Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness- the Beatitudes

Pastor Sean Palmer continues our series in the Beatitudes and challenges us to continue to hunger for justice even in the midst of seemingly impossible problems.

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Matthew 5:6

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness—they will be filled.

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“There are two major purposes in our criminal justice system, your Honor: the pursuit of justice and the protection of the innocent. Neither of these purposes can be met if anything less than the maximum available sentence under the plea agreement is imposed upon Larry for his crimes. Not because the federal sentence he will already serve is lacking, but because the sentence rendered today will send a message across this country, a message to every victim and a message to every perpetrator…

I realize you have many factors to consider when you fashion your sentence, but I submit to you that the pre-eminent question in this case as you reach a decision about how best to satisfy the dual aims of this court is the same question that I asked Judge Neff to consider: How much is a little girl worth? How much is a young woman worth?”

— Rachel Denhollander, Victim Impact Statement

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“Jesus has a blessing for people who hear the screaming inside, who know in their bodies and brains and feelings and souls that there’s a gap between what is and what should be…

It’s a blessing for refugees whose homelands have been turned into wastelands by the powers of empires that have treated them like collateral damage in their quest for domination. It’s a blessing for women who have had to play along with the patriarchy. It’s a blessing for anyone who wakes up and discovers that we have so far to go and that we’re all in this together.”

— Jason Adam Miller, When The World Breaks

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“Much has been said and written in recent years about the connection between religion and violence. Three answers have emerged. The first: Religion is the major source of violence. Therefore if we seek a more peaceful world we should abolish religion. The second: Religion is not a source of violence. People are made violent, as Hobbes said, by fear, glory and the ‘perpetual and restless desire for power after power that ceaseth only in death’. Religion has nothing to do with it…

It may be used by manipulative leaders to motivate people to wage wars precisely because it inspires people to heroic acts of self-sacrifice, but religion itself teaches us to love and forgive, not to hate and fight. The third answer is: Their religion, yes; our religion, no. We are for peace. They are for war.”

― Jonathan Sacks, Not in God's Name: Confronting Religious Violence

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Job 37:23

The Almighty is beyond our reach and exalted in power; in his justice and great righteousness, he does not oppress.

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“The Resistance...consisted, day after day, of small efforts…to calculate their actions—abetting escapes, circulating mimeographed news, hiding fugitives, obtaining money or needed documents, engaging in various forms of noncooperation with the occupying authorities or the quisling bureaucrats, wearing armbands, disrupting official communications—in terms of odds against the Nazi efficiency and power and violence and vindictiveness would seem to render their witness ridiculous…

The risks for them of persecution, arrest, torture, confinement, death were so disproportionate to any concrete results that could practically be expected…yet these persons persevered in their audacious, extemporaneous, fragile, puny, foolish Resistance.”

— William Stringfellow