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!

· In either case, the intent is to fool God, as though the words of the devout are enough. As though God didn’t know about the actions of people worshiping other gods.

· When it comes to eradicating hunger in the world, many of us might confess that we use good words and have good intents, but in our daily lives exhibit behaviors that contradict what we say we believe.

· How can we, for example, decry the poverty of people in countries whose economic well-being is altered by our choices of what to consume? How can we give money so that people will be fed while at the same time spending much more money on ourselves?

· But in another way, the bowing down is a sign of humility in the face of a pre-eminent truth: God is almighty and ruler of the universe. Both rich – those who have enough to eat – and those who are poor – those living on less than $2 a day – have reason to acknowledge their dependence on God and not themselves.

· Strangely, though, it’s those among us who are richest who have the hardest time admitting our dependence on God. A quote from poet Maya Angelou: ”I find it interesting that the meanest life, the poorest existence, is attributed to God’s will, but as human beings become more affluent, as their living standard and style begin to ascend the material scale, God descends the scale of responsibility.”

· In the hunger program of this church and congregation, we also engage each other – as among the world’s richest – in order to remind ourselves of our privileged status – we eat regularly – and to take responsibility for those who do not.

· It is not enough to merely acknowledge the source of our blessings – that’s the “bowing down” part – but also to take action when all the bowing and scraping are finished.

· Why fear? If the prophets rail against injustice – and if we are complicit with those who cook up and serve injustice like brats at a picnic – and if we don’t love poor people as God commands (and prefers), we stand the strong possibility of being punished.

· The other fear? Way down deep, many of us worry about losing our way of life, our control of the worlds around us, our grip on reality. When that happens, WE will become poor or even poorer.

· Is this why we most fear terrorists? Perhaps that they remind us of the inequities of power, corruption or evil that can be remedied only through hateful, violent actions?

· One sidenote: In Psalm 22 – widely seen as prophecy or presaging of Jesus’ own suffering – the once-mighty David talks about his present state of affairs. He’s hounded by enemies, barely holding the kingdom together, dealing with family difficulties, and probably still reminded of his arrogant sins. THIS is the man who writes a psalm for deliverance. The rich guy gone bad. How might we pray this psalm, not for our own sakes only, but for the sake of the world?

· Why DO we care about people who are hungry or oppressed? Pity seems to be a prime reason in the church, and that’s a place to start. Common humanity might be another; a sense of what’s fair and right, perhaps.

· Metaphor-musing: What if we became our clothing, really? Like it grew onto us and infused us with its properties. And then we would be known as L.L. Jesus or Old Jesus or Jeshua Jeans or Heaven’s End. Would people recognize our style or our label? What kind of catalogs would we get? How would we avoid style snobbery if the labels all said “Jesus” on them?

· Because clothing can be egalitarian, we Jesus-wearers would be a large, large company of people around the world. We would become our clothing and then we’d all become each other.

· Not like we’d all join hands and sing “We Are the World.” But at least we’d start seeing community in Christ. We’d do what Jesus did, think like he thought, give away our lives like he did.

· I spend time in homeless shelters as a volunteer, so I know that lots of these good folks are tormented by the contemporary demons of mental illness. (And stay tune: Post-traumatic stress syndrome victims from THIS war will start filling homeless shelters just like the veterans of Viet Nam and the first Gulf War.)

· The demoniac in today’s Gospel – THERE’S the King James for you, hmmm? – is a mentally ill homeless person. And in this story – in this contest – the score turns out this way: Mental Guy, 2 zillion, Pigs, zero.

· Apparently the demons prefer pigs to being homeless; apparently Jesus doesn’t mind upsetting a thriving economic enterprise – the pigs are in a herd, not free-range; apparently the pig-raisers were scared that a miracle for the good of one person was paid by the price of their economic well-being.

· At a metaphorical level, the power of Jesus here is focused on one man’s well-being, NOT on the well-being of the local pig farmers. (Nothing against pig farmers, folks; they produce food, for heaven’s sake!)

· Why’s this important? We who are rich – whatever we “raise” in our daily work – may be called upon to affect that same kind of healing among people who are homeless right here in our own locale.

1. Children understand hypocrisy really well. (Why? They have to deal with we adults all the time.) They can spot the incongruities between stated values and actual behavior; they can see a mile away when the shield of our supposed integrities get more than a little thin. Older children talk about “posers”, whether skateboarders or others, who pretend to be good at something but really aren’t. So what do you do with this asset/sensitivity? Talk together about the Isaiah lesson as evidence of people who say they love God but do something else. Ask children to think about how they might pretend to be good or nice when they’re not. Tell a story from your own life. And encourage children that their actions toward poor people are evidence of their belief that God loves all people.

2. Show children a bunch of clothing – uniforms or caps? – that are branded. (The “Old Lutheran” line of clothing comes to mind here, for obvious reasons.) Have them put on the branded clothing and ask them how it feels to be known by that name or title. Talk a little about “brand” and what it means to people who are branded or promote their brand. Then note how “putting on Christ” is kindof like that, but that this is an identity different from all others. When we put on Christ, we do as he did, think like he did. And a lot of that is caring about people who are poor, who don’t have any clothes, who would love to be known by Jesus’ brand.

3. Use the Psalm as an introduction to tell children the story of refugees – from war or famine – who are helped by this church’s Hunger Program. This church body has understood the psalmist’s feelings for decades. Not only through the work of LIRS (www.lirs.org) but going back to the famine in Russia immediately following the Russian Revolution. (You can reference or show the most recent MOSAIC about Ugandan Christians and their amazing capacity for forgiveness.) Perhaps there are former refugees in your locale – or in your congregation – who could tell their story to children as well. The point of it all: The pleas of refugees today mirror those of David’s psalm words, and the rescuing God who came to David’s defense does the same thing today, through LIRS and other agencies supported by this church’s Hunger Appeal.

1. The story of the Gergesene demoniac – a mentally-ill homeless man – bears some closer study, perhaps because of analogues in contemporary society. Talk together about participants’ experiences with people who are homeless, looking for similarities to the circumstances of the man Jesus heals in the Gospel lesson. The object of the conversation is not to dissect “homelessness” as a factor in contemporary life, but to help participants be mindful of the inner thoughts of people who face homelessness, for whatever reasons. One note, too: Jesus’ healing of this man creates adverse circumstances for one part of the local economy. After this healing, the locals are afraid of Jesus.

2. “Wearing Christ” can also be a form of hypocrisy, just as clothing can be a full-body mask about who we really are. Religiosity – way-too-obvious piety – or noteworthy (and noted) acts of kindness or justice can also cover up what’s not pleasant, what’s not true about us. Think together about how the Second Lesson might interact with the religious hypocrisies Isaiah seems to name. How might we even wear supposed “equality” as a badge of acceptability rather than a true measure of our baptized selves? Note the high significance of “wearing new clothes” in first century culture.

3. The rather odd image in Psalm 22 of both rich and poor people “bowing down” to God – perhaps together? – calls for some conversation as well. How do wealth and poverty intertwine when it comes to our approaches to God? Or how do the bowings-down of those who have plenty to eat compare and contrast with the worship of those who are close to dying because of starvation? Is this realistic, is this desirable, is this a trick of the Psalmist’s poetic utterance? How do these perhaps-new equalities compare with Paul’s view of equality in the Galatians lesson?

4. In several places in today’s lesson, God’s “preference for the poor” stands out pretty noticeably. Look at the texts and find those references and see how they add up. Think together why the writers of the Scriptures would be so consistent (repetitious?) regarding this idea? If you have knowledge of the progression of “liberation theology” toward its contemporary forms, talk about that here, too. Where else in Scripture – both testaments! – do participants recall stories or teachings that show God’s love for people who are poor? And what’s the difference between God loving and God pitying the poor?

As you preach this Sunday, I will be in a “land of mountains” in the Sierras of California. I’ll be singing my praises to God to the same tune as the psalm for this day, “Deer at Dawn.” (I’ll see some deer at dawn, I’m sure, and be amazed and thankful.) I’ll also be thinking of you in front of the people you love, warning, encouraging, thanking and amazing them with God’s wisdom. My prayers are with you.

· Two lessons today unmask a common feeling that comes to our minds when we’re really frustrated with the presence of evil, or the lack of our progress in fighting it.

· Also noted: The choice of the lectionary-inventors to omit from our hearing God’s command to Elijah to appoint some successors who would kill lots of apostate enemies of God.

· In the face of genocide in Darfur, quiet violence against children in Uganda and in dysfunctional homes just around the corner, the stealing of life’s possibilities because of racism or sexism, the misguided priorities of people who are blind to others’ poverty – we naturally feel frustrated, cut off from solutions, flummoxed about what to do about these problems.

· Sometimes we want to just scream; at other times to rail against evil; at still other times to take matters into our own hands, to wreak God’s vengeance on those we see as enemies of God.

· Of all the mean-spirited bumper stickers comes the ultimate expression of mindless reaction to evil: “Kill them all and let God sort it out.” (Seen during the Iranian crisis by then San Francisco Herald columnist Herb Caen (kane).

· Like it or not, God’s ultimate sorting out does NOT include the wholesale obliteration of enemies by violent means. As we can well see around the world, THAT approach does not work. Not in Iraq, not in Thailand, not in our cities, not in our families.

· In the face of rejection by people he loved – Samaritans, no less! – Jesus continued to call people to follow him. To avoid ratcheting up violence and instead add to the number of his followers, one at a time.

· Like it or not, our work against structural evil is better served by slow-and-sure conversion of hate to love, enslaved evildoers to helpers and lovers. We are appointed/anointed for a different kind of calling about how to bring God’s will to bear on the world.

· In his Large Catechism, Martin Luther proposes that the question “So, dude, who’s your God?” is answered by several self-assessments, including this one: “What/who do you most fret about in the depths of night?” OR “What/who keeps you up at night?”

· In the hunger work of this church, we help remove legitimate fear from the lives of people around the world, so that knowledge and worship of God is possible. A good example: Children in safe encampments in Uganda, protected from militias who come in the night to conscript them into involuntary soldiering. Another: Any direct relief program that provides food directly to parents whose children would otherwise starve. (See your most recent hunger packet for a sheaf of reproducible stories that might illustrate this freedom-from-fear matter.)

· But what about those among God’s people who live here in this country, at this point in time? How about our middle- or upper-class fears in the middle of the night, our gentle/invisible fears that create their own idolatries? Loss of income, declining health, diminished sense of meaning or worth, broken families, pleasure-addicted children, deep boredom with our lives, “death” of many kinds – what about these fears?

· In the hunger work of this church, we dig down to those apostasies, too, and propose that simplifying our lives – while confessing our individual and national sins of greed and dissolute living – helps the entire world that God loves. We encourage each other to “live simply so that others live.” (See www.elca.org/hunger/simple for some ideas about this subject.)

· In the Gospel for today, a life lesson about a little ugly truth: We can espouse great hopes, hold important values tightly to the core of our being while at the same time refusing to give up the false priorities that keep us from ever realizing our supposed goals.

· In the matter of living simply, feeding the poor, contributing to the well-being of people around the world, fighting evil or any of a host of noteworthy good deeds we propose – we still hold to attitudes and behaviors that prohibit (or actually work against) the achieving of those goals.

· The supposed followers of Jesus each had his own “Wait just a minute, will you, Jesus?” in response to Jesus’ call to follow him. In the Matthew version (Matthew 8:19-22), the skewed priorities are even more vivid.

· When it comes to “helping the poor,” how can we, in good conscience, continue to live in ways that contribute to the very poverty we propose to eliminate by our generosity or our advocacy? How can we go to Mexico or Appalachia and build Habitat homes on mission trips and come home to vote against the placement of a homeless shelter in our neighborhoods? How can we propose to follow Jesus – in matters of justice – but only when it’s convenient?

· On the coming holiday celebrating the birth of a country seeking to wrestle itself away from structured oppression – yes, the United States of America – it might be well to remember that the good and godly formation of this country was NOT won by people who saw justice and freedom as a part-time hobby to be engaged in when it was convenient.

· Neither is the elimination of poverty, the dismantling of economies that keep people poor, the destruction of lives that comes from our over-feeding and over-pleasuring. The inconvenient truth about global warming is the same as the inconvenient truth about world-wide economic injustice: If we do little or nothing – or wait until we can attend to other supposed priorities – then the problems will continue to grow.

· Where’s the Gospel? Jesus’ metaphor about what direction we look when plowing. It is good news that we are part of a kingdom of justice-bringing, that we’re joined with other plowers (or plowhorses?). We know how this excuse-making works or doesn’t work. We have other choices. We’re gifted by God’s Spirit to freely give of ourselves for others’ well-being. We’re commissioned and equipped. We can do this good and godly thing of eliminating hunger!

· Luther captures the spirit (the Spirit?) of the Galatians text with his assertion that we are both lords and servants of all. Available to us: Both the freedom that only nobility could expect in his time, as well as the motivating love by which we serve others.

· Absent that kind of freedom, we’re captured by the kind of silly/stupid selfishness that causes the kind of behavior Paul names as evil. Bound in place by our addictions to pleasures of all kind, we have no choice but to feed those addictions.

· Yes, Virginia, the gifts of the Spirit are about altruistic love. (And not just “kinship altruism,” by which we expect our good and godly deeds to be repaid in kind.)

· We are part of a serving church, which has for centuries (more of them than the centuries of this nation’s lifespan) given itself to the care and feeding of people who are poor. We are part of an evil-defeating church which for centuries defied powers-that-be who seek only their own selfish agendas or ideologies. We are part of a spirited church that gets this work done in effective, exciting ways.

· Take the time to see how each of those Spirited gifts might end up looking like when applied to the lives of people who are being squished by poverty or disregard or disgust. For example, think how difficult it can be to be patient when your land is being taken away from you by shady developers. Or think how the ELCA Hunger Program makes people happy.

· For example, how do we stack up to the two lists of behaviors/attitudes that Paul lays out in the Galatians text? Or how do we, as a nation, exhibit the kind of character traits he claims as being in synch with every law? Another: When do we seek the kind of violent retribution or vengeance that Jesus steps around, in today’s Gospel? How does our country show that we follow Christ?

· What, really, makes a country great? And what’s our part in making this a country that shows its greatness by serving the rest of the world, or otherwise fulfilling God’s will?

1. Prepare a series of gift boxes/bags, each of which contains a “gift of the Spirit.” Give the children the gifts, explaining in children’s vocabularies the nature of the gift. Then ask the child receiving a particular gift how she or he would give that gift away to someone else. And would the gift truly be gone when they gave it away?

2. This might be a good Sunday to read The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein – or another book like it – to illustrate the nature of self-giving love and service to others.

3. Not-so-young children already understand “it’s not fair” and they know that hunger and oppression and poverty and disdain are not fair. How might you elicit children’s feelings of frustration about people who get away with evil – bullies always come to mind – and what the children might do or say when they want to get rid of evil all at once. Connect to children’s daily experience and to the texts.

4. Talk about being scared of the dark, or monsters in the bedroom or nightmares. Tell the children the story of the children in Uganda and elsewhere who have real fears about the dark. (See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtzEPWQo_9o for an ELCA-produced video detailing the night shelters in Uganda.)

5. Use your imagination and a friendly local puppet to tell a story about a character who misunderstands “free” to mean “do whatever you want.” Detail the false sense of freedom, and the problems that come from this unbridled selfishness. If possible, redeem the puppet’s life in the end, when Mr. Bob – the puppet’s name? – discovers that he has the freedom to give his life in service to others. (Okay, okay, Sniffy the Dog . . . )

1. After reading the first and second lessons for the day, get personal about this matter of being frustrated about the prevalence and continuing presence of injustice and evil. What about your shared anger about evildoers? What kind of vengeance do you secretly hope God will wreak on people who rip away the fabric of life from people who are poor?

2. Talk about these two texts from the viewpoint of a devout Christian in Palestine or Iraq or Africa, who sees people like the members of this congregation as the oppressive rich. What about their anger and frustration?

3. Think about the birthday of this country together. With the background of the American Revolution in mind, consider how the gifts of the Spirit showed up in the founding documents and principles of this country. How did concern for the downtrodden saturate the presumptions of liberty on which the country was founded? For a more difficult discussion, consider the possibility that concern for people who are poor was not a part of the principled decisions on which this country was founded. And how about today’s values, today’s government, today’s civility in towns and neighborhoods? How do we value people who are poor?

4. Today’s texts take us toward what’s important and what isn’t. Look at each of the texts as an interplay between unimportant and very important. (Elisha’s burning of his means of employment in order to apprentice to Israel’s greatest prophet, the conflicting priorities of those who claimed they wanted to follow Jesus, or the two behavior lists in the Galatians text.) How do participants make decisions about what’s important in their lives? How do they hold dearly to that sense of priorities and live by it? What gets in the way?

As I write this, I’m frustrated about the course of this set of wars in which we’re engaged. I’m angry about the growing problems of the world that are fed by the lifestyles of people in this country. I’m a little down about how much we can accomplish. I’m feeling a little like the cicadas whirling against my ninth floor window, aimless creatures looking for some purpose that they sortof recall from their seventeen years underground. At the same time, though, I’m privileged to be writing these words right now, serving the same God with you, and excited about how your preaching and teaching will help dissipate the same kinds of frustrations we all feel. Thanks for that!