The Sunday Following All Saints Day, 11/05/2017

Sermon on Matthew 5:1-12, by Hubert Beck

Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.

And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version,

WHAT NEED DO YOU MOST WANT SATISFIED?

Readers of today tend to receive the words generally titled “The Beatitudes” in one of several ways:

They understand the words to be so lofty and high-minded as to make them unattainable by any reader save, perhaps, the most committed of Christian people;

They understand the words to be so out-of-touch with everyday life as to make them irrelevant for anyone wishing to find guidance in the day-by-day existence of even the best intentioned people, whether Christian or not;

They understand the words to be goals toward which all of God’s people are to strive, setting standards far beyond ordinary human achievement, thus reshaping them into “commands for how to live” rather than “the blessings of a person devoted to godly living.”

If / when, then, they are construed to be legal requirements or challenges rather than understanding them as words of promise they become the source of anxiety rather than words of support and encouragement.

The least one can say is that it certainly takes a saint to understand them fully on the one hand or to keep them rightly on the other hand.

They do, indeed, set the benchmark for a saint – which is why they have long been established as the Gospel for All Saints’ Day. Remember, however, that you, too, are one of those “saints” of whom / to whom Jesus spoke these words!

So how are we to understand them as our own on this day?

First: A Few Notations

This so-called Sermon on the Mount is initially addressed to the apostles, not to people in general. “Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down his disciples came to him.” It is true that when this gathering of statements or teachings, for that is evidently the sum and substance of this sermon since its basic teachings are scattered around loosely in the other Gospels, we are told that these words were well received by many other people also, for then we read, “When Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who has authority, and not as their scribes.” The initial hearing of these words, however, was meant for the ears of the disciples, which means that the real meaning of this sermon will not be understood by casual non-Christian readers. The words are specifically meant to be heard and understood by those closely associated with the speaker.

It is also noteworthy that the “authority” with which he spoke these words was taught “when he sat down.” In our day we generally think of teachers standing up when they speak authoritatively, but in Jesus’ day the posture of “a teaching authority” was sitting down. This is worth noting, for it helps explain the “astonishment” on the part of his hearers. He was not perceived as a “casual teacher.” He spoke with authority. His “sermon” had all the marks of containing words very much worth hearing.

Moreover, these opening statements or Beatitudes are not presented as ways of life to be pursued. They are not stated as “Blessed will be…..” They are presented as the condition from which the blessings flow, the effect produced by those who are blessed. “Blessed are……” The poverty of spirit, the mourning, the meekness, etc. to which these Beatitudes point are the marks of the blessedness of God’s people, not the goal of a blessedness to be pursued by Jesus’ hearers.

Another note may be helpful in understanding an alternate translation of these statements, for on occasion one finds the word “happy” in place of “blessed.” “Happy” is a legitimate translation of the Greek word found in these Beatitudes, but it is not the kind of “happiness” we generally refer to in the sense of enjoying a highly delightful time in life that fills one’s heart with great pleasure. It is, rather, a “quiet contentment” – “a sense of being in tune with God,” causing a serenity of being that far exceeds the high exaltation resulting from a “satisfactorily fun experience” as the world generally thinks of “happiness.”

Given all these qualities of the Beatitudes, it is, in the end, very important to note that when these Beatitudes are all woven together one discovers an inner “organization” about the way they are written. We will not attempt to give details of this progression of thought at this time, but it is important to note this because while each one provides an insight into an aspect of the Christian life in itself, together they provide a broad outline of what a godly life looks like. In fact, one must recognize that these Beatitudes are nothing less than a description of the one who speaks them! In them we see the life and death of Christ laid bare – who he was, what he taught, how he lived – and even more, how he died! For that reason any attempt at interpreting them apart from their whole or apart from him who spoke them will always fall short of the mark for which they were intended! Taken together we see Christ – and we see who we are as those whose lives have been hidden in him through the waters of our baptism!

Having noted all these important elements of these Beatitudes, it is undoubtedly evident that they could easily provide texts for no less than eight or nine Sunday sermons running, each one rendering an element of the Christian life set forth in a step by step organization of these words of Jesus in an extended way. For our purposes today, however, it seems the way of wisdom to choose only one of them for a deeper examination – in spite of the earlier warning not to isolate one Beatitude from the others – in order to illustrate how such a series of sermons could be read, taught and / or preached for congregational consideration and Christian formation. Therefore I set before you the fourth of these Beatitudes for consideration on this day, namely, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”

Our Typical Everyday Hunger and Thirst

Everyone surely hungers and thirsts after something. It is an integral part of being human, for that hunger and thirst may be as basic as a physically desperate need for real bread and fresh water as the people of Puerto Rico are experiencing it today – or it may be for lesser things as widely disparate as an intense desire for wealth or a need for a sense of personal empowerment over any and all aspects of a life spinning dizzily out of control. It may be for a place of honor in the larger society within which one exists – or it may be for a peaceful resolution of the disordering effect of a dysfunctional family.

There is a good hungering and thirsting, therefore, and there are bad hungerings and thirstings, but in every person’s life there are needs to be met – needs toward which one strives and for which one longs very deeply. Then, again, there are hungerings and thirstings that would, if satisfied, only prove to be damaging – or even more than damaging – downright poisonously deadly if they were met in the way we attempt to meet them.

THIS Hungering and Thirsting is For a Particular Condition of Which Jesus Speaks

At the very least most of us must admit, however, that “righteousness” would be very low on the list of the things for which we hunger and thirst. It – along with the other Beatitudes – presents things for which God’s people are to hunger and thirst. Most of the things Jesus commends, though, truth be known, would hardly even be considered as a desirable self-characteristic. E.g., how many of any of the Beatitudes mentioned by Jesus in this series of mindsets and hopes would be high on your list – at least on first hearing? Who would answer as a high priority in one’s life a “poverty of spirit” or “mourning” or “meekness” or “purity of heart” if asked for what characteristics we would most like to be known and remembered? Unless we could manage to reduce “righteousness” to a comfortably acceptable way of life it would manage at best a moderate mention of the things we most desire. If we manage to reduce it in this way, however, we may reluctantly admit it would be nice to have inscribed on our tombstone: “Here lies a righteous person.” Tombstone inscriptions are supposedly honest descriptions of the person lying there, however – and that requires a living representation of the inscription.

But, to be honest, who truly longs to be “righteous”? Now it is true that a considerable number of people would piously say that she or he would, indeed, long to have “righteousness” as a fundamental environment within to live – and perhaps some would even with equal piety say that he or she would very much like to be “righteous.” After all, it sounds good on our resume of life, but it ranks pretty low on what we really and truly long for. We may even, in fact, “long for righteousness” so long as it doesn’t put too much of a crimp on the way we live!

This Beatitude, however, is not about “longing for,” “wishing for” or “admiring” something. It is about “hungering and thirsting” for something. This “hungering and thirsting” is not the kind of hunger we have mid-morning that can be satisfied with a snack. It is not a thirst for a drink of purified water out of a plastic bottle. The word here means “to be famished for,” “to thirst like one in the desert whose very life depends on a drink of water lest one perish.” It is far beyond anything most of us experience in our everyday life.

And it is very likely far beyond what most of us “hunger and thirst for” as we traverse the hills and valleys of the wastelands through which we journey every day – a spiritually harsh environment where Satan and his cohorts hide beneath every rock and prowl in every shadow – the wilderness into which Peter shouts his warning, “Be sober-minded, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8) This is the situation within which the blessed hunger and thirst!

The Righteousness for Which Jesus Urges Us to Hunger and Thirst

It is imperative, then, to understand the “righteousness” that Jesus says will be most evident in the yearning of God’s people. For many people the word has little to do with anything other than “high moral standards,” “the mark of one who has strong ethical principles.” Although one should, indeed, admire such people, Jesus is speaking of a still higher benchmark than a life well lived.

It is not hard, though, for even an ungodly person to see that the cosmos at large, our universe in particular, and the society within which we live are all at various stages of a brokenness that is begging to be set right. Every newspaper, every TV or radio newscast, every account of any type makes it clear that things are not in any sense of the term as they should be. Even more to the point, every truthful accounting of our own heart and mind tells us again and again that our insides are as out of order as the world around us is.

For some a thorough washing with an antiseptic followed by a bandaging of the wounds with sterile gauze is all that they see as necessary. For others, a retreat from all that brokenness through drugs or alcohol or some other means of becoming dead to the world is the best they can muster. A simple coping with the anxieties and fretfulness and even fears that haunt our daily lives is not easy for many people and all but impossible for others.

It is to those whose lives are enmeshed in this state of affairs that Jesus addresses this Beatitude. The “righteousness” for which the blessed hunger and thirst is made up of an intense longing for, yearning for, hoping for the vision of “the righteous one.” It is, when all is said and done, a passionate craving to see God’s righteousness, a righteousness which itself is determined to establish a way and a will for his wayward creation to come back home. He, too, is yearning and longing for the return of his alienated and estranged creatures. It is this divine love that rests within and beneath everything he does to call his people back to himself. It is a will set on nothing less than a healing of this broken world. After all, “righteousness” has to do with “rightness.” And it is such a “rightening” of this disordered and chaotic world that God’s “blessed ones” desire to experience with all their heart and being.

“Can it ever be?” “Can it ever truly take place?” This is the desperate cry of all who take this sad situation seriously – who “mourn” its condition. The psalmist puts it this way in his plaintive cry, “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?” Psalm 42:1-3 Jesus puts it this way, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.” These are the cries of all whose very hearts ache for God’s relief from the fears and terrors that leap so unexpectedly out of the fearful darkness through which all God’s children travel.

To all such Jesus says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.” He speaks to all who look for, long for, cry out with desperate appeals for the food and drink that can sustain them in their perilous journey through the wilderness of life. He speaks to all whose longing is for someone to appear with help in hand, with a hope made flesh. He speaks to you and to me, for is anyone present immune to a deep hunger and thirst for that which ultimately satisfies?

Jesus Our Righteousness

“For they shall be satisfied,” Jesus assures us. He had a right to say it, for he, himself, was / is that very righteousness for which God’s people cry out with such desperation. Although he was that “satisfaction” for anybody and everybody, many people – most people, for that matter – did / do not recognize him for that because they were / are seeking their satisfaction elsewhere and in lesser forms than that which he brought into the world. We spoke of our typical hunger and thirst earlier – and the things we mentioned there are the beginning and the end of both the hungering and its satisfaction, the thirsting and the slaking thereof for very many people.

Not so here in the presence of Jesus who spoke these words, however – not so for those who “hunger and thirst for righteousness” – not so for all who sense a close relationship with their Lord made possible by this one who spoke this Beatitude – for it was he who satisfied such hungering for such a close tie to their Lord in their baptism. In like fashion he satisfies the thirst of those under his care, for the righteousness made flesh in the body and blood of the man on the cross is offered through the Eucharistic gift in which he offers his body and blood as certification of his love and his forgiveness to all who eat and drink this bread and wine

And who is this “they” and “those” whose hungering and thirsting for righteousness was satisfied on the cross, in Jesus’ resurrection, in the waters, and in the bread and wine? We are the “they,” of course – as were and have been all the saints we remember on this day called “All Saints Day” on the calendar of the church. Let us, then, join all the voices in heaven and on earth that bear the good news that all “hungering and thirsting after righteousness” has been satisfied – even as Jesus promised would happen for all who “seek it.”

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen! Amen! It shall be so!!!

Retired Lutheran Minister of the Gospel. Hubert Beck
Austin, TX USA
E-Mail: hbeck@austin.rr.com

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