YOU GOTTA HAVE HEART

WITNESS

8-2-13

YOU GOTTA HAVE HEART

In a movie called “The Replacements”

Gene Hackman looks out at his football squad

And says,

“You gotta have heart---miles and miles of heart”

Hackman  plays Jimmy McGinty---the coach

Of a rag tag football team

That is replacing the regular team

Who are out on strike

As the movie ends

The regular team has settled their strike

And are coming back the next week for the playofss

---IF they make them

McGinty-Hackman doesn’t say it

But you almost get the feeling

That McGinty would rather

Go to battle next week

With this rag tag team of losers

Than his regular team

“You gotta have heart---

Miles and miles of heart”

I wonder

If this is how Jesus felt some 2000 years ago

That he would rather do battle

With the “losers” of his day---the Apostles

Than the perennial and accepted religion

HEART---figuratively, the center of a person

That which gives a person direction

The apostles and disciples HAD HEART

They were focused on God and others

They had COMPASSION

They CARED and they LOVED

In Mark 7

Jesus condemns some of the teachers of the law

For following tradition

Without obedience to the LAWS OF GOD

( love, kindness, forgiveness, and compassion )

The Pharisees and teachers question Jesus

About his disciples eating with unclean hands

Jesus responds,

“Isaiah was right

When he prophesies about the hypocrites

As it is written:

These people honor me

With their lips

But their hearts are far from me

They worship me in vain

Their teachings

Are but rules taught by men

You have let go of

The commands of God

And are hanging on

To the traditions of men”                                   Mark 7:6-8

The implication here

Is that the teachers of the day

Were so bogged down in tradition

That they forgot the laws of God

Loving God---loving and caring for others

You gotta have heart

MILES AND MILES OF HEART

The implication here is

That Jesus’ disciples and apostles had heart

They may have not known the tradition

But they knew the law of God---LOVE

The Apostles had heart

Do you and I

Would Jesus look out at us

Like McGinty did of his band of replacement players

Would he look at us and admiringly say

“YOU GOTTA HAVE HEART

MILES AND MILES OF HEART”

My friends

You are the REPLACEMENTS

In today’s world

Would Jesus

Pick you for his team

He would

If you have

MILES AND MILES OF HEART

Robert P. Wallman

3-14-12

Ps        WITNESS        8-2-13