The scriptures referred to are Jeremiah 31:31-34, Romans 3:19-28, and John 8:31-36.
Sherlock Holmes is the human literary character most portrayed in films and TV, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. I had to say “human literary character” because Count Dracula has appeared in 538 films and TV shows. Holmes has appeared in 254 movies and TV shows. But I think if you included plays on the stage and on radio, Holmes would probably win. If you include all the fictional detectives obviously inspired by Holmes like Monk, Shawn Spencer, Morgan Gillory and Dr. Gregory House, he would leave Dracula in the dust. The great detective himself has been played by at least 75 movie and TV actors. And some have done a great job, some have been adequate and some have been abysmal. The best include Jeremy Brett, Peter Cushing and Basil Rathbone. I will not name those who have done a terrible job.
There is however one actor who, while not bad at playing Holmes, is somewhat disappointing. Arthur Wontner played the detective in 5 films made in the 1930s. With his gaunt face, hawk-like nose and thinning hair, he looked like he had stepped right out of Sidney Paget's illustrations of the original stories. His resemblance was remarkable. What is unfortunate is the way he acted as Holmes. He lacked the detective's characteristic energy. It may be because he was in his 50s and 60s when he played the part. But combined with the slow pace of the films, it is hard to enjoy his portrayal.
On the other hand many people have become Sherlock Holmes fans because of Benedict Cumberbatch's updated version, though the actor himself points out he really doesn't look much like the description in the books. When he got the part, his mother, an actress, said, “But you haven't got the nose.” But Cumberbatch's mercurial, sometimes rude, somewhat theatrical, fiercely intelligent, acutely observant and very active portrayal caught the essence, the heart of the character. And ultimately that's what counts.
But it didn't hurt that the actor was handsome. We humans are very superficial when it comes to judging people. Experiments have shown that when two people with identical qualifications apply for a job, it frequently goes to the better looking person. Even children, going only by pictures presented to them, are more likely to attribute good qualities to people who good-looking. And that's why Hollywood tends to cast the most attractive people as heroes. Stephen Tobolowsky said the day he noticed he was losing his hair he realized he was destined to be a character actor and not a leading man.
Yet as Shakespeare wrote in Macbeth, “There's no art to find the mind's construction in the face.”And in Hamlet he observes “That one may smile and smile and be a villain.” The Lord himself tells Samuel, “God does not view things as men do. People look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7)
In the Bible the heart doesn't simply mean the muscular organ in our chest that pumps blood throughout the body but the center of a person's mental, emotional and spiritual life. It is the immaterial part of someone, their inner self. It encompasses what we mean by the words “mind,” “personality,” and “character.” When it comes to seeking those you can trust, if you're wise, you will look for people with good hearts.
But we still tend to fall for outward appearances. Conmen and hypocrites use that faulty perception to manipulate people. By the way, the Greek word from which we get the word “hypocrite” was used of actors, people who pretend to be someone they are not. Jesus uses that word or a form of it 20 times in the gospels. He mostly used it of religious people who appear to be scrupulous in how they observed God's laws but whose hearts were not in tune with what God really wanted. He warned people about them saying, “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.” (Matthew 23:2-3)
In this Jesus is echoing the prophets who condemned the leaders of Israel and the false prophets. Jeremiah said his heart and mind were deeply disturbed “because the way of the Lord and his holy word are being mistreated. For the land is full of people unfaithful to him. They lead wicked lives and they misuse their power.” (Jeremiah 23:9) He says both the prophets and priests are godless. (Jeremiah 23:11) God tells the people of Jerusalem, “Do not listen to what those prophets are saying to you. They are filling you with false hopes. They are reporting visions of their own imaginations, not something the Lord has given them to say. They continually say to those who reject what the Lord has said, 'things will go well for you!' They say to those who follow the stubborn inclinations of their own hearts, 'Nothing bad will happen to you!” (Jeremiah 23:16-17)
Isaiah points out that God does not listen to those who pray and observe religious ceremonies but otherwise do evil and neglect justice. (Isaiah 1:11-17) “Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit your workers. Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high...Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to bring the homeless poor into your house—when you see the naked to clothe him and not to turn away your own flesh and blood? “(Isaiah 58:3-4, 6-7) People who just go through the motions of worship, externally obeying the first great commandment, to love God, but who do not obey the second, to love their neighbor, are doing so in vain.
God doesn't care for acts of outward piety that don't touch the heart. So he tells Jeremiah that he will make another covenant with his people, one in which “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts and I will be their God and they will be my people.” Our passage today shows us the importance of having a change of heart. And a change of heart leads to a change in our behavior.
Lutherans celebrate the Sunday closest to the end of October as Reformation Sunday. Because it was on October 31, 1517 that Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the church door in Wittenberg. The door was like a bulletin board in his university town and Luther wanted to debate his theses or propositions, concerning the practice of selling indulgences among other things. As a professor of the Bible, Luther had discovered that the church of his day had distorted how we get our relationship with God right. It wasn't by following all of the practices that the church has introduced over time. It wasn't by doing enough good works to earn God's approval. Paul said that nobody could do that perfectly “since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) Out of his self-sacrificial love for us, Jesus, God the Son, has taken upon himself the spiritual consequences for our sins. That clears the way for us to get right with God, who is gracious and forgiving. Paul showed that it is God's grace that saves us, not our own efforts. All we simply have to do is trust God and his promises.
Some people think Paul was saying something different here than what Jesus taught. But Jesus constantly tells people that their faith saves them. (Luke 7:50; cf. Luke 8:48; 17:19;18:42) When he tells his disciples that it would be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a sewing needle than for a rich person to enter God's kingdom, and they ask “Then who can be saved?” he says, “What is impossible for mere humans is possible for God.” (Luke 18:24-27) Only God can save us. In the parable of the prodigal son, the young man who demanded his inheritance and then squandered it with a wild lifestyle finds himself poor and hungry. He comes to his senses and realizes he would do better if he just became one of his father's hired workers. So he resolves to go back, confess his sins to his father and ask to be just one of his workers. But the father sees him at a distance, runs to him, hugs and kisses him, dresses him in the best clothes and throws a party. Some say we should call this the parable of the compassionate father, because what Jesus is illustrating is God's unbelievable forgiveness of and graciousness towards sinners. (Luke 15:11-32) Paul just makes explicit what is implicit in Jesus' teachings.
Proclaiming these truths, Luther sought to reform the Roman Catholic Church he belonged to, not replace it. He was just trying to bring it back to the basics found in the Bible. But at that time, the church hierarchy wasn't prepared to listen. Luther was excommunicated. He translated the Bible from Latin into everyday German, so the common people could read it, and went about forming his followers into a movement. And others, inspired by Luther to read the scriptures themselves, did the same.
In 1999, the Roman Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation reached a consensus. The Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification says, “Together we confess: By grace alone, in faith in Christ's saving work and not because of any merit on our part, we are accepted by God and receive the Holy Spirit, who renews our hearts while equipping and calling us to do good works.” Distinctions and nuances remain on either side but they agree on the heart of the gospel: that salvation is a free gift from God and we cannot do anything to earn it, any more than a murderer can deserve a pardon. All we can do is accept it and show our gratitude for such a gift by showing others God's love and bringing them the good news of freedom from the sin that afflicts us.
Jesus said, that “everyone who sins is a slave to sin.” Unlike social forms of slavery no one is forcing that slavery on us. It is enforced by our hearts, which cling to attitudes and habits which are bad for us but which we cannot give up. We get the word “addiction” from the Latin word “addictus,” which meant a person so in debt that he was enslaved to his creditor. Today we know that addiction is a sickness. And you could see sin as a spiritual sickness, a chronic illness that we are fighting. Today we know more about the way the addicted brain behaves. But where is our spiritual disease located?
Those of us with chronic invisible diseases like ME/CFS, POTS, fibromyalgia, or Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, will often hear others say, “You don't look sick.” But as someone pointed out, most of the body is on the inside, which can't be seen with the naked eye. And the biggest problem with humans is on the inside: their hearts, their inner selves. If the center of our being is sick, then the symptoms will be seen in how we think, talk and act. As Jeremiah said, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and incurable; who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9) And it would be incurable except that God, the great physician, can help us. As it says in one of David's psalms, “As for me I said: 'O Lord, have mercy on me! Heal me, for I have sinned against you!'” (Psalm 41:4) And David knew where the sickness resided. In another psalm he says, “Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me.” (Psalm 51:10)
In Ezekiel God says, “I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them; and I will remove the hearts of stone from their bodies and I will give them tender hearts, so that they may follow my statutes, and observe my regulations and carry them out. Then they will be my people, and I will be their God.” (Ezekiel 11:19-20)
Why doesn't God simply change all hearts? Because God is love and love does not force itself on anyone. A doctor may know that you need a heart transplant but he will not do it without your consent. God offers us salvation and lets us choose if we wish to receive it. Not everyone wants to give up their selfish desires, fears and hatreds to receive the new spirit and new heart God offers in their place.
In Doctor Who, the longest running sci-fi show, the Doctor can go anywhere in his ship, the Tardis. On the outside it looks like an old-fashioned police telephone box but inside it is a vast and sophisticated time-traveling vehicle. In one episode a villain steals the Tardis by taking out its consciousness and putting it into a person. The Tardis, taking in its new form, asks the Doctor, “Are all people like this? So much bigger on the inside?”
Alas, they are not. As someone once said, a person all wrapped up in himself makes a very small package. That's what's sad about a lot of people. They are nothing but a bundle of unquenchable desires, unresolvable issues, irreconcilable conflicts and unrelievable fears, collapsing in on themselves like a black hole and threatening to suck in everything and everyone around them. But what is hopeful is that they needn't be. Though our bodies stop growing at one point, our inner selves need not stop growing if we open ourselves to the God who is love. We can become bigger on the inside. And we will have to be if our very big and wonderful God is to come and live in us. (John 14:23)