St. Thomas Evangelical Lutheran Church
3800 East Third Street
Bloomington, Indiana 47401
(812) 332-5252
Sermon All Saints Sunday (November 2, 2008)
Liturgical Color: White
Reverend Doctor Lyle E. McKee
Purity of Heart
Grace to you and peace from our loving God, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Greetings, saints of the Lord! Blessed are you this day, and every day of your lives, because through baptism, you are made one with Christ and are, therefore saints. And blessed are we as we remember the saints who have gone before.
We are, according to Matthew, given nine ways to be blessed, each bringing us closer to union with the one who preached these awesome words—our Lord Jesus Christ. This great sermon, even in this small portion of the Sermon on the Mount, is so rich that each phrase bears focused attention.
Psychiatrist and student of Freud, James Tucker Fisher, closed his book, A Few Buttons Missing with this "revealing" discovery:
"I dreamed of writing a handbook that would be simple, practical, easy to understand, easy to follow. It would tell people how to live—what thoughts and attitudes and philosophies to cultivate and what pitfalls to avoid, in seeking mental health. I attended every symposium ...possible,... and took notes on the wise words of teachers and my colleagues who were leaders in the field. "And then quite by accident, I discovered that such a work had already been completed....If you were to take the sum total of all the authoritative articles ever written by the most qualified of psychologists and psychiatrists on the subject of mental hygiene-if you were to combine them and refine them and cleave out the excess verbiage...you would have an awkward and incomplete summation of the Sermon on the Mount. And it would suffer immeasurably through a comparison." (Fisher and Lowell S. Hawley, A Few Buttons Missing: The Case Book of a Psychiatrist Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1951, 273).
There is more depth in this small part of the Sermon on the Mount than could be plumbed in any sermon. And so, this morning, I want to spend some time with only one of these profound means of blessing:
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
As I look over the readings for this morning, this beatitude seems to inform both of the other passages. The matter of purity lies behind the vision of St. John of Patmos as he describes his vision. He looks, sees a multitude of people from all over the earth standing before the throne of the Lamb, who is "robed in white." (Rev. 7:9) The Lamb appears as we have seen him before, on the Mount of Transfiguration, bathed in the glorious light of the glory of God. His purity is so obvious that even his robe shines with its radiance.
So also in First John, we hear about purity and the children of God. "When God is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure." (I John 3:2-3)
We learn from these readings that purity is of God, that our purity is not our own but comes from God, and that purity gives voice to the sound of praise in worship. With all this reference to purity, it is frankly difficult, in the midst of the personal struggles and ambiguous ethical choices of life, to see it in ourselves.
It bears asking, even as we recognize that we are saints by virtue of Christ's purity and righteousness, just how saintly and pure and consistent with our Lord's example is our conduct. It is a similar question to the one asked last week—Now that God's grace has come to us, what will we do?
Consider, for example, these questions related to purity that are posed in Kent Hughes' "Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome."
1) Are we being desensitized by the present evil world? Do things that once shocked us now pass us by with little notice?
2) Where do our minds wander when we have no duties to perform?
3) What are we reading? Are there books or magazines or files in our libraries that we want no one else to see?...
4) How many chapters of the Bible did we read last week?
And still, such questions, while important to our developing habits of purity, can produce more guilt than resolve. And the focus needs always to be on God, not ourselves.
We always have more to deal with that we are able to manage. For me, all I have to do is think of the tasks of raising children—even in their early adult years—to know that true purity of heart is impossible. Our hearts get tested, even by those who purportedly have pure hearts—the young. At a "Focus on Ministry" I attended, it was refreshing for me to hear the struggles of another parent, Robert Kegan, who told a story about his daughter.
One day, he had taken her shopping—she was seven or eight, and in the checkout line, she saw a toy that she wanted badly. You know, one of those inexpensive toys that some well-paid marketing person places at just the eye level of a seven year old.
Kegan thought that she had been a good companion for what was for her a boring time at the grocery, so he made his daughter a deal. "I'll buy the toy, but you will have to clean up your bedroom before playing with it."
They got home, and he started at work in his study, reading student papers. A bit later, his daughter wanders in, saying, "Daddy, how about you let me play with that toy now." "Is your room cleaned." "Well, not exactly, but I promise to get that done right after playing for a little." "No, that wasn't our deal," Kegan said, trying not to lose his concentration on the paper in front of him.
Well, as children are gifted at discerning any weakness in a parents' resolve, his daughter moved further into the office, now standing right next to her father, who continues to try not to be distracted from his work. The toy sits on the shelf behind him, and he knows she knows where it is.
"Aw, come on, Dad. Have a heart. I just want to play with it for a minute, and then I promise to get my room cleaned up." This time, Kegan manages a less committed response, "No, I don't think so."
Seeing the door open even further on the possibility, she moves slowly over between Kegan and the toy, and she asks again. This third query finds him fully engaged in the paper, and he only manages a half-hearted grunt.
She then reaches out and says, "I'm going to get the toy, now, Dad." And she grabs it. Then, entirely changing her demeanor and her voice, she blurts out, "Be stricter, Dad!"
Kegan used the story to illustrate how much our children need adults to set limits. They want it and need it. But I also see here the difficulty of maintaining pure hearts. The father lacked resolve and was distracted by his work. The daughter lacked discipline and chose manipulation over integrity.
But then, purity of heart is also about forgiveness—of ourselves and of others. Even when a particular situation seems so intractable that we cannot imagine that forgiveness will ever be possible, we can still pray and, in the praying, remember the startling promises of God, the source of our heart's purity.
The liberation theologian Jon Sobrino tells of a prayer offered in the 1980s in a refugee camp in San Salvador, where dozens of people were seeking shelter from the violence of war. It was All Souls' Day, and these refugees longed to visit the cemeteries and place flowers on the graves of their loved one, but they could not. So instead they put cards on the altar, each one bearing the name of a loved one killed amid the violence and repression of El Salvador. Flowers were painted around each name. One card, however, bore no flowers, only words: "Our dead enemies. May God forgive them and convert them." (L. Gregory Jones, Disciplines)
Part of what we do because of grace and for the sake of God and purer hearts is forgive. Forgiveness is one of the most powerful expressions of the heart grasped by God and reflective of the purity of Christ. After all, without forgiveness—which comes from God—without God's grace, we would have no ability to forgive. Indeed we would have no purity at all, nor would we have any claim to sainthood.
But there is one more feature of a pure heart that I want to address on this Sunday of remembering and working towards being saints. Just a bit later in this Sermon on the Mount, Jesus speaks again about the heart. He says simply, "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." (Matt. 6:21)
"Many people have misread these words of Jesus and imagined that they say, 'For where your heart is, there your treasure will be also.' I have even heard people say, 'We have to change people's hearts, and then their money will follow.' I suppose this could happen, but we need to recognize that this is not what Jesus says.
"Jesus says that where your treasure is, where you put your money, that is where your heart will be. If this is true (and who am I to disagree with Jesus?), then we can say that as people grow in their giving to Christ's church, they will grow in their relationship with Jesus. We are talking about a cause-and-effect relationship here. Giving more to Jesus' work will result in growing closer to Jesus.
"Another way to think about what Jesus says here is to talk about "acting your way into a new way of thinking," as opposed to "thinking your way into a new way of acting." If Jesus said, "where your heart is, there your treasure will be also," then he (would have been) talking about the need to change people's hearts. He (would have been) talking about trying to think your way into a new way of acting. (However), since what Jesus says here is "where your treasure is, there your heart will be also," then (what) he is talking about (is) the need to first change people's actions. He is talking about trying to act your way into a new way of thinking.
"I am convinced it is far easier, and far more lasting to act your way into a new way of thinking. It is far more effective if my actions lead my thoughts, than if my thoughts lead my actions. If I wait until I feel like tithing, I may never get to the action. If, on the other hand, I trust in God's promise, and simply start tithing, I will find that my attitudes toward giving (and money in general) will quickly change. My actions lead my thinking far more effectively than my thinking leads my actions.
"What this all means is that what God's people do with their money has a profound impact on God's people's relationship with their Lord. To put it as directly as possible-you have God's promise that if you grow in your giving, you will grow in your relationship with Jesus." (Charles R. Lane, Ask, Thank, Tell, Augsburg-Fortress, 2006, pp. 54-55)
So, do you want to be a better Christian—a better saint? Do you really want to be a more faithful follower of our Lord? Do you desire that your heart be more fully transformed by the grace for which we are so grateful? Do you hope to grow a heart that is pure?
Then I have one more simple suggestion about what you can do. Make intentional-not haphazard, regular—not sporadic, generous—not insignificant, first—not your left-overs, proportional—not the same old $20, and cheerful—not begrudging, but grateful, gifts to the Church. These are the biblical principles of giving—intentional, regular, generous, first, proportional, and cheerful. They are the paths to pure hearts in this matter of giving.
May God grant that we saints gathered here this morning, may be given the grace to be pure in heart, and, at the last, to see God. Amen.
May the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep our hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus our Lord, unto eternal life. Amen.
