A Sermon Based Upon Matthew 5:8; Matthew
23: 23-28
By Rev. Dr. Charles J. Tomlin, DMin
Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership
3rd Sunday of Lent, March 23rd,
2014
“Blessed
are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” (Matthew
5:8).
When Christianity was young, a movement
of Christians retreated into the desert areas of Egypt to live alone in
spiritual communities. They wanted to
separate themselves from worldly matters so they could live as pure and perfect
as humans could live on this earth. But
what these ‘Desert Fathers’ quickly discovered is that the struggle against the
‘world’ is not simply a struggle against their environment, but it was also a
struggle within. It was mostly a matter
of the heart.
One popular story tells of two spiritual
‘brothers’ who happened to come upon a woman stranded on one side of a stream
too deep for her to cross. They both
paused a moment, because they had taken a vow not to touch a woman at all. Then, without a word, the older brother picked
her up and carried her safely to the other side– an action that seemed
scandalous to other, but he said nothing at the time. Finally, after walking a long distance in
silence, the younger brother who felt appalled and offended began to angrily chastise
his brother for breaking the vow of chastity by touching a woman. Then, the other brother responded, “Dear Brother, I only carried her across the
river and put her down on the other side, but you are still carrying her” (From Forest, Jim, “The Ladder of the Beatitudes”,
(p. 98). Orbis Books. Kindle Edition).
This story reminds us how just how challenging
it can be to define what it means to be ‘pure
in heart.’ Was the one brother
impure by breaking his vow and carrying the woman? Or did the other brother keep his purity by
doing nothing? Such a moral quandary
reminds us why the great Bible teacher George Buttrick, described this sixth
beatitude ‘as the most inaccessible’. He says, ‘We
hardly know which is more beyond us, the condition or the promise---purity of
heart or seeing God.’ (Interpreters
Bible Vol. 7, p. 285).
What did Jesus mean when he said ‘the pure in heart’ are blessed, for “they will see God”? Besides, who even wants to know what it
means? Most people aren’t against
purity. Who wants to live in a
completely immoral or impure world? We
definitely want our doctors and nurses to wash their hands before they come
into hospital rooms. We also want our
politicians, personal accountants, our teachers, mechanics and preachers to be
sincere and honest, don’t we? But when it
comes to being ‘pure’ ourselves, no wants to be called a ‘prude’ and or appear ‘puritanical’? It sounds too much like ‘high collars’ and
‘witch hunts’, doesn’t it? And since moral
‘purity’ sounds so naïve, old fashion, or ‘out of touch’ today, it is seldom
taken seriously by our culture. Almost
everything we experience today cries out against having any desire for purity. As J. E. Kalas says, “our steady diet of easy
violence, easy sex, easy classroom cheating, indifferent human relations, and
constant ways of distraction” make any suggestion of ‘purity’ sound impractical
or even impossible (J.E. Kalas,
Beatitudes from the Back Side, p 66).
TO
WILL ONE THING
Perhaps it will help us to take Jesus’
call to moral ‘purity’ more seriously if we understand that Jesus is not speaking about absolute,
moral or any kind of ‘sinless’ moral perfection. However,
projecting moral ‘purity’ as ‘perfection’
is often what we think of, especially since Jesus concludes his Sermon with the
imperative to “Be perfect, as your
Father in Heaven is perfect” (Matt. 5.48). Such moral perfection sounds daunting and
intimidating and there are plenty more Bible passages that sound just as
discouraging to imperfect people like us, such as the one that appears later in
Matthew 19, when Jesus tells a young man, "If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give
the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow
me." (Mat 19:21 NRS). I don’t
think I’ll have many of you waiting to seek ‘moral purity’ or ‘perfection’ in
this way.
But before you ‘go away’ (Mt. 19.22, KJV) as disappointed as the young man in the
gospel story, let me help you understand the kind of ‘perfection’ or ‘purity’ Jesus
means. It’s much more like ‘living out our fullest human potential’ with
God’s blessing, rather than being perfect without failures or flaws (Dave Andrews. Plan Be, p. 45). I can say
this, because the kind of ‘purity’ Jesus means allows the ‘tax collectors and prostitutes to go into the kingdom of heaven’ ahead
of the most respected, religious people of Jesus’ day and ours (Mt.
21.31). These most undesirable people, even
with their failures, could still contain the very ‘purity’ of ‘faith’ (Mt. 21.32) Jesus blesses
because it ‘exceeds the religion of the
Scribes and Pharisees” (Matt. 5.21).
How can this be? Jesus later explained
that the problem was that the Pharisees “cleaned
the outside of the cup and plate” (Matt. 23. 25) but left the inside still
dirty. This made them look like ‘whitewashed tombs, which on the outside look beautiful, but inside are
full of bones of the dead and all kinds of filth’ (Matt. 23.27). If you really want to be clean (the same word
used for pure in Matthew 5.8), Jesus says you need to ‘clean the inside of the cup’ first, so that the ‘outside also may become clean’ (Matt. 23.26).
Purity of heart is not something only the
flawless, the faultless or the sinless can obtain or no one could be
blessed. Furthermore, Jesus can’t be
referring to a nearly impossible, unreachable, faraway moral goal, because he
also says that ‘the greatest in the
kingdom’ (Mt. 18.4) are not those who are without sin, or who make no
mistakes, or have gain great knowledge, but he says that the ‘greatest’ are like ‘children’. “Unless
you are like children,” says Jesus, “you’ll
never enter the kingdom” (Mt. 18.3).
The ‘purity’ Jesus points to in a child is a purity that is innocent, blameless
without threat and is purity that grows in the grace and truth God has given. In
this way, as Dave Andrews says, Jesus expectation of us is not an “abstract faultlessness” but it is rather
a “concrete faithfulness” so we can
live our lives from the inside out without fear, shame or hesitation (Dave Andrews, Plan Be, p. 45).
The great Danish Christian Soren
Kierkegaard wrote that ‘purity of heart
means to will one thing.’ Again, what makes the heart pure is not obtaining
some state of absolute perfection, but we clean up our act when we remove of
all those other things that can pollute and spoil our God given lives. Isn’t this what Jesus meant when he advised Martha,
Lazarus’ sister, saying: “"Martha,
Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing (Luke
10:41-42 NRS). Wasn’t Jesus calling his
disciples to ‘one thing’ when he said: "Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is
easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard
that leads to life, and there are few who find it (Mat 7:13-14 NRS). The same kind of single-mindedness is
instructed when Jesus says “seek first the
kingdom and all these things will be added to you” (Matt 6.33, KJV) or when
he says, "No one can serve two
masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted
to the one and despise the other… (Mat 6:24 NRS). There is nothing that hinders purity more than
having two masters or, as the letter of James says, having two minds: “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to
you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”
(Jam 4:8 NRS).
TO
WILL THE RIGHT THING
Purity of heart begins with single-mindedness
that is to will one thing, but it can’t be ‘just
any old thing’ as James Howell has rightly said (The
Beatitudes for Today, p. 70). Nor can it simply be to will our own thing, or
to will what others want from us, or to will what the world says is right and good. But ‘to will one thing’ is to want the right
thing. But what is that?
Once I was in a pastor’s meeting where a
couple of new pastors where sharing about starting a church. When they opened themselves for questions,
another pastor gave them some advice, and then questioned whether or not they
were going to put ‘a cross’ in the worship area. That pastor insisted that if they were going
to be a church, they had better put up a large cross somewhere. We all understood his point, and the younger
pastors agreed that it was part of their consideration, but as I heard the pastor’s
insistence, I recalled in my own mind how years ago, in my own home church, when
they were considering putting a cross up, there were those who disagreed with
having a cross up anywhere because it made them appear to be too much like a Roman
Catholic Church, using icons or images that could distract from pure worship. Isn’t it amazing how views and perspectives
of what is right, necessary or needed can change?
This story reminds us that to will ‘the
right thing’ is not always easy. Times
change. Perspectives change. People differ.
Cultures have divergent values. Even views and teachings about what it means
to be morally pure can be different among Christians around the world. For example there was a time when it was
considered ‘impure’ if women wore pants; or if men failed to wear ties, if
women had short hair, or if men had long hair.
Once, beards were expected, and now a man wearing a beard looks not only
‘unshaven’, but unclean. In some places
only a certain Bible translation is considered ‘pure’ and some churches will
throw you out of their fellowship ‘if you smoke, chew or go with girls who do.’ Being precise
about ‘whatever is true, whatever is honorable,
whatever is just, (or) whatever is pure…” is not always as easy as simply ‘think(ing) about these things”, as it
was in Paul’s on time (Phil 4.8).
Because times change, people differ,
needs vary and viewpoints may disagree, it is very important for us to
understand that ‘the right thing’ the pure in heart ‘want’ is not really a ‘thing’
at all. The genuinely and enduringly one good ‘thing’ the pure in heart want is
not some ‘thing’, but they want someone.
Those who become pure in heart are those who want “God” and nothing else
will do. It is said that when the great
teacher of the medieval church, Thomas Aquinas lay dying, from his deathbed he
heard a voice from above, which asked: “Thomas,
you have written well of me. What reward
would you ask for yourself?” And it
is said that Thomas replied, “Nothing but
yourself, O Lord.”
Perhaps we can see this purifying,
transforming ‘desire’ for God as a ‘cleansing presence’ in the story of the woman
who came to Jesus and washed his feet with her tears (Luke 7.37). We could say that she was one of those ‘prostitutes’ of whom Jesus said will ‘go into the kingdom ahead of the Scribes
and Pharisees (Matt. 21.31). Luke
tells us that she was a ‘woman….who was
a sinner’. She brought an alabaster
jar of ointment to anoint Jesus, but ending up so overwhelmed by his forgiving
presence, that she weep and bathed his feet with her tears and dried them with
her hair. When others around him felt
her actions impure, Jesus countered that she was the only one who really
understood showed ‘great love’,
because her many sins had been forgiven.
Her desire to be with God, had not only ‘saved her’, but had purified her life.
In a way, I think it is true to say that
those who want God, are made pure by this holy desire. And
because those who want to be with God, really want God more than anything, they
are the ones who will be blessed with exactly what they want: “Blessed are the pure in heart (who want
God more than anything), ‘for they will see God”. They are the ones will get the desires of
their heart, because their heart is forgiven, and completely clean and purified
by the purest desire of all.“
TO
WILL GOD’S WILL
This desire that purifies our heart is a
desire to live in God’s presence now as we do God’s will now. It is a single minded desire that wants God,
and wants what God wants, so that we can realize our full God given potential
in this world. It is not a wish to live
on a cloud somewhere, or only to go to heaven when we die, which all sounds too
far removed from real life. After these
beatitudes, Jesus goes on to challenge us to be ‘the salt of the earth’ and to be ‘the light of the world’,
which means, he does not want us to stay held up safe somewhere in a salt
shaker or hide under a bushel basket, so we don’t fall down, get dirty or
refuse to go out in the dark. No, Jesus
teaches that real purity can stand up to the ‘filth’ and darkness of the world
and challenges it. The purity Jesus blesses enables us to ‘let (our) light shine before others, so
that they may see (our) good works and give glory to the Father in heaven.” The purifying desire for good and for God,
is the desire that calls us to live a life that wants and desires all that God
wants for this world he has created.
One of the people of recent times whose
heart was radiantly pure and wanted what God wants, was the Russian pianist
Maria Yudina. It was Maria Yudina's fate
to live through the Russian revolution and its aftermath, seeing many of her
dearest friends and colleagues disappear into the Gulag. But she
was a fearless Christian, wearing a cross visibly even while teaching or
performing in public– an affirmation of belief at a time when the price of a
display of religious faith could be one's work, one's freedom, even one's life.
But music was a way that Maria Yudina
proclaimed her faith. “She always
played her piano as though she were giving a sermon.” But her public profession
of faith was not without cost. Despite her genius as a musician, from time to
time she was banned from concert halls and not once in her life was she allowed
to travel outside Russia. One time the
communist cavalry rushed into straight into Yudina's piano class and demanded and
answer from Yudina: “Do you believe in God?” She replied in the affirmative.
“Was she promoting religious propaganda among her students?” She replied that
the Constitution didn't forbid it. Naturally,
Yudina was dismissed from her teaching position, and was fortunate it was no
worse.
Perhaps the most remarkable story
happened in Stalin’s final years. Joseph
Stalin seemed more and more like a madman in his last days, and even more superstitious.
He sat locked up in one of his many
dachas, amusing himself in bizarre ways. They say he cut out pictures and photos from
old magazines and newspapers, glued them onto paper, and hung them on the
walls…. [He] didn't let anyone in to see him for days at a time. He listened to
the radio a lot. Once Stalin called the
Radio Committee, where the administration was, and asked if they had a record
of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23, which had been heard on the radio the day
before. “Played by Yudina,” he added. They told Stalin that of course they had
it. Actually, there was no record, the concert had been live. But they were
afraid to say no to Stalin, no one ever knew what the consequences might be. A
human life meant nothing to him. All
you could do was agree, submit, be a yes-man, a yes-man to a madman. Stalin demanded that they send the record
with Yudina's performance of the Mozart to his dacha. The committee panicked,
but they had to do something.
They called in Yudina and an orchestra
and recorded that night. Everyone was shaking with fright, except for Yudina,
naturally. But she was a special case,
that one, the ocean was only knee-deep for her. Yudina said they had to send the conductor
home, he was so scared he couldn't think. They called another conductor, who
trembled and got everything mixed up, confusing the orchestra. Only a third
conductor was in any shape to finish the recording. This was probably a unique event in the
history of recording– changing conductors three times in one night. Anyway, the record was ready by morning. They made one single copy in record time and
sent it to Stalin. Now that was a
record. A record in yes-ing.
Soon after Stalin listened to the
recording, Yudina received an envelope with twenty thousand rubles. She was told it came on the express orders of
Stalin. Then she wrote him a letter. The story seems improbable, but she was never
known to lie. Yudina wrote something
like this in her letter: “I thank you,
Joseph Vissarionovich, for your aid. I will pray for you day and night and ask
the Lord to forgive your great sins before the people and the country. The Lord
is merciful and He'll forgive you. I gave the money to the church that I
attend.” And Yudina sent this
suicidal letter to Stalin. He read it and didn't say a word, they expected at
least a twitch of the eyebrow. Naturally,
the order to arrest Yudina was prepared and the slightest grimace would have
been enough to wipe away the last traces of her. But Stalin was silent and set the letter aside
in silence. The anticipated movement of the eyebrows didn't come. Nothing happened to Yudina. They say that her
recording of the Mozart was on the record player when the “Joseph Stalin” was
found dead in his dacha. It was the last thing he had listened to. It was the witness of a pure soul, trying one
last time will God’s will. (From: Testimony: The Memoirs of Shostakovich as
retold by Jim Forest, in “The Ladder of the Beatitudes”. Orbis
Books. Kindle Edition, 2011, pp. 102-109).
In a time of heart-stopping fear, here
was someone as fearless as she was pure in heart. She was so single minded, so pure of heart,
that she was very last witness of pure love who dared to tell Stalin that he
was not beyond God's mercy and forgiveness. What did Maria Yudina see in Joseph
Stalin? Why did she care to witness and
risk her life sharing her faith to a person like him? If you find yourself asking that
question, you are asking wrong question. The question is not what did Maria Yudina,
see in Stalin? I would dare say, she
say nothing in him. But what she did see
was God. This is who the pure in heart
always see. And when you see God, even
the worse person in the world will look different. For when you see God, you see love; a love so
pure that even the most evil person in the world can’t diminish. Blessed
are the pure in heart, for they will see God, and we will too, and we will
start seeing, by seeing God in them.
Amen.
No comments :
Post a Comment