As a child, I played softball…or shall I say, tried to play softball.  I was always an outfielder, when I played, and I recall that many times during evening games the setting sun would sometimes make it difficult to see what was happening on the field.    It could very well have been that I was daydreaming as well.  I was not necessarily a good catcher in the outfield.  Sometimes I would not hold my glove open enough or positioned it incorrectly when trying to catch a fly ball. I remember one particular time, when I was playing left field and a “pot fly” was hit, I positioned myself to try to catch the ball as it flew high into the air and then began its arc back down to earth.  As the ball was coming down into the sky above my field position, it crossed the path of the setting sun.  Holding my glove up to catch the ball, I completely lost sight of it as I became blinded by the brilliance of the sun and the next thing I knew I was on the ground.  No…I did not catch the ball.  It in fact struck me in the head and I hit the ground.  I was of course more embarrassed than hurt.  And, I am fairly sure that my softball career ended soon thereafter.

In today’s scriptures, we have the prophet, Jeremiah, giving us some stark contrasts between trusting other humans and trusting God (Jer 17: 5-10). This is one of those times where the experience of the scripture writer plays heavily into the words of the text itself.  Put upon, Jeremiah places all of his trust in the Lord, and describes the one who does trust in the lord as a tree, “…planted beside the waters that stretches out its roots to the stream: It fears not the heat when it comes, its leaves stay green.  In the year of drought it shows no distress, but still bears fruit.”  He then quickly follows this up with a rather searing albeit truthful description of our experience as creatures,

“More tortuous than all else is the human heart, beyond remedy; who can understand it?”

Looking beyond the dualism present in the prophet’s comparison of trusting in humans versus trusting in God, this characterization of the human heart, rather than just a mere description, expresses very passionately the frustration of living a life based upon expectations either met or unmet.  These expectations can be correlated with the desires or wants we think we “need,” and expend a lot of energy in seeking possession of them.  When we don’t get what we want, or lose something to which we feel entitled, this becomes an unmet expectation and a “reason” for grief and frustration, and even the feeling of being “beyond remedy.”  There is no “bearing fruit” here, for our “roots” become “tortuous” and in fact “in-grown” like a bothersome toe-nail, rather than “stretching out to the stream.”  A misdirected heart is the sadness of our God for sure.

The evangelist, Luke (LK 16: 19-31), goes even further in illustrating the debilitating consequences of failing to live as a tree that stretches its roots out to the “stream” that can nourish and sustain, when we hear the story of the rich man and Lazarus.  During his life on earth, the rich man expended his heart’s energies in accruing possessions for himself, “dining sumptuously” on the never-full plate of expectations, while, in the process, literally stepping over another human being (Lazarus), who is “lying at his door,” poor,  vulnerable and in need of support and care.   The rich man cannot see Lazarus, or maybe even chooses not to see him.  The story goes on to indicate that when Lazarus dies, he is carried off by the angels to the “bosom of Abraham, while the rich man finds himself in the “netherworld” after his own death, with a clear view of Lazarus in paradise on the other side of a great chasm.  Despite the rich man’s plea, there seems to be the same seemingly insurmountable obstacle between he and Lazarus in death, as there had been in life – as if the pattern of the rich man’s life now has carried over into death and beyond.

Without viewing this gospel story only as a “fire and brimstone” tale of what will happen to you if you don’t live a good life, it could also be posing the sad truth that we can only appreciate something in which we have at least had some experience.  If we hope in life after death, the way that we live our lives on this earth in time would seem to be an important determinant of how we will experience life after death in eternity.  And when I say “determinant,” I am not speaking moralistically in terms of punishment for wrongful living, so much as preparing ourselves, training ourselves here right now in this life, for eternity.  It’s about practice and recognition.  How we “see” each other in this life, is really how we “see” ourselves.  If we see good or bad in others, it is related to the good or bad that we see (or refuse to see) in ourselves.  It’s that “connection” thing again.  Much about life is practice and recognition.  It’s training the “roots” of our lives to reach outward, to others, and led by God to do so.  In fact, we are only able to do so by the grace of God!

If we don’t practice, learning to hold our hearts open, like a softball glove in the outfield, we won’t catch the “ball,” i.e., the hearts of others.  We will be blinded by those things that prevent us from seeing the “ball.”  We may even get hit by this “ball” – which might not be a bad thing at all – to be “hit” by another human heart.

Yes, the human heart is tortuous when it seeks it’s self without the interacting grace of God in all of creation.  The remedy is a practice of love and compassion that becomes a transforming life pattern that bridges the “chasm” of isolation and can allow us to cross into the next life heart-in-heart with each other in God.

Peace,

Thomas