What This Country Needs

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. --Matthew 6:33

It took me a long time to ask the obvious question:  why should I seek first God’s kingdom and righteousness?  Why can’t I just do whatever I want?  Does my obedience make God feel good such that He will subsequently look after me?  Does my obedience make God love me, or love me more?  Could it be something else?  Is it possible that God knows my true need better than I do? 

God does not tell you to seek righteousness so He can love you.  He tells you to seek righteousness because He loves you. 

Righteousness is sometimes defined as the state of moral perfection required to enter heaven.  That is somewhat of a circular definition.  To be righteous, or upright before God, is to enter heaven.  The Hebrew word at the root of it all is sedeq.  This usually gets translated in the Septuagint as dikaiosynē (so I am told).  According to the New Dictionary of Theology (Wright, Ferguson, and Packer), “It thus denotes not so much the abstract idea of justice or virtue, as right standing and consequent right behaviour, within a community.”

Jesus said, “For God so loved the world …” – why not stop there?  The Lord could have just said, “We’ll call it good, and everybody is all right.”  That’s not the way it works.  Man is destroyed for the lack of righteousness -- not by God -- by the lack.  Both the libertine and the legalist miss the point Christ is making -- in His words, in His death and the shedding of His blood.  

One of Jesus’ parables is about a wedding feast to which many were invited.  The invited guests refused the invitation, so the king sent out his servants to gather in the poor, the strangers, and the homeless that the abundance might not go to waste and that the marriage would be joyously celebrated.  Since these people were not necessarily properly clothed, the king even provided for that.  He probably gave them the opportunity to bathe, and he gave them new, clean wedding garments to wear.  So the king is walking around, enjoying the great feast, making sure everybody is having a great time.  But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment.  And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. (Matthew 22:11-12) 

By this parable to which the covenant of marriage is central, Jesus shows us the covenant side of righteousness.  To be part of the covenant community is both a gift and an obligation.  If we would accept the offer of life, we must also accept the appropriate garment, of righteousness.  To enter into the covenantal relationship we must put off our old clothes and “put on Christ”. 

The deepest need of the creature is the Creator, and, possibly, because He created us, the Creator – no, I am too fearful to say He needs us; He loves us more than we can comprehend.  That is enough.  He wants the best for us which can only be ours if we can be upright before Him.  But we are broken, weak, marred vessels, wandering beggars along the roads.  He calls us who are covered in grime and the filthy rags of our unrighteousness.  He says, Come in and we will clean you up, and robe you in righteousness that you may enter.   For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.   (2 Corinthians 5:21)

We do not need better marketing, more gadgetry, faster connections, more hybrids, more tolerance for wickedness, more celebrations of decadence – not even more money, more jobs, and better politicians.  Our deepest need is for righteousness.  Ease, comfort, convenience, pleasure – these things are sought and when they are obtained, we quickly find they are not enough. 

Yet if we would simply hunger and thirst for righteousness, we would be freely, abundantly, and everlastingly filled. 

Honey and Chicken

A person who is full tramples on a honeycomb, but to a hungry person, any bitter thing is sweet — Proverbs 27:7

Jesus told us if we will hunger and thirst after righteousness, we will be filled. The requisite to being filled is to be empty. It is the essence of any Zen practice. As long as we think we have the answers, the answer will remain elusive to us. We may nibble around the corners, like the Hobbits toward the end of Bilbo's birthday feast, but we'll be picky and selective about what we are nibbling.

On an outdoor forum I used to frequent, one poster had for his signature line, "Hunger is the best sauce." I have a particular aversion to chicken. I have no real idea why that is. All I know is that the smell of chicken frying or baking, though appealing to most people, is almost nauseating to me. I think I could eat chicken if I couldn't smell it. Early one summer I hired on with a crew to haul hay at two cents a bale. I made $48.00 that day between about 8:00am and 11:00pm. Mom's breakfast kept me going until the shadows were long in the hollows. At last we paused for supper. It was fried chicken. I almost wept. Fortunately they had a few beans as well, but it was a mighty small serving. Knowing it would be hours yet before I got anything else to eat, I managed to not breathe and choke down most of a drumstick. I was hungry.

All of us have bitter, negative experiences from time to time. If our hearts are longing for truth, we will find the presence of God, even in the midst of unpleasantness. To the hungry heart, there is as much nourishment in the bitter as in the sweet. The Shepherd's Psalm talks about the Lord preparing a table for me in the presence of my enemies. It is the communion with Him that satisfies us. It is the Lord Himself Who satisfies my longing and renews my strength when I am under pressure and in the midst of trials. Bitter, sweet, rich, or plain, it doesn't matter if we "recognize the body [of Christ]" in that which comes to us.

The person who is full of self and self-satisfied will show disdain for all the gifts of God. They may ignore God, reject God, or demand that He conform to their requirements. They may call themselves Christians and run from church to church, event to event, claiming to seek the very truth they trample underfoot. For those obsessed with critiquing the music, the order of service, and the preaching, the problem is likely that they are not really hungry enough. When I am too full of flesh, I will not appreciate manna.

Like the Prodigal, I may need to recognize that I could have something better than husks and hog-slop. It may look like a long, empty road home. I may dread the humiliation of admitting that I am not all I thought I was. At the end, though, I will find my Father watching, waiting, and ready with all that is Good to fill the empty heart.

Love You Long Time

As a deer longs for streams of water, so I long for You, God. I thirst for God, the living God. When can I come and appear before God? – Psalm 42:1-2

For the vast majority of man’s time on earth, the main concern must have been lunch. At least that’s what Maslow’s hierarchy of needs postulates. The physiological needs, such as air, water, and food, form the base of a typical pyramid. The base includes all the “animal” aspects of life like sleep and sex. As best I can figure, sex is the only thing in the base that we can live without for very long. Of course, if you assume that the reason for animal life – including humans – is reproduction of selfish genes, then those that do not have sex to pass along their DNA do not live as long as those who do.

Some critics of Maslow’s pyramid argue that the hierarchical structure is a false. While all the listed needs may be more or less legitimate, the idea that sleep is more basic, somehow, than friendship or security is misleading. In real life, most of us have given up a lower level need for a higher level need. Morality is on the capstone of Maslow’s pyramid, implying that morality only becomes important when all the lower level needs are met. In a coherent, sensible society, the satisfaction of lower level needs is controlled by morality. A desperately hungry man may violate his morals to eat, but he knows he is doing something extreme.

God is trying to make us whole, to put us back together, to defragment us. If we are only a body, then we are mainly concerned with satisfying animal needs. If we recognize that we have a soul, then our needs change to emotional and relational objects. At the innermost is the spirit man who recognizes that the most intense hunger and thirst we can experience physically are but a mirage compared to that which gives us true satisfaction in life -- that gives us life.

For the person who seeks after God, hierarchies become meaningless. Needs are more like ripples in a pool, concentric circles leading us back to the point of origin, created by our entrance into material existence. The only thing that matters is His presence in our lives, His voice speaking to our spirit, His life flowing through us and out of us.

“… out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water …”

Of Zombies, Scorpions, and Honey

They will throw their silver into the streets, and their gold will seem like something filthy. Their silver and gold will be unable to save them in the day of the LORD’S wrath. They will not satisfy their appetites or fill their stomachs, for these were their stumbling blocks that brought about their iniquity. -- Ezekiel 7:19

In these days of a battered stock market and a dollar that would look anorexic in a family of Ethiopians, we are tempted to turn to other forms of wealth. Some advocate the purchase of precious metals like silver and, especially, gold. An ounce of gold will buy about the same amount of bread it always did.

But there has to be bread to for sale.

The Bible warns that there can be a famine, not of bread, but of hearing the Word of God. No currency, nothing the world values, nothing that bears Caesar’s image can save those who come to that day. Hollow-eyed forms, the living dead will walk the malls staring at the plenty that stares back as useless and pointless as more sand in the desert. They waste away for the lack of they know not what. Their souls wail and cry but find no relief, for, as Jeremiah says, they have abandoned the springs of living water and sought to drink from their man-made cisterns which are broken, empty, and dry.

They were told to trust in gold, in bank accounts, stock portfolios, and retirement accounts. It only made sense to gain as much as they could. If a little was good, a lot was better. The scientists and the economists assured them that they had no soul, and if they did, it was not worth troubling over. Sell it for what you can get and put it in equities. Tear down your houses and build bigger. Trade your cars for newer models, and your spouse, too, while you’re at it. There’s no reason to be unhappy when you have no fault divorce, five hundred channels, the Blue Pill, and Prozac.

The poet called them hollow men and prophesied their whimpering end. They did not die on their feet in battle, but on their faces, clinging to a dunghill.

On the other hand: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, because they will be filled. (Matthew 5:6)

Those who will hear, not the jangling and clanging of the words, but the melodious song of the Word, the chanting Spirit, they will have their souls satisfied, their spirits fed and made strong. They will not faint in the day of battle, nor lose their footing and fall. Having done all to stand, they will stand clothed in the Lord’s own armor with the shield of faith and wielding the sword of the Spirit.

The world’s great motivator is fear. It is filled with fear and dread. If I listen too much to it, sometimes it makes me afraid. I start counting my bullets and sharpening my knives. Then I get this nudge, and I have to smile. Terror on every side, you say? Weren’t you told about this when you signed on?

”But you, son of man, do not be afraid of them or their words, though briers and thorns are beside you and you live among scorpions. Don’t be afraid of their words or discouraged by their faces, for they are a rebellious house. But speak My words to them whether they listen or refuse … And you, son of man, listen to what I tell you: Do not be rebellious like that rebellious house. Open your mouth and eat what I am giving you … Eat this scroll, then go and speak …”. So I ate, and it was sweet as honey in my mouth. (Ezekiel 2:6-3:3)