Lenten Devotional – Tue, Mar 9: THIRSTY
Tue, Mar 9: THIRSTY
When Matthew addresses hunger and thirst, we can consider them as intertwined appetites of body, mind, and spirit. Our thirst begins deep inside, born among the gaps and absences, hurts and shortcomings. Something is missing. We feel empty — or perhaps incomplete — and long to be filled.
Spiritually, we’re thirsting for a more life-giving and essential connection, healing, and relationship. It often arises as a sense of longing, questioning, or restlessness, to which Christ speaks in this Beatitude. It also echoes the long narrative thread of water in Biblical stories.
Of course, Christ is called the Water of Life. Truly, the sacred element of water, especially in desert settings, is not just symbolic: it is crucial to thriving.
We can trace the stories of water from Hebrew scriptures to the Gospels and letters of Paul. It begins with the creation story of the waters covering the face of the earth, arises in the the great flood and covenant with Noah, and flows in the river that carried baby Moses away from Miriam to the Egyptian princess that raised him, rolls back as the famed parting of the Red Sea for the fleeing Israelites, the springs forth as the fountain of water when Moses struck the rock with his staff. It returns in stories of the wells and rivers and oases that nourished flocks and shepherds and whole tribes. It is the backdrop for the tale of Jonah and the fish and a gathering place in distance lands around which the exiled Israelites gathered and wept. Among the stories of Jesus are those that include being baptized by John in the Jordan, asking for water from the woman at the well, transforming water into wine at the wedding, calming stormy waters, walking on the water, washing the feet of his followers, and weeping as he died on the cross. Then again, water becomes crucial in the apostolic tales of baptizing new believers such as Lydia or traveling across the seas to new cities and faith communities.
How do we trace the story of thirst, and life-giving responses we have experienced, in our own lives?
Always, thirst suggests a vital need within us: in this case it is for more than the survival of our bodies. Jacques Phillipe writes, ‘The fourth Beatitude points to a question; what is my deepest desire? Hunger and thirst are images for what is most essential … What desire is the principle of unity in my life?’
Sometimes, mistakenly, we reach for easy comforts that sate and distract. Ones that cannot meet our deepest need. As humans, we often take shortcuts to satisfy underlying emotional, psychological, spiritual needs and thirsts.
In part, this Beatitude addresses the honesty of accounting for the ways we are harmful to ourselves and others as we search for Godself. We make mistakes by quenching lesser and unhealthy cravings along the way. They get between us and a healthy relationship with ourselves, other people, and Godself.
In twelve-step models, this parallels taking inventory of our moral issues. Christ blesses those who acknowledge their hungers and thirsts — their addictions and desires and habits — and then re-direct themselves, striving for satisfaction in healthy and holy ways.
These forms of inventory, and seeking right relationship, can also occur at societal levels. Certainly the focus on relationship suggests community as part of the response as well as the source of the trouble. Jacques Phillipe observes, ‘Hunger and thirst for justice, desire for the Kingdom, far from being passive waiting, are actively expressed in announcing the good news of the gospel and the work of transforming society to which each of us is called.’
Our desires may be met and filled by a focused connection to Godself and a supportive community. Yet simply to realize that we have such a need is an important step along the Way of Christ. Revealing these vulnerable, imperfect aspects of our being and our society can lead to healing: reinforcing personal and communal practices that support wellbeing.
This process doesn’t promise to be easy. Yet the Beatitude assures us that we will be filled. All the gaps and fissures, the broken places, the emptiness and isolation, will be topped off. God’s abundance overflows. We are renewed through relationships with creation, other people, and with Godself. — Rev Gail
Animals praise a good day, a good hunt. They praise rain if they’re thirsty. That’s prayer. They don’t live an unconscious life, they simply have no language to talk about these things. But they are grateful for the good things that come along. — Mary Oliver
When you’re thirsty and it seems that you could drink the entire ocean, that’s faith; when you start to drink and finish only a glass or two, that’s science. — Anton Chekhov
It’s a great responsibility before God, the judge who guides us, who draws us to truth and good, and in this sense the church must unmask evil, rendering present the goodness of God, rendering present his truth, the truly infinite for which we are thirsty. — Pope Benedict XVI
Challenge or Question: In what ways do you feel empty? When does this emptiness seem healthy and when is it a problem? What fills the emptiness or ‘lack’ for you?
Mar 7 Worship with Communion – Lenten Season
Worship
Message
Lenten Devotional – WEEK THREE of LENT
Beatitude texts for this week: Matthew 5:6-7
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Sun, Mar 7: BLESSED
If you’re a fan of the poet John O’Donohue, you may have learned the Gaelic word beannacht as another word for blessing.
This week the blessing is given to those who hunger and thirst, and then again to those who are merciful. Again, this overturns ancient expectations that blessings were primarily available to people who were especially upstanding or powerful. These Beatitudes are offered, by Christ, for those who hold the least social standing in the community, and yet who embody the compassion that Christ strives to offer all of humanity.
Ironically, the conditions that cause people to be categorized as hungry and thirsty — especially for righteousness — or to be considered merciful, may not be ones that are desirable. We do not aspire to know bodily or spiritual hunger. We want to be the ones with the power to feed and help others, as opposed to receiving such gifts. Yet in Christ’s eyes, all people hold value, including the most unexpected among us. When we are placed in that upside-down position of needing mercy from another, or of receiving nourishment from another, we gain a new point of view about what it means to belong to each other, and to Godself. — Rev Gail
Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing. — Camille Pissarro
Reflect upon your present blessings—of which every man has many—not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some. — Charles Dickens
Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things. — Robert Brault
Those born to wealth, and who have the means of gratifying every wish, know not what is the real happiness of life, just as those who have been tossed on the stormy waters of the ocean on a few frail planks can alone realize the blessings of fair weather. ― Alexandre Dumas
Challenge or Question: Identify a blessing within your life. One aspect of your life for which you are grateful. Give thanks for it. Say a prayer, write it in a journal, or light a candle to acknowledge this blessing.
Lenten Devotional – Thurs, Mar 4: MEEK
Meek: does this sound like a blessed condition? Matthew’s author used the Greek word praus. It might convey, as Brian Stoffregen writes, the “positive sense of ‘humble’ or ‘gentle’” or it might carry a more negative connotation such “‘humiliated’ … ‘walked on’ … ‘doormats’ … ‘powerless.’” In Hebrew scriptures, these people would be called anawim. The scholar Powell writes that the meek are the “ones who have not been given their share of the earth. They have been denied access to the world’s resources and have not had opportunity to enjoy the creation that God intended for all people.”
In this understanding, the meek include those who, without choice, are dispossessed and disenfranchised. They lack representation and authority. They are unable to hold onto land, resources or struggle to gain access to channels of influence and power.
Additionally, Martha Stortz writes that ‘Biblical meekness is tempered strength, power deliberately held in check.’ According to John Stott, ‘the Greek adjective translated “meek,” means “gentle,” “humble,” “considerate,” “courteous,” and therefore exercising the self-control without which these qualities would be impossible.’
In other words, the meek are people who are gentle and kind, and also exercise self-discipline about when and how they respond to unjust situations. They’re capable of righteous anger, but they restrain themselves unless the issue demands advocacy to be rectified or addressed.
According to some commentators, the meek, as defined by Biblical context, opt for strategies of nonviolence. Examples of such people include Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. If we point to communities that adopt such practices, we might consider the Amish communities for their principles of nonviolence. They may be meek, and yet they are also strong and resilient.
Whether dispossessed or deliberately soft-spoken and courteous, do we often notice or listen to such folks? Christ’s Beatitude is pointing us toward this part of the population and reminding us that these are neighbors with insights to offer and gifts to share. By offering a blessing, Christ confirms their place within the community.
Do you identify as humble or meek? In what way? — Gail
You are meek
A trait few seek
Mistaking it for weak
― Lidia Longorio
He never complained. He seemed to have no instinct for the making much of oneself that complaining requires. ― Wendell Berry
Men sometimes speak as if humility and meekness would rob us of what is noble and bold and manlike. O that all would believe that this is the nobility of the kingdom of heaven, that this is the royal spirit that the King of heaven displayed, that this is Godlike, to humble oneself, to become the servant of all! ― Andrew Murray
The least known among the virtues and also the most misunderstood is the virtue of humility. Yet, it is the very groundwork of Christianity. Humility is a grace of the soul that cannot be expressed in words and is only known by experience. It is an unspeakable treasure of God, and only can be called the gift of God. “Learn,” He said, not from angels, not from men, not from books; but learn from My presence, light, and action within you, “that I am meek and humble of heart, and you shall find rest to your souls”. ― William Bernard Ullathorne
One of the best exercises in meekness we can perform is when the subject Is in ourselves. We must not fret over our own imperfections. Although reason requires that we must be displeased and sorry whenever we commit a fault we must refrain from bitter, gloomy, spiteful, and emotional displeasure. Many people are greatly at fault in this way. When overcome by anger they become angry at being angry, disturbed at being disturbed and vexed at being vexed. By such means they keep their hearts drenched and steeped in passion. ― Francis de Sale
Challenge or Question: Have you ever used a nonviolent response to an unjust situation? Was your response to a personal situation or a societal one? What strategy did you use? How did it work? What other strategies might you try?
Feb 21 Worship: First Sunday of Lent – Beatitudes starting with Poor in Spirit
Full Service
Message: Blessed