Wholehearted [part i]

When I lived in Denver, there was an incredibly generous man in my church congregation. He was born and raised on a cattle ranch in the small town of Dispatch Kansas. But in his adult years he moved to Denver and became a very successful cattle auctioneer. He would volunteer his time wherever it was needed, he would give money to support missionary and outreach causes. Our church in Denver had the opportunity to partner with Victor Perez who was a recent seminary graduate coming into Denver to begin a Spanish-speaking ministry on the SouthEast side of the city. This gentleman in my church was one of the first to step up and underwrite some of the startup expenses. He also volunteered his time to help Pastor Victor move into a space he could use for ministering into the Spanish speaking community in Denver.

But there was something else I noticed about this man from my church in Denver. He would repost and share memes on Facebook with messages like “if you don’t speak English, then get out of my country.” He was an enthusiastic supporter of building a southern border wall at the time when that was a hot campaign issue in 2016, citing some of the popular campaign justifications which were being made at the time, that people coming from Mexico were criminals and drug traffickers.

I admit that I still scratch my head and haven’t quite figured out the contradiction and disconnect going on there. When I tried to tactfully bring it up once while we met for coffee, he could not explain it either. In fact, he responded as if he was not even aware of any double-standard he was portraying; he couldn’t even see it in himself even when I sat and pointed it out to him. What causes something like that, I wonder? What can make a person be so generous and supportive of a startup ministry to reach and embrace and enfold the Spanish-speaking people in Denver, and this very same person also being an active advocate of removing Spanish-speaking people from our community on a falsified basis that such people are just criminals who are no good for our community? Something inside of this man’s heart was fractured, divided, disconnected.

This may certainly be an overtly obvious and extreme example. But I think that at varying levels the same thing is true for each one of us. I don’t mean our thoughts and attitudes towards Spanish-speaking people; the issues may be different. The thing that is the same is that each one of us at some varying levels struggle with a fractured heart, a life that is divided and disconnected. We talk and read a lot these days about divided and fractured communities. We are all well aware that there are bitter divisions between people in our communities. But what I want to spend some time focusing on in this new series of messages are the bitter divisions we carry in our own hearts and the way these splintered disconnections show up in our own lives.

I imagine we have all seen footage on the news of rage-filled outbursts from parents at school board meetings in the past months. We see the story of the occasional airline passenger who completely loses control and starts attacking flight attendants or other passengers. I see stories like that and think to myself, “wow, those people have issues.” Because these are not just examples of communities being torn apart, these are examples that show us people who are torn apart themselves on the inside. And here is what I think: we all have a little bit of that going on in each one of us. Maybe it doesn’t always manifest itself in rage-filled outbursts, but every single one of us struggles to some degree with the ways we are torn apart on the inside. So, let’s talk about that in the coming weeks and see if we can find some helpful wisdom from scripture to recognize it, name it, and find some helpful steps to address it. And we will start it off this week by looking at a conversation Jesus has with another person in the gospel of Mark.

Mark 12:28–34 NIV

28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” 29 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” 32 “Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. 33 To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34 When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.

Shama — love the LORD with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength

These words of scripture are familiar to many. For the Jewish people these words are known as the Shama. It is a prayer from the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy that all good Israelites would say every day. Jesus is not giving a new command; he is giving an answer that these Jewish religious authorities would certainly know well. It was only a few weeks back that we talked about loving God as part of our mission in this church. I don’t need to spend more time on the ‘love’ part of this command. The piece I want us to take a closer look at today is the ‘heart-soul-mind-strength’ part of this command. Let’s take time today to think a bit more about what that means.

I must confess that for many years I think I breezed through this familiar command as though it was some kind of comprehensive checklist for loving God. Okay, I know we are all supposed to love God. And here are four categories identifying what that love for God looks like. Maybe it would be good to consider that for a moment. What exactly do we mean when the Bible says love God with heart, soul, mind, and strength?

Heart — empathy, compassion

Heart has something to do with emotions and passion. It is no wonder that every week when we come together in worship we always include songs and singing. Music has a way of expressing emotion and feeling more than just words by themselves can do. We all know this. There are many people who have a hymn or song that is so meaningful and powerful that it cannot be played or sung without some tears. Loving God with our heart is an important part of what we do in worship.

when we catch a sense of compassion for other people the way we see Jesus has compassion for people, we associate this as part of loving God and others with the heart

We see other ways our heart shows up as prominent in our lives. It is rather intentionally that animal shelters post pictures of puppies and kittens up for adoption on their websites looking as cute and adorable as possible. They know that something like that will tug at our heartstrings. Did you catch that? Heartstrings. Our capacity for empathy—when we feel for others—is associated with the heart. When we catch a sense of compassion for other people the way we see Jesus has compassion for people, we associate this as part of loving God and others with the heart.

Soul — spiritual life

Soul is a bit more complicated to nail down. We say that it is the soul which gives a person life; that life is more than something strictly biological. Life is more than breathing air which places oxygen in the blood which distributes throughout the body to bring energy to cells. We are not just biology. There is something else special which makes it life. Medical technology can keep all the biological functions of a person going, but if that person is diagnosed as being—what medical professionals call—braindead, we understand that there appears to be life missing even though the physical biology continues.

when we love God with our souls we press into an eternal love that surpasses just this time and place

It is then in the arena of the soul that we talk about the spiritual life; that there is this mysterious ingredient included in our creation which none of us completely understands that we call the spirit. Even people who deny the existence of God acknowledge that there is spiritual dimension to our lives, that there is something more to being human than a collection of cells mapped out by DNA strains. The soul, then, is the part of our being which carries an awareness that the world is bigger than just us, that we are a part of something greater beyond ourselves. When we love God with our souls we press into an eternal love that surpasses just this time and place. The soul is what connects us to the eternity of God in ways we cannot understand; yet we all acknowledge as something greater beyond us.

Mind — understanding, wisdom

Mind is more than just brain function. It is certainly true that loving God with our mind involves intellect. This is the place where we dive into all the ways that God has revealed himself in scripture and try our best to give expression to the truth of God. Our pursuit of doctrine and theology are all part of loving God with our minds. As we explore and understanding of God as revealed in scripture, result is so often an awe inspired amazement in who it is we discover God to be and how his grace is given. We love God with our mind when we seek the truth of scripture.

wisdom is knowledge which produces a certain goodness

But mind is more than intellect. This is also what the Bible refers to as wisdom. Wisdom is more than intellect. Loving God with our mind is more than simply collecting information about God, it is embracing that knowledge in response to God as part of who we are. We might think of it this way, wisdom is knowledge which produces a certain goodness. If you were to think about a person you would identify as being wise, what makes a wise person more than just being really smart or intelligent? It is when a person takes and uses intelligence as a means towards goodness that we see wisdom. And isn’t it so often true that the degree of wisdom is not exactly proportional to the degree of intelligence? There can be incredibly smart people who lack wisdom, and there can be very uneducated people who overflow with wisdom. Loving God with our minds is not just about being smart; it is about being wise.

Strength — action, effort

action which directs love towards those in our world who are the most overlooked and vulnerable and marginalized

Strength is about action. This is the place where love takes shape and shows up in the way we live our lives. This is love we see expressed in the words of John 3:16 — that God so loved the world that he sent his only son. It is love with action. Strength here is not about muscles or physical fitness; it is about putting our faith into practice. It is what James refers to in his New Testament letter when he tells the church that faith without deeds is dead. It is also James who tells us that religion which God finds acceptable is this: to care for widows and orphans. Love for God is not just about knowing and believing all the right stuff, it shows up in action. And in particular, James says, it is action which directs love towards those in our world who are the most overlooked and vulnerable and marginalized.

be reminded here of the upside-down nature of the gospel when we think about strength

Strength also carries a certain amount of points for effort. It seems that often in our success and results oriented world we would focus strictly on the outcome as the measurement of strength. The bigger and better we can build it, the stronger we are. It is good to be reminded here of the upside-down nature of the gospel when we think about strength. If you jump to the end of Mark 12 there is a story in which Jesus and his disciples are watching people come into the temple bringing their offerings before God. The rich people (strong) bring in vast displays of wealth, which I imagine make a big impact upon the temple treasury. But Jesus calls attention to a single woman (weak) who gives an offering of just two copper coins. It is this tiniest expression of giving which Jesus labels as the greatest gift among all the others because the effort this widow required to bring such an action came from everything she had.

Heart. Soul. Mind. Strength. As I said earlier, for many years I think I viewed this command as something of a comprehensive checklist. These are the categories of love which God commands. And on some extremely rare super days I can score a bingo on that card. All the squares are filled. On most days though we are doing our best to just put a check somewhere. If I get two out of four I’m still okay, right? Or there might be days when I have to convince myself that this list is talent-based. It’s okay that loving God with all my mind is left unchecked because I am just not a very smart person. Or it’s okay that loving God with all my strength is overlooked because I just don’t have much of anything to offer. Or I’m alright skipping over loving God with all my heart because I’m just not feeling it today. You know, as long as something on the list is checked, I’m alright skipping over the ones that are left unchecked.

what if this command is not a checklist, but an invitation to be whole?

I used to think that way about it. In recent years I have come to see this passage and this commandment in a completely different light. What if the greatest commandment to love God with heart, soul, mind, and strength is less of a chore to check off our task list, and more of an invitation to be whole?

I am calling this series wholehearted because I see people in our world right now whose hearts are torn up inside, and God offers to us something better—to be wholehearted. Wholeness is something we should be talking about in the church. Wholeness is not something we should ignore. We were created by God to be whole people. What do I mean by that? Take a look again at the four categories of loving God mentioned in the Shama. Heart, soul, mind, and strength.

God is the one who created you with heart—he is the one who put emotion and empathy and compassion inside of you; it is part of who you are because God made you that way.

God is the one who created you with soul—he is the one who put a spirit of eternity inside of you which yearns to look beyond yourself in recognition that we are created as part of something so much bigger; it is part of who you are because God made you that way.

God is the one who created you with mind—he is the one who put faculties of knowledge and learning and discernment and wisdom inside of you; it is part of who you are because God made you that way.

God is the one who created you with strength—he is the one who put talents and abilities inside of you to be used for producing in this world the goodness to which we are called; it is part of who you are because God made you that way.

to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength is an invitation from God to be whole, to be ALL of who God created and made you to be

ALL of these things are a part of who you are because you are created by God with ALL of these things. This is what makes you whole, a whole human being, a person of wholeness. To take any one or two or three of these things away is to take away part of what God made you to be—to be less than what God made you to be. When we read these words in scripture to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength it is an invitation from God to be whole, to be ALL of who God created and made you to be. Don’t you long for that? I know I do.

And so, when I see those stories on the news that show angry people shouting at each other, I see people whose beings are fractured on the inside, I see people who lack wholeness. And now let’s be honest, we’re all struggling with that at least a little bit. Maybe you’ve never been kicked off an airline for attacking a flight attendant, but I bet there has been something in every single one of our lives even just in this past week which has produced enough anxiety that we were not able to cope with and we said or did something that shouldn’t have happened and then we spent the rest of the day either regretting what just happened or endlessly trying to justify why we were right—which is all the proof I need to say that whatever it is was probably not right—and it tears us up inside; it leaves us lacking wholeness.

lack of wholeness is what we see whenever I might do the right things and have the right actions, but they were done under compulsion and obligation

A lack of wholeness is what we see whenever I might do the right things and have the right actions, but they were done under compulsion and obligation—not because I really wanted to—and my complaints to other people make that clearly evident; I was loving God with all my strength, but my mind and my heart were not there. Fractured; lacking wholeness; it tears us up on the inside; and we know it.

living without wholeness, everything becomes so much more of a struggle; tensions and challenges turn into anxieties with which we can no longer cope; we feel exhausted at every turn

I was having a conversation with someone this week who was telling me of an upcoming doctor appointment because he was experiencing heart arrhythmia. I asked him if he could tell when his heart goes out of rhythm. He said he knows it immediately; energy and strength is gone and every activity is so much more of a struggle. That’s us living without wholeness. Everything becomes so much more of a struggle. Tensions and challenges turn into anxieties with which we can no longer cope. We feel exhausted at every turn. We are fractured and torn on the inside and something inside of us knows it. And I cannot help but wonder how much of it has to do with the simple fact that we have lost our wholeness.

In that fractured and torn place of your life, God comes offering to you an invitation to be whole again the way God made you and intends for you to be. How do we do that? How do we get there? How do we become whole? Not that I am a fan of cliffhangers or to-be-continued’s but we are about out of time for today. We are in this sermon series for the long-haul and you are going to have to come back for us to pick it up where I’m leaving off. To make matters worse, I won’t be here next week, so you actually have to wait two weeks till we get back into this.

Ask God to show me the places in my life that are fractured and torn apart on the inside

That means I leave us here today in kind of a dark place. I’ve tried my best to convince you that we are all people who are fractured and torn on the inside. And sure, I said that God invites us to be made whole again in him, but I haven’t talked at all this week about how we do that or what that looks like. So, I’m leaving us here in this dark place for a couple weeks. But I think this can be a worthwhile thing and this is why. There is an assignment for the next two weeks. Over the next two weeks, here is what I want us to do. Ask God to show you the places in your life that are fractured and torn apart on the inside. That’s all we’re leaving here with today. But this is necessary and it is good that we actually take a couple weeks. We cannot dive into all the ways God brings us wholeness until we do the hard work of identifying all the ways our lives are fractured.