June 1st, 2008
197 Browning Boulevard, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3K 0L1
REV. PETER BUSH's SERMONS
Matthew 5: 8
Blessed are the pure in heart
"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God."
Different cultures think about different parts of the body being connected with various emotions or personality traits. Some Greeks thought of anger as residing in the nose. The ancient Hebrews and the Jews of Jesus' day thought of the emotions being in the stomach. So when Jesus says "pure in heart" - he is not talking about emotions - he is not talking about feelings. For the people of Jesus' day the heart was the center of the person - the core of their identity. So purity of heart meant something about the core of the person - the central identity.
Now let's back up to the word "purity" - a diamond is pure when it is clear. We talk about the purity of a singing voice when it can be heard clearly - and a single note is sounded.
The Danish philosopher Soren Kirkegaard wrote about purity of heart - he said that "purity of heart was to will one thing." Purity of heart is to be clear about the central purpose of life. There is no other purpose - no other reality that matters - there is one purpose.
There are so many things in our world that compete for our attention - so many things that demand a place on our agenda - so many things that insist that we pay attention to them. Everything is important - everything is worthy of our attention. But if we pay attention to everything - if we say that everything is important - than in fact nothing is important.
Think for a minute about our everyday lives - we are having a face to face conversation with someone and our phone rings - we are now faced with a choice - will we answer the phone or not. Which is more important - the face to face conversation - or the unknown person on the phone? But we can up the ante one more. We are having a conversation with someone - and in the background the radio is on - which one are we really doing - having this conversation or listening to the radio? One will be more important than the other - one will be most important. The two can not be equally important. We may want to say they are - but they can't be - one will grab our attention more than the other.
If we can choose only one thing to have as most important - if only one thing can be the top of the heap - then whatever we choose as the most important thing had better be worthwhile willing as the most important thing.
We have a choice to make - what is going to be most important? It has to be something that matters enough to be worth putting our everything into. It is easy to look at other people's lives and say - "They have their priorities wrong - they are sinking their life into things that do not matter." It is much more difficult to look at our own lives and say, "What is number one? What is most important?"
A friend told me this story - She was at a retreat on how to live an effective life. It was being led by facilitators from a major life coaching group. As the retreat was ending - the participants were asked to take three 3x5 cards and to put on each one something that was important to them - these would the three most important things in their life - one on each card. My friend wrote - God, Family, Job. Then the invitation was to reduce the number to two cards, my friend turned down the Job card - being left only with God and Family. Then the leader said - "If you are going to live an effective life - there can be only one number 1 in your life. I invite you to turn down one more card so that you are left with only one card - the most important thing." My friend said it was a struggle - but in the end she chose God over Family - God would be number one.
Whatever we make number 1 had better be worth everything - the one thing we will had better matter.
Why do this? Why not just live our lives with 3 or 6 or 1 0 priorities? Because living with 3 or 6 or 1 0 priorities means that our lives will be a series of distractions and conflicts between the priorities in our lives. Until we have one #1 - everything will compete to try to push to the top of the pile.
If I try to hold my family and my job as equally important - there will inevitably be a conflict between them - which will leave me unsure of what I should do. Do I attend Nathan's band concert or go to the church committee meeting? I can't be both places which is more important? And that is a fairly unimportant conflict. It is not hard to imagine other situations where the conflict is more significant.
If on the other hand, we have made a decision - if we have willed one thing - then we don not live our lives as distracted people. We know what it is that matters - we can live our lives in a centered way. And in that centered life there is peace. We are not in inner turmoil worrying about how to keep everyone happy - trying to balance the competing demands - this is what is most important - our lives become much simpler.
When we will one thing ~ when we live with purity of heart - we can be at peace with ourselves and with the world.
Now Jesus tips his hand as to what he thinks we should choose as number 1 - as the central reality of our lives. He says that the pure in heart will see God. That would only be blessing - a good thing - if the one thing we had willed was God. Jesus' promise is this - what we make number 1 - that is the thing we will get. What we pour our life into is likely to be the thing we receive.
If we pour our lives into making money - we will likely make money - but is money worth it. If we pour our lives into trying to control other people's actions - we will likely be able to do that - but is being in charge worth it. Jesus says if we pour our lives into following God we will see God - not just in the life to come - this is not just the promise of eternal life - this is the promise that we will see God in this life - we will see God's hand at work in this world. And that I would argue is something that is worth pouring our lives into.
As we pour our lives into following God - becoming people who will God with purity of heart - we become more able to see God at work in the world around us. It is like when you get to the soccer game a little late and you are scanning the field to figure out which one of those kids out there is your child or grandchild, and you have forgotten what number they wear and then you see one who runs in a way that you immediately recognize - and you say to yourself "there they are." As we pour our lives into God - we get good at recognizing His hand at work - we can start to tell the things that are God at work - often under the radar - hidden to most - but we can see - because we know the way God moves and acts.
I admit that I spent much of this week trying to think of someone who is an example to me of living with "purity of heart." And that I had such difficulty in coming up with an example may indicate just how distracted our lives are - how difficult it is to live willing one thing. We live in a world that wants to have its cake and eat it to.
But I do have someone who I think gives us an example of willing one thing. Bob was in his early 50s when I met him. He had applied to be the director of the youth center in Mitchell, a part time job. In the interview with Bob two things came shining through Bob loved kids and Bob had a deep commitment to Jesus Christ. For 18 months Bob spent 3 nights a week building relationships with kids - some of the kids were in trouble with the law, some of the kids were unloved at home, some of the kids came from chaotic homes that made you want to weep, some of the kids were just lonely or bored. When Bob started in the center three or four kids would come in - 18 months later there were 25 to 30 a night going through the space.
The kids knew that Bob cared for them. The kids also know that Bob loved Jesus - he didn't preach it - he didn't even talk about it a lot - but Bob's commitment to God gave him the ability to not give up on the kids, gave Bob the ability to see the small ways in which kids were becoming more mature, more hopeful. And in the amazing work that Bob did with those kids he never thought it was about him - he was clear - this was something God was doing. In midst of the chaos that is the life of a youth center, Bob willed one thing - to live for God - and because of that he could live through some very difficult situations with calm and peace. And Bob got to see God's hand at work.
He showed me two pictures drawn by a 12 year old girl - the first one was drawn days after the girl's mother had died of cancer. It was a dark picture in black and brown - and the girl had written "This is where I live" as the title of the picture. Six weeks later she drew another picture which Bob had also kept - it was a picture of flowers and rainbows - and the title was, "This is where I live when I am at the Youth Center." Certainly this girl had much to go through yet - her grief was not over - but she had found new hope.
We are invited to live with purity of heart - willing one thing -living the God centered life - for when we do - we get to see God at work in our world.
