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Wholehearted Living
Mark 12:30
June 10, 2007

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength."

I sometimes wonder if this isn't the most insightful and significant statement in the Bible. One Quaker writer expresses her response to this verse from Mark's gospel in this way. "These words answer to a deep God hunger in me. There is that something I must seek, and love and serve with my whole being, or I die."

I think that a life filled with purpose and meaning flows from this kind of passion…where we feel compelled to seek, and love and serve God with our whole heart. Jesus declares that what matters most in our life is to wholeheartedly love God …and from that foundation we build and shape all the rest of it.

As I think of the youth of our meeting, from college age on down, it is my prayer for you that you learn to love God early on in life. It will make your life a rich and worthwhile adventure, as our good friend, Ken likes to say.

Listen to all the words my thesaurus gives for this one word, wholehearted: committed-positive-devoted-dedicated-enthusiastic-unshakable-unswerving-without reservation-unconditional-complete-total-absolute.

But I am curious as to why it is, that so much of the time we adopt a pretty halfhearted approach to living, never really giving ourselves to anyone or anything completely. Always holding back, hedging our bets, playing it safe, keeping our distance… observers of life rather than active participants.

On the other hand, wholehearted people seem to jump into life, seeing the possibilities rather than the obstacles. They aren't easily bored because there is this sense of wonder and curiosity about everything around them. They tend to find beauty wherever they are. They seem to have a capacity to appreciate the mysterious.

Wholehearted people seem to have an internal fire that's can't be extinguished no matter what life deals them. They don't hang onto the injustices of their life but surrender their hurt to God. They know how to forgive. They know how to let go. They realize that true freedom is about letting go and letting go and letting go again. They see surrender as the key to spiritual power.

You see, you can't hang onto hatred, bitterness and resentment and be wholehearted about anything. You have to let go of it all so there is room in your heart to love God, to love yourself and to love those around you.

It seems to me that the way that we step into who we really are, into our true child-of-God selves is through our willingness to take the risk of loving with our whole heart. You can't enter into mystery without love.

I was talking to a good friend of mine from the Portland area this past week. She was lamenting about how hard her life has been. I would have to agree with her…She has experienced a lot of suffering in her life. And she told me that she wonders if she hasn't become addicted to the drama of her sad story…that she sort of wallows in it. She told me that she has decided to start living the one precious life she has been given, to give her whole heart to what is right there in front of her. What a marvelous insight she stumbled onto.

I think that some of us find some perverse pleasure in complaining and being miserable. None of us have to be victims of our unfortunate circumstances, unless we choose to be. Maybe we need to stop blaming everyone else for our unhappiness. " It is my parent's fault that I am unhappy. It's my spouse's fault that I am miserable. It is my children's fault that I am not enjoying my life. I hate my job because my boss is a jerk." And on and on…

The present holds so much potential and possibility but so many of us get mired down in the past or are constantly dreading the future that we aren't living the life we have.

"Living in the Now" is what Eckhart Tolle calls it. I know from my own experience that whenever I become anxious and resistant to what is happening in my life, it is usually because I am unable to align myself to the present moment, giving myself wholeheartedly to what is.

I have mantra I like to say to myself when I am resisting the now…What is is…What isn't isn't…God is. This helps me move into an attitude of acceptance for what is. Friends, God is present in the here and now of your life and my life.

So how do we learn to give ourselves wholeheartedly to life? Do you think there something that we have to do to become wholehearted? Or, is it something that is actually done to us? Interesting thought….

I love the gospel story where two companions are on the road to Emmaus on Resurrection afternoon, grieving and confused about all that had happened over that violent and tragic weekend. I don't think that they could have been angry with Jesus, they still cherished his memory, but they were disappointed that he wasn't able to deliver what he had promised. Here are two sad sorry folks who have lost hope that they would be freed from oppression. Things just hadn't turned out the way they planned.

We are told in this story that the Resurrected Christ joins them on their journey. But they are so engrossed in their pain they don't even recognize him.

How similar I am to these two, so engrossed in my life drama that I don't recognize that Jesus has been walking right beside me all along. The Living Christ is so near and yet we don't see him.

I see so much grace in this story. Jesus doesn't write them off because their faith is waning, or because they are discouraged and feeling hopeless…He joins them and walks with them on this dark path of uncertainty.
And as the story goes, It isn't until later that these two realize, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?"

One writer puts it this way,
"Why does Jesus come to them? He comes because he is seeking love. It is there in those doubt-shadowy hearts, and he knows it, and he will come and renew it. Christ always seeks the beautiful, and therefore seeks it where you and I would never look for it…In his discouraged followers he saw personal loyalty underneath the hope abandoned and the confidence shaken, and he went and joined himself to them in order that he might fan to flame the fire which was dying out upon the altar of their hearts."

This might sound like old-fashioned language but I think this is exactly where some of us might find ourselves in this story this morning. We might be sitting here with just a small measure of faith left, the embers of faith have cooled considerably because life isn't going as planned. We aren't too sure anymore if God can deliver the goods, that God is capable of creating anything worthwhile from the losses of our lives, that God is capable of bringing beauty from the ash heap of burned hopes and dreams.

So here in this intriguing little story it would appear that Jesus wakes these two from their sleep.
Notice that their hearts didn't burn within them because they were given new information. He didn't hand them a new book, or CD. No… their hearts burned when Jesus revealed a fresh interpretation of familiar things, things that they really already knew, but had forgotten. He shared with them those scriptures that they had heard a million times before but now were being presented to them as if it were the first time.

We also observe that their hearts didn't burn within them while they were talking to Jesus, or about Jesus, but heir hearts burned within them when Jesus talked to them. As soon as they started to listen they woke up.
Jesus said nothing new to them but they heard it again for the first time and it made their hearts burn with a new passion and hope that would carry them into the future with renewed purpose and exciting possibility.

Maybe the key to learning to live our lives wholeheartedly is realizing how important it is to sit still and listen to the Still Small Voice that is there within each and every one of us. It is so much easier to stay busy running from this to that, lamenting and complaining about how hard our lives are; getting caught up in the dramas we create. Many of us have just fallen asleep; we aren't consciously connected to that which gives us life and energy. Are you and I taking time daily to listen for the Still Small voice of our Inward Teacher, this One who is forever present to us?

How many of us are still looking outside of ourselves to feel complete and whole, yet keep sensing we are living with only half of our heart?

I would like to close with a little parable for us to take into the silence.
A beggar had been sitting by the side of the road for over thirty years. One day a stranger walked by.
"Spare some change?" mumbled the beggar, mechanically holding out his old baseball cap.
"I have nothing to give you," said the stranger. Then he asked: "What's that you are sitting on?"
"Nothing," replied the beggar. "Just an old box. I have been sitting on it as long as I can remember."
"Ever looked inside?" asked the stranger.

"No," said the beggar. "What's the point? There is nothing in there."

"Have a look inside," insisted the stranger.
The beggar managed to pry open the lid. With astonishment, disbelief, and elation, he saw that the box was filled with gold.

Friends, I am that stranger this morning who really has nothing to give you that you don't already have access to. I am encouraging you to pause, slow down and look inside. Not inside any box, as in the parable, but somewhere even closer: inside yourself and see if you don't discover that God has been there with you all along.
Just maybe, this is the energy and Life Source from which wholehearted living is possible.

Amen.

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