Second Sunday of Lent: Hunger for Justice and Healing

This past Sunday Brian spoke about hunger from another perspective. This hunger is one defined by a compelling need or desire. Some of us hunger for wealth, fame, approval or affection. Last week I spoke on hunger being a condition; this hunger is a verb. From Brian’s definition hunger becomes a noun.

Hunger as a noun causes us to do verbs, and verbs are action words. What are the actions we do to achieve our hungers? Our hungers expose us for who we really are. Are our fears and anxieties the responses to our hungers or do they drive our hungers?

What does our church hunger for? What does that expose about our character?

In the Bible we read of an encounter Jesus had with a Samaritan woman at a well. I like to refer to this encounter as the “Samaritan Incident.” You will find the Samaritan Incident in John 4. Much has been written about the account. The character and the lifestyle of the woman are questionable. She doesn’t appear to be the kind of girl you taken home to meet Mother Mary.

Jesus exposes the Samaritan woman’s sins, and cleanses her from them. She has been changed, transformed. She runs into the village to share the news, sounds like good news to me!

The Disciples reunite with Jesus after shopping around for food at the local convenience store. The Disciples encourage Jesus to eat but He refuses. Jesus tells them of food they know nothing about. He refused to eat because he was actively doing, dealing with another hunger. Jesus knew that His nourishment would come from the one who sent Him.

And it did not stop at the well. Jesus and The Disciples spent three days in this unnamed Samaritan village. Three days of religious and personal reconciliation. Three days of lives being transformed. Three days of justice, healings, teachings, friendship and community.

Maybe we should be less concerned about what we hunger. Maybe we should seek to discover what God hungers for and make these the things we hunger for.