H. Michael Brewer
Crescent Springs Presbyterian
2 April 2006
THE INSCRIBED HEART
Jeremiah 31:31-34
Heart trouble.
According to the prophet Jeremiah, that was his diagnosis of the religious people of his day.
Heart trouble. Jeremiah’s people sometimes managed to keep the rules, but they never managed to
put their hearts into it. For instance, under the leadership of good King Josiah the Jewish people
toppled the idols and tore down the pagan altars. They restored the Temple, and while the Temple
renovations were going on the lost book of the Law was rediscovered in a closet somewhere. For
awhile the people followed the rules again, and things looked good. But then King Josiah was killed
in battle. Without the King to give them orders the people went back to their old ways. The book of the
Law had changed their behavior for a few years, but it hadn’t changed their character.
Let me give another example from Jeremiah’s ministry. The Babylonians are encamped
around the city of Jerusalem. The Jewish people inside the city are frightened and desperate, so they
decide to strike a bargain with the God they have ignored up to now. They say, “O Lord, if you will just
save us from the Babylonians we will change our ways. Really! And to show that we’re ready to follow
your laws, we’re going to release our Jewish slaves. We’re not going to treat our neighbors like
pieces of property anymore.”
So the Jewish slaves were released, and—wonder of wonders!—the Babylonian army packs
up and leaves! But no sooner have the Babylonians marched out of sight, than the well-to-do people
of Jerusalem take back all their slaves. They round up the servants they have just set free, and they
make them slaves again. That one story says it all about the people of Jeremiah’s day.
The Jewish people had heart problems. Even when they did the right thing, their hearts were
never in the right place. This has always been a problem for God’s people, not just Israel, but the
church, too. We have a copy of correspondence from an ancient Christian that points up the problem.
In the 2nd Century a young man was seeking admission to a Christian school and he wrote the
school: “I am in earnest about . . . following Christ. But I am puzzled about worldly things. What must I
forsake?”
Came the reply: “Colored clothes for one thing. Get rid of everything in your wardrobe that is not
white. Stop sleeping on a soft pillow. Sell your musical instruments and don't eat any more white
bread. You cannot, if you are sincere about obeying Christ, take warm baths or shave your beard.” Is it
just me, or does that seem a shallow approach to Christianity, an emphasis on the outside while
ignoring the inside?
Outward religion that settles for following rules and going through the motions while leaving us
unchanged on the inside—that is a sure sign of heart trouble. Jeremiah says it this way: “The sin of
Judah is written with an iron pen; with a diamond point it is engraved on the tablet of their hearts...” (17:
1)
Fortunately God had a plan. “‘Behold, the days are coming,’ says the Lord, ‘when I will make a
new covenant with my people. I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts.’”
A change of heart, that’s what God has promised. No longer just laws out there written on
scrolls or tablets of stone, but God’s purposes written on our very hearts. The graffiti of sin will be
erased and instead the will of God will be inscribed there. This is the Old Testament way of talking
about the Holy Spirit of the Risen Christ who comes to live in us.
Did you ever make a papier mache piñata using a balloon? You blow up a balloon and then you
take strips of newspaper, dip them in flour paste, and you start sticking them on the balloon. You do
several layers like that and let it dry. Then you can puncture the balloon, and the paper will still hold its
shape. The Christian life is something like that. The Spirit of God takes up residence within us and
then our life begins to take shape around that Spirit. The tattered and sagging pieces of who we are
take form around the presence of God within us.
And just like papier mache, you and I take shape slowly as Christians. Piece by piece, a little
here, a little there, but always moving toward God’s vision of who we are meant to be. Now, we can
help that along. In fact, it’s essential that we help that along by making use of the means of grace and
the disciplines that God has given us. By gazing into the mirror of Scripture, by taking part in the
community life of God’s people, by daily reflection and prayer—in such ways we bring our faith from
the outside to the inside.
It’s not so much that prayer and Bible study and participation in church will change us, but
rather that those things open the door for God to change us. Every time we open the Bible or sit down
with God in a quiet place or strengthen our ties to the Body of Christ, then we are putting the pen in
God’s hand, and saying, “Here is my heart. Write what you will.”
And isn’t that the best and most effective way to change a person? If you begin by changing the
heart, then sooner or later everything else will change, too. A friend of mine has written a novel that
she thought was finished. But as she reviewed the book, she decided to change one character. She
said to me, “Changing that one character has changed everything in the book. I’ll have to re-write the
whole thing now!”
Once God changes the writing on our hearts, it changes everything: how we feel about
ourselves and about others, how we see things, how we act and what we do. When God writes on our
hearts, it is the first step in re-writing our whole lives.
There's a story about the artist Rodin, who one day saw a huge, carved crucifix beside a road.
He loved the artwork and insisted on having it for himself. He purchased the cross and arranged to
have it carted back to his house. Unfortunately, it was too big for the building. So he knocked out the
walls, raised the roof, and rebuilt his home around the cross.
This is what Christ invites us to do—to open our hearts to the cross and then to rebuild
everything around that inward transformation. As I said before, this doesn’t happen all at once, but line
by line, and page by page. If it seems slow to you, have faith. God’s promises are secure. Remember
your baptism when Christ marked you and claimed you, when God’s own Spirit came to live in you,
when the hand of God first signed your heart. It may take us years to claim the promises of God. It may
take a lifetime for God to spell out his will within us. But for a heart inscribed by God, a lifetime is not
too long to wait.
Soli Deo Gloria!