This past
Wednesday, I went to First Church of Lombard to participate in their weekly
“soup kitchen”. They call it “the community table”. Much like we do with PADS,
that congregation prepares a home cooked meal every Wednesday evening open to
all in the community. It is a beautiful “heavenly banquet” of righteousness
that not only addresses food insecurity but also social and emotional needs. The
place was packed. There was young and old, rich and poor, strong and weak, able
and disabled. I came away from that meal hungrier than when I arrived: hungry
for God’s kingdom to come more fully in our community in addressing the many
needs among us; hungry for the time when we all will be feasting around God
great table.
This beatitude
is an odd one. Blessed are those who hunger? Hunger and thirst is a sign of
need. How can they be a source of blessing? Maybe this is similar to those who
mourn. Those who mourn are those who see and lament the absence of God’s
healing and saving presence among us. They hunger for more. I’m starting to see
the connections between these beatitudes; they are not just a random list of blessings
but they share very common themes. The promise of righteousness is offered to
those who are empty. It belongs to those who are aware of their lack.
This beatitude
is also odd in that Jesus seems to have put the emphasis in the wrong place. Doesn’t
it seem as if Jesus might say "Blessed are the righteous?" Hunger
implies that there is a lack of righteousness whether personally or communally!
“According to
Jesus, when we draw near to the kingdom, it is better to come empty than full.
We are tempted to think that righteousness is the condition we must be in to be
blessed. Jesus says the opposite. Righteousness is the blessing or gift; hunger
is the precondition.”
What is
righteousness?
It may be hard
to get a handle on this beatitude in that the concept of righteousness is
difficult to translate into our everyday vocabulary and practice. Who or what
comes to mind when you think of righteousness? One author suggests that an
appropriate definition for this is “restorative justice.” Or we may tend to
think of righteousness more along the lines of personal piety in relationship
to God. Perhaps it is both in that when
we seek God’s restorative and saving justice for others we are brought into
right (righteous) relationship with God and others. It is interesting that
later in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus encourages his disciples to have a
righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees and then warns
against self-righteousness in practicing piety before others.Jesus radicalizes the notion of
righteousness—it is not a matter of meeting some high or perfect standard of
the law so that others may be impressed by our goodness but it goes much
deeper. It goes to the heart and then expands it to places beyond with the law
suggests. You have heard that it was said…(don’t murder; but I say if you are
angry you must seek reconciliation; love neighbor and hate enemy, but I say
love your enemy).
Last week I
became aware of the ways in which we can suppress these right hungers. Kathy
Kelly, who has done much work in area of enemy love in her work in Iraq, Pakistan
and Palestine, spoke very movingly of her
encounters with persons in Pakistan
who have suffered deeply from the bombs dropped from drones by our own
government. She is a slight graying woman but her witness and stories pack a
punch! She a deep hunger to deliver restorative justice. As I listened I felt a
new hunger awakening in me. A hunger that is too often drowned in a sea of
events and cares in my life.
Wrong tastes
The story
of Adam and Eve eating the apple reminds us of the prodigal nature of our
appetites. We are addicted to an unwholesome diet. In Jesus' beatitude, we hear
an echo of the prophet Isaiah’s complaint: "Why spend money on what is not
bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat
what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare" "You’re
blessed when you’ve worked up a good appetite ... for God,"
Yet our tastes
have been captivated by other delicacies. We log onto the internet and feast
our eyes on things which drain life from us. We turn on our televisions and get
drunk on the wine of violence. We fill our stomachs with the bread of busyness.
We are full. Our bank accounts, our retirement stockpiles, our closets, our
garages, our bellies, our personal or career agendas…no wonder Jesus said it is
hard for the rich to enter the kingdom
of God. We don’t hunger
for it. The sobering parable we heard in Luke is a parable calling us to repent
of our hungers that do not lead to justice and righteousness
Let us not fill
ourselves with self-righteous indignation, bitterness, complaint, petty
disputes…let us be hungry to give and receive forgiveness, to be reconciled, to
reveal God’s mercy and salvation to the undeserving…
Let’s stay
hunger and thirsty as a congregation. We are now ramping up for the craft and
rug sale at the Ewert home. Even though it is such a time consuming event every
year, I’m always encouraged that we are just as hungry to do it again the next
year. We don’t say, “look what a great job we did” and then sit on our hands…no,
we recognize that God’s righteousness and restorative justice needs to be
proclaimed in our world now more than ever.
Jesus' promise in this
beatitude shows us that true righteousness leaves us craving more. We tend to
think of righteousness as a standard. Like the little boy whose progress in
growth has been marked inch by inch on the kitchen wall and compared to his
father's height, we hope that we, too, will measure up someday. Yet there is no
limit to God's righteousness. As worshipers of an infinite God, we are always
longing, always filled.
How to stay
hungry and thirsty
Recognize
your own emptiness or otherwise known as humility; come to God as a beggar.
Get out
there and brush shoulders with those who are hungry and thirsty
Fast and
pray
Immerse
yourself in scripture especially the prophets who were constantly calling
people to awaken to God’s righteousness
Give it
away; practice giving away something every week or month that is precious to
you
Remember
the saints who have gone before us; awaken your hunger for the coming of the kingdom of God when we all will be gathered around
the banquet table of heaven.
On Earth As
In Heaven
In the
Bible there's a rich vein of teaching about God's banquet, the heavenly
banquet.
In Isaiah we here this:
On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for
all peoples, a banquet of aged wine, the best of meats and the finest of wines.
In Matthew, Jesus says the Kingdom
of Heaven is like a King
who prepared a wedding banquet for his son.
And in Revelation, we read this:
Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory. The wedding of the Lamb
has come and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean is
given her to wear.
This is the banquet to which scripture and this one here before us points:
Invitation to the Table
This beautiful
table before us today is a sneak preview of God’s heavenly banquet—the feast
that we’ll someday share with loved ones, prophets, apostles, martyrs, saints,
and quite a few other surprising guests from “east and west, north and south”!
(Lk 13:29). And on that day, God will wipe away our tears, death and
terror and war will be no more, and we’ll experience the indescribable joy of
being finally andfully with our Lord.
Our prayer is for Jesus to
come: ‘Maranatha!’ ‘Come, Lord Jesus!’ ‘May your grace come and this world pass
away!’”. At the table, the future breaks into the present time. Our
communion with God at this community table is a foretaste of the heavenly
banquet.
I invite us
to come this morning not as a way to fill our hunger but as a way to awaken our
hunger for God and God’s justice and right living. As we share in the heavenly
feast later, the lighted candles will be a reminder of the time when we will
all be gathered around the table in God's kingdom.
Before we come
to the table, Curtis will lead us in singing our prayer of thanksgiving and
grace:
Some instructions. All are
welcome to participate. After you’ve filled your plate and glass, please leave the table area to make room for others. We invite you then to share toasts of blessing with
those around you. Friends, for heaven’s sake, let our banquet
begin!
