WHO SEALS YOUR HEART?

Song of Songs 8:  6-7a; John 20: 19-31

Songwriter Paul Stookey wrote  this about Jesus: “He is now to be among you, at the calling of your heart, rest assured this troubadour is acting on his part; the union of your spirits here has caused him to remain; for whenever to or more of you are gathered in his name there is love.”  Of course his message isn’t just from the 1970s; it is from Matthew 18 verse 20. In first John chapter 4 we are reminded that “God is Love.” But even before that, there was a love song in the Bible known as “The Song of Songs” or “The Song of Solomon.” In placing it in the Bible, early church authorities offered readers poetry that might have made them blush at first; some might read it as just a human love story. But there were clearly readers of that ancient love song, parts of which pre-date the 3^rd century B.C.E., who believed it was about more than the romantic love of another person; it was also about the sealing of one’s heart to God. Later people would be reminded of those words as Paul used marriage imagery to say that Christ loves the church as Christians love him in return. Even Jesus reminds us in Luke 12: 34 that “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Lovers want to be the treasure of their lover’s heart; God wants to be the treasure of ours, sealed by the sacraments and by our profession of faith, hope, and love. Today let us see who has sealed our hearts.

When John describes the seven seals in the Revelation Jesus gave him, he was describing something that was protected, set apart, consecrated, and even secret. When Peter Yarrow in a children’s song described “sealing wax, and other fancy stuff,” I didn’t have a frame of reference for what that was. But in a recent mini-series about the English Tudors, I watched the king’s aid pour hot wax over the crease of a wound up scroll, and the king put his signet ring into the wax as popes and other monarchs have done. It “seals” the contents as being the genuine message from one to another. The seal is only to be broken by the intended recipient; if it is broken earlier it is clearly noticeable. The ancient poet asks a lover to “set me as a seal upon your heart.” We might even imagine God saying to us “Set me as a seal upon your heart. Take me in, give me a home there, and seal it. Let only my love dwell there so that you too will never forget my love.” And God surely hopes that we would say, one by one, “Set me as a seal upon your heart” as well.

As I have begun my doctoral studies in Christian spirituality, a new world of Christian mystics and writers has been opened to me. With the neo-Platonic influence of his day, St. Augustine refers to his loving God like this:

“I came to love you too late, Oh Beauty, so ancient and so new. Yes, I came to love you too late: what did I know? You were inside me, and I was out of my body and mind, looking for you!” The joyful St. Francis of Assisi, who felt God’s love especially through nature, said: “Such love does the sky now pour that whenever I stand in a field, I have to wring out the light when I get home!”  And it was also St. Francis who “discovered a religious calling to praise God through courtly and knightly service (as in chivalrous knights) loving a figure he imagined as a heavenly lady: Lady Poverty.” (quote from Francis J. Ambrosio) It was his beloved Claire of Assisi who wrote about Christ: “Draw me after You! We will run in the fragrance of Your perfumes, O heavenly Spouse!” St . Teresa of Avila once wrote, “I love what I could love, until I held Him (capital H), for then—all things—every world, disappeared.” And the mystic St. John of the Cross famously wrote two poems about God, one about feeling the absence of God called “The Dark Night of the Soul,” and one about the divine illumination and love he felt from God, and that his heart passionately poured back to God in return. He called it “The Living Flame of Love,” and some of the stanzas include these words:  “O Living Flame of Love, that woundest tenderly my soul in its utmost depth! As Thou art no longer grievous, perfect Thy work, if it be Thy will ….How tenderly Thou fillest me with Thy love.”

It was to Jeremiah that God lovingly said, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; in Biblical terms when Adam knew Eve he loved her; here we know that before God formed Jeremiah in the womb he loved him. God loved him from his creation, perhaps even at the very idea of him! “And I consecrated you” means, “I have set you apart as my own.” I have put my seal over your soul and pressed the signet ring into it, claiming your soul as mine. And God offers the very same words to those who love the Wonderful One! Even before any one of us was born, God loved us; God loves us still. The seal is God’s claim on our heart, even, disappointingly to God, even if it is unrequited love, even if we do not love God back.  “What wondrous love is this O my soul, O my soul, what wondrous love is this, O my soul? What wondrous love is this that cause the Lord of bliss to bear the dreadful curse (of my sins) O my soul?  How is it that God keeps loving us through our sins, our self-centeredness, or our hatefulness?  It’s like a good parent and a child, or good friends, or lovers where devotion continues despite disappointments. But sometimes something is done so heineous to the other that love dries up or is withdrawn. It is understandable when a person’s wounds are so deep. But can you imagine what God says when you or I wound God?  The Apostle Paul experienced God’s grace and mercy in such a way that he wrote about it to the Christians in Rome: Paul says this is God’s stand:  “Nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Most of the time we talk about showing reverence for God, or being awestruck in God’s presence, or we may think of God as handy to have around in a crisis but otherwise we just let God be along for the ride. But what if we took the undying love found in literature and real life, like Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, like Oliver and Jenny devotion in Erich Segal’s, Love Story, like Noah’s love for Allie in Nicholas Sparks’ The Notebook, or like Catherine and Peter Marshall’s love for each other told in stories after his death: what if we took that kind of love and offered it back to God? How radical would it be if, from our lips we said to God, “Neither life nor death, nor angels nor principalities, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate you from my love.”  What would that do for God? How do you imagine the holy heart would react? And isn’t that ultimately what God longs to hear? Using either the mystic’s analogy of burning passionate love, or the love that is apparent is in the Song of Songs; or using other Biblical examples like that offered by Mary the mother of Jesus, loving God and loving others is even Jesus’ new commandment. Surely God loves to receive love, not just give love! The one who has put a heavenly seal on your heart and said, “You are mine,” will love to hear the words from you, and from me today, saying: “And I am yours.” Passion, devotion, forgiveness, and great care are hallmarks of what one can offer another in love! That is also what God offers us. What energy and joy could be produced if each of our hearts, one by one, came alive today with renewed passion, devotion, forgiveness, and care toward God?

Jeffrey Sumner                                                      April 11, 2010