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"Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
5Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
6Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled
I love the Sermon on the Mount. I love to think of Jesus on the hillside at the very beginning of his ministry, and sitting down and beginning to preach.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness,”
He really touched a nerve with me when he said that. When all the clutter is pushed aside, I find I really AM hungry for righteousness. I thirst after a better way of life, free of all the little and big ways our lives tend to fall apart. Don’t all of us eventually find within us a deep desire to be “better” than we are, to overcome the reality that often times things just kind of go “off the rails” in our lives. Sometimes despite our best efforts, marriages fail, friendships grow cold, love flickers over time and goes out, beloved children die.
Our lives start in the fragile beauty and innocence of childhood, but too many times by the time we end our days we are ravaged by forces we don’t understand, and which are beyond our control. We’ve all felt this. And beside the normal effects of time and death there is no denying that an appalling evil prowls the world. We see it every night on the evening news and read about it in the papers. Towers fall; children are violated and their innocence is stolen, people are sold into slavery to drugs or prostitution, racial violence and war kill millions. Our deepest hunger and thirst is for freedom, to escape these forces, to live out our lives without fear of being dragged down, rubbed out, and discarded like so much trash. Our deepest hunger and thirst is to know God.
If you don’t know God, I’d like to introduce you to him.
First of all you should realize that God is real, not imaginary, and he is alive. In some ways he’s like you or me with a life and a mind and a heart. We’re made in his image, but it’s hard for us to picture what that means because unlike us he’s absolutely complete and perfect. He needs nothing. He made the universe with all the conditions just right for us to exist and he carefully furnished it with everything we needed and then when he got it just right, he called it “good.” The right foods for us to eat, the right temperature for us to live in, the right atmosphere for us to breathe. And he made day to follow night to create a structure of time and work and rest for our lives.
Our word “good” comes from the word “God”. Everything good you’ve ever known comes from him, and I mean everything. Grand canyons, oceans, new babies, coffee, creativity, intellect, design, great art and music, joy and love itself ….all came from him. And now this morning it’s Sunday morning in the universe, and moment by moment he’s holding it all together, and for the life of us we don’t know how. We call it gravity, but just because we gave it a name doesn’t mean we understand it.
And he’s here with us right now. He is listening with interest to everything we do. He’s listening to your heart, and enjoying the praise of your lips. Wherever two are three are gathered together in his name, that’s where he wants to be. And most amazingly at just the right time he humbled himself and was born of a woman and learned what it feels like to be us, to taste firsthand all the joys a human life can know and also taste the bitterness of every last drop of our pain. He’s not surprised by what we do, he knows what’s in us, and although he committed no sin, he sees us make our mistakes and says, “Yeah I know what that feels like,” because amazingly enough he’s personally experienced every temptation you ever had. He knows what a mixed bag we are, but, folks I want to tell you, he has turned his face towards us, this very morning, and looks at us right now, with, such an intense love, with such amazing grace, with such “favor,” that it’s impossible for us to even begin to understand. And of course with the intensity and genuineness of this huge love come all the feelings and thoughts and emotions that are a natural part of love, but bigger, and more real, and more RIGHT. And what is it that comes with love? There is compassion, and tenderness and jealousy, and the whole nine yards, and sometimes there is even anger. And sometimes even tears. John 11:35 says “Jesus wept”.
Well as far as God’s relationship with us it’s just about that simple. His love has been playing out its story on a stage the size of the universe since the beginning of time. The text introduces the main event this way, “…for God so loved THE WORLD…”
And when God made creation with everything in it humans needed, he also placed within us the instinct to pray. And so in Genesis 4 we have the first record of humans starting to pray, to ‘call upon the name of the lord.”
I have heard that even atheists pray, in foxholes.
There are many reasons to pray. We may pray because we’re happy, and we want to give thanks, or we may pray because we want something, to be rid of a sickness, or to get a job or a promotion, or to solve a problem we don’t know how to solve.
We might even speak to him from a place that looks like the end of our rope, when our faith is flickering out and it seems like the only thing left to do is to just go ahead and flick off the switch and start a new way of life that doesn’t bother about God. “If you’re there God, give me just a little sign…”
We’ve got questions for him. Why AM I the way I am? What am I going to do with my kids? Why am I so bad at dealing with my wife, or husband, or family or my coworkers? All these things are real. God cares about all these things. And he’s not surprised at any of it. He’s seen it all before.
Regardless of our problems when, overwhelmed in our weakness, we sit like children in his lap and just talk to him, not with stained glass language, but in our own words, his faithfulness continues to shine on, steady, unchangeable. He holds us in his arms and caresses our hair. He speaks softly to our Spirit and reassures us that a better day is coming. He is the bright and morning star and his love for us shines on through the darkest night
The Old Testament prophets tell about the hugeness of this love. He’s pictured as a father teaching his son to walk in Hosea, as a mother hen keeping watch over her chicks, as a new young husband who has won the pearl of great price, the wife whom he loves, and who protects her and watches over her in the wilderness as they start their life together, as a warrior general who goes ahead of his people, leading them into battle to protect them and give them the victory, and most clearly of all the story Jesus tells, as the joyous father who runs out to meet the prodigal son, to welcome him back home as he returns home after his failed adventure in the far country, to kill the fatted calf, to put sandals on his feet, and to dress him in the best robe.
By the way, you know the boy in that story who the father is so anxious to see….that’s us.
No, everything in this universe has been made by God for a purpose. The acorn lives out its potential by becoming a tall and beautiful oak tree. Dolphins have been designed to swim around and sing in the Dolphinese language and dance to the music of the stars that God made for them to sing to.. I’m sure they’re on the universe’s praise team mentioned in Psalm 19. It’s not just the heavens that declare the glory of God. It’s the whole blooming creation.
But we of all creatures have been designed for the most special purpose of all.
We have been wired for peak performance only when we live in relationship with God. Although the whole universe could never contain him, it is we who are designed to be his home, and when he comes to live in us, he teaches us his ways, and brings us with him as he goes about his work, whether it’s to a palace or a prison. The whole Bible is the story of his love for us, how he comes after us even when we are dead in our sins, and deep down inside us, although we may not know it, our deepest craving is to be with him too.
And in the course of things this deep craving develops into a full blown appetite, and at the end of our days, there awaits the fulfillment of all our deepest desires, as we see him, no longer through a glass darkly, but face to face. As in John 17:3 the Apostle wrote, “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”
You know life is a funny place. We may spend our whole life on earth thinking we know what we want but don’t know how to get it, but the Bible says it’s the very opposite: Our deepest desire is for this thing that we don’t even know that we want, and it’s always been right here next to us.
And like any intimate relationship it’s a two way street. We want not only to know God, but also for him to know us, to lay out our life for him upon the table, to open our heart to him in such vulnerability and transparency, like David, who cried out, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Psalm 139
One of the clearest signs God is living in us is when judgmentalism drops away, resentment drops away, defensiveness drops away. The Apostle John wrote about how it works, “We love because he first loved us”. 1 John 4:19. It was his Father’s love that gave the man Jesus the power, the courage, the love and the heart to live the perfect life, and then voluntarily lay it down on a wooden cross as a sacrifice for us. As he stood on the high mountain with his two closest friends, basking in the love of his Father, “a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!" Matthew 17
And now the same love the Father showed to the Son, has been given to us, this amazing love, a love so powerful, so intense that it can raise the dead and created the universe out of nothing by speaking it into existence,
But God will not beat your door down. There is a door to our heart we have to open ourselves and if we don’t open that door it will stay shut. The door between us and God is the hardness of our heart. And very frankly sometimes we foolishly choose to just keep that door shut, for a year, or for a decade or for a lifetime. I know. Patty and I walked away from God when we were twenty and didn’t come back for 25 years.
Like in the story of Jonah, we may run away because we’re afraid of his program for our life. We know what he wants is right for us but our habits and our agendas have us running the other way. Usually we get tossed overboard, swallowed by a big fish, and later find ourselves sitting on the beach covered in puke.
Ultimately, when he knocks, we are the only ones who can open the door. We may stage magnificent campaigns to save ourselves from the forces trying to destroy us: from our addictions, our temper, our shortcuts and our lies, our selfishness, and our temptations. And even though they don’t work, we may keep trying and trying.
The Bible calls this way of life walking in the darkness. It means walking away from God, avoiding thinking about him, doing as we please, living to suit ourselves, looking out for #1 and it’s built on a rickety structure of lies, ego, and denial.
But Jesus calls us to a different way of life he calls walking in the light. It’s a refreshing and powerful way to live. It is a way of simplicity, of humility, and most of all, of honesty. When we accept the love of God, his Spirit comes to live in us, and his life giving spirit nourishes our soul, and produces fruit in our lives, and as we learn to trust him and listen to his voice He is making us over in his image.
And he has a purpose in that, for it never will be our love that will save the world. We don’t have enough, and what love we have is of poor quality. Only the love of God can save the world. And here’s the plan. God wants to show his love to the world. And the way his love enters the world is through us.
We are his embassy. We represent him. It is a mighty responsibility and all the more so because we carry the treasure of the knowledge of the glory of Christ in jars of clay. In short, we’re cracked. Paul writes, “We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.” 2 Corinthians 5:20
It is a great mystery, though nevertheless true, that he has chosen the little things of the world to shame the wise. For God’s strength is made perfect in weakness.
Stand back and watch in amazement what God will do when he whose faith is weak offers that very weakness on the altar and asks God to use it for his glory.
You see, God never wastes a hurt. The very things that have happened to you along the way, that broke your spirit, and brought you to the day when you began to cry out to God, that have provoked within you a desire for a better way of life, those are the things that god wants to use for his glory.
Because God treasures every twist and turn of your story, and most of all God treasures an honest heart. Never be afraid to come to him with your deepest hurts, and lay them out in front of him in prayer, and trust him enough to share with him the deepest desires or your heart...then present the whole broken mess to him and stand and wait and watch as he begins to do something with it all.
Recently a friend from another part of the country shared these words with me.
• About a year ago, God and I had it out for several weeks. I said some things to Him that I am embarrassed to share. I can tell you this... I love God with all of my heart. I have given Him my life, my gifts and talents, my career, my dreams, everything. It just didn't seem like He was doing a lot of lovin’ back in return. So by faith, I went back into the Empty Tomb. I looked inside and remembered why it was empty. And I began to uncontrollably weep. I mean I wept my brother. And I remembered that God actually loves me. I FELT His love. It was a starting point. I have a long ways to go... but step one is to “revisit the Empty Tomb”.
Psalm 34:18 says The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. And as we go back in prayer to the empty tomb, and see the bloodstained linen laying there that was left behind we realize why. The reason he is close to the brokenhearted is because he has been there and won the victory there for us.
But before that victory was won, on the cross even Jesus felt hated and abandoned by God....and he cried out in the agony of that moment, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
Patty and I lost a son to suicide 3 years ago last month. His name was Henry, and he came to us on a beautiful Sunday morning in February 1980. He was a tall slender redheaded boy filled with talent and laughter and love. He was married, and father to a beautiful son. He had struggled with depression several times in his life, but he was also a lover of life, and a disciple of Jesus, who like all of us had his challenges. Unexpectedly we found he had driven to the Oregon coast one June day instead of going to work, and discouraged, stressed, and terribly alone , under the influence of Prozac, he jumped from Neakahnie Mountain to his death.
Patty was referring to this when she joined the conversation we had been having with our friends:
• I want to share one experience that I believe was God using to bless me when I needed it most. Henry had gone missing and we were together in our apartment praying for him to be alright. But then we got the word that Henry's body had been found, that he was gone. I was just standing there, worried about Myra (our daughter) who had run screaming outside, just in shock. All of a sudden I felt overwhelmed, drenched is a better word, with the certainty of God's presence. I had been going through a dry period in my faith, lots of doubting, but at that moment I had no shred of doubt that God was with me, with us. The moment passed. Since then I have again had periods of doubting, but not like before. I always have that moment to lean on. And I've had other dreams/visions that are too long to go into. But day to day, I get by with just a belief that God is with us, feeling it some days more than others.
Henry was a follower of Jesus Christ, and one day when everything got to be too much, in a moment of weakness, he made that terrible mistake. But through the dark hours we held on to the promise our savior gave us, “I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of my hand.”
This week I read over the words of a prayer I gave at Henry’s funeral.
And in that prayer I imagined our beloved son Henry as he appeared for the first time in the Father’s country, and we believe the Father came out on the porch to meet him, just as he had welcomed that other prodigal son so long ago. And we like to imagine as Henry came home to him, how when he was yet a long way off, the Father saw him, and filled with compassion, he hiked up his robes, and ran out to meet him, and put his arms around him and kissed him. And we know Henry recognized him the first minute he saw him, and was glad. And we believe that the Father made him feel welcome in that beautiful land, and held him in his arms, because our arms were too short to reach him now, and wiped away every tear from his eyes, as is written in his book. Never again will he hunger. Never again will he thirst. And our fondest wish is that one day we will be there walking along beside him, there with the Father, in the sunshine, all sorrows past.
“Father we are mindful that another One came from you into the world, and this your only son. They say he too was a man of sorrows acquainted with grief, who was slain for our sins, though without sin himself, and stood his ground in loving us and standing up for us in the face of our greatest enemies, sin and death. He too stood alone at the end, Father, like Henry did, in a world that misunderstood him. And He lives today to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, and comfort for all those who mourn.
And one thing we ask of you LORD,
and this is what we seek:
that we may dwell in your house
All the days of our life,
to gaze upon your beauty and to seek you in your temple.
For in the day of trouble
you will keep us safe in your dwelling;
you will hide us in the shelter of your tabernacle
and set our feet high on the rock.
For our fondest wish is YOU.
In Jesus Name, Amen”
