 little bit about this talk and kind of what it was going to look like and I just found myself with kind of this image that I need your help with a little bit but it was this image of you each of you right each of you is standing in in front of you was this kind of this mass group right of things that are vying for your attention things that are trying to distract you things that you need to do a response before so what would be some of those things in your guy's life that vying for your attention this makes our life kind of crazy a time what would some of those things be to fix the roof all right stand up brother you're over here you're you know stand over here you're a roof let's just real quick see how you're doing dude you've got a future all right all right what are some other things some other things vying for your attention people pleasing stand up go up there front there you go multiple masses multiple masses in a day chris you've got a lot to do here go ahead what's that studies yeah expect a seminarian to say that all right great emails emails come on up yeah busy the sick okay calendar just your generally counter go ahead what else administrative work okay vying for your attention all right what else my family your family great go for it so all of these things are vying for attention anything else could I just maybe throw out one yeah frank out though i'm just not sure we're ready for that shirt but okay what do you think classes in school i know i'm gonna regret this but going up maybe a couple that haven't been mentioned god okay let's see let's just throw him up there who wants to be him ed come on you're close enjoy it right actually once you go up his step or two just there we go there we go right all right these are all things that read are vying for attention right we take a look at our life and our work and our ministry and so this image when i was praying was was this right and all of this and it's not just this it's your parish council it's your women's group it's the youth group it's the geriatric group it's it's finances it's budgets it's it's all of this all of this stuff and and god is one of them right so in this image that i had about praying was this this almost this frantic nature and people were there like they were just moving out that we've got to do with this okay got this and then we got to do with this and got this and then every now and then we'd go and just spend a minute or two with that just to kind of make sure we've got things in order but all of these things right you know seriously it has the reality is is if we're honest isn't god a part of all of the things that we have to do but brothers i suggest that the lord jesus needs to be more than just a part he needs to be the center and the focus of what we do amen so this image i have of us running around frantically trying to deal with all of each one of these i said jesus what's the solution to this and i had this exact same image the only difference was one change ed you want to come up here in the percent and ed enjoy this the only difference between these two visions was the second one ed was standing between us and in the first image there was just this franticness of trying to deal with this and then that and then but the second one when the lord was in the center right when he was the foe when he was the lens which which we were viewing everything else there was this there was this piece right brothers there was this piece that we experienced that there wasn't any one of these things that was overwhelming there was no longer this this mad dash to be able to deal with those but the jesus becomes the focus of everything that we're doing he becomes the lens with which we do everything amen amen all right brothers have a seat thank you brothers i suggest that our relationship with jesus must move from being one of the many things that need to be done to the one thing that needs to be done it is the only way that we're going to be able to experience any sense of peace any sense of order in any sense of unity of heart i found it interesting that the songs that they chose this evening because they both deal with this sense of of our heart being broken i mean we've talked and we've spoken this weekend about a unity a unity in the church a unity in cultures a unity and in catechesis and evangelization a unity in the father son of the holy spirit and all of these things are great but all of this this desire for unity so far has been this external unity that we're looking for but what we're going to talk about tonight is is what does it look like for a unity of heart because brothers i think so oftentimes our heart is divided by all of those things that need to be done and we get torn and we get frantic and we have to look at this and this and this and i suggest that the only way that we're going to have a sense of unity a sense of peace a sense of presence in our life is when jesus becomes the scent the profound center of our life and that everything else is on the other side of that that he's not just one of many things that needs to be done but everything that needs to be done needs to be done in and through him and i suggest brothers that our heart will become schizophrenic until that happens that we will be overwhelmed with ministry we will be overwhelmed with what has to be done we need will be overwhelmed with the tasks at hand before us and we're going to talk about what that causes us to do what that looks like but there are so many distractions in and we can i think i've got the attention span of a nat that's a ad i mean i can find just i can do anything other than what has to be done right it doesn't mean i can be i can sit down and i can do my best to to be working on a talk or working on a homily or answering emails it's just but i can find youtube can waste your life like 90 seconds at a time right or or a football game or baseball anything anything i mean i'll watch fixer upper all right how pathetic have i become right seriously chip and joe and gay i mean i know these people this is pathetic all right i wanted to be intimate but i didn't want to be that vulnerable all right i think i just crossed the line but the reality huh the reality is that our life gets profoundly busy and there's no way to escape this these distractions the holy father says in his most recent epistolic exhortation he says the presence of constantly new gadgets the excitement of travel in an endless array of consumer goods at times leaves no room for god's voice to be heard we are overwhelmed by words by superficial pleasures by an increasing din filled not with joy but rather with the discontent of those whose lives are losing their meaning how can we fail to realize the need to stop this rat race and to recover the personal space needed to carry a heartfelt dialogue with god finding that space may prove to be painful but it is always fruitful sooner or later we have to face our true selves and let the lord enter this may not happen unless we see ourselves staring into the abyss of frightful temptations or have the dizzying sensation of standing on the precipice of utter despair and find ourselves completely alone and abandoned in such situations we find the deepest motivation for living fully our commitment to our work and ministry the same distractions that are omnipresent in today's world also make us tend to absolutize our free time so that we can give ourselves completely to the devices that provide us with entertainment or a very old pleasure he goes on just outside and i think it was beautifully says we need to distinguish between the kind of superficial entertainment and a healthy culture of leisure which opens us to others and to reality itself is a spirit of openness and contemplation the holy father is saying that we live in a world that's become so distracted and and i've wrestled myself with with this balance that takes place of of having my tablet with me when i pray because i like to be able to take notes and i like to be able to write things down but what it becomes for me is it becomes this distraction almost this connection to this world out there that i want to try to escape so to be able to leave my phone away to be able to leave my tablet and actually there's stuff that you can buy it's paper and you can actually write on that it's remarkable how this works huh but but this sense of of being coming to test from the world that becomes our distractions distractions are a reality of life father uh nathan was talking about father august and done again and he was speaking specifically about prayer and i was talking about how i was finding myself just so distracted in prayer i was trying to be quiet and still and in all of these distractions and he said dave do you want to get distractions out of your life i do he goes i'm gonna tell you how to do that i said okay how do you do it he said quit praying and you'll never have another distraction it's not exactly what i was looking for right but then he went on to share that he says that if we actually allow the distractions to lord to for allow the lord to be able to work in our distractions we in fact might discover something about herself and about god that we weren't aware of what is it that distracts us why is it that we worry why is it that we're anxious why is it that we feel harried i mean all of these distractions the lord in fact wants to be able to show us and speak to himself the world has a way of distracting us and what we need to be able to see is all of these distractions what they're trying to do is they're trying to stop our focus that just a definition that whatever is distracting causes us to turn from what is more important to what is less important and all of those things that are all of those things that we talked about those are important i mean the reality is if you don't fix the roof you're going to be in trouble so it's not like these things don't matter but the question we have to ask ourselves is in the context of what the greater good the greater desire the greater brothers is to be in relationship with jesus and no matter what we do that we look at it through that lens and if we're able to look at it through that length they're not just distractions perhaps they're opportunities perhaps they're moments of grace perhaps they're moments of conversion perhaps they're moments of evangelization not necessarily on our terms of the way we want it but rather what god wants to be able to do but my problem my concern brothers is is that we have so many distractions that our heart is is in ways many ways it's fractured and and there's not a sense of peace in our heart and there's not a sense of solitude and quiet and stillness how can we speak of of a sense of unity out here if we're not even having the unity of heart how is it that we can speak of unity in the church and in unity with our brothers and brothers and sisters if i can't even find my heart to be united because it's distracted by so many things and because it's divided by so many things in first Samuel 7 3 it says when Samuel addressed the whole house of israel if you would return to the lord with your whole heart remove your foreign gods and fix your heart on the lord and serve him a lord and serve him alone and the lord will deliver you from the hand of the philistines just this sense of being able to go to the lord with our whole heart the shame of that we love the lord our god with all of our heart what would it look like how would our life look different how would our ministry look different if i loved god with all of my heart with radically just the self-empty of my heart and lord i want to love you and i want to love the brothers and the precipiterate and my brother deacons i want to love you with all of my heart how would that look different how would we speak differently how would we behave differently how would we act differently if we were actually able to do as Samuel talked about being able to give the lord and love the lord with all of our heart not just parts of it what does it look like to have a divided heart we take a look at the scriptures i think of peter as we know that jesus says uh who do they say that i am and peter says you're the christ you're the christ and then jesus goes on to say and the son of god is going to suffer and die and peter's like yo no no no not that lord this first part was great peter had a divided heart at the last supper he just says to peter you will deny me not i lord i will never deny you i will never deny you i don't even know the man peter has a divided heart luke 959 and another said follow me but he replied lord let me first buried my father and he answered let the dead bury their dead but you go and proclaim the kingdom of god to another he said i will follow you lord but first let me say farewell to my family jesus said no one who sets a hand to the plow and looks what was left behind his fit for the kingdom of god of god brothers what do we make more important to god i mean what do we make more important than when it's time to pray or it's time to spend time in the lord or it's time to try to be intimate with the lord we say well i need to get this taken care of first i need i'm going to answer just a few emails and then i'm going to spend some time with you lord and a few emails turns into five emails turns into a phone call turns into checking the scores turns into i'm exhausted i'll i'll pray i'll take a few minutes before i go to bed right it's a divided heart take a look at mark mark 10 i think it's one of the saddest scriptures in all the gospels we know the story he was setting out on a journey and the man ran up and knelt before him and he asked him good teacher what must i do in her eternal life jesus answered him why do you call me good no one is good but god alone i think it's important that we begin this text that that this person had a heart for god i mean he did that that he wanted to love the lord he wanted to inherit eternal life it was important so important that he was willing to run up to jesus jesus is leaving jericho he's like just before you leave because the scripture says he's leaving just before you leave there's one question and i really need the answer to this what do i have to do in her eternal life right brothers i'm going to assume that each one of us has answered that question that we know what the lord is asking me to inherit eternal life so he runs up and he says jesus what do i have to do jesus says okay you shall not kill you should not commit adultery you should not steal you should not bear false witness you shall not defraud on your father and mother he goes and this teacher all of these i observed since my youth jesus looking at him with love and he says to him you are lacking one thing go sell what you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and then come and follow me and i think this is terribly sad at that his statement fell statement his face fell and he went away sad for he had many possessions this was a young man who had a divided heart i mean we can just close our eyes and we can see that right lord what must i do to inherit eternal life that i i've listened to you i've heard you i find what you're saying attractive there's something about it that's that i just want to be with you and near you what do i have to do give up everything you have right give up this follow me that's that's all you have to do it seems to me brothers that this is the definition of a divided heart i mean on one hand don't we all want to love the lord right don't we all want to be faithful to him don't we all yes so so let's not let's not just bang ourselves it's like oh i'm not faithful that's not what i'm talking about i'm talking about a divided heart i'm talking about at times our heart is is richly going after the lord and trying to seek him and be faithful and all the things that we're supposed to do but brothers we need to honestly take a look at the other times that's not what is our riches what is the thing that we say i can't follow you what is it that causes us to walk away sad what is it that the lord is asking of us and brothers if we don't know the answer to that question we need to figure it out we need to figure it out because my suggestion is is that every one of us to some degree another has a divided heart it may not be things it may not be stuff but what is it that keeps us from profoundly following jesus than making him constantly the center of our life to looking at everything else that we do in our life through the lens of jesus and what does it mean to my relationship with jesus if you're not able to write it on a piece of paper right now what that is what is that that thing that divides your heart my prayer brothers is by the end of our time of adoration that you understand more richly what that is because we cannot as we hear in the scriptures serve two masters because as we hear in the scriptures a house divided against itself will fall and if our heart is divided in times of difficulty in times of struggle in times of brokenness brothers we won't have the capacity to remain faithful amen what does a divided heart look like in us i'm just gonna throw out some things for our reflection it is we are unstable a man with a divided heart is inconsistent he moves with the wind whatever the wind is blowing wherever the wind seems to be blowing that that is where our heart is i've worked with people before i remember one guy i worked with that the decision that he made was always the last person who talked to him that was what it how he made decisions whoever kind of got to him last that was what he went with there was no sense of conviction to him there was no sense of firmness if we have a divided heart brothers we are consumed with what other people think about us those of you are seminaries if you don't want people to talk behind your back don't get ordained amen brothers they're going to talk behind your back all the time and the line starts oftentimes with our brother priests let me tell you a story about him later all right if if we are consumed with what other people think about us don't get ordained because the reality is it doesn't matter what you do there will be some people who love you and some people who don't and the man who has a divided heart is is being consumed by what other people think or what by other people say and if that's what we if that's what's operating or how we work then any decisions we make in the parish is just we make a decision on whoever yells the loudest whoever makes the most there's no sense of firmness or conviction i love what mary was saying this morning that when jesus there was no budging jesus he knew where he stood and that was going to be it paul says make your yes yes and your no no but the man with a divided heart who is heart is divided because he's so concerned about what other people think the reality is his brothers our life of ministry has lived out there and people get to shoot at us and shoot they will and shoot they will and the problem oftentimes brothers is we give them the arrow we give them the arrow and the ammunition to shoot against us brothers we need to be able to have a firm heart in the lord and not provide the world and not provide anyone an ability to be able to shoot at us that it affects us or it frightens us what we merely do and say things because we're afraid of what somebody else is going to say a man with a divided heart is consumed by what other people think there is a lack of confidence in him they are swayed by threats they are swayed by flattery they are swayed by detraction they're not walking in the authority of who they are a man with a divided heart is frustrated is short-tempered is impatient is belittling is selfish is insecure a demand with a divided heart is motivated by pleasure by comfort by entertainment by food a man with a divided heart is unable to deny himself for the part of his heart which desires and longs and lusts and his gluttonous is what ultimately makes the decisions for him a man with an undivided heart is unhappy won't commit to anything is ambivalent man with an unclean heart or an undivided heart or a divided heart is unclear of his identity and as such his heart is divided so we can't fully stand in who the lord has asked us to be and who he's called us to be because we don't even know exactly who we are and that's what Mary was sharing this morning is that Jesus knew who he was and there was no division in his heart he knew what his identity was that he was the son of God and brothers that this needs to be same our reality that we need to come to the place that we really don't care what other people think and the reality is as ministers of the gospel people are going to think and say some horrible things do this for give your parish in your community an opportunity to review your god your homilies online do that do that an opportunity recently somebody shared me a link of what somebody said about one of the most of the episodes of the wild goose let's just suffice it to say they don't like me at all right they don't like me at all and they think the whole thing is i mean i would love to say that none of that ever bothers me but the reality is is is that that is not what defines me what other people say about me what other people think about me and what other people write and none of that defines me brothers i am a son of god and that is what defines me and that's what i find my identity in and what all the people are the bickering and all of that crap just doesn't matter and i think that that's what jesus was fully able to do it didn't matter it didn't matter this is how much it didn't matter to him right you can do whatever you want it's not going to change who he is and what he believes to be true and what he knows of himself and what he knows of his father and brothers that is a man with a heart singly devoted to god amen and i suggest that that's what happens and begins to happen to us when our heart is singly focused and we don't have a divided heart that i know who i am and it doesn't matter what the world says the world will try as benedict says to try to sell us comfort right but that's not what we were made for rather we're made for greatness what causes a divided heart suffering brokenness loss the number of people who have said to me over the years i didn't think it was going to be so hard and what this does is it causes us to begin to question am i positive is it worth it tragically about 18 months two years ago i was doing with the priest and somewhere in the midwest and he was just experiencing great difficulty and struggle in his parish in the issue was the whole issue of whether or not the mass is going to be done in latin and whether or not it was going to be done in english and there was this group that was uh i won't say it doesn't matter what side but was just much more vocal and and he said he just feels like he's just being torn apart and he said to me i didn't know if it was going to be so hard and and i just don't know if it's worth it anymore i don't know if i'm making any difference and and you could literally see his heart being torn open pain betrayal right betrayal a betrayal by our brothers by the very men that we we hope are going to have our back are oftentimes the ones who betray us which begins to divide and and to literally break our heart jealousy disappointment one of the things that causes us in inability to the causes of divided heart is an inability to trust god and if i don't trust god how can i be single-hearted for him fear we hide we become paralyzed what else divides our heart unholy attachments those things that we attach ourselves to sometimes there are things right sometimes there are things those imagine those things that are precious to you being taken away being free from that so that your heart can be free from about three years ago i got a call well two or three calls from my dad my dad doesn't call a lot of usually texts and i got a call i was in a meeting i couldn't answer my dad called like three times in about an hour i knew something was up so i got on like called him back i said dad what's up he goes i haven't even talked to your mom yet now this this may not seem like a big deal to you right but through through a series of mistakes that this company had made my dad had gone to the storage shed that they had and they had gotten rid of all of the contents of that storage shed the company had sold it all but why it was so difficult it was all of their Christmas decorations and it was 50 years of Christmas decorations and my particular family tree is the ugliest Christmas tree you could ever imagine in the world because everything on that tree was made by me and my brothers and sisters and it was pocetically ugly right seriously we had this thing of popcorn that we had my brother did this purple well it was supposed to be a teddy bear and it was just purple right it was just it was and and the top of their star was was the star that they got on the day on their first Christmas together cost 25 cents and it's all they could afford and he said they're all gone the people said that i hadn't paid the bill and they sold everything she was that says i haven't even told mom yet and mom and dad shared with me later they said dave we realize it's stuff in that in that in many ways that this has been a graced moment for us because it's caused us to be it's attached not an attachment that they would have chosen what is it that we're attached to what are these unholy attachments and maybe it's things my experiences things are actually pretty easy to get rid of but it's attachments like worried about what other people think of me it's attachments like reputation i love what sister and shield says she goes the only one in the world who cares about reputation is the evil one if you're consumed by your reputation you have an unholy attachment lies this attachment that we have towards lies lies that we believe that we're not enough lies that say we're not as good as lies that say i'm not as funny as lies that say that i'm not as holy i whatever these lies that we find ourselves attached and the lord wants to be able to free those he wants to be able to speak a word of truth to us i think many brothers excuse me have a divided heart because they can't get past the past right a part of their heart is always turned towards the past things that you did 10 15 20 years ago yesterday and there's a part of your heart that is always looking back at that and there's this attachment that doesn't allow your heart to be singly focused on the lord i don't know if you saw the film the apostle the apostle of paul what was called apostle of christ so it was the most recent film on on st paul one of the scenes that i thought was beautiful and it's kind of this recurring scene but it was paul at the martyrdom of steven and in these images it just kind of flashes that go through his mind and and there's blood on his hands and it's a really graphic scene and yet and yet you know that that's that's something that has paul's heart that that he was responsible for another man's death and that's why it's so profound and beautiful when paul says that is no longer i who live but christ who lives in me that that's something profoundly changes in him that he can actually walk away from the things of the past what are those things that you can't let go of the things that cause you to question your identity brothers this isn't just us figuring it out right it's allowing the spirit of jesus reveal to us our divided our broken our disunited heart but what is it what is a heart that is so singly focused look for i love in Psalm 86 11 it says teach me lord your way that i may walk in your truth single-hearted in revering your name when we take a look in the scriptures we see some great images of men and women are single-hearted i love this story of the paralytic and the three guys right they go to him and they want to bring him to jesus and they say well we'll just carry you to jesus and i hope brothers that that i have friends like that right i hope that i've got friends that are going to pick me up and they're going to take me to jesus i mean those are brothers and those are friends but when they get there we know the story right there's this crowd there so that's not going to deter them these men are single-hearted they're single focused on this brother is going to get to jesus so we know this story they say well here's what we're going to we're going to take you on the roof and we're going to dig a little hole that whatever it is it's going to keep us away from jesus we're going to break through that now excuse me if i was the paralytic i'd probably say you know something why don't we just sit with this for a second all right i don't think we need to go this route let's just sit he's gonna eventually come out you know let's just wait i'm not going anywhere right seriously just send me down i'm not going anywhere but no it's like we are going to take you and we are going to put you in front of jesus they dig this hole and they put him in the salvation brothers salvation comes to that man because he had three brothers four brothers however many there were there were single hearted on getting him to jesus i want two things in my life a i want a friend like that i want a brother like that that's gonna bust his ass to make sure that i get to jesus no matter what it takes he's gonna see that i get to jesus amen and i want to be a brother like that that's gonna take my brothers and carry them and fight for them and do whatever it takes that i'd be single-hearted to get my brother there or the woman with the hemorrhage i mean this is a woman who is single-hearted all she wants to do is she wants to touch the hem of his garment and she's going to do whatever and she's she's working her way through this crowd and i'm sure people are like what's your problem there's a line here right get in line a lot of everybody here wants to see him and she's pushing and she shall be much like being at the Vatican surrounded by nuns right am i right am i right yeah those of you who are laughing know that you're i'm right single-hearted it's a chaos short guy and he wants to see jesus he wants he's gonna do whatever this takes right so jesus coming through he goes and he climbs a tree this guy is single-hearted on seeing jesus and there's just this beautiful image and i just love it because it speaks so much about our relationship with the lord with all this chaos that's going on jesus recognizes and he sees him up and he calls out the chaos i mean there's something just i think just beautiful about that that jesus knows his name right zekaius come out of the tree god's call is always personal it's not hey all of you right it's zekaius come out of the tree and zekaius comes down and as we know the crowd is beginning to talk to him do you know what kind of person he is yadda yadda yadda yadda and he says zekaius i want to have dinner at your house now if this was my story right or if this was growing up and and the bishop was coming over to my house mom would spend the next six hours it's like okay you're welcome but let me clean up first right but the lord is not like that he says the chaos i know you're a mess i know you're a mess but i also know you want to see me and you are going to do whatever you needed to do to be able to use a chaos or single-hearted and because of that salvation is going to come to your house what's it look like for you to be single-hearted what has to change in your life what is it that holds you back first time we hear of mary magdalene is in the eighth chapter of lute afterwards he journeyed from one town and village to another preaching and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of god accompanying him were the 12 and some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities mary called magdalene from whom seven demons had gone out joanna the wife of hered stewart choosa susanna and many others provided them out of their resources i think we could probably just give a whole another talk on on this whole theme of unity when we take a look at this group that's accompanying jesus there's the 12 and then there's these women brothers in the last many years have been going from parish to during ministry and in parishes with parish missions profoundly grateful for these women right these women that serve these women that pour out their life the women that that take care of so many needs of the parish but it's always been that way right with jesus were the 12 and some women and they walked with him and if we take a look at these women you've got one woman who is a herit one of the stewards of herids so she had wealth and then you have mary magdalene who had seven demons cast out of her the diversity in this group was able to be united because they kept their eyes on jesus this is a side note we we speak oftentimes of diversity and diversity has such a negative connotation in so many places today but the reality is one of the things that i love about being catholic is our profound diversity that we look in this group and there's a diversity in this and i rejoice in that you know it's not something to apologize for rather it's something to be celebrated amen and we see that in this women mary magdalene was single-hearted why because she knew what it was that jesus had done for her mary mary healy was speaking of the yesterday or this morning about this this this need that we have to be able to know what it is that jesus has rescued us from mary magdalene knew what it was that jesus had rescued she was possessed by seven demons and jesus frees her her heart is free and all she wants to do is be with the lord and she goes with him and she walks with him and she stays with him the next scene that we see mary magdalene there was also women looking from a distance and among them were mary magdalene mary the mother of the younger brother of james and joseph and sullown these women had followed him and they were from gallerly and they ministered to him there were many other women who had come up with him to jewsland it's in the 15th chapter of mark and it's at the crucifixion of jesus finally in the 20th chapter of john just imagine the scene for a second have you ever anticipated something and you kind of get nervous and kind of anxious about it and and you're looking forward to it and what's it going to be like and so we take a look at the 20th chapter of john verse 11 now let's start at the beginning on the first day of the week mary magdalene came to the tomb early in the morning while it was still dark and just imagine the scene again for a moment brothers that that i can only imagine mary she's kind of hanging out in her house and she's nervous and she's anxious and she's ready to go and she she's just it's like as soon as the sunrise as soon as the sun begins to peak then she's able to go but the scripture says that she's walking through jerusalem and it's still dark and where she's going she's going to a place of burial and she's doing this in the dark this is a woman that is single-hearted all she wants to do is to be near jesus but that that's all she wants and and i imagine like she's she's checking her watch and she says is it time yet and it's like she's seeing the sun because all she wants to do she wants to be with jesus this is a woman who's single-hearted this is a woman who loved the lord this is a woman who wanted nothing else in her life other than to be with him and she walks through early in the morning in the dark she hadn't really thought this through what is this going to look like all right uh she's going to the tomb and the reason that she's going to the tomb is she's going to because she wants to anoint jesus's body now she hasn't really thought this through because there was a big stone that was going to be in front of it and we'll worry about that later all she wants is she wants to be with jesus and just for a second you guys imagine the scene what her desire is is to be able to anoint the body of jesus so what she wants to do and i think this intimate vulnerable beautiful she wants to be able to go into that place of burial and she wants to unwrap his body which had been beaten and which was bruised and which was bloody and she wanted to take those wrappings off in this cold dead body probably stiff by now probably smelling a little bit and she wants to take oil and she wants to anoint his body just for a second imagine the scene all right she's taking oil and she's pouring it over his feet and in and rubbing his feet and in the mixture of the blood in the it's crusted and this is what this woman wants to do his cold dead body to be able to anoint it with the oil i would say mary magdalene was single-hearted she saw the stone removed from the tomb so she ran away to simon peter and the other disciples that jesus loved and told them they've taken the lord away from the tomb and we don't know where they put him so peter and the other disciples went out and they came to the tomb they both ran but the other disciple ran faster than peter and arrived to the tomb first he bent down he saw the burial cross there but he didn't go in when simon peter arrived after him he went into the tomb and he saw the burial cross there and the cloth that covered his head was not with the other burial cross but rolled up in a separate place then the other disciples went in and he saw and arrived to the tomb first and he saw and he believed for they did not yet understand the scriptures that he had to rise from the dead then the disciples returned home now i just think this is a really interesting thing that takes place okay so jesus and mary goes to the tomb she runs back she tells peter and john peter and john they run and then the next thing we find mary she comes back to the tomb i remember why she went back to the tomb she's got nowhere else to go i mean she's going back to a tomb and now the tomb is empty but imagine that she has nowhere else she doesn't know what to do she doesn't know the only place she can think is i i have to go back so she stays outside the tomb weeping and as she went wept she bent down and she looked into the tomb and she saw two angels in white sitting there one at the head of the feet where the body where jesus's body had been laid and they said to her woman why are you weeping she said to them they have taken my lord and i don't know where they've laid him i just think this is such a cute cool image right the first thing that we hear of mary magdalene is that she had seven demons cast out and what we hear at the end here is that she's having a conversation in the tomb with two angels this is a woman who is single-hearted for the lord they have taken my lord and i don't know where they've laid him but she said that she turned around and she saw jesus there but she did not know that it was jesus jesus said to him to her woman why are you weeping whom are you looking for she thought it was the gardener she said to sir said to him sir if you carried him away tell me where you laid him and i will take him the mary is already in one sense made peace with the fact that jesus is dead just just tell me where he is i just want to be with him she wants to be with what she understood at the time a cold dead body and she'll do whatever she needs to do to be able to see that that happens just tell me i've been quite figured out this out like if you tell me in fact where he is i don't exactly know what i'm going to do because i'm a single woman it's not like i'm going to be able to pick him but i just i just want to be with him so tell me where he is jesus said to her mary she turned and said to him in hebrew rabona which means teacher and jesus says to her stop holding on to me for i have not yet ascended to my father mary went and announced to the disciples i have seen the lord brothers i suggest that mary is a woman who is single-hearted for the lord and nothing was going to sustain and nothing was going to keep her away from the lord and i think that that's the same desire that the lord has for us to be able to allow us to recognize and to see where our heart is split and at times what becomes more important than him what are the things that vie for our attention what is it that divides our heart put me together it's the sense of of lord that my heart is so scattered and it's so broken that you need to be able to put it together but how does that happen we we merely only need to take a look at peter again right the peter i'll follow you lord i'll never wander away i don't even know him but there's something that takes place in peter that that in fact i think restores his heart and brings it back and it's a pentecost the same peter who denies jesus goes to the upper room and jesus says wait for the promise of the father and then when jesus sends forth the spirit on peter peter comes out with the man who is now once finally single-hearted he's actually able to be faithful to what he wanted like i think peter was honest when he said this is what i want this is what i longed for that i want to be able to proclaim you in the christ and yet because of the fickleness of his heart he wasn't able but his heart did not become united his heart did not become firm until he experienced the power of the holy spirit and from there he'll stand up in front of everybody and he'll say let me tell you right and people will say who is this guy right he must be drunk he can't be drunk it's only nine o'clock in the morning because it's impossible to be drunk at nine o'clock in the morning brothers let's pray lord come with your holy spirit lord jesus come with your light father we come before you this evening at times our hearts divided our hearts turned away from you and there are reasons for this and a brokenness the suffering betrayal disappointment deceit lies lord come with your holy spirit brothers i just invite you in a moment to ask the lord that he would show you your heart what is it that divides your heart jesus come with your holy spirit we bless you we glorify you holy are you lord jesus i pray by the power of your holy spirit that you would come with your light and come with your truth brothers i just i get a sense that the lord is inviting us to say yes to him and i'm sure in one way or another everybody here is said yes to the lord before but i think the first step of of having being single-hearted for the lord is is to say yes to the lord again to be able to say yes to his love yes to his call yes to his grace yes to his healing yes to his power in that image i had at the beginning of being torn with all of these things that are vying our attention that that putting jesus in the center and looking at the rest of life through that reality that that i look at everything through the light of jesus so brothers i'm just going to make a really simple invitation again i'm sure we've done it before but i think it's just an invitation to say yes jesus i want you to be the lord of my life once again i want to say yes to you i want to commit my life to you once again now there may be some of you and it's weird to do it in a group like this they've never actually done that publicly there's kind of this assumption that you've said yes to jesus but you've never actually stood up and said jesus i want to commit my life to you but i think the lord wants us to do that tonight i think he wants us to begin our time of prayer and our time of ministry and our time of healing tonight to be able to say yes to him if he will give our life to him again so the music ministry is just going to play uh him and i'm just going to ask you as you feel so inclined or if you feel the invitation tonight to commit your life once again to put jesus in the center of your heart and by that saying lord i want to be singly hearted for you i want my heart to be restored and to be renewed and to be healed and to be freed tonight if that's something you think the lord wants to invite you to i'm just going to invite you to stand up during this hymn and we're going to pray for that that single heartedness