Daily Readings: Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13; Ezekiel 36:24-28; Mark 11:27-33

I will take you from the nations, and gather you from all the countries, and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water upon you and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances. Then you shall live in the land that I gave to your ancestors; and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. Ezekiel 36:24-28

A few people have had that effect on me, and I know I’ve had the same effect on a few others: the hardened, flinty presence behind the ribcage that replaces the warm beating heart that sustains life. Sometimes, it brings narrowed eyes and clenched fists; it always feels like a dark cloud, and an ill-wishing pushed outward toward the unwelcome one. It’s an awful feeling for any one.

When that heart of stone is a communal reality, a national reality, the consequences are real and dangerous. When the darkness is thrown on a multitude of people, or projected on a specific group, two-fold violence surely follows – the violence that is done to the soul of the people whose hearts are stone, and the violence their actions inflict on others.

Ezekiel writes of a time when God will replace the hearts of stone with hearts of flesh, hearts capable of loving God and self and neighbor (that’s what God’s ordinances are all about.). When that happens, no matter where a people happens to live, the land they inhabit will truly be the holy land. If it doesn’t happen, no matter where a people happens to live, the land they inhabit will never be the holy land they long for.

May both light and shadow guide you to God-With-Us.