Jan 24 - Spirituality Type 2 Heart

Spiritual Type #2 of Wares’ Spiritual Wheel

Preacher: Rev. Blaine Scott

Scripture: Psalms 57: 1-11

Sermon: Getting to the Heart of Things

Psalm 57 -
¹Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge;
in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, until the destroying storms pass by. 
²I cry to God Most High, to God who fulfils his purpose for me. ³He will send from heaven and save me,  he will put to shame those who trample on me.
God will send forth his steadfast love and his faithfulness. 

⁴I lie down among lions  that greedily devour human prey; their teeth are spears and arrows, their tongues sharp swords. 

⁵Be exalted, O God, above the heavens.  Let your glory be over all the earth. 

⁶They set a net for my steps; my soul was bowed down.
They dug a pit in my path,  but they have fallen into it themselves.
⁷My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast.
I will sing and make melody.  Awake, my soul!
Awake, O harp and lyre!  I will awake the dawn. 
⁹I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples;
   I will sing praises to you among the nations. 
¹⁰For your steadfast love is as high as the heavens;
   your faithfulness extends to the clouds. 

¹¹Be exalted, O God, above the heavens.  Let your glory be over all the earth.

Psalm 57 is a prayer that includes complaining, praise, and thanksgiving.

Illustrative of type #2 on the spiritual wheel, the psalmist is one who feels deeply – moving from cries to God Most High, to lying down among lions; From naming enemies who dug a pit for David to die in to singing God’s praises for His faithfulness that extends to the clouds.

Many of the Psalms, like today’s reading, offer a model of relating with God through the heart.  Because people within the heart quadrant of the wheel believe God to be personal and present, they can really get to the heart of things while listening to great music or steeping themselves in prayer.  It is through a personal relationship with Jesus that we then are transformed to being able to proclaim God’s faithfulness and steadfast love.

Persons of the heart type tend to experience highs and lows in religious feeling.  The high moments are uplifting, and the low points may be worrisome, even depressing.  The gift is an ability to experience God in the moment with spiritual goose bumps.  Whether it’s in the mountain breeze whispering through the pines and tickling your skin, or in the sunshine on the face – feeling the warmth of God’s peace rising up within you. Or even a burden – the nagging feeling that something has to be done or someone must be prayed for.

Henri Nowen writes, “In our world of loneliness and despair, there is an enormous need for men and women who know the heart of God, a heart that forgives, that cares, that reaches our want to heal.  In that heart there is no suspicion, no vindictiveness, no resentment, and not a tinge of hatred.  It is a heart that wants only to give love and receive love in response.  It is a heart that suffers immensely because it sees the magnitude of human pain and the great resistance to trusting the heart of God who wants to offer consolation and hope.”

(In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership, 1989.)

A friend of mine was telling me about Ben, a 25 year-old ministry intern at his church.  Ben worked in youth ministry with my friend’s kids.  Recently, Ben his wife and nephew travelled to Haiti to be in ministry at an orphanage.  When the earthquake hit, Ben’s wife & nephew managed to run from the building and escape.  Yet Ben was buried beneath the concrete.  As time goes by, they hear Ben’s voice – he’s singing hymns and other songs.  It became apparent that they would not be able to rescue him.  And in the final minutes of Ben’s life, he was heard singing a hymn about the peace of God.

Now, it’s important to gain awareness and balance in the midst of a heart spirituality. For of course, life is not based on emotions.  For example, One company advertises "a huggable, washable, and talking Jesus plush doll." The Jesus doll sells for $15.95. Sporting fuzzy dreadlocks and a satiny beard, when you squeeze the talking Jesus doll’s red heart he speaks a few affirmations.  - Sojourners magazine (July 2005), 

As we progress on the spiritual path through life, we take from the past and from others around us those elements that nourish and promote within us the spiritual life.  We experience the freedom to appreciate and the possibility to grow from other styles and ways.  We need the head and heart styles to experience the revealed presence of God through study and liturgy, through music and prayers.  

Now farther along in the journey, we begin to carve and shape our own individual spirituality.  We learn to listen to and value our intuition and inclinations.  We’re always a part of the faith community, yet we have our own unique needs and attributes. 

We can use the information about spiritual type to be more sensitive in planning our path of spiritual growth.  In doing so, we might consider both the strength of our predominant type and the growing edge presented by its opposite. 

For example, I am a dominant type 2 with leanings in type 3.  Therefore, it is not only important for me to renew my inner life via singing praises, praying with others, and retreating to a peaceful place for renewal;  I also need to do some type 1 and 4 activities such as critical thinking, working on behalf of a social cause, and seeking ways to help transform our society.

Last Sunday, Larry Beckner spoke articulately about type 1 – the rational mind which experiences God through the written word and thoughtful study. Type 2 – the heartfelt intuition feels God close in the depths of the soul often expressed through music or verbal stories.

Two Sundays ago, I shared a story of a climber stuck on a rope hanging from a cliff. In the dense fog, he would not release his harness in faith and drop to the ground below, so he died .

As Larry shared the spirituality that connects with God through the head, he told another story of a climber; A young man who was stranded while climbing a cliff and was hanging from a rope.  He too was lost in a storm and could not see the ground.  He closed his eyes and prayed: “Is there anyone up there?  Help me.”  A loud voice boomed: “Let go!  A short pause, and the young man replied, “Is there anyone else up there?”   A logical question.

Today, the feelings of the heart  would have the climber suspended at the end of his rope – accepting his fate and with heartfelt peace sings “Kum By Yah my Lord, Kum By Yah…” haha.

Type-2 feeds on emotionally moving experiences with the transformational goal being that of personal renewal.  The larger vision is to achieve holiness of life.  Persons in this quadrant may express “I need God with skin on”.  To feel God’s presence through a hug, conversation, etc.  There’s a Family Circus cartoon that shows the kids giving hugs to one another and their parents.  The girl pronounces in a matter-of-fact way, “Our arms are the only ones God has to hug people.”

Contributions to our community include adding a warm friendly feeling that people have just walking into the sanctuary, good energy, and an expression of faith such as hospitality and sharing your spiritual experiences with others.

In his book Jesus, the Middle-Eastern Storyteller, Gary M. Burge shares a moving story of a modern-day Good Samaritan: Not long ago in Jerusalem's famed Hadash Hospital, an Israeli soldier lay dying. The nursing staff on his floor knew his story and carefully avoided his room. Everyone was simply waiting for his life to expire. You see, the soldier happened to be part of a regiment that patrolled the Occupied West Bank, and his unit was known for its ferocity and war-fighting skills. The Palestinians living in occupation hated these troops. They were merciless and could be cruel. Their green berets always gave them away.

One evening the soldier went into cardiac arrest. All the usual alarms went off, but the nursing staff did not respond. Even the doctors looked the other way. Yet on the floor another man was at work—a Palestinian Christian janitor—who knew this story as well and also knew the meaning of the emergency. 

Incredibly, he was a man whose village had been attacked by this soldier's unit. When the Palestinian heard the alarm and witnessed the neglect, his heart was filled with compassion. He dropped his broom, entered the soldier's room, and attempted to resuscitate the man by giving him cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The scene was remarkable: a poor Palestinian man, a victim of this soldier's violence, now tried to save his enemy while those who should have been doing this stood on the sidelines. …

When you understand what it means for an enemy to love an enemy—and for the righteous to show neglect—then you will have a picture of the power of God's grace at work in a person's heart.

Gary M. Burge, Jesus, the Middle-Eastern Storyteller (Zondervan, 2009)

Please remember that God has not left you just because one moment is not as high as a previous moment.  Jesus is immanently close; He was God with skin on.  So accept the low points along with the peak moments, because when we walk through the valleys Jesus walks with us. 

From his hospital bed on the eve of open heart surgery, Pastor Bruce McIver asked his cardiologist, Dr. Dudley Johnson, "Can you fix my heart?"  The physician, known for being short and to the point, said, "Sure." Then he quickly turned and walked away.

Following the successful 12-hour surgery, McIver's wife, Lawanna, asked the doctor, "What about my husband's future quality of life?"  Johnson paused and then said,         "I fixed his heart; the quality of his life is up to him."  (Bruce McIver, "Stories I Couldn't Tell While I Was a Pastor" - Guideposts, 1991)

Jesus Christ gave his life, gave away his heart, to give us new life and a forgiven heart. The quality of our life is up to us.

James Fenhagen writes, we “carry within us a covenant calling us to a life of faithfulness in relation to the holiness of God and the needs of the human family… The biblical image of the covenant is an image of human and divine solidarity, of relatedness and moral responsibility. It is in relation to this deep sense of belonging that our sense of identity comes – the sense that who I am and who I will become is tied up with our capacity to live with integrity and compassion in relation to the human family of which we are a part.” (Mutual Ministry)

Therefore in the spirit of the Psalmist, every time you feel the Spirit movin’ in your heart, be sure to pray! It will improve your quality of life!

(sing hymn “Every Time I Feel the Spirit”)