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!

· 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.

· The answers seem so small – gifts of the Spirit, help one another because you are free to do so – but they’re better. They’re the ones Jesus used, too.

· 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 today’s psalm, David thanks God for protection from fear at night. Actually a protection from idolatry that substitutes fear for God!

· 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.)

· The psalmist understands that rooting our lives in God’s service is a way around the self-defeating fears that dog our days and our holidays.

· Paul also understands that the Spirit’s gifts free us from our idolatrous fears so that, in service to people around the world, we can free others from theirs.

· 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.

· It’s close to the time when we celebrate our young country’s birthday. Any question about its greatness might be well-framed by the texts for this day.

· 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!

· On the other hand, with no national identity, groups of people have trouble holding together a reasonable facsimile of a civil society.

· Sadness of the biblical captivity stories is that national identity – a protecting cradle for God’s people to prosper and to serve God – is destroyed and disappears.

· Around the world today -- including this country? --the collapse of civil societies sobers us. Are we descending toward individualisms that obscure our responsibilities for each other, including those who are poor?

· Any of us loves our country as God does: A collection of people who obey God’s will, who accomplish God’s will – mostly for justice among all people – and who worship God alone.

· The psalmist remembers God’s power in the events of the Exodus, a massive refugee resettlement program. Miracles abound because of God’s power, because of God’s love.

· Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service has been working with immigrants and refugees for decades, among people whose personal exoduses were also made under duress. Their deliverance was no less miraculous than the First Exodus.

· This might be a good Sunday to note and celebrate the presence of immigrants in your community and in this fellowship. Visit www.lirs.org for further information about the immigration and refugee services of this church body.

· The Galatians text seems to set up a kind of ying/yang or cause-and-effect relationship regarding the fruits of the Spirit and their presumed opposite.

· “If this happens, or if you do this, then this will happen, or you will do this.” That’s the relationship between attitudes and deeds and their natural outcomes.

· When it comes to our ways of living, some of us may think that we can escape the consequences of profligate lifestyles, purposed ignorance of others’ poverty, studious avoidance of action to combat injustice. We act as though we don’t have to pay – now or in the future – for what we’ve done.

· By God’s grace and because of the Holy Spirit, the consequences of our living on earth can accrue towards wonderful things --- e.g., helping one another, doing good, etc. – that don’t disobey any law.

· Part of the back-and-forth of the Scripture, then, is Law (with punishment) and Gospel (with grace). See how that preaches into hunger matters this Sunday!

· A bit of a stretch, but I see small hints in the Gospel and the Galatians text of the truth that personal involvement – in what’s good and in what’s evil – is the root of all societal change.

· Our global mission folks call this “accompaniment” and they also speak of sustaining relationships as the core for long-lasting change in the world. For them, proclaiming the Gospel is NOT just about planting seeds, but also about preparing the ground and about sticking around to weed and aerate the soil and water and prune.

· When I see and hear active verbs, I know that the hunger program of this church affects people who, in turn, help others change. When I hear ideas or passive verbs, I wonder whether folks are avoiding the necessity – also the privilege and the joy – of face-to-face encounters with people who are poor.

· That’s the challenge and good news of this idea: When you get involved personally with the people that God loves so dearly, you follow the example of Jesus, who came to be among us, who lived with us and died as we will die.

· I’m struck with the central place of peace-blessings in Jesus’ instructions to his advance men and women. He wants them to go into the home and give a blessing of peace – a big word for Jesus, way beyond “not noisy” or “not violent.”

· I’m also struck by the central place that peace ministries in this church might play in the way we do hunger ministries. A good example is Lutheran Peace Fellowship (www.lutheranpeace.org), for whom “peace” is also a big word.

· You’re still experiencing the afterglow of another July 4^th, and it’s totally legitimate to ask questions on this day about the relationship between Jesus’ instruction and the way our nation conducts its foreign policy, the way we treat each other in a Land of Freedom, or the way we react to each other in personal encounters. How do “blessings of peace” characterize our first greetings, our attitude about others, our best wishes for their wellbeing, or own role as God’s servants?

1. Teach the children a song or a blessing that includes a greeting of peace. If your congregation engages in a greeting of peace during the worship, comment on that matter, and tell the children about places in the world where Lutherans and other Christians have brought God’s own peace, by helping refugees, helping people forgive, getting relief aid to people, helping people work together for common ends. Look at the most recent hunger packet to find a sheaf of stories that might illustrate these possibilities.

2. As a variation, use anointing oil to bless children’s hands for doing the work of combating hunger. This might coincide with the collection of an offering, the start of a congregation’s immersion experience or volunteering for disaster relief. Children might receive the blessing (on their hands) and then help pass the peace – with this same ritual with oil – to other members of the congregation.

3. As you read the Galatians text to children, ask them to imagine themselves living through a normal summer day acting in positive and helping ways. After they open their eyes, ask children to tell you what happened as they imagined themselves at home, by a pool, taking a walk, playing on the sidewalk, being with friends, on vacation, taking care of their siblings or being home alone.

4. If you haven’t taken my suggestions in previous weeks about thoughtfulness about refugees, use today’s momentary reference – in the psalm – as the jumping-off point for sharing stories of congregation members who were once refugees of one kind or the other. HINT: Don’t forget folks who escaped the devastation of the GulfCoast, and are also refugees. ANOTHER HINT: Don’t forget the stories of older adults, people who escaped their homelands decades ago, fleeing from war and worse.

1. Because the texts suggest action, individually and corporately, could you spend time with conversation participants examining how each of you plays out the directives of Jesus – bringing peace blessings – and the imperatives of Paul in the Galatians text, in the ways you live.

2. As a variation, ask participants to close their eyes, rewind back to the previous day – at home or at work – or to fast forward to next week. As they imagine themselves into a setting full of relationships, how might they find themselves accepting the invitation and invectives of today’s lessons in specific situations during their life? The difference from Item 1 here: More specificity.

3. According to Luke, Jesus’ ministry is played out from his basic understanding of the imminent coming of the Kingdom of God. No small matter, this “kingdom” thing, and Jesus is insistent that it requires attitudes and behaviors that are substantially different than those we normally engage in. Talk together about your own sense of the coming of God’s kingdom, especially the parts about coming to judge the world in righteousness.

I’m on vacation as read this, and I’m deeply aware that for most of the people of this world there is no vacation, no rest, no letup from hard and difficult work. Unemployed people, people with no apparent reason for hope, people in the maxi and mini wars of the Middle East, the so-called working poor. I feel privileged to have this blessing, and hope you do, too, anytime you can rest without being hassled or losing ground or the good favor of people around you. A Sabbath is good for all of us. Would to God that all God’s people could rest from their labors, and long before their time of eternal rest! A thought.