LISTSERV 16.0 - HUNGERSERMONSTARTERS Archives

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!

· Precepts about poverty, macroeconomic realities, forests of environmental data – none of these engages our entire brains like the words and life of Jesus.

· Jesus has authority – like a mother – because of his own love for us, his integrity (his life matches his values) and his willingness to give away his life for our sake.

· All around the world, the people of God gather on this Sunday much like the people of Philippi – down by the river – for learning and worship.

· Sometimes that presence is real – visiting dignitaries from the partner synod delegation – and other times through our representatives – a few relief workers unloading a truck filled with food.

· This sense of the institutional church seems to be taking shape In the “emerging church” movement in this country and other places: Something closer to the ideas of “presence” and “conversation”

· Just like a dearly loved mother, absent any makeup and not wearing fancy clothing, the church still shows its love for the people of this world through its presence.

· The Johanine text is similar to the oft-cited (and oft-used) authoritative message – with accompanying look – that goes like this: “I’m the Mommy and I say so.”

· NOTE TO SELF: It’s not possible to pretend that Mom IS Mom; and it doesn’t actually work to pretend that we don’t know what she’s saying.

· Some variations: “I’m the Savior the world and I say so;” “I’m the guy who’s giving up everything so you can live, and I say so;” “I’m the one who loves poor people, and I say so.”

· In this text, his wishes for his followers is very close to a command, a “commission” perhaps greater than the one we’ve named as “Great.”

· The “straightway” description of Paul’s response to the vision about Troas is analogous to the way in which this church responds to natural disaster, to worsening conditions or sudden opportunity in African nations, hopeful partnerships, visionary ideas. “Straightway” describes how we work. In your congregation, in this church’s hunger program, among our international partners.

1. What’s the good of this building? That’s a good question to ask children, perhaps taking an imaginary tour with children as you think together about the Revelations text’s “no need for a Temple.” Where does God actually show up and stick around in your building? (HINT: Think together with the children about all the things God does – through your congregation – in various parts of the building. A secondary question, perhaps for older children: What would happen to this church if we didn’t have a building?

2. Use the phrase, “I’m the Mommy and I say so” as a start for an explanation of Jesus’ words about “doing as he says.” Without pandering to the possibilities of Mother’s Day stories or overwrought references, think with children about why we would pay attention to Jesus in ways similar to our paying attention to what our mothers say.

3. This might be a good Sunday to tell some “Come over to Troas and help us” stories from the ELCA Hunger Appeal. By now you’ve received the Spring/Summer Hunger packet and seen some of the new stories that lace the materials in the packet with good examples. Questions to explore: Who’s calling for help and how do we respond?

1. The Acts lesson starts with the curious idea that the Holy Spirit did not “allow” – check the Greek here – Paul’s preaching in certain places. Is it the lack of a clear call, the receptivity of the people or some other guidance of the Holy Spirit? How does this phenomenon occur in today’s world, if at all? What might this say about the way we think about the “Gospel preaching” that happens through the ELCA Hunger Program?

2. Congregations crank out “vision statements,” but how visionary are they, really? How does Paul’s vision in the night to help people compare with a vision statement that declares your congregation’s self-identity as helpful people? How might one person’s “vision in the night” run into trouble? What really motivates us to preach the Gospel or help people?

3. This might be a small matter, but it shows up in the Acts text for today and in the chapters immediately following: A notable number of the first believers were influential or even rich people. Lydia is the example here, but in later chapters this phenomenon includes a jailer, officials, philosophers and others like them. Luke – a doctor! – records these conversions for a reason. What might it be? The connection to hunger ministries: Don’t overlook influential people as possible partners and companions in this work of defeating hunger and injustice. (For a current look at this idea, look at Bruce Gierson’s new book U-Turn: What if You Woke Up One Morning and Realized You Were Living the Wrong Life?)

The lessons for today were NOT chosen with the Mother’s Day observances in mind. And yet, “mothering” might be a worthy metaphor for the way you and I approach the feeding and care of people who are poor. Not as though they are children and we only coddle them in their weaknesses. “Mother love” is stronger, deeper and wiser than that old, old idea of how we ought to approach people who are poor. God grant you strength, depth and wisdom as you preach and teach these texts!

· Sometimes the Gospel’s liberating healing ruins the economic systems that are in place. (The prognosticating girl disappears as a sure-fire money-maker. (The silversmiths in Ephesus will have the same problem.)

· Those who work against slaveries of any kind can expect to run up against the disfavor of those who profit from oppression, misfortune, or injustice.

· These “economies” only pretend to be benign, or otherwise hide behind propriety, nationalism, good order, civic pride or other supposed societal values.

· It is likely also true that some of the outstanding work that is accomplished by the hunger and justice of this church and its international partners also runs afoul of the entrenched evil that sometimes snarls and sometimes smiles in order to hold sway and keep at bay the accomplishing of God’s will.

· “Economy” (economos, the root word for stewardship) is NOT about “the household rules” but about the plan of The Owner. Hence, God’s will or God’s mindfulness for the world is at the root of all economies, all plans for the world. Where they violate God’s will, economies (writ small or large) are not godly and hence deserving of scrutiny and criticism.

· The good news in the Acts lesson is that Paul’s violating of the Philippian city economy results in the conversion of a jailer, his family and countless other important people! Perhaps they had had enough of the senseless plans or economies that held them prisoners?

· However translated in the Bible you use, this phrase shows up three times. Like the pastor at a wedding reception, the phrase can bring great joy or an imagined warning.

· (Yes, the “pastor at a wedding” analogy breaks down, but you know the feeling, right? You’re there to bring blessing to the event, but some of the wedding reception folks put you in the position of being the de facto wet blanket, the non-dancer, the party-pooper. Not your intent, but that’s what happens to you, sadly.)

· So God’s justice is sometimes thought of as an imagined parade-stopper, a wet blanket on human activity, only a reminder of judgment and God’s vengeance.

· So what’s so good about God’s justice when it shows up in your neighborhood, or in the neighborhoods where poor people slog through life?

· Can you name the joyful good news that comes from justice? How does it bring joy and freedom to those who are locked into injustice and oppressive ways of thinking and living? (NOTE: See Jail Guy in Acts story for today.)

· What happens next is that the lights get shut out. The Bible is done, the last word of God presumably sewed up inside the last page of the Bible. The cover is closed and the book put away.

· But before the revelatory lights are shut out – ah yes, I am aware that “revelation from God” continues through the ages, even until this very moment and the moments of your preaching – what can we take from this end-of-party lesson?

· The rest of Revelation has suggested that this coming will be accompanied with great recompense, great punishment, great wars, great struggles, great praise and great hope.

· Ghandi is purported to have noted his hope that when Christ came again, he would be smart to come in the form of bread. In this lesson, “water” is the preferred gift. Probably a better one.

· Here’s a revealing thought before the lights on any hunger-related party get shut out: We do good work when it comes to water. Throughout the world today, your partners are providing water that’s clean and healthy, water that keeps villages alive and economically viable. Water that keeps babies from dying, crops from withering, diseases from their rampaging. Wells, irrigation systems, percolation tanks (Google the term!) and pumps. Storage tanks, water treatment facilities, pipes, toilets, faucets, sinks – all evidence of a water-party that is made possible by your gifts to the ELCA World Hunger Appeal. (See the new hunger packet and its water themes.)

· And when the last revelation is done, what’s the last word? “I pray that the Lord Jesus will be kind to all of you.” THAT is precisely what happens to God’s people throughout the world when we participate in the hunger ministries of this church and its international partners.

· But what is it that really unites us with the whole company of Jesus’ people? Liturgy, doctrine, ethnic heritage, fair trade coffee, planning documents, history, manifestos and resolutions? Close, but no cigar.

· What holds us – and these other partial unifiers – together is the sacrificial love that characterizes God’s dear Son, Jesus the Christ, We listen and watch, we mimic what we see and hear, we try hard to follow Jesus’ example.

· Every so often we look around and find the entire “company of the apostles” – what a great day to sing the Te Deum – doing what we’re doing! We’re at one with them because we show God’s love and model Jesus’ life through our actions.

· This prayer may be quiet, but it’s powerful and it lasts.. Ecumenicity is not an ideal among bureaucrats, or an efficiency of institutional economies. The real effect of this prayer is in its naming of actions, not ideas This is why our international hunger ecumenicity is not about names on letterheads, commissions with strange-sounding acronyms or interminable meetings of titled church officers. Instead, what this church body does in its partnered hunger work is active love, deeds and words that bring God’s will to bear on a disjointed and dispirited world.

1. If you haven’t done any “life-giving water” demonstrations lately, try them this Sunday. You might: take a clear container of water and use it ten different ways right there in church (watering the plants, filling the baptismal font, washing something, giving a drink, cooling someone, cleaning a face, sprinkling a crowd, etc.). Ask children after each use what value or benefit (what “life”) they can see for water. Talk about a story of life-giving water that happens because of the ELCA World Hunger Program.

2. Make and distribute little banners – paper or cloth? – that say, “God brings justice”. Ask the children to post the banners in a place where they will be reminded to do what’s fair. Talk about how good it is when justice prevails.

3. Remember any children’s love songs from your Sunday school or VBS days? Find and teach one to children today, and talk about how love changes from being a word to being an action. How easy to sing the song, and how fun to say the words. Even greater joy comes from doing loving things. Just like Jesus.

4. Tried a group hug lately? It might illustrate “that they may all be one” in a profound way. Ask kids – the whole congregation? – to hold the hug while you tell a short story about people around the world that your congregation is also “hugging” through your gifts to the ELCA World Hunger Program. Works for me . . . .

1. Spend some time – I did! – on the questions related to the first theme, about economies and hunger/justice work. You might talk together about matters such as:

2. Unpack this question and probe at its deepest answers: “Why does ‘justice’ seem like such a hard word sometimes and for some people?” Or perhaps the opposite question, “What’s so good about justice?” (See the psalm for ideas; use a concordance to find the plethora of biblical references to the concept of justice.)

3. Have a bubbly gabfest about all the ways in which your congregation and your members are already joined as one with all the people in the world who are working to end hunger. Tell stories, and make them personal. The ELCA World Hunger Appeal is a good place to start, but move into stories about families and kids and organizations and businesses and darn-crazy people you know – who put “ending hunger” into reality. Pray a thankful/rejoicing prayer together when you’re done talking. Why? You belong to a church that does NOT separate itself out from among the community of God’s people or lock itself into hypocritical notions of purity.

4. Look at the verses in the Revelation lesson that have been left out of today’s Second Reading. Talk together about what they might say to those who ignore the world’s poor and hungry. Talk about Ghandi’s supposed notion about Jesus’ Second Coming or about the ancient bumper sticker, “Jesus is Coming Again, and Boy, is He Mad!” Where’s the good news

The loneliness of a shooter, the sadness of soldiers’ families, the devastation of forests and the spewing of carbon into the atmosphere. It’s enough to make a sermon writer put down her keyboard and go outside and yell. But not yet, friend. Your work for this Sunday can surprise with good news, and comfort those who are trying hard to overcome evil but getting tired. We all may be pushing a large rock uphill, but the work is not futile Sisyphean. Jesus went before us, suffered and died. And after that was the Resurrection. Whole new lives of resurrection are out there in those pews, waiting for your words. No pressure . . .