Dangerous Assumptions

The Rev. Joseph Winston

October 25, 2009

Sermon

Grace and peace are gifts for you from God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.1
Perhaps you have heard a story that goes something like this. Once upon a
time, there was a student studying today’s lesson from Jeremiah.

The days are surely coming, says the L ORD, when I will make a new
covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not
be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took
them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt – a covenant
that they broke, though I was their husband, says the L ORD. But this
is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those
days, says the L ORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write
it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
1
Romans 1:7, 1 Corinthians 1:3, 2 Corinthians 1:2, Galatians 1:3, Ephesians 1:2, Philippians
1:2, 2 Thessalonians 1:2, Philemon 1:3.

1
 No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know
the L ORD”, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the
greatest, says the L ORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remem-
ber their sin no more. (Jeremiah 31:31-34 NRSV)

No matter how hard he tried, this young man just could not understand the wisdom
of writing the Law on a person’s heart. So, like all good students, he turned to his
teacher for the answer. He asked the well-respected rabbi, “Why does God place
the Law on the outside of the heart? Would it not be better to put the Law inside
the heart where it could be used?” As it was his custom, the rabbi sat quietly for a
while before answering difficult questions. Finally, with the sound advice brought
by the difficulties of life, he turned to his favorite student and said to him, “God
places the Law on the outside of our hearts so that when our heart is broken by the
problems of this life, God’s Law will fall into our hearts and take root.”
This brief story involving the student of the Law and his wise rabbi makes it
seem as if the heart is the place where we experience emotions. It goes on and
tells us at that time when our capacity for feelings is finally overrun with all the
painful suffering that the world throws at us, only then will our heart be open to
doing God’s will.
Unfortunately, this cute tale that attempts to explain God’s actions in our lives
is completely and totally wrong. Here is why. This story makes one fatal assump-
tion that needs to be clearly stated for all to hear. It is this. Everyone thinks and
acts just like us.
Here in the United States, this idea might seem to be the most natural thing

2
in the entire world. After all, we are one of the last superpowers. Nations fear the
force we can quickly bring to distant shores. Our currency still drives the world’s
economy. Immigrants want one chance to live the American dream.
We have been so successful as a nation that we no longer question any of
the ideas we take for granted. If I were to ask you what part of your body gives
you the ability to think, without a doubt everyone here would quickly respond
with,“Your brain.” If the question then turned to feelings, your answer to where
you experience emotions such as love and hate would be your heart.
But, this is not how the world of the Bible operates. In the New and the Old
Testament, the people of Israel believe the ability to control yourself resides in the
head. Your will is here. The heart gives a person the power to think and to reason.
This is how you make decisions. The stomach and the bowels provide a person
with feelings. Your emotions move you.
When you apply the idea that the heart is where you learn, you no longer have
to make up ways to interpret the text. Instead, the lesson suddenly starts making
sense. Everything starts to snap into place.
With this information on how the body functions firmly in hand, the verbs to
know and to teach in today’s Old Testament lesson now take on everyday, ordinary,
meanings. Knowing the Law simply means you how to apply the Law in life.
Teaching the Law is nothing more than instructing others on what God expects of
you.
The most striking conclusion from this way of thinking is that the Law God

3
places in on heart is actually the Ten Commandments.2
It often seems like large portions of the church have forgotten this basic teach-
ing. They seem to believe that God gives you some warm fuzzy feeling that moves
you to do what is required. They feel that God provides you with a series of
hunches to follow when the going gets tough. They maintain that God presents
you with some built-in sense of right and wrong that changes when you have a
difficult choice to make.
That is not what Lutherans confess. Instead, we believe that God places inside
of you the entire the Ten Commandments.
Maybe on your own you just might reach the correct conclusion that your
heart is not the place of emotions but logic. This seems possible with today’s les-
son from Jeremiah. In the text before us, God says that He will write the Law on
the hearts of the people (Jeremiah 31:33). We know how it is easy to put pen to
paper to write down an idea. For example, you might give someone this set of
instructions. It takes three cups of flour to make a load of bread. You can under-
stand what these directions mean. Now just try to do the same thing using only
feelings. One possible interpretation might be. Take whatever you like and then
make something that you desire. Making the heart the place of emotions rather
than where we thing leaves the door for interpretation wide open. We see this in
the previous example. You might be describing how to make bread or it could be
something else.
2
Apology, A RTICLE IV, n. 7; Robert Kolb and Timothy J. Wengert, editors, The Book of Con-
cord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, (Fortress Press, 2000), p. 108.

4
 Verse 34 from Jeremiah provides you with other clues about the real nature of
the heart. This verse says,

No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know
the L ORD”, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the
greatest, says the L ORD (Jeremiah 31:34).

Consider what occurs in the classroom. Instruction happens through the sharing of
ideas. You know this. For example, we teach our children the Ten Commandments.
Now, just imagine teaching the same class using only emotions. I know that I am
not up to the task and I do not want to experience some of the commandments
played out in front of my eyes.
These two verses from Jeremiah are not the only ones that make more sense
when we understand the heart as the organ that gives us the ability to reason. King
Solomon prays to God, for a heart to rule the people with the ability to select
between good and evil (1 Kings 3:9).3 This means Solomon asks God for a sharp
mind that can make good decisions. In Proverbs, King Solomon asks his child
to apply his heart to understanding (Proverbs 2:2).4 We would say today that the
father requests his child to think about what is happening. The same idea that we
think with the heart is found in the New Testament. In a few short weeks, we will
hear how Mary ponders in her heart the birth of Jesus (Luke 2:19). A more modern
translation would say that she turns everything over in her mind. After healing the
paralyzed man, Jesus asks those who disagree with Him, “Why do you think evil
3
The translators of the NRSV and the RSV use the word mind even though the Hebrew and
Greek texts have heart.
4
Both the NRSV and the RSV retain heart in this verse unlike 1 Kings 3:9.

5
in your hearts (Matthew 9:4)?” Obviously, Jesus wants to know why they think
this way.
These silly sort of stories that clearly confuse our knowledge of how the body
works with the way Israel understood the body functions come about for two
reasons. People do not want to learn what the Bible says and even though it is a
required portion of their call, pastors do not want to teach the Scripture (I Timothy
4:13, 5:17).5
Our inability to educate both the pastors and the people is dangerous. We do
not learn what God is trying to tell us. It also prevents us from passing on what
we value because we do not even know what it is.
Listen to what Martin Luther said in 1529 about this very subject in the in-
troduction of his teaching guide for children. (This translation is taken from an
English version of the Small Catechism that would have been in use at the begin-
ning of this church.)

The deplorable, miserable condition which I discovered lately when

I, too, was a visitor, has forced and urged me to prepare [publish] this
Catechism, or Christian doctrine, in this small, plain, simple form.
Mercy! Good God! what manifold misery I beheld! The common
people, especially in the villages, have no knowledge whatever of
Christian doctrine, and, alas! many pastors are altogether incapable
and incompetent to teach [so much so, that one is ashamed to speak
of it]. Nevertheless, all maintain that they are Christians, have been
5
For ELCA pastors see Constitutions, By–Laws, And Continuing Resolutions, M INISTRY, 7.22.

6
 baptized and receive the [common] holy Sacraments. Yet they [do not
understand and] cannot [even] recite either the Lord’s Prayer, or the
Creed, or the Ten Commandments; they live like dumb brutes and ir-
rational hogs; and yet, now that the Gospel has come, they have nicely
learned to abuse all liberty like experts.

O ye bishops! [to whom this charge has been committed by God,]

what will ye ever answer to Christ for having so shamefully neglected
the people and never for a moment discharged your office? [You are
the persons to whom alone this ruin of the Christian religion is due.
You have permitted men to err so shamefully; yours is the guilt; for
you have ever done anything rather than what your office required you
to do.]6

See, somethings never change. People do not listen to their teachers and pas-
tors do not want to teach. We do not want to follow the Word and our behavior
shows the world we are not Christ’s disciples.7
Fortunately for you, your salvation does not depend on how well the pastor of
this church teaches you. Thank God that your gift of forgiveness is not due to your
ability to learn the Bible. Your life completely rests on the work of another.
In today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus says to you, “the truth will make you free (John
6
Preface to the Small Catechism, n. 1-5; Anonymous, editor, Triglot Concordia: The Symboli-
cal Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, German-Latin-English, (The Evangelical Lutheran
Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States, 1917).
7
In other words, disciples continually learn God’s Word. Francis J. Moloney, S.D.B.; Daniel J.
Harrington, S.J., editor, The Gospel of John, Volume 4, Sacra Pagina Series, (Collegeville, Min-
nesota: The Liturgical Press, 1998), p. 275.

7
8:32b).” In this bold declaration that gets blithely tossed about like a football by
politicians and pastors, Jesus is not talking about some abstract idea of liberty that
you learn in the classroom or from the school of hard knocks. Instead, Jesus is
specifically telling you that He Himself, frees you from whatever enslaves you.
Perhaps this concept that Jesus comes to serve you is best illustrated a little
bit later in the Gospel according to St. John. Here Jesus proclaims to you, “I am
the way, and the truth, and the life (John 14:6a).” This statement tells you who the
truth is. It is exactly Jesus. The way that truth, or Jesus, gives you life is that the
He becomes your slave.
We see this behavior by the Son of God in the Gospel. Jesus feeds the hungry.
He heals the sick. He sets the captive free. That is what He does for you.
By being your servant for life, you now can live like a human. You can serve
others. No longer do you have to worry about what might happen to you. Jesus
will take care of every last detail. He protects you, He forgives you, and He gives
you eternal life.
Education, no matter how important it is to undertanding the Bible, is just like
the Law. It does not save you. That work is reserved for Jesus. You know this to
be true since He wrote it on your heart.
“The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and
minds through Christ Jesus.”8
8
Philippians 4:7.

8
References

Anonymous, editor, Triglot Concordia: The Symbolical Books of the Evangel-

ical Lutheran Church, German-Latin-English, (The Evangelical Lutheran
Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States, 1917), Published as a Memorial
of the Quadricentenary Jubilee of the Reformation anno Domini 1917 by
resolution of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other
States.

Kolb, Robert and Wengert, Timothy J., editors, The Book of Concord: The Con-
fessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, (Fortress Press, 2000).

Moloney, S.D.B., Francis J.; Harrington, S.J., Daniel J., editor, The Gospel of
John, Volume 4, Sacra Pagina Series, (Collegeville, Minnesota: The Litur-
gical Press, 1998).