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!

· 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.)

· 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?

· (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.)

· 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.)

· 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?

· 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 . . . .

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 . . .

· It’s likely that the crowds gathered to hear Peter’s sermon (only the first part shows up in this lectionary) included people of Jerusalem who were poor, artisans and daily laborers, perhaps some servants and slaves.

· Another way to think of this: When the Spirit of God fills people today, how does that message get translated into both various languages, but also into the “languages” that only people who are poor are able to hear?

· Languages of liberation, hope, discernment – these lie close to the heart of God’s people who are poor. And we proclaim God’s love in those languages through our hunger work in this church.

· The famous church father – Augustine? – had it right: Proclaim the Gospel; if necessary, use words. But he would be even happier to know that “languages” and “words” also include the mindsets by which we approach the people we claim to love, the people to whom we proclaim, the people already loved by God!

· What languages do the people of your congregation speak? Who knows how to translate “God loves you” into the words and phrases – the body language and the look in one’s eye and the deeds – that could be understood in Africa, the slums of Mumbai, drought-plagued stretches of this country or the dull, grey cities of the former Soviet bloc?

· How do the surprising and joyful gifts of the Spirit get wrapped together with this mystery missing verse? Could it be that Peter’s dark vision of the end of the world – the FIRST part of the sermon, preceding the news about Jesus – is the heart of the message, that God’s judgment will certainly come upon the world unless repentance is forthcoming? Is it possible that “good news” this day might also include God’s answering our private or silent prayers to deal with the wickedness of the evil people?

· What might happen to our messages of grace and forgiveness when we overlook the presence of evil: grace gets cheap, we set aside our strengths, we sideline our responsibilities for justice. We might easily stop our response to hunger and justice at the point of feeding hungry people and never get down and dirty with the systems – government, industry, social/economic, relational – that make people hungry in the first place.

· And how can the Spirit fill us – for proclamation and action – if our souls are still filled with unrepentant gluttony, secondary oppression, willful ignorance of the poor. How can the Spirit confront and comfort us if we’re willing to hide our great and ugly need for transformation?

· The translation of the Greek here could yield “Comforter” and so we rejoice in the comfort that comes to the world’s poor because of the work of the ELCA Hunger Program, and our worldwide partners.

· Another possible translation is “Encourager,” and so we thank God for the presence of a Spirit who fills us with courage. (We all know enough about the matters of hunger, and we do not lack knowledge about actions we might take to alleviate and eliminate hunger and all its causes.) What we desperately need – especially when we realize that our lifestyles are the primary engine that drives the world’s economies – is the courage to translate the languages of God’s will into the actions of our daily lives.

· “Courage” is more than coaxing us from a comfortable nest to risk flying. Courage also include the gutsy capability to stand up against what is wrong, to admit that wrong in our own selves, to learn from others – people who are poor? – whose poverty accuses us.

· A third meaning for the Greek term for “Spirit” in this Gospel might be “Defender.” Here again, the Hunger Program of this church chimes in loudly. Together with like-minded believers in other denominations and in other parts of the world, we use words, shame, guilt, laws and public exposure to keep the clutches of evil away from the innocent and afflicted. In this translation of “Spirit” suddenly this wispy, windy presence of God become forceful, dangerous (to evil) and insistently strong. The Spirit ain’t no dove, Sonny.

Lots of thoughts and themes to play around with today. Pick any of these or try some of your own making. Remember that “children’s sermons” are only part of the learning that can come from a Sunday’s texts. How, for example, do these texts head home, to mealtimes, conversation times, going-to-music-lesson times?

1. To explore the “different languages” theme, collect together as many linguistic variations on “Thank you” that you can. Display or learn them so that children can see or hear these words of gratitude. With a world map, show where the languages are spoken. (Don’t overlook the fact that close around you, these same languages may very well be heard and seen, too!)

Tell stories of how the hunger work of your congregation might cause people who speak these languages to express their gratitude. Don’t leave out English. But also tell stories of how we learn and benefit from the example of people who speak these languages, people to whom we owe our thanks. Examples: For the kids who made our tennis shoes, for the people who we helped make a living off the coffee beans that, in turn, help us enjoy that beverage each morning. For the people of South Africa or Rwanda, who teach us about forgiveness and reconciliation, for poor people who tell us about our sinful consumerism. We need to know how to say “Thanks” to these people, as well as to hear their gratitude.

2. What if there were no wicked people? Make up a story – from the viewpoint of a kindly animal narrator -- in which ALL the bad and nasty people were suddenly wiped off the face of the Earth. Include in the story a bunch of desperadoes and despicable folks who oppress poor people – “stealing food”, not sharing, being greedy and taking advantage of poor people. Keep up the listing of sinful folks until the last moment, when God DOES answer the “Wipe them off the world” prayer. And then? And then NO PEOPLE are left on the world’s surface or in the air or hanging off trees! Why? When it comes to being “sinners” and “evil” we all have it within us. We are also the cause of poverty, and deserve God’s punishment for our actions and inactions that harm others. The good news? We’re forgiven and given the Spirit’s gifts by which to be changed, converted, transformed, motivated. (I’d love to be a church mouse and hear your story!)

3. Using three separate puppets – perhaps all looking exactly the same – to explain how the Spirit is Comforter, Encourager, Defender. Use hunger and justice themes (and stories from the ELCA World Hunger packet you just got in the mail) to give examples of how the Spirit does these three kinds of work, these three roles, that the Spirit takes.

4. “God feeds all.” It’s buried in the psalm for the day. Even Leviathan – the symbol of evil in this psalm – gets food from God. Talk with children about people from all over the world provide food for us, and how we provide “food” for people throughout the world through the ELCA Hunger Program.

5. Saying “Daddy” or “Mommy” to God. What’s it mean to be “God’s children?” The Romans lesson claims that the Spirit helps us do that. And what characterizes the response of children to parental love more than obedience? How do “good little girls and boys” respond to the command and invitation of Jesus to consider people who are poor? If we call God as our beloved parent, what next? (No, I don’t know how to translate this into kid-talk, but I trust your ability to do that! Maybe the puppets in No. 3 above have a conversation with you?)

1. Today might be a good day among Bible conversationalists to tackle theodicy again. “Evil” shows up in these texts just enough to deserve some consideration. (The “missing verse” from the psalm keys me to this possibility.) Focus on the scandal of world hunger and its causes. Why does God allow this to continue? What part of the scandal do we cause, and why does God not punish us? Or IS God punishing us – in slow degrees, and silently – for our profligate lifestyles, our eyes easily averted to the sight of poverty, our supposed deservedness regarding our present lifestyles. Why does God allow us to continue to be evil?

2. Make the “Comforter/Encourager/Defender” conversation – from the Gospel for the day – really personal by asking conversation participants how, in the matters of justice, they experience the Holy Spirit’s comfort, encouragement and defending. Switch the direction of the conversation to examine the same personal matters as though participants were people in dire need, oppressed by economic forces that ground them into the dirt. Don’t forget about people who we remember this weekend as the departed dead in all our wars. They, too, may have been “poor”.

3. Here’s a connected question for conversational chewing: How does “hunger ministry” in this congregation get past its nicey-nice aspects (comforting) to its gritty, tough work (as in encouraging and defending)? HINT: Advocacy, personal or legislative, does both of those tasks.

4. Another topic: How does the work of the Holy Spirit – see above – work with the example/words of Jesus to alleviate hunger and injustice in the world? HINT: The Gospel and the Second Reading might be helpful here.

5. What do you do after you say “Daddy/Mommy” to God? Or is that enough? Is it possible to stay immature – as Christians or as Spirit-filled people – and goo-goo our way through life. (Now THERE’S a language we understand.) What’s it mean to call God as a parent, when we’re supposedly grown-up and mature? What wishes of our parent does the Spirit help us fulfill? What legacy are we bound to carry forward, so that our parent(s) never get forgotten?

Wow! Lots of things to think about, and lots of Law/Gospel playing around in your head. I held back this week – yep, I did – because these lessons felt like rocks hitting a pond. I hope some of the splashes got you wet. Some of the lessons are compelling enough for you to pick up your own rocks and make your own waves. Preaching does make waves, doesn’t it? Just asking . . . .