Heart speaks to heart:John Henry Newman

From Wellington Cathedral of St Paul

Heart speaks to heart: John Henry Newman

• Psalm 79:1-9
• Jeremiah 8:18-9:1
• I Timothy 2:1-7
• Luke 16:1-13

19 September am 2010 Rev. Dr. Raymond Pelly Priest Associate http://wellingtoncathedral.org.nz/index.php/Sermons

Today in England Pope Benedict XVI will declare John Henry Newman a saint of the Catholic Church. To mark the occasion there is a quote from Newman on the front of our Today Sheet. Also, famously, when Newman, Anglican convert to Catholicism, became a Cardinal, he chose as his motto, the words ‘Heart Speaks to Heart’ – the guiding light of my sermon this morning. ‘Heart Speaks to Heart’ - this approach to faith is large enough, spacious enough, to embrace many ways into the mystery of God. Thus, in his great book, An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent, Newman says, ‘We need a clue into the labyrinth which is to lead us to God … God has made this path of thought rugged and circuitous above other investigations, that the very discipline inflicted on our minds in finding God may mould them in true devotion to God when God is found.’

‘Heart Speaks to Heart’ and the ‘labyrinth’ of the many ways that lead us to God: what light does that shed on our readings this morning? First, it allows us to acknowledge their diversity. In the Psalm we hear a voice raised up, pleading, ‘How long, O Lord?’ Jeremiah, for his part, is torn by the hurt of his people. He longs for the balm that will heal them. In I Timothy we enter the world of ‘blessed normality’ where rulers can be trusted and faith reduced to a simple formula. The Gospel, finally, is about a man in crisis. What opportunities are open up for him? What is his life all about anyway?

The question then for us is this. As we look to ourselves, which of these readings speaks to us?

Imagine you are looking at pictures in an exhibition. You walk around until one picture in particular resonates for you, speaks to you. If you are wise, you will sit down on a bench, let the conversation between you and the work of art develop until it becomes truly illuminating. It’s much the same with readings from Scripture. Let’s see how that works out.

The cry, ‘How long, O Lord?’ and the robust hassling with God – are not these the actions of a heart that cares? This is not the voice of resignation, the shrug of the shoulders, a ‘go with the flow’ mentality that thinks things just ‘happen’, that everything is beyond our control. Rather, we are hearing the voice that is heard in every generation – in illness, war, oppression, starvation … the miners in Chile – whose word from the heart is just this: How long, O Lord? And not only that, people who are working to find ways out of whatever seeks to destroy them – up to and including hassling with God. How long? Is this your cry this morning, for whatever reason?

Moving on to Jeremiah, we find a prophet who in his heart of hearts is deeply empathetic. ‘For the hurt of my people, I am hurt’, words that echo Isaiah’s listening to the God who declares, ‘In all their afflictions, I was afflicted’ (63:9). Out of this anguish – anguish that echoes the anguished heart of God – Jeremiah looks for the healing of a shattered people being led into exile. ‘Is there no balm in Gilead?’ – balm here invoking the word ‘salve’ or ointment, from which we get our word ‘salvation’. Is there no healing of the wounds, physical or psychic, that we have sustained? That is Jeremiah’s question. Is it also yours? For it is no secret that all of us are in some way wounded, broken people – unless we are singularly lacking in self-awareness – people with scars that will stay with us to our dying day. ‘Is there no healing in Gilead?’ And if we make bold to direct this question to God, the source of all healing, we should know that any healing that is from God always comes with a task, a calling. You too can become the healer of others afflicted in whatever way you were afflicted!

And what of the Epistle to Timothy? I characterized it as descriptive of ‘blessed normality’. The aim is that ‘all may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity’. Isn’t this what we all want, that many people worldwide so terribly lack? This is a world where we can rely on, trust, and pray for rulers, people in authority generally. It’s a world where faith can be reduced to a simple formula, ‘There is one God, there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human, who gave himself a ransom for all’. This early Christian creed is perhaps all we need to know.

Yes indeed, we do need people we can love and trust; a faith we can rely on; a national life that we can be proud of and contribute to. This may be our way of living the life of a citizen of this country as a person of faith, a person willing to get into the hard work of governance or administration. Without people of this integrity and dedication, things soon go wrong or fall apart. These too are people that care – Wellington at its best, we could say!

The Gospel, finally, is one that can – if we don’t look out – start all sorts of hares. At the outset, then, it has to be said this is not primarily about money and its dangers. In its original form it was a story told by Jesus – perhaps based on a well-known incident – that highlights the crisis in human affairs provoked by the coming (or in-breaking) of the kingdom of God, of God’s new order of justice and love.

The parable, as I said earlier, is in fact about a man in crisis. His world has crumbled and it was all his own fault. He has just hit the bottom. So does he too crumble, give up, go limp? No; he takes very determined and shrewd action; digs himself out of the hole. It’s this that Jesus commends. ‘The master commended the unjust steward’. The message is clear: every crisis can also be seen as a God-given opportunity. It might provoke us to ask: what is my life about anyway? Christchurch, we don’t need reminding, has just been thrown into crisis by an earthquake. For many people this has been the opportunity to show that they care. Instances of this flood in. For others it’s been the chance to get into thieving , cheating or looting.

Via the parable, then, the voice of Jesus can reach us again this morning. Life is indeed full of crises and contingencies. Are you in one now? In every next demanding situation, are you the first to love? Are you the one who is resilient, innovative, caring? Or not? Once again, heart speaks to heart: the heart of Jesus to my heart, the heart of this man who spoke and acted from the caring heart of God.

All or any of this can speak to us. ‘How long, O Lord?’; ‘Is there no balm in Gilead?’; ‘O for a quiet and peaceable life’; and, ‘the master commended the unjust steward’. Each or any of these can be the means by which ‘heart speaks to heart’. These are the typical affirmations of people of faith, people whose credo is, ‘I am, I care’, words that centre on (and draw strength from) the all-embracing, ‘I am, I care’ of God. These are people, hopefully us, who say, ‘I as I breathe, I pray; as my heart beats, I care’; people, in other words, who – in God – dare to be fully alive. Let’s be those sorts of people today, take all this to heart.

To end, the words of John Henry Newman on the Today Sheet.

Resolve to be no longer beguiled by ‘shadows of religion’, by words, or by disputings, or by notions, or by high professions, or by excuses, or by the world’s promises or threats. Pray God to give you what Scripture calls ‘an honest and a good heart’, or ‘a perfect heart’, and, without waiting, begin at once to obey our God with the best heart you have.

‘Heart speaks to heart’ [Cor ad cor loquitur]