It is this open and tender heart

I have recently been giving a lot of attention to the way in which our hearts can open or close to something or someone. This has been at the center of my awareness as I prepared for last week's concert which was basically a collection of laments and blessings. It got me to wonder about the connection between lamenting and blessing; about the ways in which our openness to our own pain, hurt, loss and grief is also the source of our ability to experience and express joy, healing, forgiveness and peace.

If you spend much time reading through the Psalms you soon realize that these ancient poems cover the gamut of human emotion and speak very openly and honestly from deep within a heart that is sometimes hurting, other times ecstatically joyous, at times vindictive, other times generous, alternately hopeful then circumspect, always profoundly unapologetic about the human experience. There is within these writings an openness to and acceptance of all that is within us.

For me, this evokes a sense of trust. I believe that I can trust someone who has come to accept and affirm the full human experience and within that fullness recognize the inherent goodness of a wisdom and compassion that takes it all in without condition. I trust in the heart that is open and compassionate, embracing life in all its diversity, complexity, ambiguity and novelty.

I see in the Gospel of John a struggle, not always successful, to keep the heart open. John's gospel was written several generations after Jesus had died at a time when the community was facing increasing distress and conflict with the world in which they lived. There must have been times when this community, or at least some of the members within it, wondered if God had abandoned them. So John has Jesus say to the community, "I won't abandon you as orphans; I'll come to you. . . . At that time you will come to know . . . that you're in me and I'm in you." These must have been profoundly moving and comforting words to hear. They speak to the reality of our deep inter-connectedness with one another. And they offer to us the possibility of living out of our connectedness with each other rather than living out of our fear of hurt or abandonment.

John also believed that Jesus offered the community an authentic spirit that would be another advocate for them, and that they would know and recognize this spirit because it was not something imposed upon them from without but was within them and would remain with them. I find it incredibly hopeful to think about there being a spirit in each of us that is an advocate for all the love, light, wisdom and goodness that lies within us. Sometimes I wish that this spirit would advocate a little more forcefully when I'm not thinking or acting out of the love and wisdom that is within me. But I imagine that John's community felt the same way sometimes. So John reminds them to obey Jesus' instructions. What does he mean by this?

Well, Jesus taught that the entire law could be summed up in the instruction to love God with your whole being, and to love your neighbor just as you love yourself. John was not arguing for some strict legalistic code of ethics, but for acting out of love for God, self and neighbor. This is actually much more difficult than blindly following a bunch of rules. It asks us to keep our hearts open, to continually be mindful of our deep compassion for one another and ourselves, to remain awake to what is most true about who we are and what we were created for, it calls us to love.

This reminds me of another scripture from a letter written by John that says, "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God and everyone that loves believes in God and knows God. Those who do not love do not know God, for God is love." (I John 4:7-8)

This seems so straight-forward and obvious. The gospel of John might respond that the reason it seems so obvious is because the truth of it is already within us. As John 14:17b says, "You recognize it because it dwells in you and will remain in you." But this is not always so obvious, especially when we are in the midst of distress or conflict.

Jack Kornfield speaks very authentically and eloquently about the challenge and the opportunity of opening one's heart. He says that the open heart is open to both the full sorrow and the wondrous beauty of life, yet in our society today it is the sorrow that so often closes our heart. Kornfield writes,

- - - Reflect upon experience in Boston and walking through the memorial to the gay and lesbian holocaust victims . . . .

Openness to feel the grieve leads to learning to live with compassion and hope.

Someday perhaps our hearts will open to the perpetrators of such awful violence and destruction. . . .

Beneath the feelings of grief, anger, hurt and loss lies the mysterious reality of a universal love and compassion for all beings.

There is much more one can say about the openness of the heart in the living out of our inner love, compassion and wisdom. . . .

We each can discover this within our own ever-expanding hearts.

Close with a quotation from Walt Whitman:

"If you love me, you'll obey my instructions. At my request God will provide you with yet another advocate, the authentic spirit, who will be with you forever. The world is unable to accept this spirit because it neither perceives nor recognizes it. You recognize it because it dwells in you and will remain in you.