Here’s My Heart. Lord, Take and Seal It

Esther 8:8-10     Acts 1:6-11     Matthew 14:22-36
“Here’s my heart. Lord, take and seal it. Seal it for thy courts above”

Today is part three of a three-part series exploring the themes of the Triennium Youth Conference. While I am tempted to give you a pop quiz on parts 1 and 2, we did have a break last week from the series. I’m not entirely sure that would go well for either of us.

Given that some of you may have missed one of those anyway, I’ll just go ahead and remind you that part 1 was about offering our hearts and being received by God. We talked about the story of a really tall Zacchaeus. Just kidding. We talked about being seen by God and letting love make you vulnerable to the needs of others.

The next week we shared parables about being lost and found. We talked about the way that even though we are prone to wander, there are streams of mercy that never cease searching for us.

Today we are asking God to “take our hearts and seal them.” What’s that mean anyway? Tell me what first comes to mind with the idea of asking God to take your heart?

Those are some good answers, even if some were a little creepy! Now tell me the first thing that comes to mind when I say that something is sealed. What does it mean to be sealed? How do you when something is sealed?

Good thoughts. Yes, when something is sealed, it means the contents are preserved. You can’t open it without breaking the seal, and we might presume that what God has sealed only God can unseal.

Now in the case of the King’s seal in the book of Esther, that was a type of seal that meant that when it was broken things would happen. Lives would be affected – maybe even taken – when that seal was broken because words would be spoken with the King’s authority. It’s important that the King said to Mordechai, “Write it in a way that works for you,” because the last proclamation that could not be undone was when Haman convinced the King to tell everyone they could kill all the Jews and take their stuff. So, on the same day, as that proclamation was to take effect, the new proclamation was that Jews could organize themselves for worship and for personal defense – given that the law of the land also said that anyone that wanted to could kill them and take their stuff. That’s because the King’s seal, and the words it contained, could not be revoked.

Maybe that’s why Peter said so boldly to Jesus, “If it is you, Lord, command me to walk out on the water, and I will do it.” I have to say, I love Peter and his moments of clarity. I also love Peter and his moments of distraction.

Some say that if he had just focused on Jesus, he would have been fine, and I’m sure that’s true. I’m also sure that his failure led others to confession. Yes, it would’ve been great if the story was about Jesus praising Peter’s faith, but that’s not what it’s about. It’s about Peter’s faithful attempt, and the God who meets us in our failures and pulls us into the boat – every time.  The beautiful thing about that is that Peter’s faithful attempt leads to the confession, “Surely you are the son of the Lord,” and that confession always leaves healing in its wake.

The Rev. Johan Daza spoke about healing in the wake of our profession at Presbyterian Youth Triennium this summer, but maybe not in the way that you’d expect. He told the story of his 12-year-old nephew, Matteo, who had a congenital heart defect. Without a heart transplant, he would surely die. The boy was old enough to understand what was going on when he heard the Dr’s say that not only did he need a heart that was currently beating in someone else’s chest, but it had to be a perfect match. In order for him to live, a boy just like him was going to die. His life was dependent on some tragic accident, somewhere. How do you even pray for that?

Thankfully, and terribly, Matteo did receive his heart, but he also received something more. He received an understanding of the sacrifice of Christ that was so much deeper than he could have imagined. Rev. Daza assured us all, in that moment, that even though we all have doubts, there is a perfect match in Christ for the hearts that we offer to God.

This Christ Jesus is the very one who speaks to fearful disciples before his ascension and says, “You aren’t going to see the restoration of the things that you want to see, but you will have the power to do something about it.”

That’s the way Jesus left the disciples as they looked up into heaven. I’ll never forget hearing the way the Rev. C.C. Armstrong described this at the conference. There they were, the disciples, looking up into heaven. [the next section is acted out, looking up.] “Yup, there he goes! He’s up there alright. Yeah. Still going. You think he’s comin’ back. I don’t know. Huh. He is really far up there!”

She told us this to remind us that experiences like conferences where we feel like we’ve given our hearts and been reminded of the seal God places upon them are not the result of faith. If all we do is say, “Wow, that was powerful for me.” then we’ve missed the point. Jesus gave us the power to go and proclaim in Jerusalem and Samaria. He told them to go to the seat of power and then to the powerless. He told them to check-in at church and proclaim the truth, but then he told them to go to work; to go to school; to get out of the boat and go to places that you don’t expect to see him!

Jesus tells us the same thing today. He tells us to speak truth to power where that power causes harm because the reality is that violence and fear have always been a part of our world. We can’t keep looking at a God in the sky to do something about it when that same God already gave us the power to effect change.

That power comes from a simple story and the simple claim that God has sealed our hearts through the saving death of Jesus! That’s the story we celebrate over and over and over at this table. This celebration is an outward, visible sign of an inward spiritual grace. It’s also more than that. Just as our baptism seals us in the covenant of grace, communion celebrates the same covenant, for at this table we believe Christ to be present in the breaking of the bread and sharing of the cup.

I remember the first time I was struggling to understand what that really means. My mom’s cousin is an Episcopal Bishop and has always been a wise and faithful influence. I was struggling with words like transubstantiation or consubstantiation, and he just said, “I think the words you are looking for is a real presence.”

In our coming together we believe Christ to be present. These elements are common things used for a sacred purpose to remind us that so are we. At this moment, at this table, what we come to know is that God sees us and does not look away. God seeks us, for each of us is precious to God, and God seals us into a more common union that includes strangers, defies boundaries, and calls us to do the same again, and again, and again.

So, today we say, “Here’s my heart, Lord. Take and seal it. Seal it for thy courts above.” We say that with all the faith we can muster, knowing we may fail. Knowing God will not fail us and knowing that we have been given the power to live and love and serve the One who’s heart is a perfect match for yours, for mine, and for the one whom God has called us to love next.

At least that’s the hope I have been given in this age of fear, and I pray that it be given to you as well. All to the glory of God! Amen!