The Futile Pursuit Of Purity
The Futile Pursuit Of Purity
Who can make himself clean?
No one I know.
No one you know either.
Then why do we talk about purity?
We say that purity is something to ’pursue’
Something we should chase after.
Yet it cannot be achieved.
Does God enjoy these futile pursuits?
Purity ideas have a whiff of bleach about them;
Sterile souls for God to rest in.
Like a celebrity bedroom
Or an autopsy table.
The concept is a true dichotomy;
Pure or impure?
By definition there is no other condition.
Flawless or flawed.
Does it only apply to sex?
I do not hear it about much else.
Non-kosher cotius
Is the Church’s spécialité after all
Hoping the cloud of guilt
Will reform deviant desires.
Neutering the impulse
To bump ugly without care
It surely cannot talk to greed,
The tithe could evanesce.
Nor can it address the pride
The Pastor may confess
Or he would not.
On purity, Jesus does not care.
He touched the bleeding,
The leper and the dead.
Such a naughty Jewish boy.
“Nothing outside a person can defile
Rather, it is what comes from within”
Oh snap.
Now we’re in trouble.
Even if you could fix
To clean the inner sanctum of your soul
Eventually you will
Shit the metaphorical bed.
Righteousness is a robe
And it can only be given
By One who is worthy
And fit to bestow it.
Being hidden in Him
Is all the purity you’re gonna get.
Fortunately for you and I
It is all the purity we’re gonna need.
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No one I know.
No one you know either.
Then why do we talk about purity?” (David Gate)
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