Deuteronomy 30:6, 11-14
Romans 10:5-15
“Circumcision of the Heart”
By: Ken Sauer, Pastor of East Ridge United Methodist Church, Chattanooga, TN eastridgeumc.org
How many times have you read about something someone did, whether it be in the newspaper or on the internet or maybe you watched a report on the news and said, out loud or in your mind, “How stupid can you get?”
It is hard to believe some of the blunders that, otherwise very intelligent and perhaps successful, people can make!!!
How many politicians have fallen due to doing something really, really stupid?
Or how about clergy persons?
No one is exempt.
Sometimes there are teachers who do really stupid and hard to understand things that get them in trouble, fired or jailed.
CEO’s of big companies sometimes fall with a loud bang or thwack!!!
Husbands and wives do “stupid things” all the time.
Marriages sometimes end over stupid mistakes and decisions.
People lose so much over something so “stupid”!!!!
“How stupid can you get?”
Well, sadly, the answer with respect to all of us is that we can all get pretty stupid!
We can know the right thing to do, and be completely committed to it, and yet go and do the exact opposite.
Crazy, is it not?
The author of Deuteronomy knew abundantly clear that life is characterized by this kind of tension, and sees that this is how it will continue to be with Israel.
And many of the Jews of Paul’s day had studied what Deuteronomy says very carefully.
They were hoping to find out what God was going to do for them after all the years they had suffered at the hands of other nations.
But why did they study Deuteronomy to find that out?
Deuteronomy 28, 29 and 30 come near the end of Moses’ leadership before the Israelites enter the Promised Land.
These chapters tell the story of what is going to happen to Israel…
…not what has happened.
If Israel keeps God’s commandments, God promises blessings; if they don’t God warns of bad things to come.
What’s more, Moses solemnly predicts that Israel will disobey God, and that the people will be driven out of the Promised Land, sent off into exile.
But then Deuteronomy Chapter 30 contains another promise which God commits God’s Self to.
When Israel has gone into exile, they might think everything is finished; but God promises that if they turn back to God even while they are in exile, God will rescue them.
And it will all be God’s doing.
God will transform the people.
God will change their hearts, so that they can at last keep God’s law.
It won’t be a matter of the people needing to climb up to heaven in order to get at the law, and they won’t have to travel across the sea to find it.
It will come and find them!!!
Then the exile will be over; the curse will be undone; Israel will be saved!!!
But what will it look like when this happens?
This question gnawed away at Jewish thinkers because many of them believed that they were still suffering the curses of Deuteronomy Chapter 29, with foreigners ruling over them and all.
They longed for God’s promise to come to fruition, they longed for God to circumcise their hearts so that they could truly love the Lord and be saved by God.
And Paul, in Romans Chapter 10 is declaring that God’s Promise has come in Jesus Christ Himself!!!
Paul is saying, “You don’t have to go up to heaven because Jesus has already come to you.
You don’t have to go down to the depths because Jesus has already been raised from the dead!
Jesus is God’s gift of grace, like the original law but completely new!!!
And all who openly acknowledge Jesus as Lord, and believe in their hearts that God raised Him from the dead, are already wearing the badge which declares, right now, that they are saved by God, vindicated by God and are God’s people.”
But this isn’t just some acknowledgement we make.
It’s not something we are born into, like being a Presbyterian since birth.
It’s not some formula or bit of magic words.
What matters is whether the heart is being changed and the life is being transformed.
And it’s not always easy.
Sometimes it’s very difficult.
Many mistakes will be made.
Indeed, we can’t do it on our own.
Some of the most awesome words in the Gospels are from the man who claimed, “I believe; help my unbelief!”
And for Jesus that was and is enough!!!
It only takes a spark!
God wants us that bad.
And God knows us better than we know ourselves.
And God knows we cannot save ourselves.
It’s time we stopped trying to do just that, and allowed Jesus to be Lord!
We only need to accept just a bit of God’s beautiful, wonderful grace…
…we only need to crack the door of our hearts open just a wee-bit for Jesus to come in.
It begins with a decision, and over time, it becomes a complete transformation as we allow God to clean up more and more of the broken mess of our lives.
God is so compassionate and so gracious.
All we need do is respond.
Literal circumcision is done by human hands; God has to circumcise the mind and heart!
We are saved by grace, through faith.
And all this is a gift of God.
But we do have to be open to it.
We have free-will.
Both ancient Israel and the Church know what we are supposed to do and we are not always very good at doing it.
There is some kind of mystery about obedience to God and disobedience.
It’s kind of like the mystery that is present in any relationship as it develops over time.
One person makes a tiny move and waits for the response of the other.
A positive response encourages another move.
And gradually a mutual commitment develops.
Trust and obedience between people and God develops like that except God is the One Who is always committed and encouraging us as we move toward God.
God has already moved toward us in Christ Jesus.
Circumcision of the heart is an ongoing journey which never ends.
And that is one of the things which make it so exciting!!!
Just imagine, we can have a relationship with the Almighty God!!!
There could be nothing better!
The Greek word for “Lord” used in Romans chapter 10 describes the relationship of king to subject or God to worshipper.
The Jews of the New Testament era used the word when reading the Hebrew Old Testament.
When they came to the name of God, they would say Lord because God’s name was too holy to say.
Christians at the end of the 1st Century were called on to never confuse the lordship of Christ with that of Caesar.
Their declaration was always to be: “Jesus Christ is Lord,” and never “Caesar is Lord.”
The word “Lord” does not indicate any kind of “take it or leave it” attitude.
It is a radical profession of faith.
We don’t claim that Jesus is Lord and then act as if we are kings and queens who sit on the throne…
…or do we?
It has been said that “Many Christians emphasize the importance of believing from the heart without stressing the necessity of confessing Christ with our lips and our lives.”
But according to Scripture, Christian faith is never just a private matter.
Believing will always lead to profession with the lips and life.
How many of you have met people, who, you could tell they were Christians just by their actions?
They didn’t have to say a thing to you about Christ, you could just see Him imprinted on their very being.
That’s what it means to have a circumcised heart.
In Romans 1:17 Paul declares that “in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed…”
In 1 Thessalonians 1:5-6 we are told that the gospel comes to people “not simply with words but also with power with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction,” and later in chapter 2 we are told that “the word of God” is “at work in [those] who believe.”
So salvation is something that happens to a person as they are grasped by the powerful gospel message, and find that their lives are being transformed, turned inside out…
…which is “the circumcision of the heart.”
Ordinary circumcision was the badge that marked out Jewish males.
Today, a transformed heart, is the visible sign that someone is now a member of the renewed covenant community.
It’s a public profession of allegiance to Christ as Risen Lord.
What am I doing, what are you doing…
…how are our lives a public allegiance to Jesus as Lord and the belief that God has raised Jesus from the dead?
In Matthew Chapter 7, Jesus makes it clear that it’s not just about paying lip service.
As a matter of fact, just paying lip service means nothing at all.
When I think of the process of God’s heart circumcision I think of Archbishop Oscar Romero who worked with the poor and oppressed, lived his life among the least in terms of material possessions and was assassinated as he presided over worship.
Or how about Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German Lutheran pastor who was hanged for standing up against Nazism, and who continues to speak to us through his writings, as he encourages the Church to live out its prophetic calling within community.
I think about some neighbors of mine who have taken in a homeless boy.
He lives in their home, and he probably wouldn’t have been able to make it on the streets…he probably wouldn’t have survived if these people weren’t living their faith in Christ the best they can.
I also think of you all, who are becoming more and more active in your profession of faith in Christ!!!
God is transforming this Church, and will, through this Church transform the community in which we have been placed.
But of course, those who continually resist God will not understand the way of Jesus Christ.
Those around us may not always embrace what God is calling us to do.
Those who are being transformed by God begin to proclaim that the meek are blessed.
Those whose hearts are being circumcised welcome the outcastes, and beat plowshares into pruning hooks.
The world needs a transformed people who will serve it humbly and with love.
As Paul quotes Joel 2:32: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved,” and then goes on to ask: “How then, can they call on the one they have not believed in?
And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard?
And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?
And how can they preach unless they are sent?
As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’”
Do you know that we all, each week, are called together here for worship and then are sent forth from our worship, back into the world, called and sent to tell others about the Good News of Jesus and God’s love?
How are we doing with that?
In the final analysis, it is really the feet of those whose hearts are being circumcised that Paul is talking about.
Our feet are beautiful as we proclaim the good news of Jesus with our lips and our lives.
And as we do this, a most mysterious and wonderful thing happens, another move is made on our part as a gradual mutual commitment toward a pure relationship with God continues to develop.
And interaction between an extraordinarily openhanded and loving God and a responsive, yet broken people takes place.
For it is with our hearts that we believe and are justified, and it is with our mouths that we confess and are saved.
Praise God.
Amen.
