How Would You Become Pure?

How Would You Become Pure?

 

Good Morning Friends,

 

Achieving a state of perfection is not attainable through our own efforts as best I can tell, it is akin to the tilling of the soil to gradually improve the possibility of productive cultivation. However, today’s lectionary scripture considers some other images of virtuous improvement in the process of metal refining and purification through sacrifice and atonement. How Would You Become Pure?

 

Scripture: See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight—indeed, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap; he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.

 

Malachi 3:1-4 (NRSV)

 

Since, therefore, the children share flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared the same things, so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death. For it is clear that he did not come to help angels, but the descendants of Abraham. Therefore he had to become like his brothers and sisters in every respect, so that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.

 

Hebrews 2:14-18 (NRSV)

 

When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord”), and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.” Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; this man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him what was customary under the law, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying, “Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.” 

 

Luke 2:22-32 (NRSV)

 

Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and of spirit, making holiness perfect in the fear of God.

 

2 Corinthians 7:1 (NRSV)

 

I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.

 

Philippians 1:6 (NRSV)

 

That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many things in parables, saying: “Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Let anyone with ears listen!”

 

Matthew 13:1-9 (NRSV)

 

Message: If you have ever watched a silver smith you might have an idea of what Malachi was writing about. It is about yielding to God and being transformed into the image of his Christ. Now this should be very aesthetically pleasing to us, but what is going on in the birth, life, death and resurrection of religious movements in the Bible and to this day, would indicate that our collective refining of what we call church passes through stages. It begins with the ethical as an instinctive moral reform and moves to the theological where we reflect on the formulation of our faith and practices and only after refining, a stage of aesthetics with the building of buildings and the apparatus of worship. Unfortunately, this last stage is likely to arrest our intellectual activities as a precursor to moral decay and the need to start the process all over again. A morally earnest faith must be continually refined until God’s glory be reflected in us. But even then, sanctification is never finished. Like the tilling of the soil for planting, the work of purifying the heart goes on, and must always be renewed with the seed of love as a bride and groom…as Jesus and the church.

 

Pray we realize that God has a plan for us to be transformed and will continue to work in our lives to accomplish the work of purifying us for a purpose. Pray we realize that sometimes the experience may not be all that pleasant. Pray nevertheless, we allow God to be the refiner of our souls. Pray the movement of the Spirit reveal to us what areas of our lives need correction. Pray we conform to the image of Christ as we burn away the impurities that lie within us. Pray we allow God’s image to be reflected through us. Pray we are enlightened with the true light of love always as a forerunner of the Messiah and the hope to come.

 

Blessings,

 

John Lawson