Heart Smart

    (whisper):       What does it take to get your attention?
    (yell):        How about a shout!!   
    Sometimes a shout will get our attention, and sometimes a whisper will do it.
    But what ever it takes to get our attention, whether it is a yell or a whisper, the reason for the yell or the whisper is to change our focus.  
    A car horn is an example. If I hear a car horn my attention is immediately refocused on the car that is honking. And this could be a good thing if I had been distracted by a colorful butterfly while walking along toward a crosswalk. Or it could be an annoying thing if the car is just honking to say: “hey look at me!”.
    But whether it is used as a warning, or an annoyance, the fact is: we need car horns.
        Car horns are warnings.
    We need them because life is full of distractions.
    Life is also full of things to focus on.
    We can focus on work, or on family, or on friends, or on church…
        But not all at the same time.
        And so our attention is constantly being pulled in one direction or another.
        And it seems to me that there are more and more things vying for our attention.
    Cell phones and i-phones and texts and emails and on and on…
    One week our attention is on the aftermath of a Tsunami…
    The next week it’s the death of Osama Bin Laden…

    So what gets your attention?
        Does something beautiful get your attention - - or does something ugly?
    In the scripture reading for today from the book of Acts, it is both. It is a combination of both the beautiful and ugly at the same time, which gets the attention of a huge crowd. Jesus was raised, but he was also crucified.
    And he was crucified by - - YOU!
    That’s how Peter ends his sermon.
    And it gets peoples’ attention!
    This reading from Acts is the end of the Pentecost story. We celebrate Pentecost on June 12, and the scripture readings between now and then help us prepare for that celebration of the Holy Spirit. This is the Easter season. So Easter is not just a day, but a season. And in this season, the scripture readings focus on the themes of resurrection, and of Holy Spirit. And the reading for today is the end of the story we will read again on Pentecost Sunday on June 12.
    Jesus had been crucified, and had appeared after that to his disciples.
    He appeared to Thomas.     
    And NOW a large crowd had gathered, and Peter preached.
    Peter preached about the Holy Spirit, and about Jesus resurrection. He said that Jesus had been raised and glorified. And then he ends by saying…”this Jesus, whom YOU crucified”.
     And it got the attention of those gathered.
    It says that when they heard it, they were “cut to the heart”.
    What an amazing expression for something that gets their attention:
        Cut to the heart…
    It suggests that they took this word all the way into their innermost selves.
    They didn’t just think about the crucifixion of Jesus…they connected with it.
        They owned it in their hearts.
        They considered what it meant for their lives.
        They took responsibility for their part in it.
            They were “cut to the heart”.
    In the New Testament, God is made known in the heart.
    The heart is the place where faith takes root…in both mind and emotion.
        In Romans chapter 10 the heart “desires”…
        But in 1 Corinthians 7 it also “decides”…
    Matthew Elliott describes this connection between mind and emotion further in his book “Faithful Feelings”. In the book he suggests that emotions can guide intellect, and that reconnecting mind and emotion is crucial to regaining a Biblical understanding of heart. He writes, “When Christian emotions are not present, or when harmful emotions are pervasive, it is a warning that the belief system which the New Testament presents has not been grasped or valued. When Christians transfer allegiance from this world to the Kingdom of God, their emotions will be transformed”.
    Think about it and ask yourself this:
        When did we separate “head” and “heart”?
        And is it healthy to do so?
        Is it “heart smart”?
            We eat “heart smart” foods - - usually because someone has gotten our
attention- - usually our doctor. 
    But do we listen to our hearts?
    Have we ever been “cut to the heart”?
    When we are…usually we don’t stop there.
        Usually we DO something in response.
    What the disciples DO in the reading from Acts is this:
        They repent.
        And then they devote themselves to one another and to God.
        They break bread together.
        And they sell all their possessions and distribute the money to all in need.
    We know something has gotten their attention - - because of what they do.
    It makes me wonder if what they did got anyone else’s attention.
    It must have, because it says that people kept joining them.
    Have you ever been cut to the heart?
    Have you ever sold all your possessions and given the money away to the needy?
    Has your heart ever burned in your chest when we break bread together here?
    The hearts of the disciples burned after breaking bread. This is reported in the gospel of Luke. Jesus appeared as risen after the crucifixion. But it is reported that he said that some of those who saw him were “slow of heart…to believe”.  And then later after he broke bread with some of them, it says that their “hearts burned within them”. And again, later, just before Jesus ate some fish he asked, “…why do questions arise in your hearts?”
    So their hearts questioned, and feared, and doubted…
    And every time Jesus pointed to the crucifixion, and his suffering.
        Jesus showed his hands and his feet.
        He got their attention focused on the ugly part of his experience…
        And in so doing, it changed their hearts.
        It refocused their attention - - on the beauty - - that emerges out of the ugly.
        And then they went out to get someone else’s!
    The gospel of Luke ends with three references to the heart.
    And the book of Acts begins by referring to the heart, as we have seen.
    Both Luke and Acts are said to have been written by the same person.
        So Luke connected…
            …the story of Jesus in the gospel…
            …to the story of the church in Acts…
                …with the heart.
    It is the heart…that connects the church with Jesus.
    Imagine how it would get the attention of the world, if we kept our hearts focused on God, repentant, Spirit filled, and then we gave what we have to others, after breaking bread together, just like the early church.
    How can - - what we do as a church - - keep our hearts at the center?
    If we do it right it will get people’s attention.
    I remember once asking a friend to use his table saw. As he watched me he started explaining to me how to use the saw. I assured him I knew how to use the saw. He stopped trying to explain, but kept his attention fixed on me in case I did anything dangerous.
    After I finished he said to me: “You remind me of another friend I have who borrowed my saw. He always said, “Yea, yea I know how to use that”.
    What happened to him, I asked?
    He lost a few fingers last time!
    I was glad I had not cut myself that time.
    But it did get my attention.
    At the union of the ugly and the beautiful,,,
        …where mind and emotion come together…
        …God’s heart is waiting…for our attention.