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Moving South 12 Inches

Sermon by Rev. Doug Pratt — February 3, 2008
 

The Current Trend: Moving South
I want to talk to you today about “moving south.” It’s quite a trend. Most of us here are living examples of it, as Florida and other so-called “Sunbelt States” have swelled in population in the last decade. Many Americans have left behind the cold climate and the dirty air and the urban and suburban congestion to move—either full-time or for part of their years—to a tropical paradise. Statistically the trend towards “moving south” has been seen in the census that is taken each decade. And that has resulted in a shifting of the political gravity away from the once-dominant states of the northeast and midwest to the south and west.

At the same time that the American populace is shifting south, we are seeing a similar trend in worldwide Christianity. While formerly Christian Europe is now a spiritual “dead zone,” and the church is struggling to hold onto its place in North American society under great pressure from secular forces, the “Global South” of Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa and Asia is seeing an explosion of faith and spiritual energy. It feels as if the Holy Spirit is “moving south” in our lifetimes.

But my intention is not to focus on either of these trends—population migration or spiritual vitality. I want to think about another type of movement. I’ll call it “Moving South 12 Inches.” I refer to the move from the “head” to the “heart.” It’s an inward move that doesn’t require a moving van and boxes. It’s a journey God wants us all to take.

This is perhaps, for many of us here, the most critical step in our entire spiritual journey. Many people among us grew up in Christian homes or attended church regularly as children. Many of us have had a basic intellectual knowledge about the foundational teachings of the church, and have attended worship services regularly for years, to the point where we are very familiar with traditions and rituals.

Moving from the Head to the Heart
And yet our faith remains “up here,” in our head—part of our traditions, part of our customs, something we agree with at the level of the mind. But when our faith moves from the “head” to the “heart,” then the Lord has all of us. And He can do so much more in our lives! Being a Christian becomes so much more than a philosophy of life and a part of being a respectable, upstanding citizen. It becomes a personal relationship, an intimate connection between us and the God of the Universe, who made us, loves us and died to redeem us.

The Meaning of "Heart"
And since words can have different meanings, let me, at the outset, clarify what I am referring to by the word “heart.” Anatomists and medical professionals think of the heart as the organ located in our upper chest cavity that pumps blood through our circulatory system. It is, of course, vital to our survival—and some of us here have experienced the effects when the heart ceases to work as it is designed to do. This is one meaning of “heart”—but it is not the intended scriptural meaning.

Another option: At this time of year, as we approach Valentine’s Day, we will see hearts used to refer to pure, unbridled emotions—such as the emotion of romantic love and attraction. This, too, would not be what Scripture means by heart. Our intellect and our emotions are both important to us, but the heart of a person in Scripture refers to something much deeper.

Today we are thinking about the “heart” in the way the Bible and much of literature and poetry and even psychology use the term: to refer to the inner self, the true person; it refers to the will, the part of us that chooses and acts. The word “heart” in this sense means the very core of your being—who you really are. And it is in that core—that metaphorical or symbolic “heart”—that Jesus Christ wants to dwell.

I also want to clarify that the move from head to heart, those “twelve inches south,” does not have to come in an intense emotional experience, nor does it have to be a “180” U-turn of dramatic conversion. For many people, the move south from head to heart happens more quietly, even inch-by-inch. For some of us, it’s impossible to say exactly when we went from being a Christian in our minds to being a fully-devoted follower of Jesus with all of who we are. Just as each person is unique, God’s work in each of our lives is unique and individual. He leads us along our own path. But the end result is that He wants to lead each of us to an intimate, daily relationship with Him.

A Man Who Made the Journey
There’s a man in scripture who took that journey “twelve inches south.” His name is Job. Perhaps you’ve heard of him. He’s become synonymous with patience, with enduring suffering graciously, and with overcoming great obstacles. And all of those are true. But I want to let you take a peek in the window of Job’s inner life.

This man was, when his story opens in the Bible, a great success. In fact, he seemed to have it all. He was wealthy, a great success in business. He was a pillar of his church and community, respected by all, (and probably elected multiple times to both the City Council and the Session of his church by popular acclamation). Everyone loved and respected Job. He had a beautiful home and a model family: a faithful wife, and lots of kids—now married, with families of their own, and all of them involved in the family business. Job had it all. And just when he should have been settling into a comfortable retirement, the whole roof of his life caved in on him.

He was dealt one blow after another: business failure, then the death of his children, and finally a terrible health crisis. Some of us here have experienced one of those calamities. There are people here who have lost their jobs and had to “hit the pavement” looking for another. There are people here who have had a financial setback and had to declare bankruptcy. There are parents here who have had to bury a son or daughter. There are people here who have faced life-threatening cancer or heart-disease. Any one of these can be devastating. Imagine all of it happening in one day!

Everything that had provided Job’s security and identity were now stripped away. It was just Job, all alone. And at this point, at the very bottom of the deepest valley he had ever traveled, Job turned to the Lord. Oh, he had always believed in God. He knew his theology. But this time it was different. This time Job didn’t just believe in God as an abstract concept or a Deity far up in the heavens. He needed God—and needed Him desperately to be not just “up there” but “down here,” by his side and in his heart. When all his wealth, all his reputation, all his success, and all his good deeds were gone, it was just Job and the Lord. And that’s when Job’s faith became real and personal.

Let me read to you from the final chapter of the Book of Job, which portrays this profound transformation that occurred inside of him, and in his relationship with his Savior and Lord.

Then Job replied to the LORD:
     ²“I know that you can do anything, and no one can stop you. ³You ask, ‘Who is this that questions My wisdom with such ignorance?’ It is I. And I was talking about things I did not understand, things far too wonderful for me.
     ⁴“You said, ‘Listen, and I will speak! I have some questions for you, and you must answer them.’
     ⁵“I had heard about You before, but now I have seen You with my own eyes.”

Job 42:1-5 (New Living Translation)

The key statement of Job’s testimony is verse 5: “I had heard about You before, but now I have seen You with my own eyes.” In other words, his faith has now moved south 12 inches, from his head to his heart. Now it’s really his; now he knows God in an intimate way. He’ll never be the same.

Drawing Closer to God
To this very day God can work in a similar way in the lives of men and women. Like Job, we can get comfortable in our lives, with God as a pleasant component of “the good life.” But when all those other things are stripped away from us, He will remain with us. And that’s why it’s important that we place Him in our hearts.

I don’t know what challenges you’re experiencing in your life right now. And I certainly don’t know what challenges may lie ahead for you or me. It is possible we will have great pain or sorrow or suffering. If or when we experience great loss—we lose our health, or our marriage partner, or our mobility, or our wealth, or even our memory—God will be with us. He will dwell in our hearts, if we will let Him.

And when something painful or disappointing comes to you, please do not turn your back on God or blame Him. The Lord is not punishing you. He wants to use these experiences of loss to draw us closer to Him. He wants to move our faith from our heads to our hearts.

In the Sacrament of Holy Communion we are given the privilege of some private moments with Jesus Christ. He offers to us this meal, the bread and the cup, as reminders that He has offered His whole Self to us. He gave His life for us on the Cross. And He desires to enter into our hearts, the very core of our beings, and live within us forever. As we reflect and pray during the serving of Communion, perhaps this is a time when you want to make that move south 12 inches. Perhaps this is the time for you to invite Him into your heart, just as you take the bread and wine into your body.