Atherosclerosis of the Soul
The phrase “hardened hearts”
appears all the way through the Bible.
In the Exodus story it is used to describe Pharaoh as he fails to see
and understand the plight of the Hebrew people he has enslaved.
In the
Gospel of Mark Jesus refers to a conversation among the disciples and
asks: Don’t you know or understand even yet?
Are your hearts hardened?
April 24th was both
Armenian Martyrs’ Day and Yom Ha’Shoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day). We remember so that we can never forget what
happened to those two communities of people.
We remember so we can never forget that we as human beings are capable of
genocide. And yet these are not the only
examples of genocide. Nor did genocide
end with the liberation of the last death camp.
We remember so we can never forget – but do we remember so we can care
and prevent. Or have our hearts hardened
to the brutal treatment humans have the capacity to inflict on one another?
It is so easy to read the Bible and
shake our heads when we read the phrase “heart was hardened” and assign that
capability to the really “bad” people of the world. And when we read that phrase in relationship
to us it is too often with a particular biblical interpretation that suggests
the hardened heart is when we refuse to accept Jesus as a personal Savior.
Sisters and brothers a hardened
heart is possible with each one of us, and it has nothing to do with a ticket
to heaven. Each one of us is susceptible
to the condition of a hardened heart because each one of us carries the
vulnerability to that spiritual disease, atherosclerosis of the soul. Our spiritual arteries get clogged by the
gradual build up of complacency, disengagement, disdain, prejudice, assumptions. These insidious little pieces of death build
one upon the other until the life giving flow from our hearts to one another is
stopped in its tracks and our hearts are hardened to the pain of the world.
The disease creeps up on us.
· We hear that there is going to be
a special commemoration of the Holocaust somewhere and we sigh “not again –
that happened 70 years ago – time to move on – ‘they’ got Israel”. Or even worse some say the Holocaust was a
myth.
· We might see an article about the
Armenian Genocide and we ignore it because we haven’t a clue whom the Armenians
were and are nor do we know anything about that piece of history. And even here, some give more value to
Turkey’s interpretation of events.
What’s more we pay little attention to a growing autocratic government
in Turkey that has little tolerance for those who do not agree with them.
· We see articles about sex
trafficking and dismiss it as an isolated incident even though it is a major problem
that is only getting worse
· We commemorate with great love and
honor those World War II veterans that are aging and now dying at a steady
rate. Yet we who are not part of the
Jewish community give little thought to those Holocaust survivors who are also
aging and now dying at a steady rate and who have powerful stories to tell us.
· We might see a news story of
starvation in Southern Sudan but that seems so far away from us and so
inconsequential.
· We hear of the plight of the
Syrian Refugees and we want to postpone any thoughts about how to ease this humanitarian
nightmare.
The disease of atherosclerosis of
the soul creeps up on us. Each bit of
indifference adds another clogging element.
Each bit of rationalization on behalf of those who victimized others
narrows our spiritual arteries. Each bit
of moral or religious presumed superiority over the “other” tightens the
arteries. Until finally we just ignore
those difficult realities and our hearts are hardened to the sufferings and the
memories of others.
I want to prescribe some spiritual
anticoagulants for us, including for myself.
It is my intention (and I hope the good folks at St. Paul’s UCC will
keep me honest in doing this) to provide a focus for the month in our prayer
list. That focus is to be around one of
these situations, realities, concerns.
It is my hope that we not only lift that specific focal point in prayer,
but that we also take the time during the month to learn more about the
situation or the event. And then, if our
individual research and our praying lead us to some concrete action we feel
called to do we will answer that call as individual people of faith. The preview for May is going to be the
Holocaust. It is my prayer that all
prayer and contemplation will lead us to a renewed sensitivity to the rise in
anti-Semitism hate speech (a rise of 86% in the first three months of
2017).
May prayer and changed behaviors become
the spiritual anticoagulants to a destructive epidemic in our world – hardening
of the heart because of an atherosclerosis of the soul. Let us open the vessels of our souls to let
God’s healing love flow out of us and into a wounded world.
Grace and
Peace,
Rev.
Clara
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