BLESSED ARE THE PERSONS WHO HUNGER AND

THIRST AFTER RIGHTEOUSNESS; FOR THEY

THEY SHALL BE FILLED

Matthew 5:6

.

THE SECRET

I MET GOD IN THE MORNING

WHEN THE DAY WAS AT ITS BEST,

AND HIS PRESENCE CAME LIKE SUNRISE,

LIKE A GLORY IN MY BREAST.

ALL DAY LONG THE PRESENCE LINGERED,

ALL DAY LONG HE STAYED WITH ME,

AND WE SAILED IN PERFECT CALMNESS

O'ER A VERY TROUBLED SEA.

OTHER SHIPS WERE BLOWN AND BATTERED,

OTHER SHIPS WERE SORE DISTRESSED,

BUT THE WINDS THAT SEEMED TO DRIVE

THEM,

BROUGHT TO US A PEACE AND REST.

THEN I THOUGHT OF OTHER MORNINGS,

WITH A KEEN REMORSE OF MIND,

WHEN I TOO HAD LOOSED THE MOORINGS,

WITH THE PRESENCE LEFT BEHIND.

SO, I THINK I KNOW THE SECRET,

LEARNED FROM MANY A TROUBLED WAY:

YOU MUST SEEK HIM IN THE MORNING

IF YOU WANT HIM THROUGH THE DAY!

The sermon of the morning deals with two major issues:  

I. THE INTENSITY OF COMMITMENT

2. THE NATURE OF OUR COMMITMENT

The intensity of our commitment is important to the understanding of this Beatitude. It literally means to have a hunger and a thirst that cannot be filled with one meal or one drink of water.

Most of us will have great difficulty resonating with this concept. WE have plenty of water, and food. If we miss a meal it causes anxiety ... but  one good meal will set everything straight.

Several years ago I was part of a mission work team to Jamaica. While there we stayed with and ate the food of the Jamaicans. In College I had had an excellent course in biology. Part of the study had to deal with preparing the food we ate and why we cook the food.  The food we were offered was all found under the bad examples section in my biology course. Chickens were killed right off the street and eaten. The poor things were so skinny they looked like they needed a CARE package of food from the United Nations. When cooked it was hastily done, and not well done at that. We couldn't drink the water. Luckily we had taken several pounds of crackers and large jars of peanut butter. At night we purchased Pepsis and ate Peanut Butter and Crackers.

By the end of my stay I had visions of a big salad, nice steak, and baked potato with plenty of cold Ice Tea. When we arrived at Miami on the way home we were lucky enough to have a two hour lay over. I found a restaurant and was almost ashamed of how I consumed that meal. I was hungry for some food of the type I liked, and that was safe to eat. I was starved.

Even that hunger and thirst was satisfied with one good meal and several cold glasses of ice tea. Most of us have experienced need to this level. In your imagination multiply it to such an extent that even after the meal and the drink you still have needs to be met. At this point we begin to understand the intent of the teaching of Jesus.

II. TO WHAT  SHOULD WE HAVE SUCH AN INTENSE COMMITMENT?

From early times human beings have believed that to know what, and who was right would lead to a healthful, and happy life. This is why the 10 commandments were such a great gift to the Hebrew Children. For the first time God through Moses had given to them a set of rules for right living. God made a covenant with them. Live by these rules and I will bless you.

RIGHTEOUSNESS ... RIGHTEOUSNESS MEANS to know what right is and to live it. THIS HAS TO DO WITH THE ETHICS OF OUR LIFE and also OUR PIETY.

BOTH ARE DIFFICULT TO ACTUALIZE IN ONE'S LIFE.

WHAT IS ETHICALLY RIGHT IN OUR DAY?

THINK WITH ME FOR A FEW MOMENTS ON SOME OF OUR REAL ISSUES...

1. I had never questioned the Jewish Communities right to have a country of their own. However, several years ago while on one of the church's New York and Washington Study Seminars we were treated to resource persons from both sides of the argument. We discovered that the Jews did displace millions of people. They now live on the edge of the desert in shanty towns. Some of them moved to Egypt where a million of them live in a Muslim Cemetery in Cairo. It is a dirty ...poverty ... and disease infested area.

WHAT IS RIGHT IN THIS ISSUE? Now the Palestinians are asking for a nation of their own. The Jews were against it.

2. THE ABORTION ISSUE:

3. THE GAY PEOPLE ISSUE:

4. THE Atomic FAMILY ISSUE:

The person who would be filled is the person who with all their heart wants to know what is right and then orders their lives accordingly.

In short, this Beatitude says ...HAPPY IS THE PERSON WHO HUNGERS AND THIRST TO KNOW WHAT IS RIGHT AND GOES AFTER IT, THEY WILL OBTAIN THEIR GOAL.

III. COMMITMENT TO RIGHT LEADS TO HEALTHY PIETY!

RIGHTEOUSNESS ALSO MEANS PIETY ... PIETY IS OUR COMMITMENT TO CHRIST AND HIS CHURCH. IT IS OUR ALLEGIANCE TO AND EXPERIENCE OF OUR FAITH.

We should have a real hunger to know and serve God.

In my life I've never known a person who did not have some level of God consciousness. Every human being seeks to know God and somehow fears the ultimate of life ...death.

THIS WAS JOHN WESLEY'S STRUGGLE.   WESLEY WAS THE FOUNDER OF METHODISM.

John was born with a spiritually hungry heart. Even as a youngster in college he formed a special devotional club called the Holy Club. The group met to fellowship and worship together. The group developed a method of living based on spiritual devotions. Wesley seemed to never be able to be filled. He wanted to walk closely with God. His life was almost torture as he worked and worked for his salvation. Then on an April Evening in Aldersgate he feasted at the fountain that never runs dry. He felt his heart strangely warmed, and that God had personally forgiven his sins. Wesley became a religious oddity. The church of England closed its doors to him. He preached on his father's tombstone. To the out-of-doors he went. Thousands came to hear him preach and to celebrate the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. After about 25 years his ministry was accepted. By this time it had crossed the Atlantic Ocean. Here in America it grew like wildfire. Today there is a Methodist Church in almost every place there is a Postal Office.

To help people feed the hunger and cure the thirst for God  is the reason we are concerned with bringing people into the church. It is here that we help them on their pilgrimage. This is also when we are responding to the Biblical mandate "go ye into all the world and preach the gospel and baptize them in the name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit.

When the sensitivity of God's love is wed with ethically based social action then we have experienced the fullness of this Beatitude. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be filled.