Guarding our heart’s treasure

litany based on Matt 6:1–6, 16–21 (Sarah Agnew, Pray the Story)

Come into a secret room,
come away from the crowds
and the light.
Come into the secret room
of your heart, your depth,
your all.

Here you are met by God,
and God alone.
Here you confess to God,
and God alone.

In secret, name your hurts,
your fears: none will hear
but God.
In secret bear your scars,
your tears: none will see
but God.

Here you will need your courage,
beloved;
here you will need to be brave.
But there will be no fanfare,
beloved;
no heroes’ welcome as we look
only to ourselves.

Look closely, look with care
and attention, at your fullness
of humanity.
See and do not turn away
from what you have done or left
undone.

Look closely, look with care
and attention, in a mirror
of God’s deep loving;
look, be seen, and in this secret
place of honesty, find hope,
and healing, and humility.

Linda has chosen Illustrated Ministry as a companion for your Lenten journey this year. The devotional material asks what do you wonder, in response to Matthew 6:19–21.

They wonder, what do we hold in our heart, where it cannot be destroyed?

I wonder, but inevitably, rust and moths do get into my heart. What I hold in my heart may be destroyed. My heart itself has felt as if it has been, if not destroyed, then very badly bruised at times.

I am wondering, not what are the treasures I hold in my heart, but how is my heart? How am I guarding the secret place in which I hold my treasure, in which I meet my God?

That phrase, guarding your heart, comes from the book Beguiled by Beauty, by Wendy Farley. In it, Farley shares experience and insights into the shaping of a life of contemplation and compassion. And she has two chapters titled ‘watching the mind’ and ‘guarding the heart’.

I could simply read you a chapter of the book as a helpful reflection for this first Sunday in Lent. but let’s consider, first, this season of Lent, as we begin.

What follows is an adaptation of thoughts from John van de Laar. The Lenten journey has sometimes come to be thought of as a time of “giving things up”. This is a rather domesticated way of thinking of the disciplines which are the true characterisation of this season. The disciplines of Lent (fasting, prayer and giving – including giving of oneself in service) are really tools to enable us to deal with the temptations that we all face; temptations that Jesus himself had to face. Lenten disciplines enable us to learn from Jesus how to render these temptations powerless in our own lives.

In chapters following the passage we heard today, Jesus clarified his relationship with the Law of Moses. He had not come to do away with the Law but to fulfil it, to help God’s people to live the Law as it was originally intended – which is not as a set of legalistic rules to be ticked off a list, but as signs of a heart that was devoted to God and filled with love for other people. For Jesus it was all about the heart, because when the heart is right, this overflows into our whole lives. Neuroscientists and psychologists are now discovering how right Jesus was – our behaviour is determined far more by our heart, by what we love or desire, than by what we think. When Jesus taught about God’s Reign, he started with calling us to love, to guard our heart, our inmost being, where love, the deepest treasure, resides.

[sacredise.com]

Guarding our heart, is a long term practice we can remember and renew this season of Lent

Our desire to be a compassionate person – kind, generous, remembering others in prayer and actions – is like treasure we store in our heart.

And the treasure that is stored in our hearts – the treasure of LOVE – is stored not to be kept hidden away, but to be available to use.

Wendy Farley, in Beguiled by Beauty, says ‘when one watches one’s mind, one begins to notice … the tiny snags that are opposed to the desire to be compassionate. Noticing – “I am deeply irritated just passing the office of this coworker” – helps us to realize that whatever we wished our mental state to be, our actual mental state is to despise our coworker and harbour a deep-seated anger toward them’ Such observing of our mind is not for the purpose of ‘justifying or condemning the anger. It simply allows us to register what is actually going on is our mind.’ Lent, for me, is a season of retreat into that secret place, for honesty with ourselves and God.

The point of paying attention is not so to focus on our every fault in order to blame ‘ourselves for our imperfections or perceived failures. The point is to cultivate an inner freedom in which we recognise’ our thoughts and feelings ‘with honesty and compassion.’

In other words, the point is, to guard the heart. To guard, keep well, the treasure we store there.

By not paying attention, we leave unchecked anger, which may become depression, resentment, bitterness. Unchecked anger may be expressed in actions that harm us and others. Unkind words pushing our pain onto others, or selfishness from an attempt to protect ourselves from pain. And thus anger becomes like a moth to eat at our treasure of compassionate love, a thief to steal away our kindness.

Paying attention is the work of the disciple, the follower of God’s Way of Love.

Paying attention with honesty and desire to reach for the ideal, the compassionate being shares Sacred love with others.

In Jesus’ teaching through this section of the gospel of Matthew, we hear that it is actually not enough to store treasures of and in the heart. Such treasure is worthless, unused. Without a guarding, or paying attention, anger might steal into our hearts like a thief, like a moth.

We have seasons in the Christian calendar in order to move through different postures and practices we pursue all the time, giving each a heightened focus for a particular time to remember and refine our practices.

Lent, the season of journey through wilderness where temptation finds us more easily perhaps; season of bringing these temptations and our susceptibility to them into focus; season of honest appraisal of our relationship with the Divine

This season is the season of turning back, returning, repenting is the word we inherit from our spiritual ancestors. Repentance. Turning around. A whole six weeks to remember our daily practice of turning back to God each time we turn our hearts, attention, away.

Practices of fasting – going without – have been for many through time and place, culture and faith, a way of remembering our reliance on God for life.

What practices help you to turn your mind and hearts’ focus back to God?

Or, is there a spiritual practice you have not tried, but that you would like to explore? It doesn’t have to be for the full six weeks, even, but it may be that Lent offers an opportunity to take up something new for a time; give up something as a change for a time.

How will you pay attention this Lent, watching your mind, guarding your heart, taking good care of the treasure you are keeping there?

[In secret ]
Come into a secret room,
come away from the crowds
and the light.
Come into the secret room
of your heart, your depth,
your all.

Here you are met by God,
and God alone.
Here you confess to God,
and God alone.

…
Look closely, look with care
and attention, in a mirror
of God’s deep loving;
look, be seen, and in this secret
place of honesty, find hope,
and healing, and humility.

Amen.

Sarah Agnew, Pray the Story, sarahagnew.com.au/pray-the-story-podcast

Wendy Farley, Beguiled by Beauty. Westminster John Knox, 2020.

John van de Laar, sacredise.com