The Music of Our Hearts

Readings for the Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost (Year B – Track 1 – Proper 19)

Proverbs 1:20-33
Psalm 19
James 3:1-12
Mark 8:27-38

This sermon was preached at Christ Episcopal Church in Eureka CA on Sunday September 15, 2024.

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Strength and our Freedom. Amen.

Yihyu l’ratzon imrey-fi, v’hegyon libi l’faneka Adonai tzoori v’goali

[Literal translation: May they be pleasing the words of my mouth and the musings of my heart before you, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.]

These are the last words of today’s psalm – Psalm 19 – in the original Hebrew language, words that I have been praying at the beginning of my sermons for about 15 years now. It’s also a prayer that I remember praying at the beginning of each school day in junior high with my classmates at a small Pentecostal church school that met in a barn in upstate New York. We would stand up each morning and pray, “May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.” I modify the prayer here to include the meditations of all our hearts because that really is my prayer for our time together here: that we please God, that we glorify God, with the prayers of our mouths and the thoughts of our hearts. Today’s Collect reiterates this prayer, “O God, because without you we are not able to please you, mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”

We pray something similar each Sunday in the Collect for Purity when we ask God to “cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.” Remember, people in ancient times believed that our thoughts and our personalities resided not in our heads, but in our hearts. A couple Sundays ago, Jesus himself spoke of evil thoughts coming from within our hearts (Mark 7:21).

In today’s Psalms, the Hebrew word for “meditations” (higayon) is elsewhere translated as whispers or musings or even music. It is associated with the sound of the harp or lyre (kinnor). [Psalm 92:3]. So, we pray that the music of our hearts be pleasing to the Lord. I love this because each of your hearts are musing with a kind of music right now as you listen (or don’t listen) to the words of Scripture and the words of my mouth, and as your thoughts wander as they are wont to do. I’ve been preaching long enough to know that people in the pews don’t necessarily hang on every single word that is spoken from the pulpit. I’ve also listened to many sermons with great focus (or with the intent to have great focus) and still find that my mind can wander, and that’s ok. The prayer is prayed so that if and when our minds wander, they wander in a way that is pleasing to the Lord. May the Holy Spirit direct our hearts so they may please the Lord.

Last Sunday, before preaching, Pastor Karen prayed, “Compassionate God, may you open our hearts and minds to hear whatever word you have for each of us,” and then she proceeded to pray the words of Psalm 19:14. God has a word for each of us today as we open our hearts to the sacred Scriptures, the ancient liturgy, the songs, the prayers, and of course the holy sacrament. Wisdom cries out every time we read from the sacred Scriptures. Today that is made most explicit in our reading from Proverbs as “Lady Wisdom goes out in the streets and shouts, ‘How long will you ignore me? Look, I’m ready to pour out my spirit on you; I’m ready to tell you all I know.’” (Proverbs 1:20). And every time the words of the Gospel are proclaimed, may we always listen with an open heart, ready to be transformed. Albert Einstein said, “I am a Jew, but I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene…No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No [other text] is filled with such life.” Said the most gifted mind of the 20^th century. This is why so many of the great saints throughout history have been transformed not so much by hearing sermons but by listening to the Scriptures read during worship: St. Anthony of Egypt, St. Francis of Assisi, and even John Wesley, whose heart was strangely warmed while listening to someone read Luther’s commentary on the Book of Romans. May the music of our hearts be open and be pleasing to the Lord.

After the service today, ask yourself, “What is one thing that spoke to me today? What word or phrase or image from the service plucked the strings of my heart?” It could be from the prayers, the readings, the sermon, the songs, the silence, or even the light shining through the windows or the light shining on the cross. Whatever it is, receive that as God’s message for you. Last Sunday at St. Paul’s in Crescent City, one of the congregants said that they felt the Holy Spirit’s presence most powerfully when we said together the words of the Nicene Creed. She said she felt the Holy Spirit fill the church like a luminous and refreshing fog.

We preachers like to think that God uses our words to speak into the hearts and lives of people. That’s true but it often happens in ways we don’t expect, ways that keep us humble. One day, a parishioner approached one of my clergy colleagues at a different church and told him that his life was changed when he heard my colleague say in his sermon, “It is time for us to turn the page.” My friend told me that he never actually said those words in his sermon. He said there was a moment when he lost his place in his manuscript and said, “Oops, I forgot to turn the page.” And those happened to be the words of the sermon that changed the life of the man listening with an open heart.

So, that is my challenge and invitation for you. Listen with an open heart. Listen with the ears of your heart to at least one thing that God is speaking to you today. Pay attention to who the preacher says Jesus is, but pay more attention to Jesus himself when he asks you today, right now, “Who do you say that I am?” What parts of you need to be called out by Jesus as “Satan,” the voices of judgment and accusation and condemnation within us? In what ways have you used your tongue as fire to burn people rather than warm them up? In what ways do you need to deny yourself and take up your cross? In what ways have you forfeited your very life in exchange for the world? And how have you been ashamed of Jesus and his words? Let the Word of God speak directly to you today.

Whatever the music of your heart may be today, right now and throughout the service, may it be pleasing to the Lord who is your Rock, your strong foundation, and your Redeemer, your true freedom. Amen.

Final Blessing inspired by the original Hebrew of Psalm 19

May the words of your mouth and the music of your heart be pleasing before God, your strong foundation and your true freedom. Amen