Pastor's Wisdom (John Ortberg)

There's not much I would change in this piece of "Pastor's Wisdom" from John Ortberg (except maybe to add Henri Nouwen to the final line and add, "read and live Nouwen sooner...").

"If I could begin ministry all over again, I would spend time seeking to become a healthier person, emotionally and spiritually. I spent a chunk of time serving in an area where I simply did not fit well, where some of my deepest convictions were not congruent, because I was not self-aware enough to have a clear sense of what I valued and believed. I was stuck in a tradition and setting that was familiar and comfortable, but where I did not feel like I could truly be myself; where I could not really talk about the ideas and beliefs that resonated most deeply in me. And I needed people’s approval too much to be able to serve them well. And my neediness made me too defensive to be able to learn from the criticisms that are inevitably a part of ministry.

If I could start all over again, I would spend more time in solitude getting ready for ministry. I would have spent more time getting feedback from people who knew me best. I would try to walk through the pain of letting go what I thought I needed to do and who it was I thought I needed to be so that I could have served with more freedom and effectiveness. I would try to put less pressure on my wife to be committed to my success, rather than to embrace her own gifts and calling.

I would have read Dallas Willard sooner."

(This is syndicated from Jesus Creed, and written by Scot McKnight.)

Most of this I knew in my head, and tried to live out at various times - but still too much of my value was placed on how well the church was doing (especially compared to other "successful" churches) and not on the baptismal reality / experience of identifying with Jesus in truly dying to self and rising with him, the Father's voice of affirmation and acceptance, and the immersion and saturation and covering of the Spirit of God. That image of Jesus' baptism, Nouwen insisted, must be our pattern. Ministry, and even community, must flow out of that place of knowing we are beloved and that God is well-pleased (that there's nothing God is waiting for us to do to fully rejoice over us) - otherwise we will really screw up both ministry and relationships... trust me, I know.

Blessed are those who hunger...

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they shall be satisfied.
(Matthew 5:6)


This beatitude is the last of the reversal type, or empty -> filled, type.
It is the fourth of the eight that are similar in form ("Blessed are those who... for they shall ..."). The ninth changes from they/those to you and is longer in form.

Who is this describing? If there is blessing for hungering and thirsting for righteousness, just what is righteousness? I think we sort of assume one answer that is close to moral purity or uprightness or sinlessness. While that concept is part of what the term means, it is much richer and broader than that.

The following comes from The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible:
“Righteousness” can mean:
> to cause to be in right relationship with…
> religious observances or requirements
> to give to those in need as an act of mercy
> the act of doing what God requires

“Righteousness is in the OT the fulfillment of the demands of a relationship, whether that relationship be with men or with God. Each man is set within a multitude of relationships; king with people, judge with complainants, priests with worshipers, common man with family, tribesman with community, community with resident alien and poor, all with God. And each of these relationships brings with it specific demands, the fulfillment of which constitutes righteousness. The demands may differ from relationship to relationship; righteousness in one situation may be unrighteousness in another. Further, there is no norm of righteousness outside of the relationship. When God or man fulfills the conditions imposed upon him by a relationship, he is, in OT terms, righteous.” (p. 80)

“Generally, the righteous man in Israel was the man who preserved the peace and wholeness of the community, because it was he who fulfilled the demands of communal living… thus tzedekah (righteousness) is sometimes correlated with “mercy” (Hosea 2:19). He cared for the poor, the fatherless, the widow (Job 29:12-15; 31:16-19; cf. Deut. 24:13; Prov. 29:7). He gave liberally (Ps. 37:21, 25-26; Prov 21:26), providing also for the wayfarer and guest (Job 31:24-25; Ps 37:16; Prov 16:8).” (p. 81)

Dwight Pryor (Center for Judeo-Christians Studies) and N.T. Wright (Paul) argues that in Romans, when Paul writes that God displays his righteousness which comes through faith in Jesus Christ that he is is saying that God is showing covenant faithfulness to his people; more than the imputation of a legal / judicial standing before God... I think this is similar to N.T. Wright's argument also. Both are based, in part, on the "new perspectives on Paul" articulated by E.P. Sanders (but this important discussion is for another day).

Here are some of the ways that Matthew uses the term:
3:15 – “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”
5:10 – “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
5:20 – “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
6:1 “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.”
6:33 “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” Interesting to note what this passage is about - what is one of the two principle images or experiences that Jesus uses to make his point here? Don’t worry about what you’ll eat or what you’ll drink.
21:32 “For John came to you in the way of righteousness…”

Righteousness on several levels or spheres –

1. Covenantal right relationship with God individually. This right relationship lived out faithfully in fulfilling the demands of the relationship, with is first of all, faith.
2. But also through a "working" or "living" faith, through God’s will being done in and through me – ie. behavior.
3. Seeking first his kingdom and his righteousness (6:33). That is, that right relationships with God and people, and people with one another, be established in our midst, in our community, our state, our nation, our world.


I think a very important point to be made here is that righteousness is generally and principally NOT just individual or personal.

The term righteousness also can have the sense of "justice” (Colossians 4:1; Hebrews 11:33; Revelation 19:11). Hence the idea could mean, "blessed are those who passionately long for justice in God's world..."

Why do you think Jesus uses this phrase “hunger and thirst for righteousness”? What other terminology could he have used? (eg. “Blessed are those who work for righteousness”)

(see Psalm 107:5-9; 42:2; 63:1; Isaiah 49:10; 55:1-2; Amos 8:11;)

It's not a passive longing, but an active seeking; recognizing that we are painfully deficient in the things essential to life as God meant it to be.

"...for they shall be satisfied."

We find the same term in Matthew 15:32 – the five thousand ate and were “satisfied” (same word). In John 6:35 and Revelation 7:16, we hear of those who will not hunger or thirst any more.

Whether Jesus' blessing is for those who are physically hungry now (Luke 6:21) or those who desperately long for peace and justice in God's world - Jesus promises satisfaction for those disciples of his whose present experience is the deprivation of the good for which God designed his world.

But again, Jesus himself lived out this beatitude, and his passion will transform us as we fix our hearts on it.

> Jesus fasted Matthew 40)
> “I thirst” (John 19:28)
> “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work” (John 4:34), and the context there is “living water” – “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty forever…” (4:13-14)
> “Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied.” (Isaiah 53:11)

Jesus gave himself to accomplish this righteousness, for us and for the whole world. He will make all things right – and with him those who long for it, who look for it, who pray for it and work for it, who hunger and thirst for it, and who truly eat and drink of his true food and drink, shall indeed be satisfied.

Holocaust Rememrance Day

FYI
the following comes from "The Lekarev Report" (lekarev.org)

Holocaust Memorial Day

Precisely at 10:00 am this morning, sirens blared throughout the entire country of Israel and everyone stopped. Cars on highways and city streets immediately halted, as you see on the right in Jerusalem, drivers stepped out beside their vehicles, lowered their heads and there was absolute silence for two minutes while a nation mourned the loss of six million of its people at the hands of the Nazis in World War II.

During the reading of the names at the Knesset today of those who perished, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and President Shimon Peres read out the names of family members who were killed in the Holocaust, participating in a Knesset ceremony marking the annual Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day. President Peres - who recited the names of his grandparents - took a moment to speak of his memory of them: "When we said goodbye in the train station, before I left to come to Israel, they gave me just two words - 'be Jewish.'"

Cabinet ministers, MKs and survivors of the World War II Nazi genocide also took part in the state ceremony.

Holocaust Memorial Day is an intensely personal day for Israelis as a very large majority of our citizens lost relatives in the camps of eastern Europe. For those who didn't lose personal family members, the magnitude of the atrocities against our own people staggers the mind and the alarming rise of anti-Semitism across the world at this time gives this day an additional measure of pain and a quiet but very real anxiety.

March of the Living in Auschwitz

IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi visited the Warsaw Ghetto and a Jewish cemetery in Poland ahead of Holocaust Remembrance Day, ahead of leading thousands of Jews from around the world today in the annual March of the Living at the Auschwitz concentration camp. It is the first time that an IDF Chief will lead the march.

Ashkenazi visited the Jewish cemetery in Warsaw, Poland to pay his respects to the Jews who died in the Warsaw Ghetto. Ashkenazi stood silent for a few moments and then said: "The answer to what we see here is us, the State of Israel, the IDF and victory."

The Chief met with Jews who continue to live in Poland and visited the Nozyk synagogue. He also visited a memorial to the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, located at the site of the home used as a command center by Mordechai Anielewicz, the local commander of the Jewish uprising against the Nazis.

"In this place Mordechai Anielewicz didn't just hide from the Nazis," Ashkenazi noted, "he also fought. It is fitting that the soldiers of the IDF soldiers learn the story of this uprising. That is why we came to admire and salute the heroes who - despite the realities and balance of power, and the fact that they were untrained civilians - got up and took action and fought. Today we call these principles and moral norms."

"They knew they had no chance of winning, but they fought nevertheless. That is bravery. The importance of victory is a norm for the IDF and a central part of it, alongside remembrance and study of the Holocaust."

Before today's March of the Living, each participant was given the following pledge to recite as well as the words to Hatikva (Israel's national anthemn) and the mourner's Kadish (prayer for mourners). The pledge reads as follows:

"We pledge to keep alive and honor the legacy of the multitudes of our people who perished in the Holocaust.

We pledge to fight anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism, Holocaust denial and all other forms of hatred directed towards the Jewish people and Israel.

We pledge to fight every form of discrimination manifested against any religion, nationality or ethnic group.

We pledge to actively participate in the strengthening of Jewish life in the Diaspora and Israel.

We pledge to increase our knowledge of our Jewish heritage and to pass on a love of Jewish life and learning to the next generation.

We pledge to give tzedaka, to assist in helping the Jewish needy, wherever they may live in the world.

We pledge to involve ourselves in tikkun olam, to build a better world for all members of the human family.

After the Shoah the promise of 'Never Again' was proclaimed. We pledge to create a world where 'Never Again' will become a reality for the Jewish people and, indeed, for all people.

This is our solemn pledge to the Jewish people, to those who came before us, to those of our generation, and to those who will follow in future generations."