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LAKEWOOD UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST
2601 54th Avenue South St. Petersburg, FL 33712
On land originally inhabited by the Tocabaga
727-867-7961
lakewooducc.org
lakewooducc@gmail.com

Date: March 23, 2025
Scripture Lesson: Luke 6:43-45
Sermon: Connections: Heart Health
Pastor: Rev. Kim P. Wells

I want to tell you about something that happened to Jeff, my husband, in April of 2020.  Take a moment to remember back to that time.  We had a church service on March 15.  After church we had a meeting.  We sat in a circle and we discussed what was going on with the corona virus.  We shared our knowledge and tried to figure out what was best for the church in light of the unfolding health crisis.  We decided to stay on top of things and respond accordingly.  We fully expected to gather for church the next Sunday.  Later in the week, it was clear that we could no longer hold church services safely.  And we did not have church again until the first Sunday of November, All Saints Day.  We had that first in person service in 8 months outside by the Memorial Garden.  None of us could have predicted what we would be going through.  

In the midst of this, in the last week of April, Jeff had 3 health episodes within a few days.  He didn’t mention this to me until Wednesday.  He had been talking to his sister about it, she is a doctor in Cincinnati.  She was managing the Covid situation for the University of Cincinatti.  She told Jeff to get an oximeter and measure his oxygen level to determine if he had covid.  There were no vaccines yet.  He told me about his episodes and I asked if he had looked up the symptoms of a heart attack.  He had never had one but he was taking medication for high blood pressure.  The next day, Thursday, I asked him again about the heart attack symptoms.  He was still on the covid trail.  I looked up the symptoms and I told him about it.  This sounded like what he had experienced several times that week.  That Thursday he finally called his doctor.  And left a message.  By Friday morning, there was no call back.  He said, How long should I wait to hear before trying to call the doctor again.  I said, 10:00.  Just before 10, the doctor called.  She listened as Jeff described his situation.  She told him that he was to go to St. Anthony’s Hospital immediately.  And if cost wasn’t a factor, she would recommend calling an ambulance.  Well, with Jeff, cost is always a factor, so I took him to St. Anthony’s.  He thought he was going in for some tests.  A checkup.  I suggested maybe he should take his phone charging cord, a toothbrush, something to read.  His pills.  Some clean underwear.  Maybe they would be keeping him overnight.  This had not occurred to him.  So, he packed a few things and off we went.  When we got to the hospital, I had to drop him off at the door.  I could not go in – because of covid.  So, we said our good byes.  Later that day, he called me to say it was determined that he had had at least 2 heart attacks that week.  Maybe more.  And they were going to do emergency surgery and put in a stint.  He would be in the hospital for several days.  After the surgery, the doctor called me to report that all had gone well.  The idea that Jeff had several heart attacks floored us both.  Heart attacks?  Where did that come from?  To us it was completely unexpected.  Out of the blue.  Shocking.  Clearly, we did not know the state of Jeff’s [physical] heart health.

And this speaks to the teaching we heard today associated with Jesus.  Good people have good stored up in their hearts.  People who do evil have evil stored up in their hearts.  So, what do we have going on in our hearts?  They are the source of our identity, our character, our actions and behavior.  What is going on in our hearts?   What are we storing?  Do we even know???

It is hard to say.  It seems that many around us are completely unaware of what they are doing and how it effects others.  Consumer capitalism keeps us obsessed with getting the newest, the fastest, the sleekest, the latest.  Ads continually popping up in our news feeds and our email and our internet searches.  Always trying to sell us something; something we probably don’t need.  And reminding us of what we don’t have.  All the while many are just trying to stay afloat working several jobs and still there is “too much month at the end of the money.”  [Toby Keith]

Tangled in all of this debris, do we even know the state of our hearts?  What are we filled with?  What moves us?  

Some of us heard Matthew Fox speak on Friday evening.  He said, “There are two kinds of people.  There are people who are grieving.  And people who don’t know they are grieving.”  What do we know about the state of our hearts?

Jeff didn’t know he was headed for a heart attack.  Sometimes we just don’t know.  Then something traumatic, dramatic, or cataclysmic happens, and we are lurched awake.  We become aware.  

The heart connects us to ourselves, to each other, to what is beyond us, to God, the sacred.  Our hearts tell us who we are.  They determine our choices and behavior and what fruit we bear, whether we know it or not.  One way to tune into what is in our hearts is to pay attention to what makes us cry. What brings tears to our eyes. And what makes us laugh?  What fills us with delight.  Lent is a season to pay attention and to become more aware of the state of our hearts.  

One of Frida Kahlo’s most famous paintings is Two Fridas.  In the painting by the Mexican artist of the 20th century, there are two images of the artist, Frida Kahlo.  The one on the left portrays a Frida dressed in a white lace blouse with a high neck.  This is something that would be worn by a fiancée of her station in Mexico.  Status was conveyed by emulating European style.  Frida’s father was from Germany.

The Frida on the right is wearing traditional Tehuana dress.  It is the clothing of indigenous Mexicans.  Frida was known for identifying with the indigenous people.  Her mother was Mexican.

Each Frida in the painting has half of a heart and the two hearts are attached by a blood vessel.  The two Fridas are holding hands.  They represent two parts of Frida’s identity.  They are both part of her heart.  Who she is.  They are both important to her identity.  

There is another blood vessel in the painting that circles a picture one Frida holds in her hand.  It is a picture of her beloved Diego Rivera as a child.  A picture she actually owned.  Through the blood vessel her heart extends to Diego and encompasses him.  Her friend.  Her lover.  Her husband.  Her life.   There is also a blood vessel that is severed, dripping onto the white dress of one Frida, the bleeding staunched by clamps.  The heart is also a source of pain.  

And in the background, there is a stormy sky.  It conveys turbulence.  Distress.  Sadness. Emotional anguish.  Yes, when Frida did this painting, she was extremely distressed.  She had come to know that her husband, Diego, was having a long term, intense affair with her sister, Cristina.  And Diego had asked Frida for a divorce.  They were divorced.  And later remarried.  In a letter to Diego during this time, she declared, “. . . at bottom you and I love each other very much, and even if we go through countless affaires, splintered doors, insults and international claims, we shall always love each other. . . . All these things have happened and happened again for the seven years we’ve lived together and all of the rages I’ve gone into have only led me to understand better that I love you more than my own skin. . .”  [Frida Kahlo 1907.2007, p. 202.]   Yes, Frida knew her heart.  She portrays the intensity and reality of her heart in Two Fridas with glaring, gorgeous honesty.  

So how well do we know our hearts?  If we are to follow Jesus, our hearts are to be filled with goodness and love.  This is what is needed to bear good fruit.  To live in a way that is pleasing to God and helpful to others.  The implication from Jesus is that God seeks to fill our hearts with good.  We are to be like Jesus.  With hearts fulled with compassion and goodness and love.  Are our hearts filled with good?  Or have we let evil creep in?  While most of the time we are not people of evil intent, maybe we should say, are our hearts filled with good or not good?  Is there dissipation?  Apathy?  Selfishness?  Greed?  Misunderstanding?

Do we know our hearts?  It isn’t easy with the distractions of TV, social media, alarmist news, and scraping to get by day to day.  

If our heart is good, we will bear good fruit.  That can help us to assess the situation with our hearts.  Are we letting all the good in from God?  And then letting it out as good fruit?  Like blood going into the heart and back out again to serve the needs of the body.   

It turns out there is a fruit that is good for the heart.  The strawberry; a fruit that looks like a heart and is actually good for your physical heart.   Eating two servings of strawberries a day can reduce the risk of heart attacks.  It can lower blood pressure.  It can improve cholesterol.  And reduce inflammation.  The strawberry is also good for the gut and for cognition.  So, this delicious fruit, grown right here in Florida, is good for the heart.  

Are our hearts in good shape?  We can think about the food we eat.  Are we eating strawberries?  But as Jesus suggests, we must look not only at the fruit we are eating but also at the fruit we are bearing.  Is it good fruit?  Lent is a time to pay attention.  To be aware.  To be in touch with our hearts.  And to come to know our hearts by the fruit that we are producing.  

Now, speaking of fruit, we are going to turn to a beautiful prayer about the strawberry that comes from the Seneca, native people of this land.  They lived south of Lake Ontario in what we now call New York state.   

Before you listen to this prayer, we will give you a strawberry to help focus your reflection.  And at the appropriate time, you are encouraged to eat the strawberry.  

[Strawberries are distributed.]

The Sacred Berry                                   Seneca oral tradition, recorded by Jose Hobday

Oh sweet gift to the Seneca, I admire you.  You are shaped like the heart to remind us that we are to live by the heart.

Your flesh is red, to tell us our hearts should be moist with blood,

never dry and brown and crackly.

We study the seeds on the outside.  They are many, to teach us that there are many ways in the world to believe, to understand life.  All are worthy of respect.

We finger the leaves, so we keep in mind that you must always stay connected to Mother Earth and appreciate her gifts.

Now, we eat this beautiful strawberry from the bottom up, 

relishing the sweet taste.  For the last bite we eat berry and leaf together to help us remember life holds bitter tastes with sweet.  For all, we keep a thankful heart. 

A reasonable effort has been made to appropriately cite materials referenced in this sermon. For additional information, please contact Lakewood United Church of Christ.