#Clean hands and a pure heart game full
#Clean hands and a pure heart game series
#Clean hands and a pure heart game free

I think that one item of which we ought to be aware is the fact that Jesus’ culture, not unlike our own, contained an element of puritanism. Another opportunity to think about how much of a screw-up I can be… I come into a church that has lost touch with the people around it, and I wonder if I’m any better than the Puritans who hung around with Uncle John.” What are we to make of this Beatitude that labels those who are “pure in heart” as “blessed”? So all of this is swirling around in my head when I read that Jesus blesses, or congratulates, or approves of those who are “pure in heart”. I’ve spoken previously about my complicity in some of these conversations, and I’m not, at this point, particularly proud of them. Christian kids in my youth group were encouraged – “don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t chew, and don’t run around with people who do.” That got refined into the so-called “purity culture” of the 1980’s and 1990’s, wherein the church either implied or stated outright that sexual abstinence was one way of making sure that God liked you better. Those who sought to present a “pure” religion in the 17 th century thought that these appropriate steps to take to ensure that hearts were pure.īack in the 20 th century, we had a different kind of emphasis on purity. One of those who came was Captain Myles Standish, who promptly arrested Morton on charges of impiety, and ordered him held in the stocks and eventually sent back to England. In the spring of 1629, he thought he’d throw a party, so he brewed up a barrel of what he called “most excellent beer”, and erected a Maypole, and welcomed all comers.

#Clean hands and a pure heart game free

He sought to free indentured servants, and stood firm against slavery.

#Clean hands and a pure heart game full

The Infidels, he found, were “most full of humanity and more friendly than the other.” He traded with these “infidels” – the Algonquin people, and befriended them. He wrote that he had met two kinds of people in this “new world”: Christians and Infidels. Thomas Morton, who arrived at Plymouth in 1624 to engage in fur trading. Anyone who was convicted of interrupting a preacher would be compelled not only to pay a fine of 5 pounds – nearly $500 by today’s standards – but to stand upon a block of stone four feet high while wearing a sign that read “wanton Gospeller”. When someone calls your behavior “puritanical”, it’s not usually a compliment, is it? It seems as though this group of people had a spiritual gift for annoying people and making the faith look bad.įor instance, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts had a law against disrupting worship services. My hunch is that I’m not alone in thinking that many of the associations that we have with those words are less than positive.

#Clean hands and a pure heart game series

Not long after that, the first group of Pilgrims was enlarged by another group known as the Puritans, and after a few years, the Puritans were pretty much running the show in New England.Īs we continue this series on the Beatitudes of Jesus, we come to Matthew 5:8, which reads “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” When I think about “the pure in heart”, I think about words like “purity”, and “Puritan”, and “puritanical”. They spent some time in Holland, and eventually made their way to North America. Uncle John, of whom I’ve spoken before, was one of the leaders of a group of religious separatists who had become increasingly convinced that it was impossible for them to live a life of faith in England and so they struck out, looking for a better place in which to engage in holy pursuits. This includes my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-uncle John Carver, who was among the group that we call “Pilgrims” who arrived at Plymouth Rock in 1620.

I have a new mug in my home: it’s a listing of all the passengers on the Mayflower. To see the worship service via YouTube, please visit the site below: To hear this message as preached in worship, please use the link below: On Sunday March 14 we turned to Matthew 15:1-11 and Psalm 24:1-6 and considered what it might mean to be “pure in heart”. I hold that these are eight core values that the people of God hold – the things that make us who we are. Church of Crafton Heights will spend Lent considering the question, “When this (the pandemic, the struggle for racial reconciliation, the horrid winter, the political discord… fill in the blanks) is over, or at least a year or two or three down the road, what kind of people do we want to be?” We are anchoring our discussion in The Beatitudes as found in Matthew’s version of the Sermon on the Mount. The Christian observance of Lent began on Ash Wednesday, February 17.