Full disclosure – the lectionary passage this week just wasn’t making it for me. So, I decided – because I can do this – I decided to cherry-pick the scripture for this morning. I went with what’s familiar to all of us that Mike just read for us. I’m narrowing our focus on “blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” So that’s what I’ve been joyfully wrestling with this week. Listen to that again. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. This is outrageous. We’ve just been told how we can see God. I know what you’re thinking when you hear the phrase, “blessed are the pure in heart.” I’m sure this is what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, “Oh, that’s me. I have a pure heart. Great.” Or maybe you’re thinking this – “Oh, I have a pure heart but look at my friend who is sitting on the other side of the sanctuary. I hope they’re listening this morning because they really need to figure out how to make their heart…” No. We’re humble people, right? Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. 

Well, as I’ve said to you before and I’m going to say again, the problem is we all have a backstage view of ourselves. What I mean by that is years ago I went to a community theater. A couple of parishioners in my church were going to play, and I was happy to go and I went, and in between one of the acts I just sort of snuck backstage. For whatever reason that day I was really struck by the juxtaposition of what we see on stage. It’s practiced. It was perfect, if you will. Everything in place, perfect. And then when you go backstage, it’s a mess. So many people over there talking and somebody over here smoking a cigarette and stuff. There’s trash everywhere and half-dressed people making wardrobe changes. It’s a mess. We all have backstage views of ourselves, which means we come to church and put on nice clothes, smile, and show everybody how pure we are. There’s nothing wrong with that. You only call that the persona. It’s an important thing to know about and be aware of. And the good news is this Greek word and concept of purity does not mean we’ve never had a bad thought, and it does not mean that we’ve never done a bad thing. That’s not what purity of heart in the Bible means.

Here’s what it means and I’m going to read this. It’s a direct quote from the New Interpreter’s Bible – “The phrase ‘pure in heart’ means single-minded devotion to God” – single-minded devotion to God – “something big enough and good enough to merit one’s whole devotion rather than the functional polytheism” – I love that phrase, functional polytheism – “of parceling oneself out to a number of loyalties. Faith in the one God requires that one be devoted to God with all one’s heart.” That’s what purity of heart means in the Bible, single-minded devotion to God.

The great 19th-century existential philosopher Søren Kierkegaard wrote a whole book about this. By the way, he called it a sermon. He said, “This is a sermon.” It’s entitled, “Purity of Heart is the Will to One Thing.” That’s what Kierkegaard said. He called it a sermon. I have a PDF version of it on my laptop. It’s 156 pages long, a 156-page sermon. Now I can go get my laptop and I can read you this whole sermon if you like. What do you think? Let’s don’t. In this sermon, Kierkegaard talks about the fact that, in his opinion, you and I have something going on inside of us all the time, and it’s in competition. He called it, quote, control and chaos. He said there is control and chaos always in tension within us, and true living is taking a leap of faith. To be truly alive, Kierkegaard said, is taking a leap of faith. He said, “Make a decision.” He goes on to say, “Purity of heart begins with examining the eternal in our lives.” Not the temporal, but the eternal, and you and I get to figure out what that means. What does it mean to pay attention to the eternal in our lives? Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

“The Cloud of Unknowing” – which is a wonderful title – “The Cloud of Unknowing” is a spiritual instruction manual written by an anonymous English monk in the latter half of the 14th century. “The Cloud of Unknowing.” That phrase, that title, “The Cloud of Unknowing,” refers to our imperfect knowledge of God. “The Cloud of Unknowing.” It was proposed as an aid to contemplation, and it’s packed with sound spiritual guidance and sweet admonitions for young men just entering the monastic life. The book is made up of 75 very short chapters. Chapter 27 in “The Cloud of Unknowing” is this, quote – “A man or a woman, suddenly frightened by fire or death or what you will, is suddenly in his extremity of spirit driven hastily and by necessity to cry or pray for help. And how does he do it? Not merely with a spate of words, not even a single word of two syllables. Why? He thinks it wastes too much time to declare his urgent need and his agitation, so he bursts out in his terror with one little word, and that of a single syllable. “Fire,” it may be, or “hell.” Just as this little word stirs and pierces the ears of the hearers more quickly, so too does a little word of one syllable when it is not merely spoken or thought but expresses also the intention of the depth of our spirit. Only a fool makes a speech in a burning house.” And then finally, Chapter 37 in “The Cloud of Unknowing” says these four words – “Short prayer penetrates heaven.” Short prayer penetrates heaven.

I’m going to finish up in a minute and I’m going to give you a homework assignment, and I expect to hear back from you how it went. Before I do that, I’m going to tell you about a dear friend of mine. When I was in Akron, I was part of the ecumenical clergy group up there during the academic year. We had monthly meetings, and I would show up at the meeting, and whenever my friend – we’d take turns opening in prayer – and whenever it was my friend’s turn to open us up in prayer, I just kind of went … (sighs heavily). God bless him – and I can say that in this moment – God bless him, his prayers went on forever. He was so conscientious, he was so well-intentioned. He wanted to pray for everybody on earth, and he did. That’s why I get excited when I read “In the Cloud of Unknowing,” short prayer penetrates heaven. So, I have a homework assignment for you, and I call it single-word prayers. Short prayers to penetrate heaven. I’m asking you this week, you decide, you discover what is your one-word prayer. I wrote some down there, I’ve got some suggestions. Any of you extroverts want to go for this right now? Anybody – (from congregation, “Help”) – “Help.” That’s on my list. I have one, two, three, four, five, six. “Help.” Anybody else? Somebody said, “Peace.” “Thanks.” Those two are on my list. You’re probably going to get them. Ready? This is my list and I’m going to save my favorite one for last. “Help.” Just throughout the day, when you think of it, “Help.” Then your spirit and your mind can run with that and extrapolate that. “Help.” “Courage.” Man, do I need courage. Huh? “Courage.” Here’s another one that I like – “Presence.” I like that one because when I say the single-word prayer, “Presence,” in my mind, I’m asking God to be present. I’m asking Christ to be present. I’m asking the spirit to be present. Who else am I asking to be present? Myself. “Presence.” Be present. One of my friends taught me years ago, “Be where your feet are.” The only time we’re going to experience God is where we are. “Presence.” I like, “Presence.” I had, “Thanks.” And written on my piece of paper here is, “Breathe,” and then in parentheses at the end of “Breathe” I put an “e” for “breath.” “Breathe.” My favorite one, and I mention this a lot and I’m going to keep mentioning it, it comes from my favorite prayer of all time, Dag Hammarskjold’s prayer. I’ve shared with you before that I begin every day saying it, and I can boil it down to one word. Dag Hammarskjold’s prayer was, “For all the gifts that have been given, thank you. For all the gifts to come, yes.” That’s my favorite single-word prayer. “Yes.” Yes. Yes.

I’ll leave you with this. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Purity of heart in the Bible means a single-minded purpose, complete and utter devotion to God, and I saw it recently. I saw it. I was at Easton Shopping Mall looking for a birthday present for my wife, Vicki. I was by myself. There’s a really great cooking/kitchen store over there. I can’t remember the name of it, but it’s a fantastic place, and I was on my way there and that’s when I saw it. I was walking along and right there it was obvious what was happening. It was a mother – I’m sure it was a mother, it wasn’t a babysitter – this was a mother, and she was with her little toddler daughter. It was just the two of them, and the toddler obviously was just learning to walk. I’m tempted to try to imitate what a toddler looks like, but just use your imagination, OK? This toddler was walking along, looking at the mom. What’s the mom doing? What is her single focus? She’s looking at her daughter, and her daughter’s gonna fall, and mom’s going to be right there to pick her back up. Please notice, this is single-minded focus, and there’s something else going on. I missed it until I thought about it later. This little toddler who’s just learning to walk, it’s so inspiring to me. She’s smiling. She’s not afraid. She’s not afraid. She’s not afraid to fall. I am convinced that, not at the conscious level but at some level deep within her, why isn’t she afraid? Somebody answer that. She knows mom is there. She knows mom is there. She knows that she’s safe. This is, as we watch mom and the toddler and the toddler not be afraid, we are looking at God and we are looking at ourselves. We are called to be that toddler. Don’t be afraid. God is right with us and not if – when we fall – God will be right there because God has single-minded purpose and devotion on us. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Go ahead, turn around a little. You’ll see God. Amen? Amen.