Yes. I’m hungry.

It is about lunchtime here in Oregon as I sit and compose this post. My stomach is grumbling a bit because I have not eaten anything since the delicious dinner Joan prepared for us last night. 

But don’t cry for me, Argentina. My tummy grumbles are my own fault. I decided a couple of years ago to do that whole “intermittent fasting” thing. Meaning I essentially skip breakfast every day. 

But I am not here today to argue pro or con about this approach to weight control. [although I have to say; it has really worked well for me]. I am a lot more interested today in talking about the whole topic of HUNGER. 

As a middle-class American, the solution to that gnawing sensation in my gut is pretty simple. I get up, I walk to the cabinet (or the refrigerator. Or both), I grab something to eat, and EAT IT. As a matter of fact, I just now followed those exact steps. Done deal. Hunger satisfied.

Sometimes, though, the ease of solving my personal hunger problem blows a dense smokescreen over lots of other sticky side topics. For starters it effectively blinds me to the millions and millions of people in the world whose stomachs growl at them all day, every day… with no relief in sight. It allows me to avoid wrestling with the complex justice (not to mention environmental) issues involved in global food production and distribution.

My easy food access plugs up my ears to those trying to educate me to the reality of food waste, particularly here in America where, according to the website rts.com, “… the United States discards more food than any other country in the world: nearly 60 million tons — 120 billion pounds — every year. That’s estimated to be almost 40 percent of the entire US food supply…”

Sitting here I am able to shrug my shoulders and shake my head when I hear about the blockade Russia has now put on all shipments of grain coming out of Ukraine. This blockade essentially cuts off vital food supplies to the very poorest countries of the world.

In fact, if you were to pin me down (or put me in a full nelson) and say, “OK. What are the top five issues in your life RIGHT NOW!” I am not sure “hunger” even makes the list.

Which is sad. Sad because it also leaves me on the outside of Jesus’ list of one of the kinds of folks who are blessed. In the Beatitudes section of his famous Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says this: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.” (Matthew 5:6, NRSV). 

As he usually does, Jesus is using imagery that his audience can easily relate to. It is highly likely there were a lot of hungry people listening to him preach that day. That is to say, people who didn’t have full refrigerators sitting six steps away from where they sat composing blog posts, for example. 

These were all people who were well acquainted with hunger. And thirst. As a result of that lived experience it was easy for them to imagine what hungering and thirsting for righteousness felt like.  

How about you and me? Sure. I will readily admit to having an active interest in righteousness. But hungering for it? Thirsting for it? I’m not so sure about that. And besides, just what IS righteousness anyway?

I believe for Jesus, righteousness amounted to “right living.” He did not think of righteousness as being caught up in the morass of religious practices of his day. 

And right living, for Jesus, starts and ends with the two great commandments: “’He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’  This is the greatest and first commandment.  And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Matthew 22:37-39, NRSVU).

Most of us will nod our heads and agree with the practical good sense of this definition of righteousness. But what does it mean to “… hunger and thirst…” for it? What does it look like to pursue righteousness as zealously as I just pursued that ham sandwich I made myself for lunch? How do I come to see righteousness as a matter that is critical for my personal survival? 

I also have to ask: when our stomachs are so easily filled, are we even CAPABLE of that kind of hunger?

What about you? Are you hungry? What are you hungry for?

Abundant blessings;