St Theodore's Sermon

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Sermon of the Week

2/4/00

The Law of Appetite - Hungering for Righteousness Phil 3:7-16
Jn 6:25-59

It's pretty hard to read the newspapers or watch the news on TV without becoming outraged from time to time by the injustices in our world. A young child walks into a classroom and shoots 8 other children with his uncle's gun. A drunk driver crosses the median strip and wipes out a family on their way to holidays. A stockbroker loses millions of dollars for his clients then commits suicide. Big banks decide to close down their country branches because they don't make enough profit, leaving people without convenient access to banking and resulting in the loss of thousands of jobs. People in third world countries working in sweatshops so we can have cheap clothing or consumer goods. The list is endless.

I wonder, do you long for such injustices to end? Does your heart cry out for the victims of injustice? If it does, then, Jesus says, you are blessed. You see, if you hate injustice, that's something you have in common with God. Listen to what God says in Is 61:8: "For I the LORD love justice, I hate robbery and wrongdoing; I will faithfully give them their recompense, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them." Or Zech 8:16,17: "These are the things that you shall do: Speak the truth to one another, render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace, ¹⁷do not devise evil in your hearts against one another, and love no false oath; for all these are things that I hate, says the LORD."

So a desire for justice in the world is a godly thing. You're right to long for it.

But let me ask you, do you long for the same thing in your own life? Do you hunger for righteousness in your own inward life? Do you long for the day when your evil desires will be overcome rather than overcoming you? If you do, then again you are blessed. Why? Because you will be satisfied.

You see, there are two responses of God to the evil in the world. The first response is that he will judge it. This is a theme that runs right through the Bible, from Gen 3 with the curse on the serpent that Eve's offspring would crush his head, right through to the picture of heaven in Revelation 21. For example listen to what God says to Abram when he promises that his offspring will be given the land of Canaan: (Gen 15:13-16 NRSV) "Then the LORD said to Abram, "Know this for certain, that your offspring shall be aliens in a land that is not theirs, and shall be slaves there, and they shall be oppressed for four hundred years; ¹⁴but I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. ... ¹⁶And they shall come back here in the fourth generation; for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete." Later on through prophets like Amos and Micah, God warns the Israelites that he'll judge them for their injustice towards the poor and powerless. Paul, when he speaks to the philosophers of Athens finishes his speech with these words: (Acts 17:30-31 NRSV) "While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, ³¹because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead." There is no doubt that in the end all evil, all injustice, all unrighteousness, will be removed from this world. In the final 2 chapters of Revelation, which describe the heavenly Jerusalem, four or five times we're told that there'll be no evil in the city, no-one who practices anything evil will be allowed in. On that last day all evil will be wiped out, cast into the lake of fire.

But of course that doesn't really help us, does it. The fact that unrighteousness will be judged and all evil wiped out, doesn't help us at all, because each one of us has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. So we need God's second response to evil in the world. That of course is the promise of redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Do you remember what we read in Ephesians 1 last year? (Eph 1:5-8 NRSV) "He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, ⁶to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. ⁷In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace ⁸that he lavished on us." The good news for those who are hungering for righteousness in their lives, is that God has provided the way for us to be made right again, through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Paul says in our first reading today: (Phil 3:8-9 NRSV) "I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ ⁹and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith."

He tells us in Ephesians that for those who have faith in Jesus Christ, it's like we've put off our old self and put on a new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. (Eph 4:24)

But if that's the case, if we've been made righteous through faith in Jesus Christ, what difference should it make to our lives? You see, this is a 2-way thing. We can't claim to hunger for righteousness and at the same time be living as though it doesn't matter what we do or say.

In fact, Jesus goes on in the sermon on the mount, to highlight some of the characteristics of those who are hungering for righteousness in their lives. Let's look at a few of them.

First there's moral purity. (Mat 5:27-30 NRSV) ""You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' ²⁸But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. ²⁹If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. ³⁰And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go into hell."

The call to righteous living is a radical one. It entails having absolutely nothing to do with anything that will lead us astray. So if your eye leads you astray, pluck it out, if it's your hand, cut it off. The cure is radical, but the alternative is disastrous. I don't think Jesus meant this literally, by the way, but he was serious about us doing everything in our power to avoid the temptation to sin.

Then he talks about verbal honesty: (Mat 5:33-37 NRSV) ""Again, you have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, 'You shall not swear falsely, but carry out the vows you have made to the Lord.' ³⁴But I say to you, Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, ³⁵or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. ³⁶And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. ³⁷Let your word be 'Yes, Yes' or 'No, No'; anything more than this comes from the evil one." One of the noticeable things about those lists at the end of Revelation of those who will be excluded from the heavenly Jerusalem is that each list ends with liars, or those who practise falsehood. Jesus warned us that Satan was the father of lies. On the other hand, God is the God of all truth. So if we're people who hunger for righteousness, our lives will be characterised by truthfulness. We'll be people whose word can be trusted. We won't need to swear by heaven, or in God's name for people to believe us. They'll believe us because we're people of integrity, people whose spoken words are righteous words.

Then there's loyalty to our brothers and sisters. (Mat 5:21-26 NRSV) ""You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, 'You shall not murder'; and 'whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.' ²²But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, 'You fool,' you will be liable to the hell of fire. ²³So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, ²⁴leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift. ²⁵Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on the way to court with him, or your accuser may hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. ²⁶Truly I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny." Anger is OK if it's righteous anger, anger against some injustice or sin in the world. But anger that's personal, that's directed at a person, with the implication that the world would be better off if that person weren't in it, is tantamount to murder. The test is whether the anger is rooted in a just cause or simply a reaction caused by my personal feelings, my pride or self-interest. And when something has come between me and a brother or sister, being part of God's family demands that I do all in my power to resolve the issue at hand. If I've offended them I need to go and make amends. In Matt 18:16, Jesus says that if they've offended me, I need to go and talk to them about it in order to restore our relationship. For whatever reason our relationship has broken down, the onus is on me to do something about it. A hunger for righteousness implies an overwhelming desire for good relationships with those in God's family.

That brings us to what's meant by hunger here. I'm not sure any of us really understand what that word means. We say we're hungry when it's been a couple of hours since we ate. But that's really just appetite. The hunger he's talking about here, is the sort of hunger you find in starving people. It's a cry from the whole body stemming from intense need. In other words, this hunger isn't just a momentary desire that'll be satisfied by a handful of snack food. Rather it's a deep need affecting our whole being. It's an intense hunger and thirst for all that's available in Christ.

That's why Paul says: "For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ ⁹and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith."

Paul had such a longing for true righteousness that he was willing to give up everything else in order to have the righteousness that comes by faith in Jesus Christ. Notice the paradox there, by the way. This righteousness doesn't come by keeping the law. It comes by faith in Jesus Christ. Yet Paul is willing to give up everything else to get it. The standards of behaviour taught by Jesus in the sermon on the mount, aren't standards for achieving righteousness, they're standards for those who claim to stand in the righteousness given to them freely by Jesus Christ. Yet at the same time they're standards that will help us remain in that righteousness.

It's a wonderful promise isn't it? Those who hunger after righteousness will be satisfied. Jesus said "I came that they might have life and have it abundantly" (John 10:10). He said "The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life." (John 4:14) Jesus' coming means that there's righteousness to spare. It's there in abundance if we'll only ask for it.

If you desire righteousness in your life, ask God to give it to you. Ask him to purify your heart. Ask him to take away those evil desires that trouble you. Ask him to give you the deep assurance you need that your sins are forgiven and that he's accepted you into his family. Ask him for the power of the Holy Spirit to put away those practices from your life that hold you back from serving him. His promise is that if you ask he will give it to you in abundance. And when you find yourself failing as you will from time to time, don't give up. Go back to him and ask him for his forgiveness, for that righteousness he promises all over again. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.


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	Sermon of the Week
	2/4/00
	The Law of Appetite - Hungering for Righteousness	Phil 3:7-16 Jn 6:25-59

	It's pretty hard to read the newspapers or watch the news on TV without becoming outraged from time to time by the injustices in our world. A young child walks into a classroom and shoots 8 other children with his uncle's gun. A drunk driver crosses the median strip and wipes out a family on their way to holidays. A stockbroker loses millions of dollars for his clients then commits suicide. Big banks decide to close down their country branches because they don't make enough profit, leaving people without convenient access to banking and resulting in the loss of thousands of jobs. People in third world countries working in sweatshops so we can have cheap clothing or consumer goods. The list is endless.
	I wonder, do you long for such injustices to end? Does your heart cry out for the victims of injustice? If it does, then, Jesus says, you are blessed. You see, if you hate injustice, that's something you have in common with God. Listen to what God says in Is 61:8: "For I the LORD love justice, I hate robbery and wrongdoing; I will faithfully give them their recompense, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them." Or Zech 8:16,17: "These are the things that you shall do: Speak the truth to one another, render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace, ¹⁷do not devise evil in your hearts against one another, and love no false oath; for all these are things that I hate, says the LORD."
	So a desire for justice in the world is a godly thing. You're right to long for it.
	But let me ask you, do you long for the same thing in your own life? Do you hunger for righteousness in your own inward life? Do you long for the day when your evil desires will be overcome rather than overcoming you? If you do, then again you are blessed. Why? Because you will be satisfied.
	You see, there are two responses of God to the evil in the world. The first response is that he will judge it. This is a theme that runs right through the Bible, from Gen 3 with the curse on the serpent that Eve's offspring would crush his head, right through to the picture of heaven in Revelation 21. For example listen to what God says to Abram when he promises that his offspring will be given the land of Canaan: (Gen 15:13-16 NRSV) "Then the LORD said to Abram, "Know this for certain, that your offspring shall be aliens in a land that is not theirs, and shall be slaves there, and they shall be oppressed for four hundred years; ¹⁴but I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. ... ¹⁶And they shall come back here in the fourth generation; for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete." Later on through prophets like Amos and Micah, God warns the Israelites that he'll judge them for their injustice towards the poor and powerless. Paul, when he speaks to the philosophers of Athens finishes his speech with these words: (Acts 17:30-31 NRSV) "While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, ³¹because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead." There is no doubt that in the end all evil, all injustice, all unrighteousness, will be removed from this world. In the final 2 chapters of Revelation, which describe the heavenly Jerusalem, four or five times we're told that there'll be no evil in the city, no-one who practices anything evil will be allowed in. On that last day all evil will be wiped out, cast into the lake of fire.
	But of course that doesn't really help us, does it. The fact that unrighteousness will be judged and all evil wiped out, doesn't help us at all, because each one of us has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. So we need God's second response to evil in the world. That of course is the promise of redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Do you remember what we read in Ephesians 1 last year? (Eph 1:5-8 NRSV) "He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, ⁶to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. ⁷In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace ⁸that he lavished on us." The good news for those who are hungering for righteousness in their lives, is that God has provided the way for us to be made right again, through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
	Paul says in our first reading today: (Phil 3:8-9 NRSV) "I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ ⁹and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith."
	He tells us in Ephesians that for those who have faith in Jesus Christ, it's like we've put off our old self and put on a new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. (Eph 4:24)
	But if that's the case, if we've been made righteous through faith in Jesus Christ, what difference should it make to our lives? You see, this is a 2-way thing. We can't claim to hunger for righteousness and at the same time be living as though it doesn't matter what we do or say.
	In fact, Jesus goes on in the sermon on the mount, to highlight some of the characteristics of those who are hungering for righteousness in their lives. Let's look at a few of them.
	First there's moral purity. (Mat 5:27-30 NRSV) ""You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' ²⁸But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. ²⁹If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. ³⁰And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go into hell."
	The call to righteous living is a radical one. It entails having absolutely nothing to do with anything that will lead us astray. So if your eye leads you astray, pluck it out, if it's your hand, cut it off. The cure is radical, but the alternative is disastrous. I don't think Jesus meant this literally, by the way, but he was serious about us doing everything in our power to avoid the temptation to sin.
	Then he talks about verbal honesty: (Mat 5:33-37 NRSV) ""Again, you have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, 'You shall not swear falsely, but carry out the vows you have made to the Lord.' ³⁴But I say to you, Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, ³⁵or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. ³⁶And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. ³⁷Let your word be 'Yes, Yes' or 'No, No'; anything more than this comes from the evil one." One of the noticeable things about those lists at the end of Revelation of those who will be excluded from the heavenly Jerusalem is that each list ends with liars, or those who practise falsehood. Jesus warned us that Satan was the father of lies. On the other hand, God is the God of all truth. So if we're people who hunger for righteousness, our lives will be characterised by truthfulness. We'll be people whose word can be trusted. We won't need to swear by heaven, or in God's name for people to believe us. They'll believe us because we're people of integrity, people whose spoken words are righteous words.
	Then there's loyalty to our brothers and sisters. (Mat 5:21-26 NRSV) ""You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, 'You shall not murder'; and 'whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.' ²²But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, 'You fool,' you will be liable to the hell of fire. ²³So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, ²⁴leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift. ²⁵Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on the way to court with him, or your accuser may hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. ²⁶Truly I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny." Anger is OK if it's righteous anger, anger against some injustice or sin in the world. But anger that's personal, that's directed at a person, with the implication that the world would be better off if that person weren't in it, is tantamount to murder. The test is whether the anger is rooted in a just cause or simply a reaction caused by my personal feelings, my pride or self-interest. And when something has come between me and a brother or sister, being part of God's family demands that I do all in my power to resolve the issue at hand. If I've offended them I need to go and make amends. In Matt 18:16, Jesus says that if they've offended me, I need to go and talk to them about it in order to restore our relationship. For whatever reason our relationship has broken down, the onus is on me to do something about it. A hunger for righteousness implies an overwhelming desire for good relationships with those in God's family.
	That brings us to what's meant by hunger here. I'm not sure any of us really understand what that word means. We say we're hungry when it's been a couple of hours since we ate. But that's really just appetite. The hunger he's talking about here, is the sort of hunger you find in starving people. It's a cry from the whole body stemming from intense need. In other words, this hunger isn't just a momentary desire that'll be satisfied by a handful of snack food. Rather it's a deep need affecting our whole being. It's an intense hunger and thirst for all that's available in Christ.
	That's why Paul says: "For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ ⁹and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith."
	Paul had such a longing for true righteousness that he was willing to give up everything else in order to have the righteousness that comes by faith in Jesus Christ. Notice the paradox there, by the way. This righteousness doesn't come by keeping the law. It comes by faith in Jesus Christ. Yet Paul is willing to give up everything else to get it. The standards of behaviour taught by Jesus in the sermon on the mount, aren't standards for achieving righteousness, they're standards for those who claim to stand in the righteousness given to them freely by Jesus Christ. Yet at the same time they're standards that will help us remain in that righteousness.
	It's a wonderful promise isn't it? Those who hunger after righteousness will be satisfied. Jesus said "I came that they might have life and have it abundantly" (John 10:10). He said "The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life." (John 4:14) Jesus' coming means that there's righteousness to spare. It's there in abundance if we'll only ask for it.
	If you desire righteousness in your life, ask God to give it to you. Ask him to purify your heart. Ask him to take away those evil desires that trouble you. Ask him to give you the deep assurance you need that your sins are forgiven and that he's accepted you into his family. Ask him for the power of the Holy Spirit to put away those practices from your life that hold you back from serving him. His promise is that if you ask he will give it to you in abundance. And when you find yourself failing as you will from time to time, don't give up. Go back to him and ask him for his forgiveness, for that righteousness he promises all over again. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

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