ACHY BREAKY HEART

Philippians 3:18-19

     As I have told you many times and        now say with deep sadness, many          people live as enemies of
     the cross.  Their lives end with              destruction.  Their god is their              stomach, and they take pride in
     their disgrace because their                  thoughts focus on earthly things.




Luke 13:34-35

      "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those who were sent to you!  How
      often I have wanted to gather your people just as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings.  but
      you didn't want that.  Look, your house is abandoned.  I tell you, you won't see me until the 
      time comes when you say, 'Blessings on the one who comes in the Lord's name.'"

Several years ago, I worked for an organization whose music system was turned to the local country-western radio station.  When a song was really popular, like when Billy Ray Cyrus hit it big with "Achy Breaky Heart (written by Donald L. Von Tress), they played the song once an hour.  I listened to that song over and over again, but I never really understood the words.  Sometimes, with Lent, we never understand the depth of it's meaning for us until we stop, listen, and ponder God's Word.

Last week, I actually googled the lyrics of "Achy Breaky Heart,."  When I took the time to read the words without the music, I realized here was a a classic country-western song lamenting loss of the relationship with the woman he loved, a song about a broken heart.                      

Do you remember a time you were heart broken?  I do.  It was when my then fiance' confessed his love for my college roommate who was currently in a serious relationship with his best friend.  Sounds like a country-western song, doesn't it.

I've also felt heart break when people I've loved have died, but the grief that weighs most heavily on my heart is when I witness someone I love make all the wrong choices.  They are on the road to self-destruction, stopping along the way at every bad relationship and poor life choice.  "All they want is easy street.  They hate Christ's Cross.  But easy street is a dead-end street.  Those who live there make their bellies their gods; belches are their praise; all they can think of is their appetites."  (Philippians 3:19, MSG)

And no matter how hard we try to help, how loudly we try to convince them of their foolishness, how many times we've try to punish them with estrangement, the reality is that there is nothing we can humanly do to change them.

If you've experienced this kind of heart break, imagine how God feels when we estrange ourselves from Him through our rebellion and selfish, self-destructive actions that hurt God's heart.

"Oh, beloved ones whom I have made in my image, you have rejected my Word and scorned those who have shared Christ's truth and love with you.  How often I've longed to gather you in the shelter of my love like a mother hen gathers her chicks around her, keeping you safe, healing your hurts, comforting you sorrows, standing with you against the swooping hawks of misfortune and temptation.  You have turned your faces away from me, and I know too well where this path is leading you."

I think this may be one of the reasons Jesus said "no" to the temptations posed by the devil during his forty-day fast in the wilderness.  Jesus shared God's grief and love for us, a love that is unconditional and willing to sacrifice itself for us.  He wasn't going to do anything that would put our salvation at risk because even when our love for God fails and we turn away, God's love remains.  Despite what we may do, despite how many times we've hurt God's heart, God sent Christ to die on the cross so that we would be able to turn back to God and be freed from slavery to sin and death.

We are here today because of a love so great for us that it makes God's heart ache over us.  We've experienced the grace of  Christ as the story of his life, death and resurrection became a very important part of our own biographies.  Where would we be right now, if Jesus hadn't become part of our lives.  How would we get through life without his living presence with us, watching our backs and guiding us along the right paths?

Lent challenges us to not take this incredible gift for granted but to seek to live lives that are continually being transformed by the work of the Holy Spirit.  To adopt lifestyles so different from the world and sharing Jesus' love with others in real and tangible ways.  In other words, to be, as the church, the living presence of Christ.

But I feel there's another challenge for us today.  Do we have God's achy, breaky heart for those who are who are headed for destruction, as they follow their self-centered desires down the road to a spiritual death?  Do we want to gather them in, to invite them into the shelter of God's mercy and forgiveness?

Let us pray to have the heart of God, to feel for others as He feels for them.  Let us ask to see them as Jesus sees them and to love them as Christ has loved us.  And when we have the heart and the vision, may we receive the feet to carry us out into the world to them.