LIFT UP YOUR HEARTS
Psalm 19:1-4a, 7-14

A sermon given by the Rev. Richard H. Taylor
October 17, 2004 / Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost

Wow! Isn't this great? Isn't it wonderful to finally reach this day? We have spent years preparing for this occasion. "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the earth shows forth God’s handiwork." Thanks so much to so many people.

Way back in 1959 Dr. Wilson wrote an article about why this building needed an elevator. The idea probably came earlier. And here we are, all these years later, and the desire of our hearts is fulfilled.

Thanks goes to those who have contributed to this work through the Access for All campaign. Pledges are continuing through next year. So, we thank those who have given, are continuing to give, and will give. Thanks to all. The symbol of the Access for All campaign was a heart being held by a hand and being lifted up in front of the Meeting House. The liturgical phrase behind the picture was "Lift up your hearts!"

In our hearts we saw those who had been carried in wheel chairs, we saw those who had pulled so hard on the railings, we saw those who were breathing heavily after getting up the stairs, we saw those who stayed at home, not thinking they could get in. And in our hearts, we lifted up their heart, like our elevator will lovingly lift them up.

Access for all! Lift up your hearts!

Now it is interesting that the phrase "lift up your hearts," has become so common in Christian church circles. Many congregations begin the communion service "lift up your hearts!"

But when you read the Bible there are far more references to lifting up your heads, and lifting up your hands, than there are to lifting up your hearts.

Now I agree with the Bible that we could use some head lifting. There are a lot of people who feel guilty, who don't feel they relate well to other people, who are embarrassed by who they are: who go around dejected, moping guilty, unsure, uncertain. The Gospel is Good News. You are accepted! Lift up your head!

And we could also do some hand lifting. In many religious denominations people lift up their hands in prayer. In others people clap with the music. The body is enlisted in prayer and praise. The Bible is in favor of that, even if some cold New Englanders have forgotten. So feel free to move your hands. Lift up your hands!

But lift up your hearts – that’s not seen that much. The only place I could actually find that phrase in my Bible was in the book of Lamentations. Now that is interesting, because Lamentations is a book of laments. Much of it is a cry of despair about the wages of sin. Much of it is mourning, and tears, and regrets. Much of it is a treatise on how the world is not what we would wish. And it is in this context of despair, in this setting of difficulty, in this time of trouble, that Jeremiah tells us "Lift up you hearts." "Let us lift up our hearts as well as our hands to God in heaven." It is a transformative prayer. It involves lifting up our sadness, lifting up questionings, lifting up the inexplicable questions of life.

Lifting up your heart comes out of your lament. We wanted to lift up Eleanor Wrenn with this elevator, but we are too late. We wanted to lift up Barbara Hird with this elevator this morning, but she is home ill. And I am sure you can think of others. Others we had to carry. Others we wanted to have at a wedding or a funeral, and we couldn't do it, they couldn't get here. It is from sadness our hearts are raised. But I am sure that many of those who couldn't get here know what we are doing today, know what we are trying today, and are singing with the choirs of angels, lift up your hearts.

The whole ministry of this Church is a ministry of lifting up hearts. We rise from lament to blessing. You have been excluded? We want to lift up your heart. You have been hungry, here is bread, lift up your heart. You don’t have a home? Here is Beneficent House, here is a place to stay. Lift up your heart! You are not so sure you can pay for your education? Lift up your heart! You have not yet heard about the resurrection of the dead? Lift up your heart!

What we are doing here is a movement lifting up out of lament. And all that rises must converge. When we lift up our hearts, as both Jeremiah and Ezekiel teach, God will give us one heart. Our uplifted hearts will come together.

The Bible cares about your heart. The Psalmist says again and again that God loves the "upright of heart." A lifted up heart can become upright, stand up for the good, do good deeds. Your heart can be upright.

And Jesus says that "where your treasure is there will your heart be also." If your heart has been in lifting people up, you have put your treasure there. If your heart has been in praising and singing to God, your treasure is there. If your heart is for the sick, the lonely, the hungry, those suffering under injustice, you put your treasure there, for your treasure and your heart overlap.

And Jesus says, "Let not your heart be troubled, you believe in God, believe also in me.... For in my Father's house are many mansions.... I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am, there you will be also." The reason not to be troubled is that we have a place with God. On this day, our hearts turn away from trouble, lift up out of trouble, not only because we have a mansion, a place with God in eternity, but because we have a place with God here and now; a place with Jesus where we lift up each other's hearts, lift up each other's laments, lift up each other's infirm and failing bodies, until we are lifted up into that home that awaits us. Lift up your hearts!

And Jesus says, "I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you." This is where the uplifted heart finally goes. This is where our text affirms "the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart." We rejoice in heart, not because we are giddy and foolish. We rejoice because we have been in the place of lament." We rejoice because many of us have been in gutters and needed lifting. We rejoice because things we thought could not be done have been done.

We rejoice because we have given. We rejoice because we have built. But all the more we rejoice because God has given. We rejoice because God has built. We rejoice because God has lifted up. And that is what sustains our lives! Lift up your hearts! We lift them up unto the Lord! God's name be praised.

Amen.