situation we’ve all come across; people want to get on, they want promotion, and they’re willing to deliberately sabotage the prospects of other people in order to get what they want.
In a book about the Roman Republic that I read a few years ago, I came across this quote, and it’s something I’ve never forgotten because it is so true:
‘High and commanding talent is always viewed with suspicion by the members of a ruling oligarchy, who depend on the maintenance a tame mediocrity for their authority.’
Isn’t this exactly what happens in life? The situation may change but isn’t it so often the case that good, talented people can be held back, side-lined, kept down and even forced out by those in authority simply because they see them as a threat to their own position? Or that they can be deliberately sabotaged by less able colleagues so that they can gain advancement? And don’t we often find it to be the case that those with the ‘gift of the gab’ get on while those who haven’t, don’t? That those who talk a good job are often better thought of and rise higher than those who can actually do a good job? We call it ‘office politics’ and we’ve probably all been involved in it; sometimes as the perpetrator, and at other times as the victim. But it doesn’t only happen in the workplace, it happens in all human institutions where power, authority and prestige are involved and what it always reveals are hearts that devise wicked plans.
It is this deliberately wicked nature of what we do and say that Proverbs is speaking about when it says that hearts that devise wicked plans are hateful to God. Hearts like this are hateful to God because what they reveal is a lack of love for our neighbour, a love of self that’s far greater than our love for our neighbour. And it’s perhaps fitting that today is the day we’ve come to the fourth thing on the list of things hateful to God, because today is Mothering Sunday and so it’s a day when we think very much about love for others.
It’s often said, isn’t it, that there’s no love like a mother’s love, and for most of us that’s probably true. Very few, if any people will ever love us in the way or as much as our mother’s love us or loved us. Of course, mothers may do things we don’t like at times, and quite deliberately at that. But, on the whole, they do that out of love for us. They do things we don’t like simply to stop us from harming ourselves, from physically hurting ourselves, from making poor choices that will lead us into bad ways, bad company, and into trouble and distress through those things. We could say that mothers, most mothers at least, have good hearts, at least towards their children. So today we think about mothers, about our mothers and their love for us, and our love for them. And amongst the mothers we think about today, we also think the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, Mary.
As we read about Mary in Scripture, we often read that, after some significant or troubling event, Mary’s heart is mentioned. We’re told that Mary stored, pondered and treasured these things in her heart. And this goes back to that understanding of the heart as the place that everything in life, all experiences of life, entered into to be analysed and considered so that an appropriate response could be devised, and the right actions would result.
And, as we read Scripture, we can see that, in spite of the often strange and troubling experiences that were poured into Mary’s heart, what sprang from her heart was trust, faithfulness and love.
Mary didn’t always understand or even agree with what her son was doing. When he was a young boy, she told him off for staying behind in the temple in Jerusalem after she and Joseph set off for home. Later, after Jesus’ ministry had begun and great crowds had begun to follow him, she went with his siblings to collect him, perhaps to rescue him from the crowds and the authorities because they thought he was ‘out of his mind’. But as she pondered these things in her heart, she came to trust Jesus, as she’d trusted God when she’d been visited by the archangel Gabriel. We find that trust in the story of the Wedding in Cana. She was faithful to Jesus, she followed him during his earthly ministry and after his Resurrection. And she loved Jesus; she was one of the very few who followed Jesus on the road to Calvary, and she was there at the Cross when he died. That, more than anything else that happened must have been the sword that pierced her soul, but Mary had a good heart that stored, pondered and treasured everything that had happened and, as a result, brought forth good things.
Mary is often spoken of as an example to Christians because of the trust, faithfulness and love she showed towards God and Jesus. But I think we can sum up Mary’s example to us as an example of what it means to have a good heart, a heart that’s right with God rather than hateful to God. There are so many ways we can get this wrong, so many ways we can devise wicked plans in our hearts, even if we don’t always put those plans into action. But let’s try to take Mary’s example to heart by making our hearts more like Mary’s heart. Whatever happens to us, whatever bad experiences we have, whatever wickedness is poured into our hearts by the world and by other people, let’s try to make sure that we don’t make our hearts hateful to God by repaying those things in kind through devising wicked plans in return. Let’s try to make sure our hearts are good hearts that are beloved of God by making sure that they bring forth good things like trust, faithfulness and love.
Amen.
Propers for Lent 4 (Mothering Sunday) 19th March 2023
Entrance Antiphons
Lent 4
Rejoice Jerusalem!
Be glad for her, you who love her; rejoice with her, you who mourned for her,
and you will find contentment at her consoling breasts.
Mothering Sunday
Simeon said to Mary;
This child s destined to be a sign that men will reject; he is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel; and a sword shall pierce your own soul.
The Collects
Lent 4
Merciful Lord,
absolve your people from their offences,
that through your bountiful goodness,
we may all be delivered from the chains of those sins which by our frailty we have
committed;
grant this, heavenly Father,
for Jesus Christ’s sake, our blessed Lord and Saviour,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
Mothering Sunday
God of compassion,
whose Son Jesus Christ, the child of Mary,
shared the life of a home in Nazareth,
and on the cross drew the whole human family to himself:
strengthen us in our daily living,
that in joy and in sorrow,
we may know the power of your presence to bind together and to heal;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
The Readings
Lent 4
Missal (St Mark’s)
1 Samuel 16:1, 6-7, 10-13
Psalm 23
Ephesians 5:8-14
John 9:1-41
RCL (St Gabriel’s)
1 Samuel 16:1-13
Psalm 23
Ephesians 5:8-14
John 9:1-41
Mothering Sunday
Exodus 2:1-10 or 1 Samuel 1:20-28
Psalm 34:11-20 or Psalm 127:1-4
2 Corinthians 1:3-7 or Colossians 3:12-17
Luke 2: 33-35 or John 19:25-27
Parish Church of St Mark Chadderton 