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Looking at the Heart


The Rev. Dr. Perry M. Pauley

I know that Valentine’s Day is right around the corner because of the number of hearts that are showing up everywhere. They’re in every grocery store (I’m looking at you, Trader Joe’s),on every TV commercial, on all the ads that pop up on social media, and on and on and on. The way in which the martyrdom of St. Valentine in Rome—a figure whose actual existence is now often questioned—came to be associated with love and romance is something of a mystery, but that’s perhaps a different post for a different day.


The heart is also given a very prominent place in the Bible. The Psalmist, in a moment of distress, prays “create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. ”Proverbs 3 instructs us to “trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight.” Jesus, paraphrasing slightly the great Shema Israel from Deuteronomy, reminds us to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” These are just a few of the more than 650 references to the heart in the NRSV translation of the Bible.


This Sunday, we will read a very interesting and challenging passage about the heart from the prophet Jeremiah: “The heart is devious above all else; it is perverse. Who can understand it?” On the face of it, it’s already clear that this is not one of the great and uplifting verses about the heart that helps us find joy and purpose and meaning. In fact, the Hebrew word here translated as perverse actually means incurably sick. Our hearts are places where we feel a whole variety of emotions: pain, fear, anger, and selfishness collide with joy, peace, friendship, and hope.


This kind of heart-sickness happens when our hearts are restless and full of tension. It is the place where we struggle with our impulses (good or bad), our hopes, and our anxieties. It is the place where we struggle to make sense of ourselves and our passions. It is the place where we experience the greatest joy and the greatest pain. Jeremiah is right: Who can understand all of that?


The good news is that we have a powerful cure against heart-sickness: trusting God. Jeremiah says that people who trust in God will be blessed in that they will be rooted in their faith regardless of the struggles they face. The Psalmist takes it further: Trusting in God’s loving wisdom and instruction gives a faith foundation that is unshakable.


I know that a lot of people are struggling right now with very real challenges. We collectively carry grief and worry, fear and anxiety, but also hope and courage. Part of a life of faith is tapping into hope and resting in God’s provision for us, even when we are distressed. This does not always come naturally; I believe it is one of the most challenging spiritual disciplines to develop. It’s seeing and then working toward what the writer of Hebrews called our desire for “a better country,” the promised land to which God is calling us in the here and now and in the life of the world to come.


It’s my hope and prayer that our hearts will be full of God’s peace and love. God bless you and be with youtoday and always.


The Rev. Dr. Perry M. Pauley

Associate Rector, Christ Church of the Ascension

Paradise Valley, Arizona

Merry Christmas!

By The Rev. Fr. Rod Hurst+ • January 4, 2024
Merry Christmas! Today, this Eleventh Day of Christmas (for us who begin counting on December 25th), I’d like to share some wisdom from the pen of Michael Ramsey, the 100th Archbishop of Canterbury. As Bishop of Durham, he was part of the episcopal entourage and inner circle of bishops surrounding Queen Elizabeth II at her Westminster Abbey Coronation in 1953 and, later, Archbishop of York before his elevation to Canterbury in 1961. In the 1980’s, after his retirement from Canterbury, Ramsey was a regular presence at my seminary in Wisconsin where I first learned about him years later. The following is an excerpt from one of Bishop Ramsey’s annual letters to his diocesan clergy on New Year’s Day. This is also good advice for all the people of God and us at Christ Church of the Ascension as we go into 2024 expectant of what lies ahead and grateful for all our many blessings, past, present and future. Here are The Baron Arthur Michael Ramsey’s five tips for the new year. 1. Thank God. Often and always. Thank him carefully and wonderingly for your continuing privileges and for every experience of his goodness. Thankfulness is a soil in which pride does not easily grow. 2. Take care about confession of your sins. As time passes the habit of being critical about people and things grows more than each of us realize. [He then gently commends the practice of sacramental confession.] 3. Be ready to accept humiliations. They can hurt terribly but they can help to keep you humble. [Whether trivial or big, accept them he says.] All these can be so many chances to be a little nearer to our Lord. There is nothing to fear, if you are near to the Lord and in his hands. 4. Do not worry about status. There is only one status that Our Lord bids us be concerned with, and that is our proximity to Him. “If a man serve me, let him follow me, and where I am there also shall my servant be” (John 12:26). That is our status; to be near our Lord wherever He may ask us to go with him. 5. Use your sense of humor. Laugh at things, laugh at the absurdities of life, laugh at yourself. Through the year people will thank God for you. And let the reason for their thankfulness be not just that you were a person whom they liked or loved but because you made God real to them. *** Amen! and Happy New Year !!  Grace & peace, Fr. Rod+

Rector's Note for 12/21/23

By The Rev. Fr. Rod Hurst • December 21, 2023
Rector's Note for 12/21/23 As we enter this season of giving in celebration of the Incarnation of our Lord, I want to thank you for your generosity to Christ Church of the Ascension during 2023 in your gifts of time, talent and treasure. I want to say a special thank you also to those who have pledged for 2024! As our 2024 Stewardship Campaign continues, if you haven’t yet completed your pledge card or pledged online, I encourage you to do so as an act of spiritual worship and tangible prayer for the future of the Church in thanksgiving for all of God’s many blessings these past 60 years. Please join me in giving from the heart for the building up of this community of faith to inspire hope and love through worship and service in the Church and in the world. Make Christ Church of the Ascension part of your daily spiritual practice as you prayerfully discern what God is calling you to give in 2024 starting now. PLEDGE HERE Grace and peace, Father Rod+

A Note for Thanksgiving

By The Rev. Fr. Rod Hurst • November 16, 2023
A Note for Thanksgiving My series on the Collects of Thomas Cranmer will continue at a later date; but today I’d like to share with you one of my favorite stories by pastoral care pioneer Howard Clinebell. It speaks to us about the fact that the Church, our church, is not only a house of worship and prayer but a hospital for the broken, where Christ welcomes each person, where they are and for who they are. As Christ's hands and voice we then bring the healing arts of spiritual friendship and Christ-like love to all Christ brings our way. If we were all Christ-like all the time we would have no need for Christ and his Church; but everyday experiences tell us all that we have need of Christ each and every day of our lives—the healed and the healers alike. This charming and cautionary tale tells us what we are meant to be, and what we could become if we lose sight of our mission; but it is a reminder of our potential when we retain and, as necessary, reclaim our Christ-centered focus. Thus we give thanks! Please touch or click the link below to read the story. Lifesaving Station Grace and peace, Fr. Rod+
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