| October 4, 2009 - "Hunger Pangs" - Rev. Victoria Ney | ||
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October 4, 2009 “Hunger Pangs” The Rev. Victoria Ney Text: Matthew 5:6 (also selected verses from Ps. 34 & 107) (Introduction) Being hungry is never pleasant. In fact hunger can inspire bizarre behavior in us. When we’re hungry, we sometimes do foolish things, (do you remember the story of Jacob and Esau. Esau was so hungry, he sold his inheritance just for a bowl of stew) sometimes we get irritable, (in our house, we call it “low sugar monster” before meals!) we can feel weak or ill, or worse, we may feel sorry for ourselves (especially if the hunger is coming from a diet!). I think I’ve finally figured out why fashion models always look so intimidating when they’re walking down the runways…they’re hungry! They only weigh something like 32 pounds, so they definitely are not eating. I think they march around with a mean look on their faces because they’re so hungry! I’ve often wondered what would happen at a fashion show, if someone threw a piece of pizza or cake on the runway. Would the models act like sharks at a feeding frenzy?! (I have a vivid imagination!) I think we can all say with assurance—hunger isn’t pleasant. We don’t look forward to being hungry. We don’t reminisce about the wonderful times when we’ve felt hungry. Hunger is not something we desire. Yet Jesus has something very interesting to say about hunger—and that’s the Beatitude we’ll be looking at this morning. Last Sunday we began The Beatitude section of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. We’ll be going one by one in the next few weeks, because, frankly, this is important stuff. Jesus is describing those who are part of his kingdom and he is telling us what values make up his kingdom. Trust me when I tell you, it’s not values we’re used to! Jesus begins each Beatitude with the Greek word Markios. It’s a word the ancient Greeks used to describe the satisfied attitude of the gods. But here, Jesus is saying that any of us—regular people—can attain this happy and content state. What makes it seem more unlikely though, is that he is describing people we would least expect to be happy or satisfied—those mourning, or meek, or persecuted, or hungry. So this morning we will look at the 4th Beatitude (yes, I know this is very un-Presbyterian to go out of order. But because this is communion Sunday, I thought I would begin at the fourth Beatitude in the sixth verse of Matthew 5—“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they will be filled.” (Matthew 5:6) The people Jesus was talking to in his original sermon knew what hunger was on a daily basis. Some of us might be a little empty here this morning, but I doubt that any of us is REALLY hungry. The people Jesus was talking to were probably hungry or thirsty that day. Poverty ran rampant during that time of the occupation of the Roman soldiers. Food was hard to come by. And it was a hot climate. You needed to have water in order to stay alive. They certainly didn’t have water bottles to hand around the crowd and no one was passing out candy or granola bars that day. Jesus is talking about a desperate kind of hunger. The word he used for hunger is peinao—a word for craving food. He also used a strong word to describe thirst—dipsao—which means that you are painfully in need of water—your throat hurts from dryness, your tongue is swelling kind of thirst. These two Greek words point us in the direction of human desire. The desire for food and water are two of the strongest appetites we have as human beings. Why do you think it’s so difficult for people to lose weight? Because that desire for food (and sugar!) is powerful and difficult to fight. Hunger is powerful. Some time ago, I read about some soldiers’ memories of when they fought in WW2, and what terrible conditions our soldiers suffered at the Battle of the Bulge. The supply lines had been cut, and those guys went days without food, in the freezing cold. These men remembered that they would sit in their foxholes and talk about their favorite food—even dream about food in their sleep. When we’re hungry, so hungry, we think of the food we love—food that would definitely satisfy that hunger we feel. So I think it’s interesting that Jesus used the metaphor of hungering and thirsting, because not only are those powerful desires for every human being, but the satisfaction of those appetites is a wonderful thing. Eating is fun. We enjoy it (some of us wish we didn’t enjoy it so much!) I don’t know about you, but somehow this verse has never left me with an enjoyable feeling. To be perfectly honest, I used to come away from it with an uneasy, sense of condemnation-type feeling. I used to feel that if I’m hungering and thirsting for righteousness, I might need to act like a religious fanatic—praying for hours a day, studying my Bible all the time, and never, ever missing church functions. I thought hungering and thirsting for righteousness was all about obligation and doing what you “should” do! I felt bad if I liked doing other stuff BESIDES religious things. Hungering and thirsting for righteousness seemed to be another way of saying the word DUTY. After studying this carefully, I have to tell you, that idea is wrong. It totally contradicts the imagery that Jesus is using here. When you’re hungry, I don’t think anyone who is normal starts thinking about his obligation to eat. Very rarely do you think, “Gee, I’m hungry. It’s really my duty to get some fuel into my body” or “Gosh, I’m obligated to eat, so I better get to it…sigh.” No. When I’m hungry, I think about the things I like to eat. I’ll admit, I sometimes think about ice cream and cookies—but when mealtime rolls around, I normally eat healthy food I like. Satisfaction of my mealtime hunger is something pleasurable—not an obligation! At no point in the gospels, does Jesus ever come across as mean—like a drill sergeant. He never comes across as a person who says, “You will sit there in church. You will love all the old hymns. You will memorize the whole Bible.” Do we really think that’s what Jesus is saying when he says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness?” In Jesus’ day, the religious leaders told the people to satisfy their hunger and thirst with rule-keeping. But that was totally unsatisfying, because no one can ever keep all the rules. The Apostle Paul even said it in his letter to the Romans: “All of us have fallen short of the mark.” (Romans 3:23). It’s impossible. Isn’t it interesting that Jesus did NOT say “Blessed are those who WORK UP a hunger and thirst for righteousness?” The thing is, no matter who we are, we DO hunger and thirst for things beyond food. Even rock star Bruce Springsteen sang about it this week in his concerts here in NJ—“Everybody’s got a hungry heart…” Everyone is hungry, every human on earth is thirsty, we just don’t always know for what. We crave what is missing. We spend our lives trying to fill that emptiness with something. We go off looking for things that will satisfy our hunger. In our culture, people grasp at sugary swallows of pleasure to fill the void. Some of us grasp at money, or fame, or possessions, or passion, or romance. At some point, we all realize that we have a ton of broken dreams and collapsed promises. Fortunes that were never made. Families that didn’t stay in tact. Promises that were never kept. We often feel trapped by our own failures. The things we’ve tried to fill the hunger and quench the thirst are like salt water in the desert. They don’t quench—they kill. People have been going after the wrong thing to fill the voids since the beginning of time. Eve grabbed at an apple. David went down the wrong path after seeing a woman taking a bath. All through the Old Testament, the Israelites kept going after the wrong things. The prophet Isaiah had a message for all the hungry and thirsty people throughout the ages. I love the way Eugene Peterson paraphrases Isaiah 55 in The Message. This is what God says to people—to us: “Hey there! All who are thirsty, come to the water! Are you penniless? Come anyway—buy and eat! Come, buy your drinks, buy wine and milk. Buy without money—everything is free! Why do you spend your money on junk food, your hard-earned cash on cotton candy? Listen to me, listen well: Eat only the best. Fill yourself with only the finest. Pay attention, come close now, listen carefully to my life-giving, life-nourishing words. I’m making a lasting covenant commitment with you—one that is sure and solid. It is enduring love.” God offers us the perfect answer to hunger pangs. He says he can satisfy us when we hunger for a relationship with God. It’s about desiring that wholeness that comes from recognizing his enormous love for us—that love he proved when he sent Jesus to us. It’s about the satisfaction we receive when we realize that we are part of something so much bigger than just ourselves, or our circumstances. Maybe you look at this Beatitude and say, Gee, Vicky, I gotta be honest, I don’t have a big appetite for spiritual things. I believe in God and Jesus and all, but I don’t have a deep desire to experience God, I don’t have an intense craving to study the Bible and be all religious. First of all, please know that this verse is not about condemning us or trying to make us feel bad. It’s trying to speak to us. Jesus is saying, “I know you’re hungry…but you haven’t realized what will bring you the most enjoyment yet. You don’t realize that what you’re craving is ME!” This is the heart of the matter. You see, it’s about responding to someone who adores us. It’s a way of figuring out that we’re not just bumbling around aimlessly through a miserable life—we are valuable to God and his purposes. God doesn’t want us to come to him because he needs some stuff done! God just loves us! We matter to God. We can fill our soul-deep inner cravings by a relationship with the God who loves us. Jesus’ promise is comprehensive: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” We usually get what we hunger and thirst for—what we strive for. The problem is, the things of this life don’t satisfy. The promise is, the treasure of heaven does. Jesus is actually saying here, “blessed are those, then, who hold their earthly possessions in open palms—who loosen their vise grips on their “stuff.” Blessed are those who are totally dependent upon Jesus for their joy. Do you think that’s impossible? Why not start out by learning more? It might mean doing a little more Bible reading and praying, because it is a way of getting to know someone better. You might even want to try one of our new Bible studies on October 14th. It’s a way of responding to someone who adores you. This is the heart of the matter. We are loved. That’s one of the reasons why we come to this table this morning—we come to be reminded that our deepest longings have already been realized in Jesus Christ. There are more riches than you ever dreamed of at this banquet table this morning. Hungry? Thirsty? Ask God to satisfy you with his salvation. Ask Jesus to fill the God shaped void in your life. In John 6:35, Jesus says, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never be hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. Will you pray with me? ******************************* i Max Lucado, The Applause of Heaven, W Publishing Group, 1990. |
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