Gettysburg Presbyterian Church

A Change of Heart
Gettysburg Presbyterian Church
Rev. Lou Nyiri
Jeremiah 31: 31-34
February 20, 2011

“Oh the times they are a changin’,” that’s what Bob Dylan declares.
“Turn and face the change,” David Bowie sings.
Garth Algar, the second half of the Saturday Night Live comedy duo Wayne’s World (played by Dana Carvey & Mike Myers) when asked how he felt about change said, “Change, it’s like a new [piece of clothing], at first it’s constrictive, but then it becomes a part of you.”
“If you don't like something change it; if you can't change it, change the way you think about it.,” so says Mary Engelbreit, the whimsical artist/illustrator known for her greeting cards depicting childhood.
Victor Frankl, survived Hitler’s Nazi Germany and its concentration camps, a man who watched many of his friends and family die at the hands of their captors, says of change, “When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”

How do we feel about change?
Do we approach it with hesitancy? Do we embrace it? Do we run from it?
Do we view change like the age-old joke, “How many Presbyterians does it take to change the light bulb in the sanctuary?” Answer, “What do you mean, change?!”

What if it were a life altering change which would change our lives – for the better – for the long haul?
Would we…Could we…change?
Could we turn on a dime and go another direction with our lives – especially if it meant a deeper sense of joy and purpose in our lives?

Statistics from about five years ago indicate the odds of changing are 9 to 1 against change – even if the change is for our ultimate good.
Now, I see this figure the same way I see the statistic which faces marriages these days, which declares 1 in 2 will end in divorce. I don’t share this statistic with couples in pre-marital counseling as a form of shock therapy. Rather, we use it as a way to open the dialogue so that the two parties will begin to discern what it is in their marriage and about their relationship they will commit to and continue to work on so that they are part of the 1 in 2 which last.

With that in mind, what is it we need to be thinking about which will make us each a 1 who embraces change?
What is it we need to know that will help us to be the 1 in 9 who will enact positive change – lasting change – so that we can foster an environment which will give root to a deeper sense of joy & purpose in our lives?

I believe in order to have a change of heart, in order to have a change in our lives which leads toward lasting joy & purpose, we all need someone who believes in us.

There is a great story told about former Governor of Texas, Mark White.
He and his wife were driving through the Texas countryside, out for a relaxing drive and talk.
The two came to the area where Mrs. White grew up and stopped to fuel the car at a local gas station.
Governor White noticed his wife became a little nervous. Not knowing what was going on, he didn’t say anything.
When the gas station attendant came out to their car, he began to notice what was really going on.

It was apparent by the surprised look on both his wife and the attendant’s faces as they knew each other. They acted with that awkwardness which comes when two people who have been close in the past but aren’t anymore meet again.
Governor White pretended not to notice and after their transaction was concluded at the gas station, he got into the car and they continued back down the highway.
The car was silent and neither one said a word.
All the while, Governor White kept his eyes on the road ahead and his wife stared out the window into the distance.

Mark White was considerate and patient with his silence as he continued to drive.
After about an hour, he could contain himself no longer.
“Honey,” he said, “I couldn’t help but notice how you and that gas station attendant looked at each other. You were involved with each other at one point, weren’t you?”

“I guess, I know how you feel.” White said. “You were probably thinking about that and needed some space, right?”

“I guess you were thinking about how different your two lives had become. And you were thinking that if you had married him, then you’d be the wife of a gas station attendant now, instead of my wife…Right?”

“Well, no.” she said, “Actually, I was thinking that [if I’d married him] he’d be Governor now.”

We all need someone who believes in us.
Who is your someone?
Is it a spouse? A parent? A grandparent? An aunt or uncle? A friend? A teacher? A youth leader? A coach?

Who believes in you?
Who helps you to see yourself not merely as you are right now, rather as who you could become?

To whom could you be an inspiring voice?
The one who helps another to realize their potential?
Could it be a spouse? A child? A grandchild? A niece or nephew? A co-worker? A student in your class? A person in your neighborhood?
Who needs you to be a someone who believes in their ability to become something great?

A few weeks ago, Candace and I went to the movie The King’s Speech.
If you’ve not seen it, I highly recommend it be placed on your list of “must sees” or move it into the queue on Netflix when it comes out on DVD.

The movie is about King George VI of England, a miserably shy, stammering man who is thrust unwillingly onto the world stage.
The King has a debilitating stutter and painfully hesitates to enunciate each word.
The movie is set in the time leading up to the advent of World War II.
In the movie, you see real time news footage of Hitler’s dramatic and eloquent speech style which one then contrasts with the King’s stuttering, quavering and pitchy voice.
As you sit in the theater, you watch as all of England awaits a reassuring royal word, as Europe goes deeper into World War II.

George’s wife, Elizabeth, surreptitiously sets up a visit with Lionel Logue, a self-trained Australian speech therapist. “My job,” Logue says to the King, “is to help you find your voice.”
With humor and wisdom Logue goads, cajoles, threatens and berates the King. Gradually he finds a way into George’s personal life, enticing him to relive the pain of growing up with an abrasive father and taunting brother. Logue puts the King through a series of vocal calisthenics; teaching him to curse and sing to overcome his stutter.

[9:30 a.m. – “Here’s a small taste from the movie. It is the theatrical trailer.” SHOW CLIP]
[9:30 a.m. – say, “I hope you caught the following in that clip…”]
[8:15 & 11:00 a.m. – say, “In the movie’s theatrical trailer the screen reads, …”]

“When the people needed a voice…an ordinary man would help him find the courage.”

Lionel Logue says to his wife in a time when he’s wishing George could see in himself the promise he sees, “He’s afraid of his own shadow.”
At one point Logue confronts George with these words, “You could do it…[referring to being king]…you needn’t be governed by fear.”

In a moving scene, George sits in a bedroom chair, conflicted by the future before him, tears cascading down his cheeks, and cries out, “I’m not a king. I’m a naval officer.” George’s wife, Elizabeth, consoles and encourages him with these words, “I intend to be a very good queen to a very great king.”

Colin Firth (the actor who portrays King George in the movie) in an interview with Katie Couric, talks about David Seidler, the writer of the script who himself suffered from a stutter: [Now in his 70s,] Seidler was born the year George the Sixth came to the throne (1937) –
In his childhood, Seidler recalled listening to George on the radio giving the wartime speeches and as a child who suffers from a stutter who hears the King of England giving speeches he thought, “If the King of England can do that in spite of his stammer, then so can I.”

This inspired Seidler and gave him hope and he wrote Elizabeth – the Queen Mother (George’s wife) many years later and requested of her permission to tell this story. She asked him to wait until her death because the incidents were still too painful for her family to bear. He agreed. Not knowing she would live to be 101, dying almost 9 years ago on March 30, 2002 – leaving many years after this initial conversation and request before the movie could be made.
And also more evidence that Elizabeth believed in husband.

Who believes in you?
Who helps or has helped you to find your voice?
Who inspires you to be more than you ever thought you could be?
For King George VI, it was his wife, Elizabeth, and a man who started out as speech therapist and grew to become a good friend – Lionel Logue.

For the people of Judah, for the Israelite people, that someone is God.
For those gathered in the faithful community we call the church, that someone is God.
And this God of ours believes in us.
God believes we can be so much more than we often give ourselves credit for.
God not only believes it – God promises it – God even makes sure we can understand it…it may be vague at times…though we can catch glimpses of it.

This morning’s passage from Jeremiah promises that God will make a new covenant, one that is different from the broken one made at Sinai with Moses (refer Exodus 19 – Numbers 11).

Jeremiah says, “The days are surely coming, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I brought them out of Egypt’s land – a covenant they broke, though I was their husband.” (Jer. 31:31-32)

“I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and [and here’s the ‘I believe in you part’] I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
They shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest says the LORD;
for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.” (Jer. 31: 33-34)

In these words, God says to his beloved faith community (both Israel & the Church):
“Let’s work on this thing so that we will be the 1 in 2 that makes it.”
“Let’s make the changes which need to be made so that life is joy-filled and purpose-filled.”
“Let me help you find your voice.”

Jeremiah speaks about a change of heart that will be radical.
It will be a new covenant unlike anything they’ve ever known.
It will be quite different from the one given to their ancestors – the Israelite wanderers.
This new covenant will come in the form of a law not written on stone tablets – rather it will come to them through the very muscle which pumps life throughout their bodies – their heart.

Here in Jeremiah 31, God takes the initiative (one might even say that God has a change of heart) and not only calls for real change – God empowers the change.
The old covenant – the one at Sinai – the one written on stone tablets was about facts, information and commandments. While a little on the left-brained side of thought, it was not a bad thing.
However, the Sinai covenant was broken because the people couldn’t fully adapt themselves to it.

Rather than write another legal prescription or warn of impending doom, this time God puts “the law within” so that it courses through the very core of their being.
It will flow through all they are – their emotions, their hopes, their dreams.
God, in essence, updates the covenant and reframes the relationship by moving from commandments to conversation, from rules to relationship.
No longer will God’s people simply know aboutGod as some external agent who calls for their obedience, now they could knowGod as an active presence in their lives.
God offers a new opportunity for the people to change from a pattern of failure to a relationship of forgiveness.

When Jeremiah speaks of a new covenant, he is speaking of a renewed relationship between Israel and God.
For those of us in the Christian church, we remember Christ’s words around the Passover Meal with his Disciples, words we reiterate in our Communion Liturgy, “This cup, is the New Covenant, [I’ll add – the New Relationship], sealed in my blood, whenever you drink of it, do so remembering me.”
Jesus would later embody this new covenant as he constantly called people to engage God through relationship rather than mere religious ritual.
He even went so far as to change the threat of death on the cross – into the promise of new life, resurrected life in the empty tomb.
God believes in us.
God will not give up on us.
God desires to be in relationship with us.
Believing such statements, my friends, is the very thing which will allow us to have the change of heart we need to open ourselves up to lasting change – change that promises joy & purpose in life.

I owe much of the description for the movie The King’s Speech to William H. Willimon’s essay “Voice Lessons” found in the February 8, 2011 periodical Christian Century.

The New Interpreters Study Bible, Abingdon Press, Nashville, TN, 2003, p. 1104.