Through the years, there have been numbers of people who
could probably best be described as "fans" of the Sermon on the
Mount. They read chapters five, six and seven of Matthew's
gospel and realize that no higher ethical standard has ever been
set, then they claim to live by that standard.
John Adams wrote to Thomas Jefferson that "The Ten
Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount contain my religion."
Tolstoy said he took the Sermon on the Mount as a practical guide
to life, taking it's precepts literally, at their face value, but
he ignored any spiritual interpretation because he was aware of
none. Preachers constantly hear from folks who ought to be in
church but are not that church is not all that necessary; as long
as they live by the Sermon on the Mount, things are perfectly OK.
They are "fans."
But these "fans" miss something in these teachings of Jesus.
These instructions are intensely unnatural as a way of life.
When someone says, "Oh, I live by the Sermon on the Mount,"
between you and me and the gatepost, I 'spect that they don't
really know what is in the Sermon, because if they did, they
would never make the claim.
The Beatitudes, these eight "Blessed are..."'s that begin it
all prove the point. As we have seen in our previous studies,
there is nothing natural about being congratulated for being poor
in spirit - realizing our own impoverished condition before a
holy God. There is nothing natural about being considered
fortunate in the midst of mourning. There is nothing natural in
a society that sings "Only the Strong Survive" to congratulate
someone about being meek, gentle. This is all upside-down,
inside-out. And there is certainly nothing natural about the
Beatitude...this WILL-BE attitude...to which we come today -
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for
they will be filled." People hunger and thirst for lots of
things, and Madison Avenue stays up nights thinking of new things
to get us hungering and thirsting for, but righteousness
generally is not one of them.
Think about it - about hungering and thirsting - first in
general terms, and then more specifically in regard to this idea
of righteousness.
Have you ever been hungry or thirsty? Of course. It is
natural. How about the opposite? Have you ever lost your
appetite? I don't mean you stuffed yourself so full that you had
no appetite left - I mean no appetite to begin with. Mealtime
came `round, and where normally you would have dashed to the
table, suddenly, you could have cared less about food. It
probably has happened to all of us at some time or another. Back
in the dim and distant past, it used to happen to me because of
girls. To be sure, I got over whatever problems I was having
with them and settled back into a more normal routine fairly
quickly (as you can tell by looking at me). People do
occasionally lose their appetites, but soon regain them once
things settle down.
It is nature's way that we should hunger and thirst. It is
a mark of life, not only for human beings but for all living
things. These magnificent trees that are everywhere around us in
Warren are a good example. They require nourishment all the
time. Botanists tell us that, on a hot summer day, they will
take in hundreds of gallons of water. If one of them fails to do
so, it will die. Or perhaps, more properly, it would already be
dead. That is nature's way.
Recall some of the ancient burial rituals of cultures like
the American Indians or the Egyptians and you remember that food
and drink were placed in the tombs of the dearly departed so as
to provide sustenance for the journey into the unknown. As far
as I know, there is no record of any one of the deceased ever
indicating any gratitude for that bit of thoughtfulness. The
dead don't care about food or drink because they no longer have
any hunger or thirst. Hardly a startling statement there, but it
should serve to remind us that, when hunger and thirst are
completely gone, life is completely gone.
Come to think of it, hunger and thirst are things we think
of as marks of good health. How many times have we had friends
who were ill but were just beginning to get over whatever their
problem was and said so by letting us know that their appetite
(which had been nil) was now returning. We all know that a good
appetite is a sign of good health.
If you own a car, you know it needs gas to run, even at
$4.00 a gallon. Our bodies are no different; they need fuel to
operate. They get that fuel as we exercise and satisfy our
hunger and thirst.
But our appetites are even more than that. They are a sign
of growth. When a baby is born, it comes into the world at a
certain weight, but within a very few days, that new little life,
assuming all is well, will have added on an ounce or two (or
three or four) and all because of a healthy appetite. When that
child is not asleep, it wants to eat, and has no qualms about
letting anyone within screaming distance know it. But that is
all good - the noise not withstanding, we are glad for that
appetite because we know it means a normal, healthy growth.
One more thing should be said about appetite: it is a source
of enjoyment. Some of the fondest memories any of us have are
those that call to mind the marvelous smell's coming out of
Momma's kitchen - pies and cakes and breads and all sorts of good
things that make us long for "the good ol' days." A good
appetite is a joy.
Now, up to this point, everything I have said might be
repeated in an elementary school science lecture. It is all
basic stuff, and pretty much common sense. We share our physical
appetites with all the lower forms of life. But there are other
appetites that belong uniquely to us who were formed in the image
of God, higher appetites that make us what we are.
Some of you may know the name Clovis Chappell, one of the
great Methodist preachers of the past generation. Dr. Chappell
had a wonderful knack for describing complex metaphysical
processes in very down-to-earth language. Listen to what he has
to say about this matter of appetite:
When I was a boy on the farm, I owned a faithful
dog named Jack. Jack and I were the best and most
intimate of friends. I have never loved any other dog
as I loved him. Many a meal I shared with him. I
would give him of my bread and meat ungrudgingly. At
times, I would even give him a bit of cake, if I could
spare it. Having eaten together, we often went
together and drank out of the same gurgling spring.
His appetite was quite as keen as mine...But having
left the dinner table, we parted company. I had
hungers and thirsts to which Jack was an absolute
stranger.
For instance, I would sometimes look at the range
of majestic hills that encircled our farm and wonder
what lay beyond. `What a wonderful world that must be
over there,' I would say to myself. `Someday I am going
to see that world. I am going to mix with it and
become a part of it,'...But Jack never shared my
dreams. He knew nothing of my eagerness to see the big
world that lay beyond the hills. I early learned to
love some of the musical passages in the King James
Version of the Bible. But when I quoted the 23rd Psalm
or the 14th chapter of John, Jack was not even mildly
interested. I liked songful poetry, even when I did
not understand it. But the reading of the most tender
and tuneful songs failed utterly to win his interest.
Sometimes in sorrow for sin, or under the spell of
longing to be better, I would pray. But all this was
beyond the comprehension of my dog. He never thrilled
to the splendor of a sunrise, never paused to listen to
the song of a mockingbird. We could share a piece of
bread with mutual enjoyment, but the music that
thrilled and delighted me only made him howl." (1)
Indeed. And, of course, as Jesus said, "Man does not live
by bread alone..."
One thing we should note: there is nothing particularly
spiritual about many of these higher appetites of ours. There
are many who have hungered and thirsted after knowledge, and
because they did, civilization is forever in their debt. Great
scientists and inventors have made life infinitely more livable
because they wanted to reach into the unknown. There are those
whose hunger and thirst has been for beauty, and they have
enriched us all with their magnificent art and music. There are
even those who hunger and thirst after that elusive butterfly
called truth, and their efforts have given us a more profound
understanding of ourselves. Perhaps Jesus might, at some point,
have congratulated those folks too, but at the moment, we only
have the record of him congratulating "those who hunger and
thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled."
So what is this righteousness without which we are supposed
to feel so empty? Righteousness in the Bible is not so much
about being "right" in terms of blamelessness but rather "right"
in terms of a relationship. The word "righteousness" occurs five
times in this Sermon on the Mount, (2) and in each case cannot be
properly understood any other way. Listen to the way one
commentator explains it:
By the time Matthew wrote down his Gospel, this
word that we translate into English as "righteousness"
(dikaiosune) had zoomed to the top of Christianity's
theological vocabulary list. In the Apostle Paul's
profound understanding of the effects of Jesus' life
and death, "righteousness" is transformed from
something we are supposed to DO to something that God
GIVES [again this WILL-BE attitude]. Righteousness is
a gift from God, achieved by Jesus. Righteousness for
Paul is really a wrong relationship with God that has
been set right - not by us, but by God.
But is this really so different? Isn't right
behavior, a holy adherence to God's law, nothing more
than the tangible expression of a relationship with
God? Certainly in the Beatitudes, Jesus blesses those
who hunger and thirst for a righteousness that is first
and foremost a relationship with Jesus the teacher,
Jesus the pioneer, Jesus the one headed to crucifixion
and resurrection. The changed life grows out of that,
or doesn't happen at all. The hunger and thirst are
for Jesus himself. (3)
Truth be told, we crave intimacy. We were made for
intimacy. As I so often note in wedding ceremonies, in the
creation story in Genesis, after that long list of things that
God created that were declared good, the first thing we find that
is described as "not good" is for us to be alone. We were made
for relationships, and a particularly appealing partner is the
God of all the universe. We remember Augustine's famous prayer:
"Thou hast made us for thyself, and our hearts are restless till
they rest in Thee." We understand the Psalmist who saw a deer
sniffing the air, peering into a dry riverbed, searching for
water, and perceived in this beautiful creature an image of his
own quest for God: "As the deer pants for streams of water, so my
soul pants for you, O God."
Gene Peterson hits it on the button with his paraphrase of
this Beatitude. He says, "You're blessed when you've worked up a
good appetite for God. He's food and drink in the best meal
you'll ever eat." (4)
By the way, did you notice that this Beatitude does not say
"Blessed are the righteous?" Good thing because I suspect that
anyone who would consider him- or herself the recipient of that
blessing would tend to fall into the category of self-righteous,
and those folks are not very appealing. In fact, Jesus himself
said he was not especially interested in the "righteous."
Remember? "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the
sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." (5)
I read once of a convicted criminal, a rough-looking
character his fellow prison inmates nicknamed Spike. Just before
his release from prison after serving a fifteen-year sentence,
Spike had a long talk with the prison chaplain. He told the
chaplain how much he had looked forward for all those years to
the time when he could hold up his head in society and live a
good life.
Among other things, the chaplain advised Spike to join the
church nearest to his home as soon as he was released. It so
happened that the church nearest to the ex-convict's apartment
was located on the edge of the town's richest neighborhood.
Spike called on the pastor of this fashionable congregation
and told him of his desire to join. "My dear man," said the
pastor, with more than a touch of superiority, "I do not think
you would be happy here, though I appreciate your good
intentions. Really, you would be most uncomfortable amongst my
people and I am afraid it would be quite embarrassing to you and
perhaps to them. I suggest you think it over and pray and
meditate and see if God does not give you some direction."
A week later, Spike met the pastor on the street, stopped
him, and said, "Reverend, I took your advice and prayed and
meditated and finally God sent me word. God said I should not
bother any more trying to join your church. God said He Himself
had been trying to get in there for years but without success." (6)
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled." Yes, the people who really want this
right relationship will put themselves in a position to get it.
They come to a welcoming church; they fellowship with God's
people; they study God's word. There is nothing haphazard about
the pursuit of their goal. That is why I know that the folks who
claim that the Sermon on the Mount is all the religion they need,
those "fans" that we talked about in the beginning, are all wet!
They are SOAKED by this fourth Beatitude, this WILL-BE attitude.
They are not hungering and thirsting after righteousness - they
think they have already got it.
Do I have it? Do you have it? Partially, perhaps, but not
completely. The filling process is ongoing and will never be
completed in this life. "This world is not my home, I'm just-a
passin' though." But as pilgrims on a quest, ever hungering,
ever thirsting, we have a wonderful guide for our journey - the
one who, on a Judean hillside so long ago said, "Blessed are
those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be
filled."
Amen!
1. Clovis G. Chappell, The Sermon on the Mount, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House,
1958), pp. 51-52
2. 5:6, 10, 20; 6:1, 33
3. James C. Howell, The Beatitudes for Today, (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox, 2006),
p. 58
4. Eugene Peterson, The Message, (Colorado Springs : NavPress, 2002)
5. Mark 2:17
6. John Terry, "The Righteous," Sermons on the Be-attitudes, (Lima, OH: CSS Publishing
Company, 1997)
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