“We must look at ourselves over and over again in order
to learn to love, to discover what has kept our hearts closed, and what it
means to allow our hearts to open.”
Jack
Kornfield, A Path with Heart
And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will
put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give
you a heart of flesh
Ezekiel
36:26
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It Jesus came to do anything
It was to open human hearts
To take hearts frozen by fear
Hearts dominated by hate
Hearts empty and yearning
And turn them into soft hearts
Hearts that could respond to Sacred Love
And offer Sacred Love
But how on earth do you do that?
How does one create openness,
In people who are so inclined
To be closed
Protective
Hidden?
I think Jesus primary tactic
Was to give people a new God
Not a new God really
But a new understanding of what God is like!
He came to replace a God of conditional love
With a God of unconditional love
A God of judgement and punishment
With a God of welcome and grace
It is important we do not minimize this change
This, frankly, was revolutionary
And critical
For there is nothing that allows us
To be open,
Vulnerable,
Welcoming
Generous
Loving
Than being loved, unconditionally
Knowing we are safe
In the love of someone who is critically important to us
A child who knows he or she is loved
That his or her parents will always be there for them
With compassion, and support
Is a child who can risk
Risk trying new things
Risk being in a relationship
Risk love
Jesus came
And through his birth
Through that manger
Through his baptism
Through his teaching
Through his death
Through his resurrection
Showed us that God is for us
And with us
Someone once said
“God loves you, and there is nothing you can do about
it!”
Truth
We can deny that love
We can choose not to accept it
But we can’t change it
We can’t go back to that God who creates a faith system
based on fear
We can’t go to a place where Jesus is nothing more than a
“get of hell free” card
For Jesus blows all of those old assumptions apart
Jesus is a revolution
Jesus is a revelation
That says God is love
And God loves all
And God is with us, no matter what
When we are righteous, and when we are not
When we are full of faith, and when we are not
When we live love, and yes, when we do not
And that should transform us
Because this God of love lives in us
A “naturally indwelling presence…. uncreated grace”
And the internal present of unconditional love
When we are awake to it
Should make us people who are so secure
We can dive into that weird way that Jesus propounded
And be people who are willing to serve rather than
dominate
Give rather than accumulate
Include rather than exclude
Welcome the stranger
And value the poor and the vulnerable
(and treat them accordingly)
That should make us people with open hearts
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