From the Heart

By Pastor Sunny

I was surprised it was Jane.

I knew her, but we traveled in very different worlds. Jane was the co-captain of the University of Wisconsin Basketball team cheerleading squad, while I was simply another student living on the same dorm floor. Our paths rarely crossed, but the look on her face told me something concerned her deeply.

She was distraught. The leader of her Bible study she attended had told her she had to choose between God and cheerleading. If she wanted to be a faithful Christian, she was told, she needed to be in worship every Sunday morning. But as a cheerleader at a Big Ten university, many of her Sunday commitments were community service and charitable events connected to the athletic program.

For the next two hours, we opened Scripture together. We talked about the difference between faith that is rooted in the heart and religiosity that is measured by ritual. By the end of our conversation, Jane began to see that God was not asking her to earn divine approval through perfect attendance, but to live faithfully wherever she was called to serve.

This Sunday’s Gospel tells a similar story. Jesus shocks the Pharisees by declaring that people are not made unclean by breaking food laws, but by words and actions that fail to reflect God’s love. What matters most is not compliance of rituals, but a heart shaped by grace.

The writer of the book of Matthew reinforces this truth with the story of the Canaanite woman who comes seeking healing for her daughter. She is an outsider, a non-Jew, who observes none of the Jewish religious rituals or laws, yet Jesus, a Jewish Rabbi, praises her faith in Jewish God because of her humility and unwavering trust.

Jane found freedom the day she encountered the Jesus of the Gospels rather than the religion of guilt. The weight of spiritual shame was lifted as she discovered that God’s grace is greater than human rules.

She did not give up cheerleading. She gave up the Bible study that oppressed her spirit. The last time we spoke, she had rediscovered the joy of following Jesus.

Faith comes from the heart. It is expressed in kindness, grace, justice, and compassion far more than in flawless ritual keeping. Rituals may satisfy human expectations, but grace and mercy are what delight the heart of God.

Pastor Sunny