REFLECTION - FROM THE HEART 

by Rev Dr Clive W Ayre

Everyone would recognise the heart as being synonymous with love, even though we know that strictly speaking the seat of emotion is in our brain. Yet as one who has experienced heart surgery, my hunch is that the heart is more attuned to our emotions than some might allow. But what is love? There are probably many answers, one of which is expressed in the Song of Solomon 2:8-13, a simple poem about the love of a man and a woman as God intended.

Most of us, at some point in our lives, will know the bite of winter, and that may come in different ways. The hope offered here is that the winter passes. The key is a spiritual strength built upon the grace of God in Jesus Christ. One writer put it like this: Thawing happens when the community of worship lifts us from our isolation; when truth is spoken in love, and we come upon those surprises of grace that open a door where before a dead end seemed final. When this happens, the winter of isolation is past; indeed, the Song affirms that “spring is here”. Spring can be taken as an image of the flowering of love which is expressed with disarming frankness and deep intimacy.

Mark 7:1-8, 17-23 records a debate Jesus was having with people. It had to do with the role of tradition and ceremony, and Jesus was clearly not respecting it as some thought he should. I have to say that I believe some ceremonial traditions are important; but as Jesus taught, it is at best superficial to focus on the externals. If we want to get to the heart of the matter deep inside, it is not with ourselves that we begin, but with the reality of God. James wrote (James 1:17-27): Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

It is in Jesus Christ that we see the essential content of God's nature, and that the whole of life is somehow caught up in God. It is difficult to over-state the significance of God at the centre of our lives – at the centre of our affections, our commitments, our values, and indeed all that drives us as people. Jesus said, “For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come….”

The heart’s test is therefore measured in terms of what it produces. The true response, or the response of the 'fair dinkum' Christian if you like, is one that begins to mirror the pattern of God.  As God is known by God’s deeds and actions, so it will be for us. Or, as James wrote, very much in the spirit of Jesus, "be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves”. But he pointed to something far more enduring – that when our lives have been renewed and transformed from within, then there is an outcome that begins to reflect the true image of God in humankind. It is from the heart of a people transformed by the presence of Christ within, that there comes the glorious and practical expression of divine love.