Godly Wisdom - Work (Proverbs 6.6-8, 10.4-5, 12.11, 13.4, 15.19, 21.25-26, 24.27 and 26.13-14)

Introduction

In November 1991 a man named Dan Gookin published a book called DOS for Dummies. It was a step-by-step guide, in non-technical language, to Microsoft’s Disc Operating System. 

It became a massive commercial success because it was the first really simple beginners’ manual in plain English on home computing. Technical terms and acronyms were explained in a way a child could grasp. There were cartoons. There was a glossary. There was humour. People loved it and other titles, all of them focused on software and technology, quickly followed.

But soon afterwards they branched out into more general-interest topics like Fishing for Dummies, Slimming for Dummies, Bass Guitar for Dummies, British History for Dummies, Handling Your Money for Dummies, Parenting for Dummies, Anger Management for Dummies and even Happiness for Dummies.

There are thousands of titles in the series published now in many languages. For Dummies books are loved because they spell out sometimes really complex ideas in plain language so that ordinary people can understand and learn. It’s wisdom for everyone.

Proverbs – Everyday Wisdom

The Book of Proverbs in the Bible is God’s Living Wisely for Dummies. There are no confusing theological terms in Proverbs like sanctification or soteriology or eschatological or premillennial dispensationalism. You don’t need a Theological College degree to understand it. There’s no ivory tower theory in Proverbs. It’s about everyday life. It tells you how life works. It’s godly common sense.

And it uses vivid, earthy language that everyone gets to convey God’s thoughts about living wisely. Here are two good examples… From chapter 11; “Like a gold ring in a pig’s snout is a beautiful woman with no good sense.” Everybody I’m sure can bring to mind a mental image of someone they know a bit like that.

Then this one from chapter 27; “If anyone loudly blesses their neighbour early in the morning, it will be taken as a curse.” This is the super-spiritual but insensitive young Christian who needs to learn a bit of tact if he’s going to become any use at witnessing.

Proverbs calls a spade “a spade”.

·         It talks about good choices and bad ones

·         It talks about work and laziness

·         It talks about speaking words that bring death or that give life

·         It talks about controlling your temper and losing it 

·         It talks about people to choose as friends and people you can’t trust

·         It talks about how to raise children well and badly

·         It talks about fearing the Lord or living as a fool

Those are really good life skills.

Lent and Proverbs

Four days ago, it was Ash Wednesday, the day that marks the beginning of Lent. Some Christians sneer a bit at the idea of man-made seasons like Lent, Advent and Epiphany and I get that – I know, the word Lent is nowhere found in the Bible. But I actually think the idea of Lent is biblical.

Because even in the Old Testament, God called his people at times to observe holy fasts. He led them into seasons of brokenness, to lament their sins in sackcloth and ashes.

In the New Testament, when John the Baptist came, he preached repentance and self-denial with a ceremony of cleansing and penance – and Jesus commended him as the greatest man who ever lived.

The Apostle James wrote to a church living in luxury and self-indulgence to examine themselves, and to weep and wail about their indifference towards the poor. The Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9, “I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should.” The Lord Jesus himself of course often went off to solitary places to pray and, as we know, he fasted for 40 days in the desert.

That fast, when Jesus was tempted by the devil, is what the whole idea of Lent is based on; it is about walking in the Lord’s footsteps as we get ready to reflect deeply and intently on his sufferings, his death for us and his resurrection.

Lent is a practical season in the church’s year. Since quite early times, Christian people have used the weeks before Easter for spiritual discipline and training in righteousness - a few weeks set apart to spend more time on praying, fasting, Bible study, giving and so on.

That’s why we’re doing a short series on Book of Proverbs. Because, as I’ve just said, it’s a very practical, hands-on book.

One really important thing I need to say about proverbs, right away, is that they are proverbs and not promises. In other words, they tell you how life works most of the time but not all the time.

Too many cooks… spoil the broth. That means that people often get in each other’s way if there are too many in one place at the same time. We’ve all been there. Too many cooks spoil the broth but, on the other hand, many hands make… light work.

Too many cooks spoil the broth and many hands make light work are both generally true, but not always; in fact, they contradict each other. So, which is best? A big team of volunteers or a small one? It depends – and wise people know what it depends on.

So, proverbs tell you how things work out in life most of the time. Even the proverbs in the Bible (and I say this as one who believes in the inspiration and trustworthiness of Scripture) even proverbs in the Bible are not always true, all the time. There are exceptions. Don’t worry about the exceptions – learn the rule.

Here’s an example from our selection today: Proverbs 12.11 says “Those who work their land will have abundant food, but those who chase fantasies have no sense.”

That’s a proverb, not a promise. If we take it as a promise from God, what about the diligent, hardworking farmer whose crops get totally destroyed by freak weather? Will she have abundant food? No.

And what about the man who chases the fantasy of winning the Euro-Millions lottery and happens upon the one in a hundred-million winning ticket? Is he chasing fantasies? No, he is fabulously wealthy even though he did nothing to earn it. 

But those are rare exceptions. They are so uncommon they are actually newsworthy. The general rule, that usually works out, that never makes the news, is that godly, upright, hardworking, wise people usually do well. Almost always. And godless, immoral, lazy and foolish people usually don’t do well. Hardly ever, in fact.

Work and Laziness

Today, we’re going to look at some of the proverbs on the subject of work. Proverbs has a lot to say about it which is good, because we spend about 65% of our waking life at work between the ages of 20 and 70.

But many of us who are unpaid are just as busy as those in paid employment; stay at home mums (and dads), activists putting leaflets though people’s doors, students, bloggers, retired people with a ministry or a hobby, community volunteers etc. 

So I want to define work in the widest possible sense today; not just those of us who have a pay packet for a 9-5 occupation. Work is how we spend our time productively and fruitfully.

Sometimes, people ask me what I do for a living. It’s quite funny watching the disappointment or panic on their faces when I tell them I’m a vicar.

Someone on a plane once asked J. John, the evangelist, what he did for a living. He said, “Oh, I work for a multinational enterprise. We have branches in every country in the world. We care for our clients from birth to death. We specialise in heart transplants. Our company manual is the world’s best-selling book. We run hospitals, feeding stations, crisis pregnancy centres, schools, publishing houses, and nursing homes.”

The person sitting next to him said, “Wow. That sounds amazing. What’s the name of your company again?”

J. John said, “Wait, I haven’t finished yet. Our product is free for anyone who asks. Our founding CEO was born in a nowhere town, didn't own a home, was misunderstood by his family, hated by enemies, was unjustly killed, but then rose from the dead! I talk with him every day. The organisation is called the Church, would you like to join?”

That sounds so much better than, “Oh, I’m a vicar in Stockton on Tees.”

There’s an English proverb that says “a woman’s work is never done”, and I’m sure that’s generally true, but it’s true of men too, by and large. Somebody once asked a farmer what was the hardest thing about milking cows," He said, “the hardest thing about milking cows is that they never stay milked."

There are always things to be done. We’re never finished. But work to do is a blessing from God and his mandate for us all is to fill the earth and subdue it.

Gardening, educating, tidying, organizing, caring, designing, cleaning and mending are all good, all work, all God’s will for us and the Proverbs say over and over again that he wants us to be industrious and productive and conscientious.

Fourteen times in the Proverbs there is a reference to the sluggard. It means bone-idle, lazy, always slacking and slothful, dozy, shiftless, slow-moving, apathetic and indifferent. 

Sluggards just languidly slope about, drink tea and run down the clock - with little or nothing to show for their labours at the end of the day.

Five of the eight verses today speak about this sluggard.

Firstly, in 6.6-8 it says, “Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.”

Harvester ants, which are the most common in Israel, are incredibly industrious and organised creatures. They never seem to stop. They work in teams. They actually adapt their foraging behaviour according to how dry or humid the atmosphere is so they maximize their efficiency.

In exceptionally dry conditions they metabolize fats from seeds to obtain water so even in a prolonged drought they never go thirsty.

They are also great for their micro-environment. They increase seed dispersal and protection, and they provide nutrients that increase seedling survival rates of desert plants.

They also provide aerate the soil through the creation of galleries and chambers, they intermingle deep and upper earth layers and they add organic refuse into the soil.

Proverbs says to every bone-idle, work-shy sluggard just lounging around and nicking a living, “Take a look at that ant colony over there; they haven’t even got a boss paying them a good wage but they’re working hard and saving a bit for a rainy day.”

On the whole, the way life works is this; if you always do an honest day’s work and don’t fritter your money away but put a little by when you can, you’ll do OK.

Proverbs 10.4-5 puts it like this; “Lazy hands make for poverty, but diligent hands bring wealth. He who gathers crops in summer is a prudent son, but he who sleeps during harvest is a disgraceful son.”

Or put it another way, God graciously gives the birds everything they need for their homes in the trees - but they build the nest.

Two of today’s proverbs actually seem to say that living as a sluggard can have a physical side effect.

Proverbs 13.4 says, “A sluggard’s appetite is never filled, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied.” 300 computer games and 80 multipacks of crisps later, the sluggard still hasn’t got round to doing anything useful.

And Proverbs 21.25-26 says, “The craving of a sluggard will be the death of him, because his hands refuse to work. All day long he craves for more, but the righteous give without sparing.”

You see, the sluggard is always saying, “I’ll do it tomorrow.” I’ll fix those shelves on Wednesday. I’ll visit that sick neighbour next week. I’ll get round to it. Everything sounds like nagging to sluggards because their natural instinct is to dither and put things off. They have no work ethic.

We can poke fun at the sluggard a bit, but the Bible teaches that all of us are in danger of becoming sluggards. Procrastination is a habit we will all slide into unless we fight it.

In Proverbs 26.13-14 the sluggard comes up with a great excuse for not going to work. Listen to what it says: “A sluggard says, “There’s a lion in the road, a fierce lion roaming the streets!” As a door turns on its hinges, so a sluggard turns on his bed.”

Sluggards make excuses. “I’m really busy” – no, you’re not. “I’ve got quite a lot on this week” – no you haven’t, otherwise you wouldn’t be on Facebook all day. “I’m a bit tired” – yeah, but what time did you go to bed last night?

“As a door turns on its hinges, so a sluggard turns on his bed.” Back and forth he shifts, rolling from one side of the bed to another, going nowhere in life, like an old door creaking on a hinge.

Sometimes, just occasionally, lazy people get away with it. But ninety-nine times out of a hundred, lazy people get nothing done, become unfit, lack any sense of direction or purpose and tragically waste their lives, always making excuses.

Or as it says in Proverbs 15.19, “The way of the sluggard is blocked with thorns, but the path of the upright is a highway.”

In other words, a lazy, unfulfilled life is a frustrated life. It’s blocked with thorns. But the path of the upright is a highway. What it’s saying is this: if you live right, things tend to open up for you, in any case more than if you just drift around aimlessly with no focus.

And don’t tell me you’re too old either! On 27 June 2001 The Daily Telegraph carried an article about Sheila Cramp, a 65 year-old blind grandmother who was concerned about the state of repair of her local church in Ramsgate.

What did she do to help? Though she hadn’t driven for 20 years due to her disability, she decided she would drive an Audi TT Roadster at 140 mph around the circuit at Brands Hatch, relying solely on radio communications with her instructor. She said afterwards, “I truly couldn’t see anything. I was concentrating on the voice telling me what to do. The G-forces were tremendous. I could really feel the pressure!”

She’s inspirational, isn’t she?

Ending

The last proverb I want to look at today is 24.27 which says this: “Put your outdoor work in order and get your fields ready; after that, build your house.”

What’s this one about? It’s about living with the right priorities. Getting your work in order and getting the fields ready are about making sure, as far as you possibly can, that you have the income you need to live.

Think ahead, plan carefully, work diligently and budget responsibly. Only then is it wise to start a family, or splash out on a new kitchen, or get a TV the size of a door. Godly common sense is to live with your priorities in the right order.

And the biggest priority of all in life is to make sure that Jesus is at the centre of it.

Colossians 3 says, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”

Put your faith in Jesus today. As that blind grandmother put all her trust in the voice of her instructor as she hurtled round tht race track, trust God’s word.

Place your work, paid or voluntary, into his hands today and ask him to magnify its significance for his kingdom.

Let’s pray...


Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 10 March 2019

Blessed Are Those Who Are Persecuted for Righteousness' Sake (Matthew 5.10-12)

Introduction

So, we arrive at the eighth and final beatitude; it’s the only one that Jesus expands and elaborates on, and coincidentally, perhaps the one we might most wish he didn’t!

It might be nice if he said a bit more on meekness or having a pure heart or making peace. But how many of us here today would form an orderly queue to suffer a bit of harassment or discrimination?

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Sometimes the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) is criticized as being too idealistic, even utopian, in its vision of life. People say that is utterly unattainable for ordinary people.

Because Jesus says things like this; “You know the Bible says not to sleep with another man’s wife? Remember that? Well, if you a look at a pretty woman and think you’d like to it’s pretty well the same thing.” “If someone hits you on the right cheek, offer the left one.” “Love your enemies.”

And I guess some people hear Jesus speaking blessing on those who are persecuted and they dismiss it with the rest of this otherworldly Sermon on the Mount as not quite real life – but Jesus is being absolutely serious here.

The former Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, no less, said in the House of Lords about five years ago, “The ethnic cleansing of Christians throughout the Middle East is one of the crimes against humanity of our time. And I am appalled that there has been little serious international protest.”

Two years’ later, Christians in the Middle East, especially Iraq and Syria, were being singled out to be executed in unimaginable numbers. Tens of thousands of them were targeted for annihilation by Islamic State militants. It is estimated that before the wars in Syria and Iraq about 10% of the population of those lands were Christian.

At the time of that slaughter, our UK government allowed in fewer than 70 Christian refugees. It did project a red image on the Palace of Westminster though. And they made a statement about it on Twitter. But overall, our country, led by Parliament turned a blind eye; content to stay uninformed and indifferent.

Hopefully, things are changing now. This month, you may have noticed that the Foreign Secretary asked the Bishop of Truro to produce an evidence-based report on Christian persecution.

He admitted that the UK government had failed to do enough to oppose the systematic targeting of Christians around the world. Let’s hope that this will lead to real change, but the truth is that there is a very big tide to turn.

The headline of the report was that 80% of religiously motivated violence is against believers in Jesus. Here are some other highlights:

For the 17th consecutive year, North Korea is the most dangerous place in the world to be a Christian. But, tragically, other countries are catching up.

Eight of the top ten most dangerous places to be a Christian are Islamic, the other two are Marxist.

More than 200 million believers in the 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian experience what are defined as high levels of persecution because of their faith.

Over 3,000 Christians were known to have been killed for their faith in 2018, more than twice as many as in the previous year, but believed to be the tip of the iceberg.

Persecuted for Righteousness’ Sake (v10)

We should note carefully what Jesus says about persecution here. You can hardly say that Jesus was laying it on a bit thick. He said it with a straight face.

Remember, he said these words to his disciples whom he called to him. Eleven of the twelve men he chose as his apostles suffered violence against them and died as martyrs.

The word that appears here three times here (in v10, v11 and v12) and which is translated “persecuted” is from the Greek dioukou and it derives from a root meaning “aggressively chased”, “pursued” or “hunted down.”

It’s the sort of word they would use to describe a pack of hounds tearing through the countryside and closing in on a hapless fox.

But what does Jesus say about this persecution? He says in v10 that it’s “because of righteousness.” Not for being an idiot… Not for being annoying...

Don’t let your dog foul your neighbour’s lawn and then protest that you’re being persecuted when he complains about it!

Some people wonder why would Christians be persecuted for righteousness’ sake? Well, because the demonic hates righteousness.

Satan always seeks to silence and discredit and insult and slur when Christians make a stand for a righteous cause.

Watch what happens when Christians protest peacefully about abortion on demand, up to full term, speaking up for those who have no voice.

Those who choose to do that can expect to be ostracised, silenced or talked over in the media, refused access to our universities, rebuffed at job interviews, passed over for promotions they deserve.

In some cases, you can expect to be prosecuted by politically correct truth- regulation. The message is “You will embrace and celebrate what we say or you will have to face name calling, shaming and blacklisting.”

It was George Orwell who said, prophetically I think, in the early half of the 20^th Century, “The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those that speak it.”

The same is happening at the moment when anyone challenges or even questions the ideology of transgender (and this is not limited to Christians either of course). But Christians can expect to be pursued or hunted down for righteousness’ sake.

Three or four years ago, an evangelical Christian MP, Tim Farron, rose to become leader of one of our political parties. During the general election campaign, he was constantly ambushed, harassed and ensnared by a line of questioning about homosexuality.

Certain personalities in the media decided that this issue must define him, whatever he said and whatever his voting record on the matter might be.

Tim had the patience of a saint I think, and seemed determined to not play the victim, but I do wonder if he reflected on Jesus’ words here after his inevitable resignation as party leader: “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Insulted and Falsely Accused (v11)

In v11, Jesus describes this persecution as being insulted and falsely having all kinds of evil said against you because of him. So again, he isn’t talking about people justifiably objecting to Christians being obnoxious and antisocial.

If you play worship music on full blast at 3 o’clock in the morning don’t then tell the police that your neighbour is falsely having all kinds of evil said against you when they make you turn it down.

“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me,” says Jesus.  

As John Wimber once said, “The good news is that Jesus is praying for us. The bad news is that we are going to need it!”

It’s not because you happen to hold different views to everyone else; it’s because you belong to the King whose kingdom is not of this world. It has been this way in every age.

In the third century AD, there was a great revival taking place all around Rome. It was said that, ‘All of Rome were becoming Christians.’ At that time lived a man named Laurence and he was a deacon in charge of the finances of the church.

Because of the revival, a great persecution broke out under the Emperor Valerian in around the year AD 250. Christians who owned property distributed all the church’s money and treasures to the city’s poor to help them survive the onslaught against the church.

Valerian ordered all bishops, priests and deacons to be arrested and executed. But, hearing that Laurence was in charge of the money, he offered him a way out. Laurence would be spared if he would show the authorities where all the church’s treasures were located.

Laurence asked for three days to gather it into one central place. He brought together the blind, the poor, the disabled, the sick, the elderly, and the widows and orphans. When Valerian arrived, Laurence flung open the doors and said, ‘These are the treasures of the church!’

The Emperor was so angry that he decided beheading was not terrifying enough for Laurence. He ordered that this courageous man be roasted alive on a gridiron. That is how Laurence died on 10 August AD 258.

Apparently, he even joked with his executioners, ‘You may turn me over now. I’m done on this side.’

His courage made such an impression that the revival in Rome only accelerated, with many people becoming Christians including several senators who witnessed his execution.

It is extremely unlikely that any of us will face that kind of persecution. It is usually more creeping and more subtle in the West.

But last month, it came to light that handwritten letters threatening petrol bomb attacks and mass stabbings had been sent to 15 churches in the UK over the previous two months.

One letter, sent to a church in Sheffield, said, “Stop all your services straight away. If you don’t, your church will be petrol bombed while in service. Continue behind closed doors and your congregation members will be stabbed one by one. Blood on your hands. You have been warned.”

The letters, all originating from the Midlands, have been handed to the police. There is an ongoing investigation and protection has been increased at the churches affected.

But how would you feel if All Saints’ had been one of the 15 churches targeted? Would you be intimidated by it? Would you think twice about being on the electoral roll? Would you still be here this morning?

Hopefully, there’ll be arrests and prosecutions over that and it’ll all blow over.

We’re far more likely to meet the kind of attitude in the following testimony by the Christian author and university professor John Lennox, from when he was an undergraduate at Cambridge University.

“I found myself at a formal college dinner sitting beside a Nobel Prize winner. I had never met a scientist of such distinction before and, in order to gain the most from the conversation, I tried to ask him some questions.

For instance, how did his science shape his worldview - his big picture of the status and meaning of the universe? In particular, I was interested in whether his wide-ranging studies had led him to reflect on the existence of God.

It was clear that he was not comfortable with that question, and I immediately backed off. However, at the end of the meal, he invited me to come to his study. He had also invited two or three other senior academics but no other students. I was invited to sit and… they remained standing.

He said, “Lennox, do you want a career in science?”

“Yes, sir,” I replied.

“Then,” he said, “in front of witnesses, tonight, you must give up this childish faith in God. If you do not, then it will cripple you intellectually and you will suffer by comparison with your peers. You simply will not make it.”

I sat in the chair paralyzed and shocked by the effrontery and unexpectedness of the onslaught. I didn’t really know what to say, but eventually I managed to blurt out, “Sir, what have you got to offer me that is better than what I have got?” In response, he offered me the concept of “Creative Evolution” put forward in 1907 by French philosopher Henri Bergson.

In fact, thanks to C. S. Lewis, I knew a little about Bergson and replied that I could not see how Bergson’s philosophy was enough to base an entire worldview upon and provide a foundation for meaning, morality and life.

With a shaking voice, and as respectfully as I could, I told the group standing around me that I found the biblical worldview vastly more enriching and the evidence for its truth compelling, and so, with all due respect, I would take the risk and stick with it.

It was a remarkable situation. Here was a brilliant scientist trying to bully me into giving up Christianity. I have thought many times since that, if it had been the other way around, and I had been an atheist in the chair surrounded by Christian academics pressurizing me to give up my atheism, it would have caused reverberations around the university, and probably have ended with disciplinary proceedings against the professors involved.”

Well, John Lennox has gone on to have a very blessed and successful career – and I don’t think he would call himself persecuted. Marginalised perhaps.

Rejoice and Be Glad (v12)

Perhaps the strangest thing about these verses is not being called blessed when persecuted, because God blesses whoever he pleases. Maybe the strangest thing is what Jesus says our attitude should be if we should find ourselves hard pressed for belonging to Jesus.

Verse 12: “Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Last Summer, Kathie and I spent a few days in Oxford and I was determined to walk up to Broad Street by Balliol College, just north of the former city wall. There is something I had wanted to see there for a very long time.

In the centre of the road, there is a cross of brick and granite set into the tarmac, marking the exact location where Hugh Latimer, Nicolas Ridley and Thomas Cranmer were burnt at the stake in 1555 and 1556 for their faith in Christ.

It is said, that Latimer called out, as they lit the fire, “Be of good comfort, and play the man, Master Ridley; we shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out.” In fact, Ridley burned extremely slowly and he suffered excruciating agonies.

Down the years, persecuted Christians have not sought vengeance on their oppressors. Like Jesus, the record books show that they pray more for perseverance, to stay and stand under the strain, than for deliverance.

Testimonies of severe persecution often tell of the sweet experience of the presence of God. Sometimes those being crushed for Christ’s sake overflow with joy. Jesus feels near, heaven feels real. And the suffering seems so light and trivial compared with that.

When Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4 “For our light and temporary affliction is producing for us an eternal glory that far outweighs our troubles” this is what he meant.

Remember Paul and Silas after (the Bible says) being “stripped, beaten and severely flogged”, singing hymns at midnight in prison as they awaited their trial? It is the kind of thing that happens every week.

Ending

As I end, I want to mention Richard Wurmbrand was a pastor in Romania at the time of the Communist regime of Ceausescu. He was imprisoned for 14 years and suffered greatly.

Some years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of Communism in eastern Europe, Wurmbrand was asked in the USA, if it really is possible to rejoice in your sufferings.

This is what he said in reply. “I hope my answer doesn’t offend anybody but I tell you this: when I was in prison, they put all the Christians in the same cell. We were all bound with chains, but our chains were to us musical instruments. And sometimes in the middle of the night we would all wake up and be so full of the joy of the Lord that we would dance around our prison cells and all clang our chains together for musical accompaniment.”

Let’s pray…


Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 24 February 2019

Blessed Are the Pure in Heart (Matthew 5.8)

Introduction

Today, I want to talk about how to see God. I don’t mean ‘see him with your eyes’, at least not in this life, though you may be an eye-witness of his transforming power. But mostly we walk by faith, not by sight.

When I talk about ‘seeing God’ I mean a spiritual revelation. I mean understanding and grasping and perceiving spiritual and eternal realities you’d never grasped, or perceived before. It’s like when you don’t understand something, and then the penny drops, and you say “Ah, I see!”

We’ve started 2019 by looking at eight unique blessings in Matthew 5 that Jesus speaks over particular kinds of people. And we’ve found that Jesus says some surprising things. In fact, the blessings he speaks challenge our normal human perspective on just about everything.  

That is just so like Jesus isn’t it? Always counter-cultural, always radical, never predictable, he never reads the script. Jesus’ way of living almost always flatly contradicts our cherished values. It’s why what Jesus says so often seems baffling to those on the outside, looking in. His kingdom is not of this world. He actually said that himself. 

Here’s what I mean, for example:

·        People crave happiness at almost any price. But Jesus calls blessed those afflicted by sadness and grief.

·        The entertainment and fashion industries flaunt wealth and success. But Jesus calls blessed those who are spiritually poor.

·        In the political world, people seek power and influence and dominance. Prime Minister’s Questions is a weekly contest of barbs and put downs. But Jesus calls blessed those who are meek.

·        In sport, cheating, doping and arguing with the referee are normal. Commentators say, “if there’s contact, fall down and earn a penalty.” But Jesus calls blessed those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

·        In war zones, bitter enemies plot their revenge; sometimes enmity between nations lasts for centuries. But, as we’ll see next Sunday, Jesus calls blessed those who make peace.

And what does Jesus say to us today? Jesus calls blessed those who are pure in heart. “Blessed are the pure

in heart,” he says, “for they shall see God.” 

How relevant that is in our society, where every week it seems, someone has to apologise for uploading something obnoxious or indecent on Twitter.

Blessed are the pure in heart. Did you know that, in the UK, more pornography is viewed at work than at home? Figures released last year revealed that there were, on average, within Parliament, 160 attempts every day to access blocked pornographic websites. And that at a time when some MPs are campaigning to abolish prayers in Parliament, which are just five-minutes long, occur before the chamber sits, and are non-compulsory.

The Heart

This is the saintly Jean Vanier founder of the l’Arche Communities, which are Christian places of love and welcome for people with severe developmental and learning difficulties.  

In 2004, a CBC poll ranked this man as number 12 in a list of greatest ever Canadians. He’s certainly great in the kingdom of God…

He once talked about a conversation he had with a member of one of the 147 l’Arche Communities around the world, a man called Andrew. 

Andrew had been feeling unwell with respiratory problems so he’d been to see a cardiologist. When he got back to the Community, Jean Vanier asked Andrew how he had got on at the hospital. 

“Well,” he said, “the doctor looked into my heart.” “Wow, that’s amazing. That’s amazing... And what did he see in your heart?” Andrew looked back in surprise, and with a big smile he said, “When he looked in my heart, he saw Jesus of course!” 

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. I could almost end my sermon right there! There is something beautiful about the simplicity and innocence of that profoundly disabled man that sums up what the kingdom of God is like more than anything I could say.

But I’m a preacher, and I’d feel very guilty about leaving you with a 5-minute sermon, so I feel bound to say a bit more…

The Bible has a lot to say about the heart. The word appears nearly 750 times. The word kardias, from which we get cardiac of course, means first of all the muscular organ in your chest, which pumps blood through the blood vessels of the circulatory system. 

But it’s usually a metaphor. It means your inner self, the real you, your true personality. The heart is what you are, in secret, when no one’s looking, what nobody sees but God. “People look at the outward appearance,” says 1 Samuel 16, “but the Lord looks at the heart.”

Deuteronomy 6 calls us to love the Lord with all our heart. Mary, the mother of Jesus, we’re told on two separate occasions, ”treasured God’s word in her heart.” 

It is significant that God tells us in Ephesians 5.19 to sing and “make melody to the Lord with your heart.” You might be tone deaf and sing like an alley cat on heat, some of you do in fact! But if your heart is good, God hears music worthy of the Royal Albert Hall.

David, after a catastrophic and serious moral failure, in a moment of utter humiliation and shame prayed in Psalm 51, “create in me a clean heart, O God.” 

You see, who we really are in the private and hidden aspects of our lives is what Jesus cares about most. He did not come just to help us tidy up a few bad habits. He came because we, like David, have dirty hearts and they need to be cleaned up.

In Psalm 24 David asked the question, “Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place?” In other words, “who is going to get to enjoy the presence of God?” 

And he answers his own question; “The one who has clean hands and a pure heart.” And then it says this about people who have a pure heart; “They will receive blessing from the Lord… Such is the generation of those who seek [the face of God].”

This week, many people will celebrate Valentine’s Day and already you can see cardboard hearts in shops everywhere promoting special offers on cheap knickers and bottles of wine. The heart is the universal symbol of love.

Four Loves

The Greeks used to have at least four different words, each of which is sometimes translated by our English word “love” and you can find all four of these words in the New Testament.

·        The first word is epithumia and it’s the love of addiction. It’s like a passion, an obsession, especially something that is forbidden and it only comes from an impure heart. It’s not a nice word really, in fact, it’s more like lust than love.

·        Secondly, eros is the love of attraction between a man and a woman. It’s a beautiful gift from God and, when you think about it, it’s how all of us got to be here; sexual attraction between our parents. Maybe don’t think about it too long… This kind of love can come from a pure heart or an impure heart because it can be directed towards the wrong person.

·        Thirdly, philia is the love of affection. It’s friendship, it’s enjoying the company of others, people you feel good with and want to be around. This kind of love can also come from a pure heart or an impure heart; you can spend time in good company or you can get corrupted by getting in with the wrong crowd.

·        And finally, agape, which was very rarely used, is the love of action. It is not about just about how you feel, though it starts with compassion and even emotion, agape is mostly about what you do. It’s selfless and kindhearted. It gets involved. Agape, unlike the other three, only ever comes from a pure heart.

Here’s the thing: In the New Testament, none of the first three words are ever used to describe what God’s love is like. Only the fourth one is. That’s really important because it tells us very clearly what God’s love is like. It’s maybe not like we might think it is.

·        God doesn’t love us because he’s addicted to us as if he is needy, or lonely, or kind of sad and incomplete without us. 

·        God doesn’t love us because he is attracted to us either. He doesn’t look at us and blush or swoon or go weak at the knees. He is not sentimentally besotted with us at all. 

·        God doesn’t love us because he likes us either. Sorry, but nothing in the Bible gives me any indication that God likes us at all! And that’s good news, because it means that he would still love us even if there is nothing likeable about us whatsoever.  

·        This is what the Bible says about God’s love – and it says it over and over again. God loves us because his heart fills with compassion and pity at our utter inability to save ourselves from an eternity of anguished separation from him.

And it moved him to come as one of us in Christ and pay in full the price, his own blood, every last drop of it, to deliver us from a never-ending hell, banished from the light of his presence. 

It’s while we were still sinners, in defiant rebellion against him, that Christ died for us. If you ever doubt that God loves you, just look at the cross. There’s the proof that he does - forever.

Purity

Nicky Gumbel once said, “When God measures a person, he puts the tape round the heart, not the head.” 

Well, what is a pure heart like? The word translated “pure” here (katharos) actually had three related but slightly different meanings. 

Firstly, it just meant “clean.” When I was a child, my brother and I used to play football on the common, jumpers for goalposts, and we would return home with mud ground into the knees of our jeans from our knee slide celebrations when we scored. 

Obviously, mine were dirtier because he is younger than me, so I made the rules and he had to go in goal most of the time. But our jeans would emerge from of the washing machine a couple of hours later miraculously free from any hint of any stain. That’s katharos – pure.

But it also meant “separated.” It was used to describe winnowing corn to sort the wheat from the chaff, or pruning roses to cut off unfruitful branches. And when you shake earth through a garden sieve to remove all the stones, the word you’d use to describe the soft, sifted earth is katharos – pure. 

And finally, it meant “untainted, unmixed.” It was used to described filtered water. It referred to gold or silver that is refined in a furnace until all the dross has gone. 9 carat gold is only 37.5% gold. 24 carat gold, the purest, is at least 99.9% – that’s katharos – pure.

Clean, separated and uncorrupted; anyone with a heart like that will be truly blessed to see God.

Jesus is interested in purity of heart. In other words, Jesus is concerned primarily with how things work on the inside. He doesn’t care at all for religion as a game to impress others. Jesus sets himself against the Judaism of his day, which was all external. He says, “No, it starts and ends with the heart.

The Scribes and Pharisees of that time are only interested in a display of ceremonial and outward purity. They are utterly false. It is all about looking good and projecting an illusion of piety. As William Barclay put it, they “basked in the sunshine of their own self-approval.”

Jesus reserves his most scathing and chastening words, not for prisoners and prostitutes and pickpockets, but for these well-heeled religious leaders.

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness. (Matthew 23.27-28).

Imagine Jesus looking intently at you and saying that! It must have been devastating! But instead of wilting and humbling themselves, they hated him for it and determined to do away with him.

The Pharisees are an easy target with their pompous moralising and elf-obsession. All holy on the outside. All rotten on the inside. 

But, as John Stott says, “How few of us live one life and live it in the open! We are tempted to wear different masks and play a different role according to each occasion.”

The church is guilty of this, let’s be honest. In our culture we’re usually better at diagnosing impurity of heart in other people than cultivating purity of heart in ourselves. 

It is good for us to ask God to show this to us so we can see the Pharisee in me and repent of it before it gets a foothold in our lives.

Alone among men and women, Jesus Christ was absolutely pure in heart.

Healthy Heart Clinic

·         The Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans.

·         On the other hand, the French eat a lot of fat and also suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans. 

·         In Kenyan they drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans. 

·         The Italians drink excessive amounts of red wine and also suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans. 

Conclusion: Eat and drink what you like. It's speaking English that kills you.

A few years ago, being a native English speaker, I thought I’d better go for a healthy heart check. My father had a quadruple heart bypass when he was about 50 and he died about 30 years later of heart disease, so I thought I’d better get myself checked out. 

So, they stick pins in you to measure the level of cholesterol in your blood, they calculate your BMI, ask you how much you smoke and drink, and run the usual tests; pulse, blood pressure, stethoscope and so on. And they ask you about your diet.

The director of Soul Survivor Mike Pilavachi once admitted to counting the gherkin in a double cheeseburger as one of his five a day.

Well, it turns out that I haven’t inherited my dad’s cardiovascular makeup and that I’m a cross between Superman, the Incredible Hulk and Captain Scarlett. Practically bullet-proof…

What they didn’t do is give me any feedback on how pure my heart is. I don’t think I would have been entirely comfortable with that. I’m not sure I could have looked the nurse in the eye. I don’t have the simplicity and purity of heart that Andrew in my story earlier has.

If it were possible to plug you in to a spiritual cardiogramme today, what would it show? How healthy is your heart?

Jesus said, “A good person brings good things out of the good stored up in their heart, and an evil person brings evil things out of the evil stored up in their heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.”

What comes out of my mouth? Do you ever find that gossip, or jibes, or coarse joking, or angry words, or grumbling or swearing come from yours? Jesus says that actually originates in the heart.

Ending

The really good news, as I end, is that Jesus can set right every disorder of the heart. He binds up broken hearts. He softens hard hearts. He strengthens faint hearts. He fills empty hearts. He specialises in heart transplants. He cleanses dirty hearts. That’s what he came to do. That’s what he wants to do today, that we may see God.

Let’s stand to pray…

Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 10 February 2019