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sepiph405
They
Have Eyes for God Alone kerio pf 4.2.1 crack
Text:
Matthew 5:8
Date: Epiphany IV 
1/30/05
After
confirmation instruction last Wednesday night I stopped in to Kroger
to get something to throw in the microwave for dinner. As I was
finishing pressing the buttons and putting in a twenty and retrieving
my change and receipt a young man, seeing my collar, began asking
me whether I thought the government had any responsibility for subsidizing
the poor. I simply responded that it is, of course, first the care
and concern of the Church, but if the government wanted to help
out that's an option. Well, the young man said he thought the Church
does a pretty good job. I thanked him and walked out (wondering
if he was going to say he was poor and ask for a hand out. But he
didn't).
Today
we heard the prophet Micah saying, “Thus says the Lord.” With words
of judgment God brought an indictment and prosecuted a trial against
his people. The problem was not their liturgical worship life, their
offerings or cultic rites, but that their heart wasn't in it. “What
does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?” Faith and practice, worship and
life always go together. If the faith is wrong the life that issues
from such a faith will be wrong too. But if the faith is right,
yet it does not result in lives marked by godly concerns and actions,
then this is the call to repentance we all need.
It
was only to young disciples who heard and heeded John the Baptist's
and Jesus' call to “repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,”
who have begun to follow and to learn repentance, that Jesus addressed
the words of his first main discourse in Matthew's Gospel, the Sermon
on the Mount. In other words, though there were crowds of people
around him, it was to his disciples that these words were addressed.
For these words are NOT “entrance requirements” for the kingdom.
No one, according to our fallen, sinful condition has the ability
to even begin doing or being what Jesus here describes. No, this
is only for those who by repentance have had their hearts opened
by God so that He can create in them a clean heart, a new spirit,
a new life. Jesus here encourages that growth in faith and life
by preaching not Law or rules but pure Gospel and blessing. These
words describe the qualities God is creating in his people, what
sort of people He is making them to be.
He
begins by saying, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is
the kingdom of heaven.” Unlike the concern of the young man at Kroger,
Jesus is not talking about “the poor” meaning those who have little
money and resources and few possessions. He's talking about those
who are “poor in spirit,” those who need to have the good news,
the Gospel preached to them. These “poor” are to be found in every
income level and tax bracket, but are only those, rich or poor,
who have heard the summons and have already turned in repentance
to God.
Remember
that we heard John the Baptist in prison questioning whether Jesus
was the One or if they should look for someone else. Jesus sent
word back to John quoting his “job description” (if you will) from
Isaiah 35, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive
their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf
hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached
to them” [Matthew 11:4-5 (ESV)]. St. Luke, likewise, tells of Jesus'
first sermon in his hometown of Nazareth telling of his purpose
quoting the words of Isaiah 61, "The Spirit of the Lord is
upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the
poor” [Luke 4:18a (ESV)]. Whereas all of the qualities described
in the Beatitudes can also describe Jesus himself, notice the nouns
of each sentence (the poor, those who mourn, the meek, those hungering
and thirsting for righteousness, etc.) are all plural nouns. So
he's not talking just about himself. On the other hand he is not
talking about everyone just as they are, but only those in whom
the call to repentance has taken root and who have, in sorrow over
their sin, realized their need for forgiveness and life.
Today
I am going to focus on only one of the beatitudes, namely, the sixth
one “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God,” or,
as it is put in our wonderful Hymn of the Day,
And
the pure in heart are blessed,
They
have eyes for God alone. [HS98 912:2]
The
Psalmist answers the fundamental question, “who can approach God
or hope for his blessing?” “He who has clean hands and a pure heart…He
will receive blessing from the Lord” [Psalm 24:4-5 (ESV)]. Psalm
73:1 says, “Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in
heart” (ESV). The question, then is, who is pure in heart? And the
first answer to that question is, simply, “no one.” In Genesis 8:21
the Lord says, “the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth”
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