The Keys To Happiness -- Purity Of Heart
Sermon
Come As You Are
Sermons On The Lord's Supper
Most Americans are increasingly interested in issues of purity, aren't we? We want to drink pure water. And there is a legitimate, growing concern about the quality of our groundwater. We want to breathe clean air. So Congress has passed (on our behalf) stringent Clean Air Acts. We want to consume pure foods. "Natural" foods are big sellers right now, aren't they? So much so that one supermarket, probably selling foods with preservatives and additives, still calls itself "Purity Supreme."
We would like our homes to be free from contaminants, too, wouldn't we? So we may be disturbed by reports like the one where an expert declared that "indoor air quality is ten to one hundred times worse than the air outdoors" (William M, Vaughn, principle scientist at Nauset Environmental Services, quoted by Johanna Crosby in "How Safe is Your Home?" Cape Cod Times). That's upsetting. We want pure water, pure air, pure foods, and a pure environment.
The purity of things outside us and around us is important. But the sixth Beatitude is about something even more important. Something even longer lasting: purity of heart. "Blessed [happy] are the pure in heart, for they shall see God," Jesus says (Matthew 5:8, RSV).
What does Jesus mean by calling for us to be "pure in heart"? And in what way will the "pure in heart" "see God"? These are questions we will explore this morning. Seems to me they are important questions, because being "pure in heart" is a beautiful attitude that is a key to happier lives.
First then, what does Jesus mean by "purity of heart"? Fortunately he does not mean that you and I must be spiritually perfect. None of us are. None of us will ever be (in this earthly life). There was a man looking for a good church to join. His wife warned him, "If you ever do find a perfect church, don't join it. You'll spoil it!"
In another case, a man was standing before Saint Peter, seeking admission to heaven. Saint Peter looked at the man's record and said, "Sorry, brother. You've told too many lies. I can't let you in through the Pearly Gates." "Have a heart, Saint Peter," pleaded the man. "Remember, you were a fisherman, too!" (John A. Terry, Sermons on the Be-Attitudes, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., p. 54). It's perfectly clear that none of us is perfect. All of us depend on God's forgiveness and God's grace. Purity of heart is different from perfection.
Some Greek and Latin words might aid our understanding. The Greek word used in the Bible for "pure in heart" is kathros. It's related to the English word catharsis. Kathros means "to be without blemish" or "without alloy." It was used of a sheep whose wool coat had no spots, or of white bread made from pure, unadulterated flour, or of gold and silver that were pure metal (William Barclay, The Beatitudes and the Lord's Prayer for Everyman, Harper and Row Publishers, pp. 76-77).
That same Greek word kathros is translated "sincere" in Latin. Sine cere literally means "without wax." In ancient Rome dishonest merchants would use wax to fill in cracks in pottery. (I guess like some dishonest antique dealers doctor furniture with fillers today.) Something sine cere, "without wax," was something without falseness, something that was just what it appeared to be, shortcomings, imperfections, and all.
The pure in heart are not people who are perfect but people who are sincere. People who long to know God and sincerely try to do what's right. J. B. Phillips does well when he translates this Beatitude, "Happy are the utterly sincere, for they shall see God."
King David, who tradition says was the author of the Psalm 51, was pure in heart. David was an adulterer. David was a murderer. But at least he knew how to blush! Psalm 51 shows us David's unadulterated, utterly sincere desire -- once confronted with his sin by Nathan the Prophet (see 2 Samuel 12:1 ff.) -- to get right with God. As we read Psalm 51, we hear David's sincerity, and pain:
Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy steadfast love ... Wash me thoroughly ... and cleanse me from my sin ... For ... my sin is ever before me ... Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow ... Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me ... a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. (RSV)
If you want to know what "purity of heart" is, read Psalm 51! One of the ironies of spiritual life is that when we feel as miserable as King David did, we are on the road to recovery. The worse we feel, the closer to salvation we are. For God looks on us in our misery and repentance -- and forgives us. We can be cleansed. We can be forgiven. We can start again.
Friends, if you're beating yourself up for something you've said or done -- or something you've not said or not done; some sin you're truly sorry for; some sin you intend to stop: rest easy.
Hear again these words of assurance: "If we confess our sins [God] is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9, RSV). Or the words of King David: "A broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise" (Psalm 51, v. 17b, RSV). Hear and believe. Accept God's forgiveness, freely offered at every instant. God hates our sin. But God loves our sincere repentance.
The Good News of the gospel is God loves sinners like you and me! That's what the communion table is about. This table, with its bread broken and "wine" spilled out, reminds us that God loves us enough to die for us, to be broken brutally on a cross, so that you and I might live.
Think of the arms of the huge cross above our communion table as God's arms, reaching out to embrace you and me. If God says we are clean, we are clean. If God says we are forgiven, we are forgiven. Accept the body and blood as signs of your forgiveness. Let this Communion service and this day mark a new beginning.
"Blessed are the pure in heart," the sincere, the repentant, "for they shall see God." What does that mean, "to see God"? The pure in heart can see God again because their spiritual eyes, the eyes of their hearts, have been cleansed. Have you ever tried to look out through dirty glasses? Hard to do, isn't it? Self-examination, confession, and repentance cleanse our spiritual "glasses." Once we are cleansed spiritually, we can see life as it truly is.
When we're "clean" spiritually, we can start to see God all around us. The same God, who is with us here in church, with us in the bread and wine of Communion, is always around us and in us and with us. We live in a "God-drenched" world.
Years ago I ran across a little classic titled The Practice of the Presence of God (Spire Books). A monk named Brother Lawrence wrote it in the seventeeth century. Brother Lawrence was a profoundly simple -- and somewhat simple-minded -- man. Yet he loved God with all of his heart.
His brothers in the monastery discovered Brother Lawrence was not a mental giant. He was big. So they assigned him to move furniture. But he was clumsy. He broke things. They reassigned him to cooking. But he wasn't good at that. Once Brother Lawrence tried to cook a rabbit -- but forgot to skin off the fur! Finally the Abbot assigned Brother Lawrence to wash the pots and pans, a job Brother Lawrence hated.
Still he stuck with it for years, and tried to find God even in this lowly task. Brother Lawrence saw God in the flowers glimpsed through the kitchen window. Brother Lawrence even came to see God in the dirty pots and plates.
He wrote what has come to be known as the "house spouse's prayer":
Lord of all pots and pans and things
Since I've no time to be
A saint by doing lovely things
Or watching late with Thee,
Or dreaming in the dawn's light
Or storming Heaven's gates,
Make me a saint by getting meals
And washing up my plate.
"Blessed are the pure in heart," like Brother Lawrence, the God-focused, the sincerely repentant, for "they shall see God." See God in the Sacrament of Communion. See God in the simplest things. The purity of our environment is important. But the purity of our hearts is even more important. Then we may see God: in our neediness, in our forgiveness, in this life, and in the life to come!
We would like our homes to be free from contaminants, too, wouldn't we? So we may be disturbed by reports like the one where an expert declared that "indoor air quality is ten to one hundred times worse than the air outdoors" (William M, Vaughn, principle scientist at Nauset Environmental Services, quoted by Johanna Crosby in "How Safe is Your Home?" Cape Cod Times). That's upsetting. We want pure water, pure air, pure foods, and a pure environment.
The purity of things outside us and around us is important. But the sixth Beatitude is about something even more important. Something even longer lasting: purity of heart. "Blessed [happy] are the pure in heart, for they shall see God," Jesus says (Matthew 5:8, RSV).
What does Jesus mean by calling for us to be "pure in heart"? And in what way will the "pure in heart" "see God"? These are questions we will explore this morning. Seems to me they are important questions, because being "pure in heart" is a beautiful attitude that is a key to happier lives.
First then, what does Jesus mean by "purity of heart"? Fortunately he does not mean that you and I must be spiritually perfect. None of us are. None of us will ever be (in this earthly life). There was a man looking for a good church to join. His wife warned him, "If you ever do find a perfect church, don't join it. You'll spoil it!"
In another case, a man was standing before Saint Peter, seeking admission to heaven. Saint Peter looked at the man's record and said, "Sorry, brother. You've told too many lies. I can't let you in through the Pearly Gates." "Have a heart, Saint Peter," pleaded the man. "Remember, you were a fisherman, too!" (John A. Terry, Sermons on the Be-Attitudes, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., p. 54). It's perfectly clear that none of us is perfect. All of us depend on God's forgiveness and God's grace. Purity of heart is different from perfection.
Some Greek and Latin words might aid our understanding. The Greek word used in the Bible for "pure in heart" is kathros. It's related to the English word catharsis. Kathros means "to be without blemish" or "without alloy." It was used of a sheep whose wool coat had no spots, or of white bread made from pure, unadulterated flour, or of gold and silver that were pure metal (William Barclay, The Beatitudes and the Lord's Prayer for Everyman, Harper and Row Publishers, pp. 76-77).
That same Greek word kathros is translated "sincere" in Latin. Sine cere literally means "without wax." In ancient Rome dishonest merchants would use wax to fill in cracks in pottery. (I guess like some dishonest antique dealers doctor furniture with fillers today.) Something sine cere, "without wax," was something without falseness, something that was just what it appeared to be, shortcomings, imperfections, and all.
The pure in heart are not people who are perfect but people who are sincere. People who long to know God and sincerely try to do what's right. J. B. Phillips does well when he translates this Beatitude, "Happy are the utterly sincere, for they shall see God."
King David, who tradition says was the author of the Psalm 51, was pure in heart. David was an adulterer. David was a murderer. But at least he knew how to blush! Psalm 51 shows us David's unadulterated, utterly sincere desire -- once confronted with his sin by Nathan the Prophet (see 2 Samuel 12:1 ff.) -- to get right with God. As we read Psalm 51, we hear David's sincerity, and pain:
Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy steadfast love ... Wash me thoroughly ... and cleanse me from my sin ... For ... my sin is ever before me ... Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow ... Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me ... a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. (RSV)
If you want to know what "purity of heart" is, read Psalm 51! One of the ironies of spiritual life is that when we feel as miserable as King David did, we are on the road to recovery. The worse we feel, the closer to salvation we are. For God looks on us in our misery and repentance -- and forgives us. We can be cleansed. We can be forgiven. We can start again.
Friends, if you're beating yourself up for something you've said or done -- or something you've not said or not done; some sin you're truly sorry for; some sin you intend to stop: rest easy.
Hear again these words of assurance: "If we confess our sins [God] is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9, RSV). Or the words of King David: "A broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise" (Psalm 51, v. 17b, RSV). Hear and believe. Accept God's forgiveness, freely offered at every instant. God hates our sin. But God loves our sincere repentance.
The Good News of the gospel is God loves sinners like you and me! That's what the communion table is about. This table, with its bread broken and "wine" spilled out, reminds us that God loves us enough to die for us, to be broken brutally on a cross, so that you and I might live.
Think of the arms of the huge cross above our communion table as God's arms, reaching out to embrace you and me. If God says we are clean, we are clean. If God says we are forgiven, we are forgiven. Accept the body and blood as signs of your forgiveness. Let this Communion service and this day mark a new beginning.
"Blessed are the pure in heart," the sincere, the repentant, "for they shall see God." What does that mean, "to see God"? The pure in heart can see God again because their spiritual eyes, the eyes of their hearts, have been cleansed. Have you ever tried to look out through dirty glasses? Hard to do, isn't it? Self-examination, confession, and repentance cleanse our spiritual "glasses." Once we are cleansed spiritually, we can see life as it truly is.
When we're "clean" spiritually, we can start to see God all around us. The same God, who is with us here in church, with us in the bread and wine of Communion, is always around us and in us and with us. We live in a "God-drenched" world.
Years ago I ran across a little classic titled The Practice of the Presence of God (Spire Books). A monk named Brother Lawrence wrote it in the seventeeth century. Brother Lawrence was a profoundly simple -- and somewhat simple-minded -- man. Yet he loved God with all of his heart.
His brothers in the monastery discovered Brother Lawrence was not a mental giant. He was big. So they assigned him to move furniture. But he was clumsy. He broke things. They reassigned him to cooking. But he wasn't good at that. Once Brother Lawrence tried to cook a rabbit -- but forgot to skin off the fur! Finally the Abbot assigned Brother Lawrence to wash the pots and pans, a job Brother Lawrence hated.
Still he stuck with it for years, and tried to find God even in this lowly task. Brother Lawrence saw God in the flowers glimpsed through the kitchen window. Brother Lawrence even came to see God in the dirty pots and plates.
He wrote what has come to be known as the "house spouse's prayer":
Lord of all pots and pans and things
Since I've no time to be
A saint by doing lovely things
Or watching late with Thee,
Or dreaming in the dawn's light
Or storming Heaven's gates,
Make me a saint by getting meals
And washing up my plate.
"Blessed are the pure in heart," like Brother Lawrence, the God-focused, the sincerely repentant, for "they shall see God." See God in the Sacrament of Communion. See God in the simplest things. The purity of our environment is important. But the purity of our hearts is even more important. Then we may see God: in our neediness, in our forgiveness, in this life, and in the life to come!
