"The MP3 of My Heart," a sermon by Dr. Steven Bishop, Lecturer in Old Testament, given in Christ Chapel on March 23, 2006

I was reminded this last week about how much technology has given us. Besides the advances in medicine, we have marvelous instruments for entertaining ourselves. Certainly among the best is the MP3 and the devices used to play those song files. With an I-Pod you can have thousands of songs tucked in your pocket and accessible any time you want them; while you're walking, at the gym, studying, or sitting in class. They are a big improvement over the boom box of a previous generation. With the boom box everyone knew, whether they wanted to or not, what songs you liked. And which songs you listened to over and over. With the I-Pod it is a very private matter. No one has to know what you are listening to unless you want to share it. But we don't really like to keep these things private so there is a way that we can share those playlists with our friends. One way is through our seminary internet server. A few of us have I-Tunes on our computer and when we are wired in to the seminary server you can look at what is on our I-Tunes. You can even listen to our music, but you can't download it. That would be illegal.

At least four of us on the faculty and staff are regularly hooked into the server and you can learn something about us by looking at our song files. You can find out that Alan likes Jazz. I mean really, really likes Jazz with some Who and Velvet Underground thrown into the mix. Nathan has a hip eclectic taste. Fito is a rocker with nearly 3000 songs from various genres. And I love the blues, not just any blues but old blues that are tinged with gospel sounds. The blues artists may be singing about a woman that done 'em wrong but it sounds like gospel to me. You might determine that I'm a bit melancholy by my taste in music. The life that the blues imagines is one often pain filled, be it the pain of love lost or the pain of salvation lost. At times, the blues reflect the pain one goes through to get to the point where salvation starts to seem possible. Our playlists can tell you something about ourselves.

Believe it or not, Psalm 19 got me to thinking about songs and the kind of songs we enjoy and consider part of our life, if not part of our story. The concluding verse of Psalm 19 is one very familiar to us. I have often heard it recited from this very pulpit as a prayer before a sermon. It says so eloquently what many of us feel when we are up here: don't let me mess up! And it seems like a very appropriate psalm for Lent because it combines action and thought through the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart. The movement of imagery in the final verse is from outside to inside. It is a request that covers both action and motive. In the season of Lent we are all concerned about our inward reflection, we are concerned that our hearts are attuned to the spirit of Christ as we move through these forty days more deeply aware of Jesus' life and our own lives. The practice of meditation immediately conjures up thoughts informed by Eastern religious practice. In Eastern religion meditation involves getting control of the mind. Hinduism asserts that the mind is like a wild, drunken monkey. It takes great energy to tame it and control it and get it to settle down. However, in the Hebrew mind meditation has a different connotation.

The word here translated meditation is higgaion. You will recognize this word as one that appears in many psalm superscriptions and is a musical direction. Just what kind of musical direction it is, is not completely clear. What is clear are the associations between music and speaking. The New Jerusalem Bible translates may "the whispering of my heart" be acceptable. Rather than our meditation being an attempt at controlling the mind and subduing its wild antics for reflection, we might think of it as like an MP3 player where we select the playlist. During Lent, in particular, what music do we list in our hearts to aid in our Lenten discipline?

The Psalm suggests a playlist for us. The instruction of the Lord is the material for meditation. There are six synonyms used here for the instruction of God and each one is presented as beautiful and precious. The psalmist sees the instruction, commands, decrees, precepts, ordinances as life giving, heart reviving, wisdom granting, health giving, joy filled, rich and sweet. In our reading today (Roman 7) even the beloved Apostle Paul agrees with the Psalmist declaring that the instruction of God is holy and good. Yet sometimes we are inclined to be more negative in our thinking about the instruction of God. We can think that it is deadly, oppressive and life denying. But this need not be the case. The word 'law' from the torah is much broader than the 10 commandments. It also has the meaning of instruction, and when we think about the broad instruction of the Lord we must admit that the Psalmist is right. What instruction of the Lord is on your playlist?

I have been replaying some of my favorite passages from the prophets to orient my mind for Lent: "Let Justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty flowing stream." "for I am God and no mortal, The Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath." "Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength."

Even the disciples experienced keeping words in their heart to be accessed later and to be a source of hope. After Jesus told them that if the Temple (his body) were destroyed he would rebuild it in three days. They kept these words in their hearts and later it made sense.

What is on the playlist of your heart? In this season of Lent may the words of the psalmist reflect not only our desire but our reality: May the words of my mouth and the song in my heart be acceptable to Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.