"Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled." (Luke 6:21)

Psalm 107:1-9; Isaiah 55:1-11; Matthew 6:24-33|


Hunger and thirst

Some of you have probably been in situation where you were really hungry. After a long walk, or a day without lunch. I remember days of my youth, during and after the war, when there was nothing to eat. Early morning we went out into the potato fields that had already been harvested and picked up bits and pieces of potato that the harvesting machine had missed. As a little boy I had to accompany my mother, taking a train into the country side, and then walking from farm to farm trying to exchange some cigars, which my father had collected, against bread and milk and meat. Hunger is intensified when you don't know where food can come from. The empty, gnarling stomach becomes the whole focus of life, of all your attention and energies. You think of nothing else. You give everything for a piece of bread. Indeed, meanness can take over. Like the day when I pointed my brother's attention to the window and while he was looking I pinched a piece of meat of his plate – he rammed a fork into my wrist. When you are hungry, even a noble commitment to non-violence can become a luxury.

I don't remember whether thirst is better or worse. I do remember when Athol Gill and I, on a hot day, walked into Petra near Aqaba in Jordan, and there we did not remain on the main tourist path, but walked up into the mountains to visit the various sacrificial altar sites. It was hot. And we had forgotten our water bottle. To cut the long story short. When after a day of walking we returned to the Hotel the cool mineral water had never tasted as good.

This longing. This passion for food and drink. This basic and powerful urge to keep alive. This longing that is so powerful that it can suspend everyday morality, is used here in the beatitude, not to describe the hunger and thirsting for food and water, but the hunger and thirsting for what is right and true and just.

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled." Here the imagery of hunger and thirst, those human desires for survival, are used for our God-walk.

What is the righteousness that the followers of Jesus so passionately long for?

Think of it. Here the character of the Christian and of the Christian community is described. Christians live "in Christ". They believe in Jesus and they have been baptized into the reality of Christ. Christ lives "in me", the apostle Paul says. So with faith and baptism there is a desire instilled within us to become messengers of God's passion in the world.

In another part of Matthew's gospel we hear:

"… strive first for the kingdom of God and God's righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." (Mt 6:33)

And again, Jesus says to his followers:

"… I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." (Mt 5:20)

This passionate striving for righteousness, for seeking what is just and right and true, what is it?

Is it just hard work? Is it just a stiff-upper-lip sense of duty? Or is there more to it?

There is certainly more to it! It is the life of gratitude in the awareness of what God has done for us. Grace creates gratitude. The more we become aware of God's grace, the more we shall hunger and thirst in gratitude for what is right. We long to do God's will. Just as when you are hungry and thirsty, really hungry and thirsty, it is the one passion that dominates our life of faith – to do God's will.

Is that our reality?

I see the young theologian in front of me now. He had just finished his doctorate. We were sitting in a bus, I think it was in Cologne. In the course of our conversation about life I said, go out for some years. Learn from the church in Africa or Asia. His reply was that his wife had a secure government job and they could not risk that. At 30!

How many of us have sacrificed doing the will of God, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, at the altar of security and convenience?

• We have refused to learn from "the birds of the air," who "neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them."
• We have refused to "consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these."
• We are driven by worry, "'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear?'" rather than trusting God, and seeking and doing God's will.

I see the hundreds of church meetings and deacons' meetings that I have attended, where someone made a proposal and the first question was not: is it God's will?, but: how much does it cost? How many opportunities to hunger and thirst for righteousness has the church missed, has our church missed, have we missed, by worshipping money rather than God?

If we are what we are. If we are the people of God. If we hunger and thirst for righteousness, then our first questions will not be: what is convenient or comfortable? How much does it cost? But: is it the right thing to do? Does our gratitude echo the grace of God?

Now let us not overlook the fact that we are called to faithfulness, even when success may elude us. One of the ancestor's in the faith, Moses, faithfully followed God's call. He led his people through the sea and the desert. He was even allowed to see the promised land, but he died before he got there.

In the eyes of the world it may have been a hopeless cause to make God the dominant passion of his life, but Jesus took that risk, because he did not chose to be successful in the eyes of the world but be faithful to God's call.

Faithfulness, not our comfort and convenience; faithful not to what we can afford, but faithful to God's call und hungering and thirsting to do God's will ! That is the passion of faith.

Jesus' beatitude comes to us in two forms and it makes two promises:

1. To those who hunger – and remember, in our world, here and now, there are 800 million people, children, women and men, people like you and me, who live in abject poverty, and millions more who go to bed hungry every night – they are promised that hunger, the growling empty stomach, will not be their eternal destiny. They "will be filled". God will make things right!

Those who believe that, people like you and me, those who have heard the distant music, will already set the train in motion. They will already start to prepare the way of the Lord. They will already start to make real on earth what is true in heaven.

You will have heard of the Micah Challenge, for instance. It is a network of Christian mission and aid agencies, trying to help in the elimination of poverty. The governments of the world have committed themselves, that by the year 2015, the number of people who live on less than one dollar a day and that go to bed hungry each night will be halved. It is the churches' noble privilege and task to help in the process and to remind their governments of their promises. If we fail others, if we fail to keep our promises in long run we are hurting ourselves.

We join the struggle against poverty in the knowledge of faith that the time will come when God will be God. When people will no longer run from East to West, from North to South, seeking the Word of the Lord, but when they will actually find it and encounter their God. The time will come – judgement by a holy and gracious God – when God will sort things out and put things right.

They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. (Isaiah 11:9)

The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox; but the serpent – its food shall be dust! They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the LORD. (Isaiah 65:25)

We have a long way to go. The journey is not easy. With hope in our hearts, we prepare the way of the Lord. God has called us to be fellow workers in God's passionate struggle for life (1 Cor 3:9).

2.  And then there is the other dimension of the same promise. Since we are not hungry for food and thirsty for water, but as we hunger and thirst for what is right and true, this promise applies to us, to each one of us:

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled."

We need this promise because sometimes we lose the vision; we become weary in well doing. Every one who tries to make a difference, every one who walks the talk, every one who follows the voice of a Christ centred conscience, knows the experience of frustration and disillusionment. Why is the truth so often sacrificed at the altar of comfort, greed, selfishness and convenience? Why are my hopes and dreams so easily shattered? Why don't others see what is so clear to me? Why is there such a great gulf between the values we confess – just think of freedom, mateship, a fair go for all – and our practical way of life?

Whatever it is, we can take our sloth, lay it down at the foot of the Cross, look up to the saviour in faith and repentance, and then, in the power of the Spirit, continue the journey, fuelled by the promise;

Thorwald Lorenzen
20/06/2004