Sunday, January 24, 2010
Flip the Script: Priviledged Are Those Who Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness
We continue our discussion tonight of how these Beatitudes of Jesus flip the script on the world. How they present the seemingly senseless as the true reality.
Yet this saying, at first sight, seems to make perfect sense. If we will but hunger for righteousness, then we will be blessed. It makes good sense to us today because of how we tend to understand the idea of righteousness. We view it as an individualistic matter. We view it as something we possess. Either as something done through which we achieve salvation or as an abstract cleansing of our soul that saves us through confession of faith. We read hunger for righteousness, but think hunger to be righteous.
The first definition of righteousness leads us to self-righteousness. The Jewish people in the first century had a sacrificial system and a holiness code which they believed kept them pure. That combined with their perceived untouchable birthright as God’s people gave them a sense of being righteous, even though their way of life was not very different from the nations surrounding them. Theirs was still a way of domination and elitism taking advantage of the weak for personal gain.
It can be seen today by folks who see worship, bible study, tithing and prayer as something done to achieve righteousness. Meanwhile, their life away from those things reflects the way of life of everyone else around them.
The second definition sees righteousness as something given to us when we confess faith in God, despite our own failings. It also requires little in the way of any real transformation. Worship, bible study, and tithing are still done, but here out of gratitude for deliverance from eternal damnation. It is what German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was executed by the Nazi’s, called cheap grace.
Both of these definitions lead to a hunger and thirst that bring little change. We seek to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. But there is a limit to love of neighbor and a failure to live in the covenant which God cut with a rebellious humanity. Our lives are less effected by the character of the Creator who chose to love us at all costs, and more effected by the culture surrounding us: the values of our communities, states, and nations which run counter to this covenant of love.
All of this leads to a misunderstanding of just what righteousness means and makes these words in the gospel according to Matthew easy to accept, while overlooking the much stronger words in the gospel according to Luke, “Blessed are those who hunger, for they will be filled…woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry.”
You may recall we discussed the phrase “poor in spirit” a couple of weeks ago. We discussed how it still carried the meaning of what we found in Luke: “Blessed are the poor,” but it carried a little more meaning as well. It spoke of both literal poverty and spiritual poverty or humility. And both these terms were closely related.
The gospel's author wrote out of rivalry with the other Jewish groups of his day, especially the Pharisees, and was, thus, trying to demonstrate that followers of Christ were the true Jews. The Pharisees, in many ways, had sold themselves out to Rome. They had relied on a foreign power and its gods to bring them security, both financial and social. As a result, their faith took on the look of other nations. Instead of loving their neighbor, they separated from their neighbor believing their wealth and power proved their blessing and righteousness and steered clear of those unlike them, who were obviously suffering because of unfaithfulness, to remain ritually clean.
The author of the gospel is confronting this head on. He is making the point that God is with the poor, the hungry, and the thirsty who struggle to survive and with those who humble themselves as servants the way Jesus did, reaching out to love those pushed to edge of life and society. The followers of Jesus did not seek to overpower and manipulate and exploit. They sought to love. They were poor in spirit. They would place their hopes not in false gods and a greedy and violent parody of true humanity, but in the one true God. Because of this, they would not assert themselves over one another. They would not allow wealth to justify the means of gaining it.
Much like the Pharisees found religious assurance in their wealth and power, they found the same in their definition of righteousness as we discussed a few moments ago.
But Jesus’ beatitudes, which point to the words of Isaiah, remind us of the true meaning of righteousness. Righteousness spoke of God’s character. He had made covenant promises to Abraham’s descendants and declared he would deliver them from all distress. God’s righteousness is to be faithful to his covenant. Remember the covenant included the neighbor, and the prophets emphasize the poor, suffering neighbor.
God, as righteous judge, will deliver those who are on the wrong end of another’s violation of covenant to love both God and neighbor. He will deliver. He will set free. He will liberate. And when he delivers he will declare righteous the ones he liberates. They have done nothing to deserve the liberating king ‘s actions on their behalf, but their suffering gives God a special concern for them.
Thus God’s righteousness comes from delivering justice, justice being another portion of the meaning of the Greek word, dikaosune, often translated in English as righteousness. And here we can see how all the beatitudes are tied together. If you’re poor/poor in spirit, if you are mourning, are hungering, yet meek enough to not become what the world tries to make you be, the righteousness and justice of God will be experienced.
Now this points to the fact that the second definition of righteousness isn’t altogether out of bounds. It’s just not righteousness. It speaks more of the gospel and grace, in that God continues to reach out to all of us through the Holy Spirit, despite our rebellion and undeservingness. And it leans more strongly towards being a this world kind of hope, in vindicating those suffering today to a real life, even if there is an eschatological message that the ultimate liberation from suffering will come at the end of this age of rebellion.
You see those literally hungering and thirsting, and who had either chosen not to become like their oppressor or not believed they had the ability to become like their oppressor had only one hope: righteousness. God’s righteousness. God’s justice-delivering liberation with a special concern for the poor. Because they hungered and thirsted, they hungered and thirsted for righteousness.
And because the followers of Christ as defended in the gospel according to Matthew sought to be different from the rest of the Jewish and Gentile world, they were at great risk. They relied solely on God’s righteousness to vindicate them in the end.
So let’s reflect on how this might apply today.
We see the suffering all around us and in this video. The Holy Spirit calls out to us to say the way we live our lives, while appearing to bring prosperity, will bring destruction. The Holy Spirit transforms our hearts so we are compelled to run down a new path. One treacherous, and full of thorns, yet one full of the greatest hope. One in which we run to the side of our suffering neighbor to bring deliverance as a faith community empowered by the Spirit, while peacefully confronting that which brings the suffering, knowing our actions in both respects make us vulnerable. And that our only hope is to hunger and thirst for righteousness. But knowing our actions, empowered by the Holy Spirit, will be used to reveal God’s righteousness by delivering justice.
A government, whether controlled by Republicans or Democrats, will come to the rescue of banks which sold a bill of goods to consumers on risky mortgages and who still resist rewriting those loans to aid their consumers despite the grace given by the government.
But blessed are those who foreclosed on their homes for God will bring deliverance.
We, called by God, will help restore what was lost. We, called by God, will challenge political and financial institutions to live by the covenant.
Corporations and market forces driven by the hunger for more and more profit will come to the rescue of the shareholders at the expense of the laborers.
But blessed are the unemployed for God will bring deliverance. We, called by God, will help restore what was lost. We, called by God, will challenge corporations and the market to live by the covenant.
Religious leaders of many faiths will declare curses on the suffering when disaster strikes, be it hurricane, earthquake, tsunami, war, or economic crash. We, called by God, will help restore what was lost. We, called by God, will challenge the world to live by the covenant.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled.
We, empowered by the Holy Spirit, can offer real hope. We can say, “Here you will drink. Here you will eat. Here you will find justice. Here you are loved.”
Yet this saying, at first sight, seems to make perfect sense. If we will but hunger for righteousness, then we will be blessed. It makes good sense to us today because of how we tend to understand the idea of righteousness. We view it as an individualistic matter. We view it as something we possess. Either as something done through which we achieve salvation or as an abstract cleansing of our soul that saves us through confession of faith. We read hunger for righteousness, but think hunger to be righteous.
The first definition of righteousness leads us to self-righteousness. The Jewish people in the first century had a sacrificial system and a holiness code which they believed kept them pure. That combined with their perceived untouchable birthright as God’s people gave them a sense of being righteous, even though their way of life was not very different from the nations surrounding them. Theirs was still a way of domination and elitism taking advantage of the weak for personal gain.
It can be seen today by folks who see worship, bible study, tithing and prayer as something done to achieve righteousness. Meanwhile, their life away from those things reflects the way of life of everyone else around them.
The second definition sees righteousness as something given to us when we confess faith in God, despite our own failings. It also requires little in the way of any real transformation. Worship, bible study, and tithing are still done, but here out of gratitude for deliverance from eternal damnation. It is what German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was executed by the Nazi’s, called cheap grace.
Both of these definitions lead to a hunger and thirst that bring little change. We seek to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. But there is a limit to love of neighbor and a failure to live in the covenant which God cut with a rebellious humanity. Our lives are less effected by the character of the Creator who chose to love us at all costs, and more effected by the culture surrounding us: the values of our communities, states, and nations which run counter to this covenant of love.
All of this leads to a misunderstanding of just what righteousness means and makes these words in the gospel according to Matthew easy to accept, while overlooking the much stronger words in the gospel according to Luke, “Blessed are those who hunger, for they will be filled…woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry.”
You may recall we discussed the phrase “poor in spirit” a couple of weeks ago. We discussed how it still carried the meaning of what we found in Luke: “Blessed are the poor,” but it carried a little more meaning as well. It spoke of both literal poverty and spiritual poverty or humility. And both these terms were closely related.
The gospel's author wrote out of rivalry with the other Jewish groups of his day, especially the Pharisees, and was, thus, trying to demonstrate that followers of Christ were the true Jews. The Pharisees, in many ways, had sold themselves out to Rome. They had relied on a foreign power and its gods to bring them security, both financial and social. As a result, their faith took on the look of other nations. Instead of loving their neighbor, they separated from their neighbor believing their wealth and power proved their blessing and righteousness and steered clear of those unlike them, who were obviously suffering because of unfaithfulness, to remain ritually clean.
The author of the gospel is confronting this head on. He is making the point that God is with the poor, the hungry, and the thirsty who struggle to survive and with those who humble themselves as servants the way Jesus did, reaching out to love those pushed to edge of life and society. The followers of Jesus did not seek to overpower and manipulate and exploit. They sought to love. They were poor in spirit. They would place their hopes not in false gods and a greedy and violent parody of true humanity, but in the one true God. Because of this, they would not assert themselves over one another. They would not allow wealth to justify the means of gaining it.
Much like the Pharisees found religious assurance in their wealth and power, they found the same in their definition of righteousness as we discussed a few moments ago.
But Jesus’ beatitudes, which point to the words of Isaiah, remind us of the true meaning of righteousness. Righteousness spoke of God’s character. He had made covenant promises to Abraham’s descendants and declared he would deliver them from all distress. God’s righteousness is to be faithful to his covenant. Remember the covenant included the neighbor, and the prophets emphasize the poor, suffering neighbor.
God, as righteous judge, will deliver those who are on the wrong end of another’s violation of covenant to love both God and neighbor. He will deliver. He will set free. He will liberate. And when he delivers he will declare righteous the ones he liberates. They have done nothing to deserve the liberating king ‘s actions on their behalf, but their suffering gives God a special concern for them.
Thus God’s righteousness comes from delivering justice, justice being another portion of the meaning of the Greek word, dikaosune, often translated in English as righteousness. And here we can see how all the beatitudes are tied together. If you’re poor/poor in spirit, if you are mourning, are hungering, yet meek enough to not become what the world tries to make you be, the righteousness and justice of God will be experienced.
Now this points to the fact that the second definition of righteousness isn’t altogether out of bounds. It’s just not righteousness. It speaks more of the gospel and grace, in that God continues to reach out to all of us through the Holy Spirit, despite our rebellion and undeservingness. And it leans more strongly towards being a this world kind of hope, in vindicating those suffering today to a real life, even if there is an eschatological message that the ultimate liberation from suffering will come at the end of this age of rebellion.
You see those literally hungering and thirsting, and who had either chosen not to become like their oppressor or not believed they had the ability to become like their oppressor had only one hope: righteousness. God’s righteousness. God’s justice-delivering liberation with a special concern for the poor. Because they hungered and thirsted, they hungered and thirsted for righteousness.
And because the followers of Christ as defended in the gospel according to Matthew sought to be different from the rest of the Jewish and Gentile world, they were at great risk. They relied solely on God’s righteousness to vindicate them in the end.
So let’s reflect on how this might apply today.
We see the suffering all around us and in this video. The Holy Spirit calls out to us to say the way we live our lives, while appearing to bring prosperity, will bring destruction. The Holy Spirit transforms our hearts so we are compelled to run down a new path. One treacherous, and full of thorns, yet one full of the greatest hope. One in which we run to the side of our suffering neighbor to bring deliverance as a faith community empowered by the Spirit, while peacefully confronting that which brings the suffering, knowing our actions in both respects make us vulnerable. And that our only hope is to hunger and thirst for righteousness. But knowing our actions, empowered by the Holy Spirit, will be used to reveal God’s righteousness by delivering justice.
A government, whether controlled by Republicans or Democrats, will come to the rescue of banks which sold a bill of goods to consumers on risky mortgages and who still resist rewriting those loans to aid their consumers despite the grace given by the government.
But blessed are those who foreclosed on their homes for God will bring deliverance.
We, called by God, will help restore what was lost. We, called by God, will challenge political and financial institutions to live by the covenant.
Corporations and market forces driven by the hunger for more and more profit will come to the rescue of the shareholders at the expense of the laborers.
But blessed are the unemployed for God will bring deliverance. We, called by God, will help restore what was lost. We, called by God, will challenge corporations and the market to live by the covenant.
Religious leaders of many faiths will declare curses on the suffering when disaster strikes, be it hurricane, earthquake, tsunami, war, or economic crash. We, called by God, will help restore what was lost. We, called by God, will challenge the world to live by the covenant.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled.
We, empowered by the Holy Spirit, can offer real hope. We can say, “Here you will drink. Here you will eat. Here you will find justice. Here you are loved.”
