Pentecost 19
20 September 2026
Vineville Baptist Church
Macon, Georgia
W. Gregory Pope
WHAT THE HEART SEES
Matthew 5.8. Psalm 24.3-6. Mark 7.14-23
When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up to the mountain, and after he sat down, his disciples came to him, and he began to speak and taught them, saying: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”
Have you met anyone without mixed motives lately? I haven’t – least of all the man in the mirror. On my own, I cannot want one thing without wanting something else. This feels like one of the beatitudes that’s always going to be just out of our reach. I’m not sure any of us would claim to be “pure in heart.” We all have mixed motives. We give, in part, because we want to feel good about giving. Even the most selfless things we do are not done without some small hope for reward. Examining our motives is hard, because rarely we do not have pure motives.
One of the difficult things about this beatitude is that Jesus doesn’t tell what a pure heart looks like. He does, however, show us what an impure heart looks like. In our gospel reading from Mark Jesus says to those concerned with ritual cleanness and avoiding unclean food: “Food going into you may raise your cholesterol or glucose levels but it does not defile you. It may run through the blood vessels of your heart, but it doesn’t go into your heart as a decision-making center. Food itself goes through your stomach and digestive track, but it do not defile you in God’s eyes. The words that come out of your mouth and actions that spring from your life – those are what defiles you.”
For many people, the word “pure” or “purity” can be a turnoff. Purity seems old-fashioned. For many women who grew up in a strict religious culture, the word “pure” can cause discomfort. The concept of purity was likely tied very closely with her clothing, her body, and her sexuality. This over-zealous purity culture, more often than not, led to shaming and self-righteousness.
What does it mean to be “pure in heart”? In the interpretation history of this beatitude, three understandings have dominated, not completely unrelated from one another.
For the longest time, purity meant holiness from sin and sinful desires, almost always referring exclusively to sexuality. But purity of heart includes the ability not to be controlled by any of one’s sinful desires: anger, greed, lust or pride.
A second understanding accepted by most modern interpreters to likely be the most accurate is that the pure in heart possess a single-minded devotion to God. Soren Kierkegaard’s most famous book is titled, “Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing.” For him, purity of heart is an exclusive devotion to God and to the seeking of God’s will.
“Pure in heart” does not mean “perfection.” If so, who would ever qualify? The Greek word translated “pure” is the word used to describe “clear glass.” The basic meaning is “unmixed”. Purity of heart is single-minded devotion to God. And it implies an active devotion to the things
of God like: compassion, justice, and mercy.
This single-minded devotion to God plays itself out in a third understanding in terms of our honest dealings with others. A pure heart reveals itself in a life of integrity and sincerity. Have you heard the cynic’s proverb?: “The key to everything is sincerity. Once you can fake that everything else is easy.” The famous 4th century bishop St. Augustine said the contrast is not purity vs impurity but purity vs hypocrisy. The writer of Psalm 24 says that those who have pure hearts do not swear deceitfully nor do they have anything to hide. In the letter of James we read: Cleanse your hands and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Draw near to God and God will draw near to you.
Jesus speaks of the pure in heart. Let’s keep in mind that in biblical times, the heart was understood not as the center of emotions, but rather the whole of one’s inner self, the inner center of the self, the will that orders all that we say and do. It was the place from where decisions were made and thoughts were formed and dialogue between God and humanity takes place. The heart is where we meet God or avoid meeting God.
So you can see why the condition of the heart is so critical. When someone barks at you, do you bark back or bite your tongue? That depends on the condition of your heart. When your schedule is too tight or your to-do list too long, do you lose your cool or keep it? That depends on the condition of your heart. When you’re offered “a morsel of gossip marinated in slander,” do you turn it down or pass it on? That depends on the condition of your heart. Do you see the homeless person on the street as a burden on society or as an opportunity for God? That depends on the condition of your heart. The condition of your heart dictates whether we harbor a grudge or give grace, impose human misery or taste God’s mercy.1
No wonder the writer of Proverbs says: “Above all else, guard your heart.” And King David teaches us to pray: “Create in me a pure heart, O God.” Purity of heart is the strong desire to live as God wants us to live. A pure heart is a merciful heart, a loving heart, an undivided heart.
So let me ask you: What is the one thing you want more than anything else? What are you willing to die for? Most of the things we want are often substitutes for the desire to love and be loved, the desire to abide in love with the One who first loved us and who made us for love.2
Rarely do we recognize with clarity our root desire for God. A pure heart is not an innocent heart. A pure heart knows the experience of being fragmented by our many attachments to our stuff, our status, our sources of security – attachments that cannot be guaranteed.
Purity of heart requires we let go of our attachments. In his book Addiction and Grace, Gerald May argues that all of us are addicts to some degree. All of us cling to objects of attachment that give us sweet illusions of security such as our money, or those that feed our delusions of love or joy, like alcohol, drugs, gambling, or sex. Even socially approved attachments like overwork, watching TV, or exercise can be a substitute for God.3
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. What is this blessing known to the pure in heart? What does it mean to see God?
To see God we must first look for God. How might our life change if we began to notice, to look for, to find God in the midst of our seemingly mundane lives. We will see God when we look for God. And we have to know where to look. When trained art critics see a painting, they see something different than the person with no art knowledge sees. When computer experts like Brent Langford look at a keyboard, they see something different than what most of us see. When the pure in heart look at the world they see God, they are aware of God’s presence. They see God because their lives are in focus with the reign of God.
We see God in the face of Jesus Christ. Jesus told the disciples: “Whoever has seen me has
seen the Father.”
To see God is to see more clearly what God wants and what God is doing among us. To see God may lead us to something visionary. To see God is to gain insight into God’s will.
Jonathan Edwards said that to see God is to delight in God. He compared the joy of seeing God to swimming in the boundless ocean of God’s love.4
Impurity of heart blinds us to God. We are often so divided and scattered, stressed and anxious we cannot see God. I love that line in The Little Prince that says: “It is only with the heart one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
While there is truth there, it is also true that we can “see” God in our neighbor. The pure in heart see God in all human faces. They see the image of God in others. It takes a pure heart to look at every person we encounter every day and see the glory and beauty of God’s image shining through.
But just as our motives and actions cannot be completely pure, neither can our vision of God. As the apostle Paul reminded us: We see through a glass darkly, but one day we will see face to face. Purity eludes us. We are ambiguous creatures in an ambiguous world. Being pure in heart seems hopeless – except for this: We cannot make ourselves pure, but God’s grace can.
Gerald May writes: “To be alive is to be addicted, and to be alive and addicted is to stand in need of grace.”5 Grace helps us do the hard work of detachment, which is not freedom from desire, but freedom of desire – the freedom to love God and others well. God’s grace can free us from mixed motives and help us develop our hearts simple in our intentions and single in our purposes. And that single purpose is the new kingdom of God announced by Jesus, a kingdom marked by God’s generous love and compassion for all.
Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “People are what they think about all day.” The more we think about God, the more singleness of purpose transforms our lives. Purity of heart means that we let some things fall by the wayside. We let go of things that push us away from God. We cannot help but be exposed to spiritual toxins – toxic words, toxic attitudes, and toxic behaviors that stain our hearts. But we don’t have to give them our attention. Some things are not worth our time. Some thoughts are not worth thinking. Longing for wealth, recognition, and vengeance destroys purity of heart.
Pursuing single-mindedness of purpose will help us stop listening to the lies that deceive us and be honest about the things that make our lives less than they should be. Singleness of purpose is the minute-to-minute discipline of trying to be so aware of God’s presence that the heart has no space for our worries and ambitions. Having a single-minded heart affects the way we speak to each other, the way we work, the way we spend our money.
Everyone lives with ultimate concerns that determine everything else. Our minds dwell on what matters to us. We get to decide what we put at the center. The pure of heart go through life choosing God. Putting God at the center is why we worship each week: we want our lives centered in God’s love. In worship we think about what is worth our attention and what is not. Everything affects our hearts – our everyday choices, the little things and the big things, anything that we allow to enter our minds – it all has an impact on our hearts, our souls, and our spirits.
We can choose read better books and see better movies – not the books and movies people tell us are the best – but the books and movies that fill our hearts with the beauty of goodness and truth, courage and joy, meaning and love. We can have better conversations, the kind where we listen and care and offer kindness.
David Buttrick says that one day, in God’s generous grace, purity will be “draped like a gleaming baptismal robe over our smudged lives.”6 Until that day in our pursuit of a pure heart,
we acknowledge our mixed motives and need for grace, we seek detachment from the many things in our lives that do not matter, we focus our thoughts on the awareness of God’s presence all around us, we pray for single-minded hearts to see God in everything around us.
To aid in this pursuit I would invite you to the ancient practice of “centering.” The spiritual practice of centering our hearts and minds on the love of God. The preacher, academic, and spiritual sage Howard Thurman wrote a brief meditation entitled “How Good to Center Down!” I close this morning by sharing with you a portion of it. I invite you to close your eyes and seek to focus your heart and mind on God alone. The meditation goes like this:
How good it is to center down!
To sit quietly and see one’s self pass by.
The streets of our minds seethe with endless traffic.
Our spirits resound with clashings and noisy silences,
while something deep within
hungers and thirsts for the still moment and rest.
With fresh intensity we seek . . .
a fresh sense of order in our living,
a direction, a strong sure purpose
that will structure our confusion and
bring meaning out of our chaos . . .
The questions persist:
What are we doing with our lives?
What are the motives that order our days?
What is the end of our doings?
Where are we trying to go?
Where is my treasure?
What do I love most in life? . . .
(But) as we listen there is a sound of another kind –
a deeper note which only the stillness of the heart makes clear . . .
Our spirits are refreshed . . .
With the peace of the Eternal in our step.
How good it is to center down!7
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1. Max Lucado, The Applause of Heaven, Word Publishing, 1990, 121
2. J. Marshall Jenkins, Blessed at the Broken Places, Skylight Paths, 2017, 97
3. Gerald May, Addiction and Grace, Harper and Row, 1988, 10-11
4. Rebekah Eklund, The Beatitudes Through the Ages, Eerdmans, 2021, 226
5. May, 10-11
6. David Buttrick, Speaking Jesus, Westminster John Knox Press, 2002, 72
7. Howard Thurman, Meditations of the Heart, Beacon Press, 1953, 28-29