Upper Path Valley Presbyterian Church

Matthew 5:1-8
When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.” “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”

I don’t know about you, but this sermon series is affecting me. It is changing my “self-talk.” You know what I mean. Self-talk is that conversation going on inside your head that helps you think through things. It is those voices inside that say, “Oh no, go on home. You’re tired. You can visit that person another day”, vs. “That person needs some mercy today, whether you feel tired or not, you’ll feel better if you stop to visit.” My “self-talk” is getting a bit less cluttered. You see, the Holy Spirit within me has caused me to want the kind of life that Jesus is promising to us here in these beatitudes. I want the kingdom of heaven, I want to be comforted, I want to inherit the earth, I want to be filled, I want mercy, and I want to see God. I want what Jesus is promising to those who choose to live out their faith in a certain way, and I’m learning in a deeper way through this sermon series that the only way to get to where I want to be is to let the “Jesus-talk” the “Jesus-truth” overcome the “self-talk.”

My self-talk is just that. It’s me talking to me. It’s me trying to convince myself to do one thing or another thing. My self-talk is selfish talk; it’s about whether something is convenient or not for me, for my time, for my pocketbook. I’m learning (slowly, oh so slowly) to let Jesus’ words be the first word, the final word, the only word - without any other words cluttering it all up.

This is part of what it means to begin to be pure in heart.

The word translated “pure” is a Greek word that implies being clean, unpolluted, with a hint that what is pure was not always pure, but has been purified, cleansed, washed out, and hung up to dry. The Greek word katharoi (translated pure), is the root of our word “catharsis.” Listen to the definitions of this word, catharsis:
an experience or feeling of spiritual release and purification brought about by an intense emotional experience
the process of bringing to the surface repressed emotions, complexes, and feelings in an effort to identify and relieve them, or the result of this process
cleansing or purging of the bowels.

Actually, whether we like to think about it or not, I think the 3rd definition, “cleansing or purging of the bowels,” helps us think most effectively about what it means to be pure in heart.

 
Several times over the last 10 years I have made a trip to the Holy Cross Abbey in Berryville, Virginia. This is a monastery that has a retreat house for people wanting a break from the noise of society. If you go to this retreat center, you do not talk for the whole time you are there. Personally, each time I have gone, I have gone for a week with the intention of fasting for as long as I sensed was necessary for me to hear God in the silence. Fasting for long periods of time has the benefit of not just cleaning out your system from impurities, it also cleans out the clutter in your mind. After several days without food, at least for me in a silent, peaceful setting, I can begin to focus on the Jesus-talk going on inside me.

The impurities start washing away.

I remember going over to the Path Valley restaurant a couple of months ago. John Sideras was walking around with a small plastic bottle – shaking it constantly. I asked the obvious question, “What do you have there?” “Oh, this is a potion I drink, or try to drink at least once a year. It is supposed to clean out the toxins in the system.” I must tell you, what he was shaking around in that bottle didn’t look too appetizing. It was dark – greenish brown. He let me smell it before he drank it. It smelled even less appetizing than it looked.

But see, the impurities in our heart don’t look or smell too good either. They are putrid and dark. They are things like prejudice, gossip, revenge, pride, unforgiveness . . . well, let me read off a list from Galatians 5:19 from the New Living Translation, “sexual immorality, [which includes any sexual experiences outside of the covenant of marriage], impure thoughts, eagerness for lustful pleasure, idolatry, participation in demonic activities, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, divisions, the feeling that everyone is wrong except those in your own little group, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other kinds of sin.”

These are the outward behaviors that grow from the impurities within. These are the things that cause our hearts to be impure instead of pure. Now, I’m not saying that thinking an angry thought, a jealous thought, having a lustful thought, or having a selfish desire are in themselves those things that make a heart impure. We all have these thoughts. However, the person weighed down with an impure heart is the person who takes the impure thoughts and plants them, cultivates them, and grows them into destructive outward behavior. The person who desires the weightlessness of a pure heart is the person who takes the impure thoughts and flushes them right on through as waste material.

Those who are pure in heart will see God, Jesus says. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”

Two Christmases ago, my father-in-law gave me a present. In the last 10 years or so, Dave would give everyone in the family an envelope with money in it for Christmas. But, he was such a giver, he could not be satisfied with just giving an envelope. He also just had to go shopping for a small gift for each person. John’s mom didn’t do this. David did it. He was a man who loved to shop.

Well, for our last Christmas together the gift that he gave me was a small box from Route 5 in Chambersburg. He was always so excited to see us open the one thing he had picked out for us. He was watching me as I opened this box, and inside was a plaque. The plaque said, “Jesus Loves You. But I’m his favorite.”

I laughed outwardly, because he was so proud of himself, but inwardly, I was cringing. This phrase, “Jesus loves you, but I’m his favorite,” is not the message I want to send as a pastor of a church. I want to stick with the truth of Scripture that says, “For God so loved the world…” God doesn’t love pastors, or anybody, any more than he loves the rest of the world.

Well, I kept the plaque for several weeks trying to decide what to do with it. Papa wanted me to bring it up here and hang it in my office. He kept asking me if I had put it up yet. Finally, I had to come clean with him. “Papa, I can’t put that up in my office. I know you think it’s funny, but there are too many people who don’t understand God’s love who might be hurt when they read such a thing.” He understood, and so I took it back and traded it in on a spoon rest for the kitchen. He was okay with that.

This past Christmas, the first one without my dear father-in-law on earth with us, I started thinking “what was the last gift Papa ever gave me?” And I remembered that plaque. I couldn’t remember what it said, I could not remember, but I remembered that he thought it was funny, and I thought it wasn’t funny. I cried to think that I had returned the last gift he had specifically picked out for me. So, you can probably guess what I did: I went to Route 5. They keep really good records there. I asked them to look in his account to see what he bought the previous December. They had the record that he bought a plaque, but they hadn’t specified which plaque. “They’re back there,” the salesgirl said. You can look through them to see if you can find it. I didn’t tell her why I was looking for it. My heart was in my throat, and I thought I might burst out crying any minute. So I walked back to the plaques and looked and looked. And then I saw it, and remembered. “Jesus loves you. But I’m his favorite.” I picked it up, held it to my heart, and took it to the front to pay for it.

I proudly display that plaque in my living room. (I’m still not bringing it up here.) Every time I look at it, I think about him. It makes me laugh and cry at the same time. I treasure this earthly possession. I treasure it, but I would eagerly throw it away, and everything else I have to remind me of him, just to be near him again – to have one more day with him – talking, laughing, listening to the sound of his voice.

You see, it is nice & helpful to have things that remind us of God - His Word, the Church itself, an occasional prayer, perhaps the singing of Amazing Grace – but wouldn’t we throw all of it away just to truly be near God, to see God? Wouldn’t it be wonderful to see God everywhere we look?

Thomas Aquinas, one of the most profound theologians the church has ever known, was on his deathbed. Legend has it that he heard a voice from above saying, “Thomas, you have written well of Me. What reward would you ask for yourself?” Thomas replied, Thomas replied, “Nothing but yourself, O Lord. Nothing but yourself.”

It must be the impurity of heart that blinds us to God. It must be those things I read from Galatians that fill our hearts with such pollution that we cannot see the beauty, the majesty of God - because Jesus promises us that the pure in heart will see God. Let me read that list again: “sexual immorality, impure thoughts, eagerness for lustful pleasure, idolatry, participation in demonic activities, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, divisions, the feeling that everyone is wrong except those in your own little group, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other kinds of sin.”
Here’s the list from a biblical paraphrase, The Message: “repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community.”

Some of you might not like hearing that list. Some of you might not like me reading that list. I don’t really like me reading that list. But, I really want a pure heart, and I really, really want you to have a pure heart - because I want us to SEE GOD! I want the blinders off! I want the scales removed! I want us to SEE GOD everywhere we look because seeing God helps us put everything else in perspective. I want us to choose against holding onto the things that defy God’s Word. I want us to clean up our acts, so that God’s love can be seen in us by those whose hearts remain impure. God wants us to have clean hands and a pure heart (Ps. 24). “Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? Those who have clean hands and pure hearts, who do not lift up their souls to what is false, and do not swear deceitfully. They will receive blessing from the Lord, and vindication from the God of their salvation. Such is the company of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob.”

After Jesus had died on the cross, a man from Arimathea named Joseph (a disciple of Jesus) went to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. Pilate ordered the body to be given to Joseph. Matthew 27:59, “So Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his own new tomb.”
The word translated “clean” (clean linen cloth) is the same word translated “pure” in our beatitude for today. Blessed are the pure in heart. Blessed are the clean in heart. Blessed are those whose hearts have been wrapped up in a clean linen cloth as a sign to the devil that we reject the things that bring darkness and decay. Just think about your heart wrapped up like that, ready to burst forth in resurrection life!

So, how do we get from impure to pure hearts? The Apostle Paul tells us just a couple of verses past this list of impure behaviors how to make the change: Galatians 5:24, “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. If we are living now by the Holy Spirit, let us follow the Holy Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.”

On the cross today, there are some nails at hand and eye levels. In your bulletin there are slips of white paper - white, to symbolize the purity of heart we desire so that we may be blessed to see God. In a couple of moments, I am going to give you some time to write things on this paper that cause your heart to remain impure. I’m going to pray before we write, asking the Holy Spirit to reveal those things that we need to “flush out,” so that our hearts can be purified. Please do not put your name on the slips. Then, while we sing “The Heart of Worship,” anyone who wants to crucify these things of the flesh, is invited to come & puncture your slip over a nail on this cross. Leave it there in the deepest sense of the word. Leave it there for Jesus to take on himself as we continue our journey to Calvary.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

Amen.