Perspective: The Deep Hunger

The following perspective is an excerpt from a sermon I'm currently writing.  The entire sermon, tentatively titled "The Bread of Life," will be posted on August 5, 2018.

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.

Comments are always welcomed.

If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

The Deep Hunger

Blessed are you who are hungry now,

for you will be filled.

Luke 6:21a (NRSV)

Can you take me higher

To the place where blind men see?

Can you take me higher

To the place with golden streets?

From “Higher” by Creed

“I am the bread of life,” Jesus says.  “Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”¹

There is a hunger within us that has nothing to do with our stomachs, a hunger that cannot be satisfied with literal bread.  This hunger is, I think, a longing for transcendence.  In other words, we want more than what this life has to offer.  We long for what Jesus calls “eternal life” or  “abundant life,” a life that is, in the words of one writer, characterized by “the experience of deep joy, boundless love, and indestructible peace.”²  This is the hunger of which Jesus speaks.

We feel this hunger deeply, so we try to fill our lives with things like materialism, romance, careers, hobbies, and entertainment.  Such things might make our lives seem full for a while, but they do not truly satisfy our deep hunger because they do not last.  The stuff we buy wears out and breaks; our relationships cool down; our careers take downturns; our hobbies become boring; and our favorite television shows are inevitably canceled.³  Such things give us only a fleeting sense of satisfaction, in the same way that literal bread leaves us feeling hungry again within only a few hours.  They do not stick to our ribs, spiritually speaking.  Perhaps this is why Jesus says, “Don’t work for the food that doesn’t last but for the food that endures for eternal life.”⁴

Great Christian thinkers have been contemplating this ineffable longing for thousands of years.

C.S. Lewis, in his sermon “The Weight of Glory,” speaks of “a desire which no natural happiness will satisfy.”  It is, he suggests, a desire for something outside of our earthly experience, a desire for something infinite and eternal.  Since the object of our desire is something we do not truly know or understand, we naturally try to fix our desire on things that are actually familiar to us, things that are, at most, merely symbolic of the true object of our desire.⁵  That said, it is totally understandable that we would attempt to satisfy our deep longing with things that give us no lasting satisfaction.  The good news, Lewis claims, is that the very fact that we experience this hunger means that this hunger can somehow be satisfied.⁶

In Bruce Marshall's novel The World, the Flesh, and Father Smith, the titular character gets into an argument with an author over clerical celibacy.  When the author suggests that “religion is only a substitute for sex,” the priest replies, “I still prefer to believe that sex is a substitute for religion and that the young man who rings the bell at the brothel is unconsciously looking for God.”⁷  Perhaps, beneath all of our longings and all of our efforts to satisfy those longings is a longing for God.

The seventeenth century French theologian Blaise Pascal suggests in his work Pensées, that the motive behind every action of every person, be it constructive or destructive, is the desire for happiness.  He goes so far as to say that “the will never takes the least step but to this object.”  Despite our best efforts, the happiness we seek seems to remain hopelessly out of reach.  Pascal asserts that true happiness is something we cannot attain without faith, for “the infinite abyss,” which some have named the “God-shaped hole,” “can only be filled by an infinite and immutable object, that is to say, only by God Himself.”⁸

Perhaps St. Augustine expressed this thought the best over one thousand years earlier in his Confessions, in which he prays, “Thou madest us for Thyself, and our heart is restless, until it repose in Thee.”⁹


Notes:

1. John 6:35 (CEB)
2. Shane Hipps.  Selling Water by the River: A Book about the Life Jesus Promised and the Religion That Gets in the Way.  2012, Jericho Books.  p. 7
3. Hipps, pp. 3-4
4. John 6:27 (CEB)
5. C.S. Lewis.  “The Weight of Glory.”
6. ibid
7. Bruce Marshall.  The World, the Flesh, and Father Smith.  1945, Houghton Mifflin Company.
8. Blaise Pascal.  Pensées.  Translation by W.F. Trotter.  1958, E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc.  Section VII, #425
9. St. Augustine of Hippo.  Confessions.  Translated by Edward Bouverie Pusey.

The photograph of the sourdough bread was taken by Flickr user Steph and is used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.  The photographer is in no way affiliated with this blog.

Perspective: All Kinds

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.

Comments are always welcomed.

If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

All Kinds

To what then will I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like?  They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another,

"We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;

we wailed, and you did not weep."

For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, "He has a demon"; the Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, "Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!"  Nevertheless, wisdom is vindicated by all her children.

Luke 7:31-35 (NRSV)

Love will hold us together

Make us a shelter weather the storm

And I'll be my brothers keeper

So the whole world will know that we're not alone

From "Hold Us Together" by Matt Maher

It would seem that part of being a prophet - a person who speaks on behalf of God - is having a lot of critics.  Throughout the Gospel story, we can see that there were plenty of people who were always more than ready to criticize Jesus, most of whom were religious leaders.  John, Jesus' predecessor, had his share of critics as well, perhaps from the same lot.

One day, Jesus became rather frustrated with John's and His critics and compared them to "children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another, 'We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not weep.'"  I might be missing some of the cultural significance of what Jesus said, but I think He was saying that His critics were like children who were unhappy because nobody else wanted to play what they wanted to play when they wanted to play it.  They criticized one prophet and then turned around and criticized another who was very different from the first.  Neither was suitable to this fickle bunch.

John was rather eccentric.  He lived in the wilderness, apart from society; he never touched a drop of alcohol; and he was a fiery preacher who called his audience a "brood of vipers" and warned them that they had better get right with God or suffer the consequences.  Jesus was the polar opposite of John.  He traveled from town to town; He enjoyed food and drink with all kinds of people, from religious leaders to tax collectors; He was rather accepting of people, especially those on the margins; and He typically reserved His harsh words for the holier-than-thou types.  People accused Him of being a drunkard and a glutton who fraternized with all the wrong people.  In one recent paraphrase of the Bible, Jesus says, "You can't win with this generation."¹

Jesus said, in response to the criticism directed at Him and at John, that "wisdom is vindicated by all her children."

When comparing and contrasting two or more of anything, we are often tempted to consider which one is best.  C.S. Lewis, in a letter to a friend, zeroed-in on the word all in Jesus' statement, suggesting that, when Jesus referred to all of wisdom's children, He might have been referring to wisdom's children of all kinds.  Lewis muses, "I fancy we are all too ready... to assume that God will deal with everyone exactly as He does with us.  But He is no mass-producer and treats no two quite alike."²

The fact that two people are very different does not necessitate that one is wise while the other is foolish.  Jesus and John were called to very different ways of life and to very different kinds of ministry, and both of them were wise to follow their callings.  I would not put Jesus and John on equal footing with each other, since John's role was to prepare the way for Jesus, but I would say that both faithfully did their parts.

Perhaps one lesson we can glean from what Jesus said about His critics is that His followers should take care that they are not overly critical of each other.  Many Christians are quick to criticize others from different branches within Christianity.  Some segments of Christianity are sectarian, meaning that people within these churches consider those from other churches not to be legitimate Christians.  I have to admit that I too have a tendency to be critical of some Christians outside my particular tradition - and some within my tradition as well - because I have a lot of religious baggage.

Though there are plenty of things in the Church that are worthy of criticism, perhaps we are a bit too eager to criticize each other when we should be more interested in learning from each other.  I admit that I am very partial to the Methodist tradition, but it would be utterly arrogant of me to think that any experience of God or expression of faith different from my own is any less real or legitimate.  I do not get to decide where God meets people or how God meets people.  Furthermore, people outside my tradition might have something I need.

St. Paul compared the community of faith to a body and individual persons in the community to parts of the body, all of which are essential.³  Typically we understand this metaphor to mean that, like different parts of the human body, different people have been given different gifts to carry out different functions within the community.  In a typical church, there are people who preach, people who teach, people who sing and play music, people who care for children, people who serve on committees, people who take care of the facilities, people who tend to the finances of the church, people who keep records, and people who carry out other various and sundry functions.  All have different roles, but all serve a common purpose.

Could it be possible that the different parts of the Body of Christ also represent different branches within Christianity?  Perhaps the Body of Christ needs both quiet contemplatives and energetic evangelicals to function.  Perhaps different parts of the body are Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Episcopal, Catholic, Orthodox, and Pentecostal, just to name a few.  Could it be that all the different traditions within the Church have gifts to offer and that all of these gifts enable the Church to be the Church?

Brian Zahnd, one of my favorite preachers, has come to embrace an eclectic Christianity.  He writes, "We need the whole body of Christ to properly form the body of Christ.  This much I'm sure of: Orthodox mystery, Catholic beauty, Anglican liturgy, Protestant audacity, Evangelical energy, Charismatic reality - I need it all!"⁴  I know that I've been shaped by multiple strands of Christianity.  One of my pastors told me that the United Methodist Church is a "big tent," meaning that there is a lot of diversity within it.  Though I like to think I'm on the more "Metho-piscopal" side of the tent, my preference for contemporary worship music suggests that I'm probably be more "Metho-gelical" than I would like to admit.

It has been said that it takes all kinds to make a world.  Perhaps it takes all kinds to make a Church as well.  May we be willing to accept people who have experiences, perspectives, and expressions of faith different from our own.  May we be slow to criticize, quick to listen, and eager to learn.


Notes:

1. John 7:33 (The Voice)
2. From C.S. Lewis's February 5, 1954 letter to Mrs. D. Jessup
3. 1 Corinthians 12:12-31
4. Brian Zahnd.  "A Premodern Sacramental Eclectic."  BrianZahnd.com, 06/24/13.

Christ in the House of Simon was painted by Dieric Bouts in the 1440s.

Perspective: Treasury of the Heart

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.

Comments are always welcomed.

If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

Treasury of the Heart

From now on, brothers and sisters, if anything is excellent and if anything is admirable, focus your thoughts on these things: all that is true, all that is holy, all that is just, all that is pure, all that is lovely, and all that is worthy of praise.

Philippians 4:8 (CEB)

But I'm on the outside

And I'm looking in

I can see through you

See your true colors

'Cause inside you're ugly

You're ugly like me

I can see through you

See to the real you

From "Outside" by Staind

Jesus once said to a crowd gathered on a plain, "No good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit; for each tree is known by its own fruit.  Figs are not gathered from thorns, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush."¹  Basically, we can identify a tree by what the tree produces.  If we see that apples are growing on a tree, then we can be relatively certain that it is an apple tree.  On the other hand, if we see oranges growing on a tree, we can be pretty sure that we're looking at an orange tree.  Oranges do not grow on apple trees, nor do apples grow on orange trees.

Of course, Jesus was not making a statement about horticulture.  He was telling His audience that, in the same way we can identify a tree by the kind of fruit it produces, we can learn a lot about a person's character by the quality of the fruit the person produces - his or her words and actions.  Jesus continues, "The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good, and the evil person out of evil treasure produces evil; for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks."²

The Greek word that is translated into English as "treasure" is thēsauros,³ from which we get the word thesaurus, the name we use for a book of collected words.⁴  A writer might look up a word in a thesaurus in order to find other words that are similar or opposite.  One might say that it is a "treasury" or "storehouse" of words.  Jesus used the word thēsauros to compare a person's heart to a storehouse, the contents of which will determine what comes out in a person's life.  Perhaps it could be said that what fills one's heart overflows through one's words and actions.  What we store up on the inside will inevitable work its way outward.

Basically, what we hold within our inner storehouses will determine what we say and do.  If we store evil things in our hearts, then we will produce evil words and evil deeds; however, if we treasure up good things in our hearts, then good things will come out in our lives.

For me, this reality raises some questions.  How can we change what we store in our hearts so that we change the kinds of words and actions we produce?  How do we get the evil things we're hiding out of our hearts, and how do we fill our hearts with good things?

When it comes to getting the evil things out of our inner storehouses, I suspect that confession is key.  Confession is not a shame-based sin deterrent but rather a means of unburdening ourselves of what is weighing us down.  It is said in recovery communities that one is only as sick as one's secrets.  Confession might mean confiding in someone we trust, or it might mean simply admitting to ourselves what we have been afraid to admit.  If we aren't quite sure what to do about what is going on within us, we might need to see a counselor or a therapist.  St. John promises that, when we confess something, we will find grace and healing.⁵  When we name something and bring it out into the open, its effect on us begins to wane.

When it comes to filling our inner storehouses with good things, we will need some intentionality.  First, we need to be intentional about meditating on good things.  St. Paul encourages us to focus on things that are excellent, admirable, true, holy, just, pure, lovely, and praiseworthy.  At the same time, we also need to be intentional about doing good things.  We tend to think that personal transformation is something that works its way outward, but I think it can work its way inward as well.  It has been said, "You don't think your way into a new kind of living.  You live your way into a new kind of thinking."⁶

If we want to change who we are on the outside, then we need to work on what we are holding on the inside.  May we have the courage to step into the storehouses of our hearts and face what we find inside, and may we have the willingness do the work we know we need to do.


Notes:

1. Luke 6:43-44 (NRSV)
2. Luke 6:45 (NRSV)
3. Blue Letter Bible: "thēsauros"
4. Wikipedia: "Thesaurus"
5. 1 John 1:9
6. A quote like this has been attributed to both Henri Nouwen and Richard Rohr.

The photograph featured in this perspective was taken by Pixabay user jackal211 and has been released to the public domain.  The photographer is in no way affiliated with this blog.

Perspective: Peace amid the Storms

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.

Comments are always welcomed.

If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

Peace amid the Storms

Don't be anxious about anything; rather, bring up all of your requests to God in your prayers and petitions, along with giving thanks.  Then the peace of God that exceeds all understanding will keep your hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:6-7 (CEB)

Things were crashing loudly

Happening all around me

But Your still small voice

Was all that I could hear

"I am here

I'm holding you

You'll make it through this

I am here; I am here"

From "Beautiful History" by Plumb

One day, while the Disciples were aboard a boat with Jesus, crossing the Sea of Galilee, they suddenly found themselves caught in a violent storm.  As the wind and the waves battered the boat, the Disciples started to panic.  Jesus, on the other hand, was sleeping through the storm.  The Disciples woke Him up and said, "Lord, save us!  We are perishing!"  Jesus, perhaps still a bit groggy, said to them, "Why are you afraid, you of little faith?"  He got up and rebuked the wind, and the storm ceased as suddenly as it started.  The Disciples were awestruck.¹

For the people of Jesus' day, the sea was a scary place.  The topography of the region made the Sea of Galilee prone to sudden violent storms like the one that struck while Jesus and the Disciples were crossing.²  The sea, in general, also happened to be a symbol of darkness, evil, and chaos.³  When Jesus calmed the sea, He demonstrated not only His mastery over the forces of nature but also His dominion over the forces of evil.  Interestingly, the Greek word the Gospel writers use to describe Jesus' silencing the sea - translated as rebuke - is the same word they use to describe His subduing demons elsewhere in the story.⁴

Personally, I wish I had the peace that allowed Jesus to sleep through the storm.  Amid the figurative storms of life, I have much more in common with the panicking Disciples.  I think I actually believe that everything will be fine once the storm is over.  It's the storm itself I tend to dread.  I've been around long enough to know that things tend to work out in the end or will at least get better eventually, but I know it can hurt like hell in the meantime, and that pain is what scares me.

We have a tendency to think that Jesus had some advantages that the rest of us simply don't have.  I think that His peace in the midst of the storm is something that is available to all of us, if we seek it.  Otherwise, He would have been totally out of line to chastise the Disciples for being afraid.

On another occasion, the Disciples board a boat and head across the Sea of Galilee, while Jesus takes some time to himself to pray.  Once again, the they find themselves in the midst of a violent storm.  As they struggle against the wind and the waves, they see what appears to be the form of a person standing on the water.  They cry out in fear, thinking they are seeing a ghost.  A familiar voice calls out to them, saying, "Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid."  Not only can Jesus command the wind to stop blowing, He can also walk on top of a raging sea.⁵

Christian doctrine teaches us that Jesus is both fully God and fully human.  This means that, in Jesus, we can see what God is like and what humans are capable of becoming.  I once heard a friend of mine say that, though we have no hope of ever becoming divine like Jesus, we can always aspire to be a human like Jesus.  I don't believe we will ever be able to take command of the weather or walk on top of liquid water, no matter how close to God we become; I do, however, believe that we have access to a peace that allows us to either rest easy amid the storms of life or stand tall in defiance of them.

So how can we find this peace in the midst of the storm?  As I hinted earlier, I am not an expert in this matter.  I suspect that finding this peace is a skill we have to learn over time.  I think that there are at least a couple of things we need to put into practice.

First of all, we need to trust in God.  One of Jesus' names, Emmanuel, means "God is with us."⁶  In Jesus, God was with the Disciples in the boat as they faced the first storm, and God was with the Disciples on the sea as they faced the second storm.  Likewise, God is with us in the midst of the storms we face in life.  We are not alone, for the one who "works all things together for good"⁷ is always with us.

Secondly, as we put our trust in God, we also need to believe in ourselves.  While Jesus was still standing on the water, the disciple Peter said, "Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water."  Jesus invited Peter to join Him, and Peter got out of the boat and started walking on top of the water toward Jesus.  When he felt the strong wind blowing against him, he became afraid, and he started to sink.  Jesus caught him and said, "You of little faith, why did you doubt?"⁸

Peter managed to walk on top of the water for a little while, but, when he doubted himself, he started to sink.  Typically we think that Peter doubted Jesus, but Peter had no reason to doubt Jesus, because Jesus wasn't sinking.⁹  Jesus invites each of us to follow Him, and He would not extend this invitation to us if He did not believe that we were up to the task.  Trust in God, and believe in yourself.

When Jesus calmed the first storm, the Disciples asked each other, "What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?"¹⁰  When Jesus joined the Disciples in the boat in the midst of the second storm, having walked on top of the water toward them, the wind died down once again.  The Disciples said, "Truly you are the Son of God."¹¹  They found the answer to their question, and their wonder turned to worship.

Whatever storms of life you are facing at the moment, remember that God is with you in the midst of it all.  Also, believe in yourself, for you are stronger than you realize.


Notes:

1. Matthew 8:23-27 (NRSV)
2. William Barclay.  The New Daily Study Bible: The Gospel of Matthew, Volume One.  2001, Saint Andrew Press.  p. 365
3. N.T. Wright.  Matthew for Everyone, Part 1.  2004, Westminster John Knox Press.  p. 89
4. Blue Letter Bible: "epitimaō"
5. Matthew 14:22-27 (NRSV)
6. Matthew 1:20-23 (NRSV)
7. Romans 8:28 (CEB)
8. Matthew 14:28-31 (NRSV)
9. Rob Bell.  Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith.  2005, Zondervan.  p. 133
10. Matthew 8:27 (NRSV)
11. Matthew 14:32-33 (NRSV)

The Storm on the Sea of Galilee was painted by Rembrandt in the 1600s.  Christ Walking on the Sea was painted by Amédée Varint in the 1800s.