Learning the gospels by heart

August 4

Daily readings: Jer 31:31-34; Mt 16:13-23

The days are coming, says the LORD…when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel…this is the covenant that I will make…I will place my law within them, and write it upon their hearts (Jer 31)

What is something you know by heart? 

Maybe there are tasks you know by heart.  Perhaps a route to a destination.  Maybe a piece of music or song lyrics.  Or prayers.

And how did you come to know all these by heart?

Focused practice and repetition.

In the reading from Jeremiah, the prophet predicts that there will come a time when God’s law is known “by heart” by God’s people.  It will spring forth from them not because they are following some external code but because this emerges from the depths of their being.  They won’t have to think about it either.  It just will come forth naturally.

Jesus knew God’s law by heart and tried to teach his followers this law.

It was not always an intuitive or even comforting teaching and required a good deal of un-learning on the part of his disciples as we see in today’s gospel. He had to keep reviewing things with them, kept putting them into situations where they needed to act differently and kept pointing out what they were missing.

I often think Peter gets a bad rap for being scolded by Jesus. “Get behind me, Satan,” he says to Peter. And Peter was just trying to protect him from having to go through some hardship! I mean take it easy, Jesus!

It’s probably safe to say, however, that we’re all like Peter.  We think with what the Buddhists call our small self.  It’s the self that gets wrapped up in our own ego or our image.  It tries to protect our reputation or our stuff and gets defensive when threatened.  It’s a natural part of us that gets incessantly reinforced in this culture.

And so Jesus needs to make a pretty strong statement and name it for what it is – an illusion that won’t, ultimately, serve us or the world around us.

Something deeper is required from us. The Buddhists call this the Big Self.

Big Self can see beyond the separations and divisions to the fundamental unity of all beings.  Big Self doesn’t get tripped up on incidentals but instead can focus on essentials.  Big Self’s primary concern is not our ego or our bank account or even our security or our protection.  Big Self is about compassion and justice, freedom and liberation.  And it knows that this will cost us something – especially in a world that has been structured for just the opposite of that.

Living out of our Big Self requires practice and repetition.

It requires focused attention.

It requires a community of believers and teachers to keep us on track and accountable.

As we move through our day today and in the coming days ahead, perhaps we can keep asking, “Is this my small self or my Big Self making this decision?” and just see what comes up for us. Some of it might be intuitive, but some will require us to stretch and critically reflect because we may not have much practice making “Big Self” decisions.  And we will probably all need teachers and mentors who help us see more clearly what the gospel might look like in practice.

And then, of course, we must practice it. Over and over and over.

Barbara Brown Taylor reminds us the “practicing the gospel by heart” does not require grand guestures either. She says that ,“To make bread or love, to dig in the earth, to feed an animal or cook for a stranger—these activities require no extensive commentary, no lucid theology. All they require is someone willing to bend, reach, chop, stir….And yet these are the…activities that change lives, sometimes all at once and sometimes more slowly, the way dripping water changes stone. In a world where faith is often construed as a way of thinking, bodily practices remind the willing that faith is a way of life.”

Indeed it is.