Drawing Near with a True Heart

26th Sunday after Pentecost – B (Proper 28)                                     LSB #’s 596:1-4, 580:1-5, 917
Text – Hebrews 10:22
 
Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience & our bodies washed with pure water.
 
DRAWING NEAR WITH A TRUE HEART
 
 On two Sundays each month,  as we did about 15 minutes ago,  I use a portion of the sermon text to invite us into the presence of God.   You should recognize these words, “Let us draw near  with a true heart…”   They invite us to approach God our Father in the fullest confidence  that He will grant us forgiveness  in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
It’s in that vein that we confess our sins – freely,  openly  & with a true heart.    Yet,  we struggle to explain  what is the practical effect  of that forgiveness.   To put it rather crassly, “What good does it do?”   Most of us here this morning  are so accustomed to the word forgiveness  that it’s become cliché.   It’s meaning is shallow & watered down. 
To illustrate that, what is meant when God’s Word uses the phrase “true heart”?  Could you explain it  if a child asked you?   What examples would you give?    Do you  have a true heart?   The Word of God in Hebrews  invites us to draw near with one.  What happens if our heart is not true  when we draw near? 
Few people in our culture are contemplating questions like those  because our culture no longer thinks in Biblical terms.  If you use a hymnal during our services, you may notice, on the right-hand side of the pages, numerous Bible verse citations.  That’s because  a large portion of our service comes directly from the Word of God.  We are speaking His own words back to Him. 
There are two basic reasons for that.   No sinful creature will ever be able to outdo the Words of God.   Secondly, speaking them repeatedly  helps us learn to think  in Biblical terms.  That is far healthier for all of us  than thinking in worldly & sinful terms.  Clearly, “Let us draw near with a true heart” is not the kind of terminology that people of the world use.  Since we have trouble defining the phrase,  that highlights the sinful & worldly aspect of who we are,  of how you & I  have been shaped & formed by our ungodly culture.  The orders of worship that we use here  work to counteract that illiteracy. 
If we have trouble explaining why we draw near to God  so that He may grant us forgiveness,  one root of the problem goes back to our view of God.  Most of us have known we’re forgiven  for so long  that we take it for granted.  Few of us live in terror of our sins.  We tend to have forgotten the words written by King David in Psalm 51, as he pleads to God:
“Against you,  you only,  have I sinned & done what is evil in your sight…”  (51:4 ESV)  Because many of our sins hurt other human beings,  we tend to think of our sins only in those narrow terms.   Yet,  David rightly acknowledges  that all of our sins are against the holy & almighty Creator of the universe.   Even the little white lies we tell  are deserving of hell. 
That is what the book of Hebrews is considering  as the Epistle reading for today begins, “And every priest stands daily at his service,  offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never  take away sins.”  (Hebrews 10:11 ESV)   The author is highlighting how much superior is the new covenant  to the old covenant. 
In the OT, the priests offered multiple sacrifices that were never fully effective.  Jesus, on the other hand, made a single offering that is effective for all of time.   In His sacrifice, Jesus perfected,  for eternity,  every human being who follows Him.   One of the chief purposes of all the OT sacrifices  was to point ahead to the one  ultimate sacrifice  of God’s Son. 
All sins are against God & God alone, as David wrote.   Then,  God alone paid for every one of them on the cross,  so that you & I have the privilege of drawing near to Him with a true heart.   Now,  Jesus waits for that day when He will judge the world.  Until then, He is actively involved in ruling  over all the ongoing affairs of this world, as Hebrews puts it, “But when Christ had offered for all time  a single sacrifice for sins,  He sat down at the right hand of God.”  (10:12 ESV)   He’s not sitting there  to take a nap.    Jesus is interceding for everyone who longs to receive the peace & the rest  that He earned for us by His death & resurrection. 
Peace & rest are some of the practical effects  of having sins  forgiven.    Living in a state of unbelief  is not a life filled with peace & rest.   Nevertheless, approaching almighty God even as a believer can be a very painful thing to do.   It can be similar to having a road rash wound  scrubbed clean  to prevent infection.   Personal confession of sin exposes  our sinful nature! 
Christians prefer to keep that side of our lives hidden  because it is embarrassing to expose.  Unbelievers often celebrate that side of their lives,  & the difference reveals a vast gulf that exists  between believers & unbelievers.   Believers still sin,  yet by the power of the Holy Spirit,  it’s something we are not proud of.  Our true heart  longs to draw near to God to be clean. 
In the OT,  Jeremiah wrote of what Messiah would be bringing about with God’s new covenant: “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, & I will write it on their hearts.  And I will be their God,  & they shall be my people.”  (31:33 ESV) 
Jeremiah was describing  not the old law that would be fulfilled in Christ,  but the law of willing obedience that Jesus’ love for us inspires within us.  That willing obedience is one way to describe the true heart.   Yes,  it’s never pure  here on earth because we still have a sinful nature doing war against that true heart, but it is real,  & it takes faith in Christ to see that true heart. 
Unbelief looks at that true heart & laughs, “You’ve been duped.  You’re a sucker & a fool.”  And the real struggle is  our own sinful nature  agrees.  Those are examples of what a true heart is not.  The Word of God helps us to counter the thought that believers are fools when it tells us, “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’”  (Psalm 14:1a ESV)   It is unbelief that celebrates being a fool,  even if unwittingly.  As children of God, we can see that clearly in our culture today as it celebrates numerous forms of rebellion against the good & right will of God.   However, we should not gloat  for our sins are just as evil & corrupt. 
The difference between a true heart & an evil one is simply belief versus unbelief.  Believers humbly rejoice in the fact that they are fools for Christ  because He has removed their sins as far as the east is from the west.  Though  telling little white lies is deserving of hell,  those lies will not see be seen when believers face judgment.  Jesus has taken that punishment for us. 
The writer of Hebrews has no patience for grace that remains an abstract concept  or forgiveness that only floats in the realm of ideas.  Jesus came to take on human flesh that He might embody the forgiveness of sins.  Then He offers that body, that forgiveness to us in Holy Communion. 
A true heart is confident that the heavenly Father has washed us clean, no matter what lies Satan will tell.  Drawing near to God is not always easy.  Our sins & the sins of others do get in the way.  In his memoir of pastoral service in a country church, Richard Lischer tells the story of Teri, a woman who would routinely break into the church to pray.[i]  
What prevented her from coming before God was not fear of His holiness but fear of His people.  Her mother had been cast aside from the church when it was discovered that she was pregnant outside of marriage & that a son of a prominent family had been involved.  In gathering to protect their own, the Christians at this church left both mother & child outside. 
Teri was that child.  Years later she was having a crisis of her own: a pregnancy outside of marriage.  This time, however, rather than pushed out of the church, she is pushed out of her family as her stepfather responds to the news with physical abuse.  With nowhere to go, she goes to the church, not to the people but to the building.  She breaks into the building in the middle of the night, trusting that God is there even though she could not see Him.  Lischer tells Teri’s story to reveal how we live as broken individuals in broken communities, seeking to draw near to God.  For such people, the reading from Hebrews offers hope. 
Teri had a lot of things wrong in her life but she got one thing right.  There was space for her in the sanctuary of God.  She could draw near to the heavenly Father on the basis of the sacrificial work of Christ.    As Lischer tells the story of Teri, he reveals how God worked to bring Teri & her daughter into the church, not simply the building.  At first, it was slow & secret.  
Members began to share resources with the pastor to share with her.  Envelopes with cash were dropped off at the door.  Then, it became more public.  A few women of the church cared for Teri during her pregnancy & after the baby was born.  
Finally, Lischer tells of the day when her daughter, Asia, was baptized.  After the baptism, Teri & Asia turned to face the congregation & were welcomed as part of the community in Christ’s name.  Someone who sought to draw near to God by breaking in late at night  was now drawn near to God & to His people by the work of Jesus.  
Rather than ostracize one another, God’s people learned to live out the true heart, not with just their thoughts, but also their words & their deeds.  That is the good that forgiveness can do.  Amen. 
 
 
The Gospel shows the Father’s grace,  Who sent His Son to save our race,  proclaims how Jesus lived & died  that we might thus be justified.    It sets the Lamb before our eyes,  Who made the atoning sacrifice,  & calls the souls with guilt oppressed  to come & find eternal rest.    It bears to all the tidings glad  & bids their hearts no more be sad;  the weary, burdened souls it cheers  & banishes their guilty fears.  Amen.  LSB 580:1-2, 5. 


[i] For the story of Teri, see Richard Lischer, Open Secrets (New York: Doubleday, 2001), 103-115.