Matthew 5:8-9              How Can I See God?              February 19, 2006

      The past several weeks, we have explored Jesus’ teachings on the blessed life, the happy life.  We have seen for three weeks running that most important to this happy life is an understanding that this happy life is not built on my own but is established by the strength of God.  The blessed life is not something I create for myself.  It is a gift from God to be received by faith.      

     This week, I want to turn in a fresh direction because this blessed happy life which I receive from God must now be put to work in my life.  This gift which I receive from God needs to be made real in my actual life.  You see, God loves you right where you are, just as you are.   You do not need to do a thing to receive His gift.  But, God loves you so much; God will not leave you right where you are, just as you are.  God wants to make more of you.  God wants to make you a person of purity and peace.  Let’s take a look.

     Jesus says “Happy are the pure in heart for they shall see God.”  Who are the pure in heart?  First, they are those who have been made pure by faith in Jesus Christ.  It is not my own purity but the purity given to me as a gift of God.  However, this gift must come alive in me in real practical nuts and bolts daily living if I am to see God.  I want to say that this practical Christianity is perhaps among the chief missing ingredients in many churches today.  There is much sermonizing about getting saved, about being made pure by faith in Christ, and that is vital.  But often, we find no long term joy in that experience.  It seems a brief firework and then it is gone.  What happens to the joy?  Yesterday was Charlie’s birthday.  He received several presents from friends and family.  He was excited and full of joy at his many new toys.  But now listen to me.  For many of those gifts, say a new basketball, the joy will only last as Charlie gets outside and learns to use that basketball properly.  Sure the gift is his.  But it will only become complete as he plays the game and learns to shoot the ball.  Too many of us, too many Christians whom we know, they have received God’s gift but they have never put it to use.  And the joy seems to fade. 

       Let me be clear.  The pure in heart see God. They see God each day of life and the joy remains in them.  Jesus is not merely promising us that someday when we die and go to heaven, then we will see God.  No, the pure in heart see God now.  Today and everyday.  John Wesley said that for the pure in heart God “will cause his presence to go continually before them and the light of God’s countenance will shine upon them.”  I am reminded of Moses and the Hebrews fleeing Egypt and the fire of God went before them to lead the way.  The pure in heart see God leading their lives.  They see the Spirit by faith in all that God has created.  The pure in heart see God’s purposes relating to themselves and see God’s hand ever over them for good.  The pure in heart see God in worship, in the body of Christ gathered together each Sunday morning, in the communion of the Lord’s Supper.  You see, those who have found the happy life see God because they love God.  Do you love God? 

       A lawyer one day asks Jesus what was the greatest command.  Jesus replied, “To love God and to love you neighbor.”  The pure in heart love God.  But Jesus in these beatitudes next tells us to love our neighbor.  Jesus says, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called the children of God.”  The beatitudes until this point have been much concerned with our attitude of heart.  Jesus has shown us what we are to be if we are to find the happy life.  Now he proceeds to show us what we are to do.  Blessed are the peace makers.

       When we hear the word “peace” we often think of not being at war.  But peace in the Bible means so much more.  The word in Hebrew in the Old Testament is Shalom.  In the New Testament Greek, it is eirene.  It appears 92 times in the NT, making it a major concept.  This word means peace, health, prosperity, a good life.  John Wesley said that the word implies all manner of good, every blessing that relates to body and soul, time or eternity.  I am most reminded of Mr. Spock on Star Trek with his Vulcan blessing—Live long and prosper.  This is the meaning of peace.  And just as we are to love God in the purity of our hearts, we are to love our neighbor by making peace. 

     So what is a peace-maker?   One who does good to all people as she has the opportunity.  Jesus describes for us the peacemaker in Matthew chapter 25 when he tells us to feed the hungry, cloth the naked, tend to the sick, visit the prisoner.  The love of neighbor is not some vague feeling in our heart.  To love my neighbor is to make peace for him.  To provide Shalom, health, prosperity, a better life.  These are the things that will make for peace in our world. 

      Now when Jesus told that lawyer to love his neighbor, the lawyer asked, “But who is my neighbor?”  We too might wonder who we are to love.  What about all those people who do us so wrong?  Later in Matthew 5:44-48, Jesus will tell his followers…….

It is easy to do good for those who do good for us.  Everyone does that.  But if we would be the children of God, then we like God should give our peace to all people.  Many Christians misunderstand verse 45 by thinking that the sunshine sent by God means good and that the rain sent by God means misfortune.  We in our culture use the term a “rainy day” to mean a bad day.  But Jesus lived in a Middle Eastern semi-desert environment and a rainy day was every bit as good, maybe better, than a sunny day.  So Jesus is saying that God is constantly, always, all the time sending forth goodness upon all people, both the good and the bad people.  God loves all.  And to be his children, we too come to love all.  And then Jesus makes a quiet shocking statement in closing—vs. 48.   Most Bibles translate this as “You must be perfect as your Father is perfect.”  But an equally good and maybe better translation of the Greek is “You will be perfect as your Father is perfect.”  Rather than a command, it is a promise.  When you love God with a pure heart and you love your neighbor in practical peacekeeping ways, you will be made perfect in love.

      Did you know that this is our hope and prayer as Christians?  We long to be made perfect in love for God and for our neighbor.  United Methodist Bishops ask young men and women entering the ministry, “Are you going on to perfection?”  Of course, we all see the Christian bumper stickers that say “Christians are not perfect, just forgiven.”  Some people fear that it is far-fetched or prideful to think you are going to perfection.  Many complain that we should not even think about perfection.  But let me ask you a serious question.  If you are not going on to perfection in love in your life, then where are you going?  Where are you going in your life?  We are all going on somewhere.  We are either going on to perfection to be made like our Heavenly Father or we are going on to the devil. 

      How about you?  I ask you personally.  Have you that vision to see God?  God’s love is sent forth day by day, in the sunshine and the rain, poured out on all people, the good and the bad.  God’s love is radiated forth into the vast of the universe never easing to flow.  But can we see it?  In a brilliant new book, Catching the Light, quantum physicist Arthur Zojanc describes the critical developmental "windows" in the first years of life when sensory and motor skills are formed.  If this early opportunity is lost, trying to play catch up is hugely frustrating and mostly unsuccessful.   Prof. Zojanc writes of studies which investigated recovery from blindness. Thanks to cornea transplants, people who had been blind from birth can now suddenly have eyes which can allow the light to enter. Nevertheless, success is rare.  While surgery gives the patient the "power to see," "the use of this power by the brain has never been acquired."  Scientists are discovering that vision requires far more than functioning physical eyes.  The brain must also know how to see.  The brain must receive the image and catch the light.  Zojanc explains, “Without an inner light, without a formative visual imagination, we are blind."  

         God’s love is all around us this very morning.  But unless we love God and love our neighbor in return then that love of God will go mostly unreceived by us.  A light that is always shining but never seen by our blind eyes.  But for those who are pure in heart, they see God.  They see God all around them in all circumstances and events.  This morning, I pray that you are able to see.  Amen.