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| Hearts in Conflict (Mark 7:14-23) |
| Written by Pastor Fausel | |
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Grace, Mercy and Peace to you … Jesus speaks to us in our Gospel today some rather uncomfortable words … He says: “For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” We hear, in that laundry list of evil things … things from the 10 Commandments that speak about our relationship with others… how we often, in many and various ways, sin against our neighbor … and, in the process, against God. The truth is: We don’t like to hear those things about our hearts. At least I don’t. And in regards to that …one of our old Lutheran commentators wrote this about the subject. He said, “The pride of the human heart has driven many a person away from the church to which he professed allegiance, because he resented the plain talk of the Bible regarding the disposition of the human heart.” In other words … people don’t like to hear that they are sinners. And here in our text for today … Jesus doesn’t pull any punches. He speaks very directly about the disposition of the human heart. That it is, by nature, sinful and unclean (or as our translation prefers, defiled). Now … as we Christians know … that sinful condition is what God’s love in Jesus Christ is all about. That even though as we live on this earth… and those evil things DO find their way out of our hearts … Jesus died on the Cross for them all. And that as we stand before God, our hearts have been washed in the blood of the Lamb … they have been forgiven … they have been restored … they have been reconciled to God. God in His grace and mercy forgives us … perfectly. However. Even as those things that come out of the hearts of people are an offense to God, and even as those things have been forgiven under the Cross … they usually are not levied at God directly. No… they most often go directly against the neighbor. And often, that neighbor may be us. Now. Through the Cross of Christ, God forgives perfectly. The problem is: do we? When we are sinned against, do we … always forgive … as we have been forgiven?? Do we … forgive as God does?... perfectly? Let’s just allow, for the sake of discussion, alright… that there could be some improvement? And let’s also make this comparison. Experiencing God, which we did together a couple of years ago … helped us grow in our personal relationships with God … and also helped us see how we as a community of faith also experience His love as we grow in Him as He involves us in the work He is doing all around us. The challenge before us this year, this Fall … is to look at how that vertical dimension, our relationship with God, now enables us to walk with Him in the horizontal direction … that is … in our relationships with one another … in our families … in our church … in our vocation … and in the world. The power in the vertical direction comes from being in an intimate loving relationship with God … made possible through our forgiveness in Jesus Christ. What we’re going to see this Fall is that practicing a God-like forgiveness between one another is the key to having those kinds of intimate relationships person to person … that give Glory to God… Giving Glory to God in such a way that it’s a powerful witness to our faith. Now … We have a video-clip we want us to see. It features a man by the name of Ted Kober … who acknowledged himself to be a Christian, but one who learned a lot about what it means to be a Christian through what happened to him as he just tried to do his work ethically and above board … But, He ran into a conflict We’ll let him tell his story … [Clip Begins…] Pretty powerful testimony to what the power of confession and forgiveness can do … A six-figure dispute … resolved … not in court … not with dueling pistols … but with the Cross… and even in the secular sphere. But what about those other things that just …. Come out of our sinful hearts? Like, those conflicts that begin with misunderstandings? … “Oh, I Thought you said you wanted me to do that, that’s why I did it.” No, you got it all wrong!” What about those differences in taste. Like: “How could you pick that color for the wall … it’s hideous!” What about those conflicts that have their roots in differences in opinion? Like, “How can you support Obama’s health care proposal? I have some real issues with it!” What about those conflicts that arise over limited resources. “But Dad… you told me I could use the car Saturday night!” “Sorry, junior, I have to use it to go to a meeting.” Or how about those tough conflicts that come due to habitual or sinful behaviors … “You said you were going to cut back on your drinking…” “Stay out of it… That’s my business!” Lots of things come out of our mouths … don’t they? And they often reflect what’s going on in hearts that by nature are sinful and unclean. And when they do … conflict is inevitable. How do we deal with it? More importantly, how do we deal with it in a way that gives glory to God. THAT’s what we’ll be taking about … and studying through the Scriptures about … starting Sunday, September 13. We’re excited about this journey the Lord is leading us on. More then. And more each Sunday as together we’ll also be studying this topic together in Bible Class. In Him. Amen. |