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Message from Pastor Marty

Body parts

By Pastor Peter W. Marty

I am not exactly sure what to make of a citizenry who spend two full weeks analyzing the ankle of New England Patriot’s star quarterback, Tom Brady. Some 60 million people, prodded on by close-up photographs from media outlets, have now weighed in as to whether this man’s ankle sprain is a moderately severe one, a mild one, or — God forbid — none at all. You can join ESPN commentators and study Brady’s gait each day. You can open the Sports section and size up photos of the now famous orthopedic boot that paparazzi spotted Brady wearing one day. You can play pretend physician and make your own diagnosis. It all makes for high drama, especially if your life is uneventful.

Brady’s ankle is not the first body part to attract media attention. There is, for example, Jay Leno’s chin. This comedian’s chin is so large, someone once remarked, “that it could be sold as a storage solution at The Container Store.” Leno himself has authored a book titled Leading With My Chin. Then there is the elbow of Chicago Cubs pitcher Kerry Wood, a familiar site to Cubs enthusiasts everywhere. For most of the first half of the 2007 season, that famous elbow was wrapped in ice, much like the Cubs’ dream of ever winning a World Series.

Then too, there is the ear of Evander Holyfield, or should I say “part of an ear”? If you’ll recall, he lost the other part when Mike Tyson bit it off during a 1997 boxing match. The Internet probably has videos of that grotesque moment for those fascinated by the macabre. Roger Federer’s stomach went bad at the Australian Open last month, causing tennis commentators to suddenly move from their play-by-play analysis to speculate on what Roger’s doctor might be saying. The $400 haircut of presidential hopeful John Edwards still dogs the well-groomed candidate, even though he has frequented many a cheaper barber in the 12 months since. John Kerry’s campaign voice, reduced to a whisper in the final days of his 2004 run, reminded all of us what sleep deprivation and stump speaking can do to one’s vocal chords.

Body parts of the not-so-famous make news too. (I’ll spare you the story of the two 4th-grade boys in Indiana who got their tongues stuck to a frozen flagpole this week.) Curiously, body parts capture our attention and get featured as news. But what about the heart? Not the physical, four-chambered deal that keeps our blood pumping. I am thinking of the biblical notion of heart — that central and unifying organ of our personal life… that seat of feeling and emotion, joy and sorrow, resolve and virtue. If human skin is the external meeting point between the world and us, the human heart is the internal point of encounter between God and us. This is what scripture suggests.

When the heart grows hard against God and others, biblical writers use the term sklerokardia to describe the stony condition. It sounds a lot like arteriosclerosis in our own day, when calcium accumulates and the blood flow lessens. The two are similar. The latter requires physical exercise and discipline; the former cries out for spiritual exercise and discipline. As for the former, someone decided long ago that a special 40-day slot of time each year — LENT, we call it — could help us get our hearts in order. That re-ordering process rarely makes the news. But it certainly makes for life.

Several years ago, a brother and sister were playing with their new toy nurse’s kit. Hannah, the five-year-old, finally convinced her three-year-old brother to be the patient. When she got Michael to lie down on the floor, Hannah proceeded to put the stethoscope to his chest. Listening intently, as a good nurse would do, she suddenly announced: “I hear somebody walking around in there.” Michael offered the only reply that made sense to him: “Well, that’s probably Jesus movin’ around.” What these two heard would never make front-page news… but it is the pulse of a really good life.

Pastor Peter W. Marty,

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