The lessons for each Sunday in the church year proclaim God’s grace in Jesus Christ. Also derived from a Sunday’s texts are lessons for the Christ-inspired and Christ-like life of God’s people. The comments here will help you find hunger-related threads – sermon starters – among the themes of this day’s texts. (We're presuming you have already done your exegetical work on the texts.) God bless your proclamation (and teaching) of what is most certainly true!

Although today’s lessons are woven around the horror of Jesus’ final days, other themes also emerge, ideas and ideals that may be as useful as our respectful/sorrowful observing of Jesus’ passion, as though from a distance. Some closer-to-home themes, consistent with the meaning of Jesus’ ministry among the poor, might include these:

· Isaiah’s suffering servant and the psalmist’s persecuted petitioner could just as easily be any person in any part of the world who faces continuing poverty and injustice. (My first instinct: The psalm and Isaiah text sounded like the words of some homeless men I’ve met.)

· As the Christ, Jesus suffers for the whole world. As an itinerant preacher of justice, Jesus exemplifies the same attributes and suffers the same pain as any other person who is poor.

· In a sense, then, every person who is poor shows the suffering of Christ Jesus, and Christ Jesus reminds us of every person who is suffering from poverty and injustice, and all their evil cousins.

· The Lucan rendering of the Passion story is an inexorable march, a falling or even a tragic facing down of an unjust death. (This man Jesus did NOT have to die in order for the political good of the Jewish nation.)

· Read in its entirety, this Passion narrative could be seen as the story of a group of out-of-town pilgrims whose poverty-laced leader runs afoul of the authorities and is severely punished for it. A “hill country preacher” punished for his lack of political acumen and his lack of rhetorical/diplomatic skill among those who think they run the country.

· It might be foolish to think of self-abasement or other kinds of false humility as somehow salvific in themselves. (We are NOT saved by giving in to abuse, disregard or acquiescence to evil!)

· How foolish it seems to be dealing kindly with enemies who persecute and mock, how utterly unfathomable to be teaching and talking with one’s friends when certain death is poised at the edge of your life’s stage, ready for an horrific entrance.

· But when you have nothing – everything of supposed value is stripped away by systemic injustice – you get to choose how to give away your life for a purpose that outlasts you.

· While you read this – and while you preach – other poverty-laden martyrs will die for the good of God’s will for the world. Jesus was not the first or the last, just the best example.

· In the middle of the Lucan gospel lesson, the strange suggestion by Jesus that his disciples equip themselves for some larger, perhaps dangerous task or journey. (Swords, moneybags, knapsacks – all necessary equipment for something important.)

· This is especially true if we see Christ’s death as redemptive of our life purposes, examples of the relationship we have with God, God’s people who are poor, God’s covenantal commissioning of each of us to risk everything for what’s fair, right, good or godly.

· Sometimes the pageantry of this week – important events played out on the stage of Scriptural narrative – turns us into mere observers of a ghastly parade of deadly events.

· When it comes to the “passion stories” of people dying of hunger on this day, we could as easily become mere observers, content to ratchet up our emotions to include sorrow or even disgust at the existence and effects of poverty.

1. Make the children’s time into a parade of ideas, not only a time for the waving of palms. At each station – perhaps the parade becomes the whole sermon? – deal with one or more of the Lucan stories or teachings, perhaps “meeting” a new person at each place in the sanctuary where the “parade” stops. Perhaps the parade ends at a large cross or at the altar!

2. Along the way, these lessons/teachings: “Who’s the greatest?” the matter of our faith/resolve being tested, “equipment” to take along during the Holy Week journey, “what God wants”, betrayal, being accused and suffering for doing the right thing. (We don’t have space here for me to spin out possibilities for each of the stations, but I trust your creativity.)

3. Bring in a “homeless person” – someone in the congregation who can accurately and sensitively portray this form of poverty – and have a conversation with this person about people’s attitudes and actions towards him/her. At the end of the conversation, the person turns out to be Jesus! (Or use the play, “Need Help” from the hunger dramas book, Hunger and Hope: Dramas about Poverty, Hunger & Mission by Carl H. Billings, Jr. (Visit the online store at www.augsburgfortress.org/hunger for more information about ordering this resource, and visit www.elca.org/hunger/resources/hungerdramas for supplementary materials.)

4. Use a children’s version of the Bible for the reading of today’s Passion Story. The Contemporary Version (CEV) is especially helpful because it’s vocabulary level pegs out at third grade!

1. The psalm for this day is written by David, at a very-down time in his life. The thought occurs: Even very rich people become very poor people, if only that they experience downfalls and discardings. How does the text read from the viewpoint of a homeless man and a disgraced CEO? A person who has rarely had much, and someone who has lost it all? Apply the same question to the Isaiah text, and then compare.

2. The Philippians text might seem to invite us to become servile or accepting of our real or imagined low estates, as though these attitudes or behaviors somehow ennoble us. The self-emptying of Jesus is for a purpose, and it works for the good of God’s will! But what about those who suffer today, needlessly and to no seeming purpose? (Think of abused women, poor people crushed underfoot by developers or governments or those who don’t even see that they exist.)

3. Spend some time with participants getting deeper into their reactions about the Passion narrative. “Jesus died for my sins” is an objective statement of truth, but what about participants’ emotional reactions to the sweep of this story? In other words, how to they do more with the story than just feel badly that Jesus had to die? How, too, do they move beyond guilt or shame when they think of Jesus’ work on their behalf?

4. A hard question: How, in these times, are poor people – like Jesus? – dying on behalf of those of us who are rich? To say that another way: Are we “saved” in any way by the sufferings of people who are poor? (A possible example: The low cost of consumer goods as a result of low wages and poor working conditions in other countries.)

5. How do the texts for today call forth participants’ own stories of suffering for what is right or just? Another way to ask this question: For what good and godly truth are you a martyr? Or even this question: For what part of God’s will would you be willing to give your life, totally or in part?

Today’s a gray day where I live – rain and storms on the way. But inside this one soul is a bright possibility: The world’s landscape doesn’t HAVE to be littered with the bodies and lives of poor people who, like Jesus, sacrifice themselves for real or imagined good – their children, their nations, their churches. On this cloudy day, I hold to the hope of the empty tomb as well as I honor the lives and witness of those who have suffered greatly so that I can be alive. May your preaching be lively, hopeful and honest!

Although today’s lessons are woven around the wonder of resurrection, other close-to-home themes--consistent with the hope of Jesus’ rising for those who are poor--might include these:

· The objective facts of the Resurrection of Christ are wonderful and rewarding for those of us who live well with not too much effort. We receive the promise of life easily, with just a hint of deservedness.

· Over the centuries, people who are poor look at Christ’s Resurrection much differently. They/we are astounded, gratitude overwhelms, hope sprouts wings, words fail, shouting commences.

· In our work to stamp out injustice and hunger, we make the promise of resurrection something tangible and real. A bale of clothing, assurance of work, a healthy water supply, corruption exposed, land that can produce food, solidarity seen in our presence – these ripples of Christ’s Resurrection spread over the world. Christ lives. So do people who are poor.

· This is a cruel question for those whom our culture relegates to the status of perpetual “losers.” Yet we persist in accepting the culture’s answers, so God answers. Overwhelmingly, to crush the culture of death.

· The power of evil is easily seen in today’s world: A war without end, intransigent leaders in the world, a greedy-grabby culture that eventually impoverishes those who seem to be weak, hate and mistrust, fear of people different from us.

· Evil has to work hard in order to last, though. Predators, spiteful haters, greedy-grabby people, the pleasure-addicted among us, people purposefully ignorant – these folks have to keep at their evil-making and evil-thinking with great effort.

· Out there in the rest of the world, the power of military might and wrangling economies into submission, the slurping up of the world’s natural resources – these are hard work.

· Good news: Death’s ugly family—their names include “hunger”, ‘poverty” and “injustice”—are done for. Condemned, defeated, their power draining away.

· Good news: Like those who are poor everywhere in the world, we can risk rebelling against the power of evil, wherever we find it. Including “right here in RiverCity.”

1. Like most adults, children can get lost in the trappings of Easter pretty easily. So today you can ask the question, “What’s the True Meaning of Christmas?” and pretend to be confused about what holy day this is. Play out “Baby Jesus” and “God coming to Earth to love us” until some child objects. When that happens, tie the two high holy days together with some of your deft theological wisdom. On Christmas, we celebrate that Jesus came alive; on Easter that he stayed alive. On Christmas we are grateful and generous; on Easter the same happens, but for different reasons. On Christmas, we’re a little more quiet—don’t wake the Baby?—and on Easter a little more loud—the Baby woke up from death! Enough?

2. If you want to give children traditional Easter goodies as object lessons, try this variation: Ask children to think of themselves as a hungry child somewhere close or far away. What’s “life” mean for them now? What would most symbolize a God who loves them? NOW give each of the children a potato or a cup of water or a baggie of rice. Talk about children’s reactions.

3. Use vegetable seeds as object lessons for the death-into-life message of this day, but with a twist that includes people who are poor: Think about how one seed creates a lot of food, not just a pretty plant. (And think about how the plant benefits the environment, of course!) Imagine with children what happens when thousands and millions of those seeds get planted in other parts of the world where people are hungry. AND THEN tell them how the ELCA Hunger Appeal gathers together the “seeds” of money that buy the real seeds that keep people alive. Give the object-lesson seeds a name, like “Resurrection Seeds”.

4. If your church is called by a lively name—yes, all you “New Hope/Life/Waters” people and you “Living Hope/Waters/Life folks are in the ballpark along with the “Resurrection” church crowd—incorporate your church’s name into the children’s learning today. Don’t forget the banners or the windows or the church logo. And don’t forget how your congregation’s name is replicated in the names of congregations just like yours around the world, in places where most of the congregants are poor. Imagine walking through those churches or worshipping God alongside some of those folks on this day. What would they be saying about their church’s name?

5. Teach children Desmond Tutu’s words, “Goodness is Stronger Than Evil” to the tune in Evangelical Lutheran Worship 721, which closely parallels some of the themes of this sermon starter. Because Tutu’s poem is short, sing the song several times, and do something together while you’re singing. (Take a World Hunger Appeal offering?)

Okay, you’re NOT having the obligatory Youth Group Pancake Breakfast in the parish hall during Bible Class time, or you’re taking a well-deserved rest for small groups and/or Bible study time. Still, I’m committed to nosing around in the lectionary for hunger/justice themes, and so I offer you these thoughts, if only for the purpose of the conversations I imagine with my readers each week – as though I were in your Bible Conversations group!

1. The psalm struck me today with its dialectic of mercy and power. It has been noted in the public media that our government has recently taken a softer line towards regimes with whom we had previous taken a hard line. Commentators have used the word “power” to describe the latter approach; perhaps “merciful” describes the possible new approach. But we’re not talking diplomacy here – these starters are about justice. So a similar matter: How DO we approach (or think of) regimes where structural injustice imprisons its own people in poverty? (Zimbabwe comes to mind as I write this.) How about a regime that does the same to other countries around the world?

2. The First Reading could slip by unnoticed—another one of Peter’s long summary sermons—if it wasn’t for the first verse of the text (v.34), in which the hill country fisherman Peter tells how his vision from God has changed his vision about God’s will for the world. “God treats all people alike” is how my Contemporary English Version (CEV) treats the verse, and how I prefer to treat it in my own vision of ministry. “Treat” is not the same as “deals with” or even “cares about.” There’s a sense that the word carries grace in it like tin foil carries chocolate Easter candy. If you are “treated alike”, you are given undeserved favor with equanimity and delighted in the same way. This is a day for being delighted by favor, and for being delighted in being among ALL those who are equally favored!

3. Strangely, Peter wraps into his sermon a reference to the Jewish prophets—hardly an important consideration for Cornelius and household, I would think. And yet, there’s something to be said here about the continuous line of prophetic utterance that includes both warning and promise. Jesus comes to save the world—promise—but also to name and fight the sinfulness that made his death necessary. Notice of this theme in God’s word thus goes back through centuries. Looking forward, what prophetic utterances in these times offer both condemnation for structural sins—ignoring or punishing those who are poor—and the forgiveness of God for this widespread attitude?

4. The Resurrection story carries great metaphoric weight on this day. Too much, perhaps, for us to push aside so that we can talk honestly about our emotions. But try these questions that might come from the lessons:

I’m part of a generation that’s passing. (Actually I’m part of a no-name, in-between-generations cohort whose transition-enabling function has been all but lost in most generational theory.) There’s a kind of “death” in seeing the power of my spring-stepped youth pass toward the next generation. But there’s life there, too! Resurrection, even. The legacy I inherited—the power of ideals and the passion/energy to put them into action—now is embedded inside the minds of people younger than me, smarter than me, now more powerful than me. THAT resurrection is a wonder, too, and a reason for me to praise God. As you preach powerfully this day, accept my thanks for being a sign that God’s power never goes away. It just transfers between us. I am alive because of you. And Christ. . . . .