Sermon: Broken Hearts Restored Text: Joel 2:12-14; Psalm 51

Pastor Chris Matthis Epiphany Lutheran Church, Castle Rock, Colorado Ash Wednesday Wednesday, March 5th, 2014 Sermon: Text: Broken Hearts Restored J...
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Pastor Chris Matthis Epiphany Lutheran Church, Castle Rock, Colorado Ash Wednesday Wednesday, March 5th, 2014

Sermon: Text:

Broken Hearts Restored Joel 2:12-14; Psalm 51

Focus: Sin breaks our hearts. Function: That their broken hearts would be restored by the healing power of God’s forgiveness. Structure: Law-then-Gospel Locus: “Confession has two parts. First, that we confess our sins, and second, that we receive absolution, that is forgiveness…” (SC, Confession). Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. When I was a sophomore in high school, I had a huge crush on Tracey, a cute, blonde freshman tennis player. Homecoming was just around the corner, and I couldn’t imagine anyone else I’d rather go with, so I got the gumption to ask Tracey to go as my date to the dance. To my surprise, she accepted! Like most teenage boys with blood flowing through their veins, I thought I was in love. I was elated. Not only would this be my first school dance, but it was also my first date ever! My dad marked the occasion by buying me a new navy blue suit, white shirt, and a clip-on tie. (Aside: I’ve learned how to tie a real one since then!) I worked with Tracey to make all the preparations for the night. I ordered her a boutonniere from the florist. Because I couldn’t drive yet, we made arrangements for Tracey’s mom to drive us to dinner at a restaurant, where we’d meet up with Tracey’s older friends, who would then drive all of us to the dance. The night of the dance, I could barely contain my excitement as I polished my shoes and checked myself out in the mirror, making sure my hair was just right. I was all smiles when Tracey’s mom picked me up and brought me over to Tracey’s house for pre-dance pictures.

Matthis 2 (Aside: It took longer to get photos back in those days. We didn’t have smartphones and digital cameras, so we had to wait for a thing called “film” to develop a few weeks later!). But almost at once, things began to go wrong. Tracey was a little nonplussed when I went to pin the boutonniere on her dress. Didn’t I know that girls wear a corsage on their wrist? I was embarrassed by my cluelessness, but no biggie, right? It’s just a flower! But when we met up with her friends at dinner, Tracey barely talked to me. I didn’t really know any of her friends either. So while everyone else laughed at inside jokes and had a great time, I just pretended to find everything funny. By the time, our food came, I was so nervous about the night, that I spilled some food on my tie and front of my shirt. (Aside: Word to the wise: don’t order spaghetti on a first date!) Things went from bad to worse at the dance. When we arrived at the gym, the DJ was playing a loud pop song with a strong beat. Lots of kids were bumping and grinding on the dance floor, but I couldn’t even get Tracey to get out there with me. She just kept scanning the crowd for her other girlfriends. When she found them, they all started dancing in a big circle together. I tried to join in, moving awkwardly on the outside of the circle, but then a number of popular juniors and seniors started coming around. When the song ended, a slow dance came on, and instead of my hands around her waist, some other guy snuck in. I watched the rest of the night as Tracey gave dance after dance to the other guy. I guess nobody ever taught her that you dance with the one that brought you. (Aside: Although, I guess, technically, her mom brought me, so maybe I should’ve been dancing with her!) Of course, I was heartbroken. All my dreams of the perfect first date with a beautiful girl were destroyed. Getting ditched at the dance destroyed any remaining confidence I had with the opposite sex, and so I didn’t dare ask another girl out on a date until halfway through my senior

Matthis 3 year. Now you may laugh and say it was only puppy love. And you’d be right. But then again, we were teenagers. We were still “puppies.” In high school, young love is all you know—that and broken hearts. “Broken Hearts” is the theme of our Ash Wednesday service tonight. We all get broken hearts in life. We live in a world that’s ready-made to break your heart! Disappointment breaks our hearts when we fail a test, get cut from the team, don’t accepted into the college we want to attend, or miss out on a promotion. Disappointment is real, and those hurts can break your heart. Other people break our hearts too: a boyfriend or girlfriend who dumps you; a date who ditches you at the dance; a spouse who cuts you down with harsh words, cheats, or divorces you; a rebellious child; or an abusive parent. Those hurts can take even longer to heal. And then there is the crushing weight of death, which smashes lives and puts an end to our plans and dreams, stealing from us the people we love the most. Sorrow breaks your heart in a particularly torturous way: your heart just withers away. Despite all the hurts we experience in life, nothing breaks your heart like sin. Whether it’s other people’s sin, or the fallout from your own failures, sin ruins everything: relationships, lives, and hearts. “For from within,” Jesus says, “out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness” (Mark 7:21-22, ESV).1 Nothing breaks a heart like sin. Not even the death of a loved crushes your spirit like a guilty conscience or a burden of shame and blame. We have “sinned in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone” (Lutheran Worship). Sin is our undoing. As Dr. Joel Biermann writes, “Sin breaks our

1

All Scripture references, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version.

Matthis 4 hearts. We are crushed by our own failure—laid low by sin—destroyed by our own wickedness and evil.”2 And that’s why we come here tonight on Ash Wednesday. Through the prophet Joel, the Lord urges us, “Return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments” (Joel 2:12-13a). Return to the Lord your God! Repent! Turn away from sin, and turn to God for his mercy and grace. Ash Wednesday is the beginning of the penitential season known as Lent, a time in the Church year when we turn introspective and do a little spring cleaning in our spiritual lives. In humble repentance, we hold out our broken hearts, beaten and bruised, blackened by sin, and ask the Lord to heal our wounded souls. We have a saying, “Time heals all wounds.” But that’s not always true. Time heals some wounds, but scars remain. Broken bones and bruised body parts mend and heal relatively quickly. But what about a broken heart? Time doesn’t heal every wound. Sometimes we just get good at pretending everything is okay, keeping up appearances, but falling apart on the inside. No, time doesn’t heal all wounds. It can’t! Ultimately, the only thing for a broken heart is God’s forgiveness. That’s why the prophet Joel invites us, “Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster” (Joel 2:13b). God is full of grace and mercy. He does not deal with us according to our sins. He doesn’t give us the punishment we deserve: eternal death and damnation. “Who knows?” Joel asks. “Who knows whether [God] will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind?” (Joel 2:14a). Who knows? We know! We know and believe that God sent his Son Jesus to die in our

Joel Biermann, “Broken Hearts,” in Restored in Christ (Fenton, Missouri: Creative Communications for the Parish, 2013), 31. 2

Matthis 5 place on the cross and take the punishment and blame for our sin. Jesus’ body bled out on the cross so you and I could be forgiven. Three days later, he rose again so that we can live forever. Now because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, we don’t have to be afraid to go to God. We come to him in humble confession and repentance, trusting in his mercy for the sake of his Son Jesus Christ. The strange truth is that God wants your broken heart. In Psalm 51, David declares, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise” (Ps. 51:17). With God, you don’t have to be ashamed of your broken heart. You don’t have to worry that he’s going to abandon you, reject you, or ditch you in the dance of life. God wants you to come to him with a broken heart. In fact, it pleases him. If you pretend you have it all together, he’ll tear your heart to shreds. “Rend your hearts!” the prophet declares (Joel 2:13). Tear it to pieces! Bloody ribbons and a heart-felt confession are a better sacrifice than a heap of offerings or a pile of good works. God cannot work with a heart that is puffed up with pride or a heart that is hardened by bitterness and unbelief. But God can work with a broken heart. In fact, God has always been in the business of healing broken hearts. The Psalmist writes, “The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit” (Ps. 34:18). “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds” (Ps. 147:3). “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Matt. 5:4). The Lord Jesus is the physician of body and soul. He sends his Word to heal our hearts (Ps. 107:20), his Word of Holy Absolution: “Almighty God in His mercy has given His Son to die for you, and for his sake forgives you all of your sins!” (Lutheran Worship). God takes your

Matthis 6 broken heart and heals it with a Word of forgiveness so that it beats and pumps with the love of Jesus. “A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise” (Ps. 51:17). So don’t be afraid of God! He loves the brokenhearted and tenderhearted. He “welcomes sinners and eats with them” (Luke 15:2, NIV). And that is why we pray with David, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me” (Ps. 51:10). Create in me a clean heart, O God! Without Christ, our hearts are broken, rotten, and full of sin. There’s nothing to love about a broken heart. But God won’t turn you away. Instead, he’ll take your broken heart and give you a new heart. He’ll take your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh (cp. Ezek. 11:19). He’ll give you the heart of Jesus! So together we pray, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin…. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit” (Ps. 51:1-2, 12). Amen. God hears your prayer, and he answers for Jesus’ sake! In the name of the Father and of the Son and of  the Holy Spirit. Amen.