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Welcome to Hunger Sermon Starters!
 
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!
 
December 9, 2007
Second Sunday of Advent
 
First Reading: Isaiah 11:1-10
Psalm 72:1-9, 15
Second Reading: Romans 15:4-13
Gospel: Matthew 3:1-12
 
 
STARTER ONE: PREACHING THEMES
 
The Peaceable Kingdom
·         Do your hermeneutical homework before interpreting this passage, friend! Biological improbabilities layer on one another like peanut butter and pickles, and a host of familiar biblical images vie for the interpreter’s attention like kindergartners at Show-and-Tell time.
·         I want to focus on one segment of Isaiah’s vision, the part where the prophet imagines a king who deals fairly and justly with people who are poor.
·         Simply stated, there can’t be peace without justice. More than a faded bumper sticker on a vintage Volvo, this sentiment sums up a consistent part of God’s economia, God’s plan for the world.
·         It makes sense: If systemic hunger is to be obliterated there has to be peace. Deep peace, a kingdom that’s peaceful from its core to its skin. Forgiveness and love are at the root of peace, to be sure, but perhaps nothing happens until the king – the government in our times – is dedicated to the proposition that the barometer of peace is measured not just in cute animals doing their Disneyesque thing, but in how poor people are treated.
·         This “peace” thing is a little scary when it’s fragile or artificial – e.g., maintained only by military might or propped up by surface-level laws.
·         What characterizes peace is a Savior King – in any time and any place – who judges people fairly and honestly.
·         The Savior King comes soon – see the Matthew reading – for biblical audiences. For us today, the Savior King has already come, already established his rule and now asks us to follow in his governance, in his example. 
·         Christ-who-is-fair and who loves all, regardless of their appearances – this is the King we worship and emulate. This is the ruler to whom we will give our allegiance. 
 
Crushingly honest and fair
·         In both First Lesson and Psalm you get the strong Old Testament message – well-known to Jesus – that God demands and exemplifies honest justice. Given the default behaviors of rulers during those pre-Christ eons, it makes sense that psalmist and prophet would join in prayer/plea/praise for a ruler who insists that justice extend deeply into the social fabric, to the level of those easily trampled or ignored.
·         Both lessons also add the thought that God’s insistence comes as more than a gentle invitation. Some of the language around the theme of God’s justice gets just a little physical, and maybe even a little violent. (E.g., “crush” or see the Gospel’s “threshing and winnowing”.)
·         You get the picture from these lessons – and scores like them in the entire Scriptures – that the God who saves us all is also the God who has no patience for those who want to make the world their oyster, their playground, their pleasure-trove. God may not be willing to wait around for their conversion, the dawn of their awareness, their grudging compliance with God’s laws.
·         One of the thematic emphases on this day might be termed “John the Baptist Sunday.” Because he carried forward this godly insistence on class – and racial? – justice, Cousin John was the epitome of a firebrand God who wants to squash and squelch and sweep away those whose way of living squashes, squelches and sweeps away those who are poor. 
·         How’s that work with the ELCA Hunger program? Prophets abound in this church.  They may have names like Nessan, Johnson, Malpica-Padilla, Genszler, Mortha, Larson, Soto, Bennett, Glass, Basye, Bullock or Hanson. They may work in Chicago, Sioux Falls, Minot, Milwaukee, Sidney, Columbus, Sacramento, Baltimore or El Paso. Prophets may be as close to you as the pastor down the road apiece. They may write well, preach fiery sermons, ask hard questions, confront evil head-on, give their lives away in risky ministries. They may work in daily vocations outside the church.
·         Yes, “ELCA World Hunger” is comprised of thousands of prophetic voices – honest and fair – who crush evil every day, inside and outside of this church’s official programs. And today might be a good time to thank and encourage ALL whose work against hunger is strong, physical, insistent and effective. ALL who follow in the footsteps of John the Baptist.
·         And, John/Johanna, let me be the first to thank YOU!
 
Benedictions
·         The Romans lesson fairly oozes with benedictions – good words – for people perhaps beat down to the level of the pavement by their poverty, or in their work against poverty.
·         Read the lesson as a lexicon for writing benedictions, and see how you can use the words you find to form new benedictions for the John the Baptists in your own congregation.
·         In other words, make this a Sunday filled with good words, encouraging words, hopeful words. Person-to-person.
·         These are NOT “nice words”, but “good words,” encouragement and invitation to keep at the godly task of justice, truth, eliminating hunger and poverty.
·         For a sermon that folks will remember for its actions as well as its words, list all the useful and poignant words in this lesson. After your short sermonic introduction, ask worshipers to look around the sanctuary, thinking of the prophetic and caring work of other worshipers. Then folks can turn to people next to them, and offer homemade benedictions from the words you’ve listed from Romans.
·         After folks have circulated among other worshipers, repeating the customized benedictions, summarize the experience by calling for some comments from worshipers.
·         In the olden days – when I was a pup – this was called a “dialogue sermon.” Far out, dudes.
·         They worked then, they can work now. The people of God preaching to the people of God.
·         How to deal with the actual end-of-service benediction? Your problem, because I am only a sermon starter guy . . . .
 
Prophetic words match prophetic actions
·         So you want all God’s people to be prophets, do you? But what do prophets do when they get up in the morning? What do they say, and what do they wear? How do they behave?
·         John the Baptist may be a hard act to follow in complete form. But his words and actions can translate into these days, these settings, these people. Let’s try that here.
·         John the Baptist is not afraid; he separates himself out from the rest of society, but yet draws people to himself and his message. He lives simply, principled almost beyond description. His language is devoid of euphemisms, but rich in metaphors.  He engages in invective when necessary.  He challenges the present social, economic and religious systems.  He looks over the horizon, beyond himself and even beyond his message straight to the “mind of God”. He baptizes – an act of grace and of commissioning, even in those times. His audience includes poor people as well as the rich and the powerful – I’m drawing on the parallel accounts in other gospels – who are ready for something beyond “ordinary religion.” His message centers on repentance that breaks out of “attitude change” into “changed living.”  He is not afraid. (Yes, I’ve said that twice, for emphasis.)
·         Any of those ways of speaking or acting possible for people you know? How might “prophetic” already be happening in your congregation? And how could you encourage these words and behaviors in cirucmstances they are still only seeds in the ground? Youth ministry folks? People ready to tip away from unsustainably profligate lifestyles? Young adults looking for a church where something happens for the good of the world? 
·         One of the realities about prophetic words is that they have to be matched with prophetic actions. Isaiah rails against the political, social and spiritual powers of his day, but undoubtedly taking the risk of losing his position in the princely class. Amos probably leaves his trees and his livestock while prophesying up in Israel. Jeremiah spends time in disgrace – and in a pit – for his open mind and open mouth. 
·         To say this another way: Prophecy that tells OTHERS what THEY ought to do is probably not as effective as prophetic words that come from prophetic actions. 
·         All this by way of encouragement, not condemnation – I would be hoisted on my own petard if I did that. The people of your congregation are undoubtedly prophets – in small ways, perhaps – in many places. And they can be heartened by the example of John the Baptist.
 
STARTER TWO: CHILDREN’STHOUGHTS AND ACTIVITIES
1.       Find a copy – at your local library? – of the painting, The Peaceable Kingdom, by Quaker preacher, farmer and sign-maker Edward Hicks, whose insistence that Quakerism return to its simple roots made him a reformer. Show children the seemingly improbable circumstances that the Isaiah text portrays in metaphor, and think with the kids about what other improbable circumstances might characterize peace in their settings. (E.g., bullies changing their behavior; parents not fighting any more; street gangs putting away their weapons, Muslims and Christians working together to alleviate the effects of natural disasters, Bears’ fans not being persecuted for their abysmal season – Just checking to see if you’re still reading here.)
2.       Ask children this question about their lives, “Who do you know that is truthful and honest most of the time?” Ask them next what happens to those people when they are most always truthful and honest. Follow with some statements about God’s rule as truthful/honest ruler of all, and about prayers for that kind of just behavior on the part of political leaders in our times.
3.       To work with the obverse, summarize (and show?) Yertle the Turtle as an example of an unjust ruler who gets crushed (literally) by his unjust and dishonest actions.
4.       Another series of questions, closer to home: “What do you do or say when you see or hear something that’s very, very wrong? What happens next? Who helps you to be truthful and honest when you want to do something to change what’s wrong?” One comfort: God (and Jesus) work this way all the time.
 
 
STARTER THREE: BIBLE CONVERSATIONS
1.       The painting, The Peaceable Kingdom, comes with quite a story behind it (and the other paintings with this name) because of the story of the colonial-era painter Edward Hicks. Google “The Peaceable Kingdom” and read some of the background for this painter’s work, especially his prophetic insistence on reforming Quakerism back to its original piety, forsaking worldly pleasures and status. After sharing some of the story with participants, talk about parallels in our time, perhaps how “religion” has been transformed by the general culture into something more American than Christian. (For background, skim The Transformation of American Religion: How We Actually Live Our Faith by Alan Wolfe.)
2.       Spend some time thinking together about the question of “peace in our times.” Stick as close to the Psalm and First Lesson as possible, using questions such as these:
1.       If you’ve taken the “all God’s people are prophets” angle, continue that frame of mind in the Bible conversation, using any of these prompts:
 
STARTER FOUR: ACTION STEPS
1.       In the prayers for this Sunday, include thanks for some (surprising) prophets close at hand, naming them and summarizing their prophetic work.
2.       Investigate the Web site of Lutheran Peace Fellowship (www.lutheranpeace.org) to find actionable ideas and resources.
3.       Look at the most recent “Good Gifts Catalog” -- in the hunger packet we sent you about three weeks ago -- to find projects that bring peace, directly or indirectly. Ask congregation members for their prayerful and financial participation in these projects.
4.       Ask a conflict resolution expert to come talk with your group about how “peace” is necessary and approachable in everyday life situations.
5.       Talk with someone over 60 years old who might have been a “peacenik” years ago. What was it like to advocate and work for peace during the days of seemingly imminent nuclear destruction or the VietNam war?
6.       Read and think about Luther’s take on the idea of “just war”. (Yes, you can Google it and see what comes up.)
7.       Spend personal time – lunch/dinner/an evening – with a recent refugee from a country where war has torn apart the social fabric. Ask good questions, and think about the application of this person’s answers to this country’s present state of mind.


THE SENDOFF
Dense plane-grounding fog covers the landscape as I write this – the spawn of global warming and brother or sister of fog in a variety of places on the weather map? I’m a Californian by nativity, and so am familiar with fog in its many forms. But this one feels ominous – it’s autumn on the calendar but with summer-ish air. Perhaps this is a sign, a prophetic atmospheric reminder of the materialistic haze that covers our brains at this time of year. Or perhaps the fog covers a multitude of sins, and is therefore a sign of forgiveness! In any case, it tempts me to mindfulness, to quiet and to gratitude for all God’s prophecies and signs in the air. A blessing for my sometimes-rushed schedule. Thanks be to God . . . .

Bob Sitze, Director
ELCA Hunger Education
 
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Welcome to Hunger Sermon Starters!
 
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!
 
December 16, 2007
Third Sunday of Advent
 
First Reading: Isaiah 35:1-10
Psalm 146:5-10
Second Reading: James 5:7-10
Gospel: Matthew 11:2-11
 
 
STARTER ONE: PREACHING THEMES
 
A little good news wouldn’t hurt
 
·         Like a seaside tidal pool, the hunger ministries of your congregation and this church body teem with lively possibilities, wriggly organisms and quickly moving creatures. (For an example, consider how your congregation members responded to the post-Christmas South Asia tsunami a few years back!)
·         Even in the face of horrific suffering around the world and grinding poverty as close as some neighborhoods in any locale, we who are God’s people can’t overlook that good things happen, too, because of God’s love poured through us into the world.
·         Could your sermon today be one of those times when you recount – as encouragement and reminder and perhaps antidote to blue funks – what you have done together to alleviate hunger, poverty, injustice or any of their ugly family. Could you recall what you have done together with gazillions of Lutherans around the world to feed hungry people, bring sight to blind people, open up prisons of all kinds, heal people who suffer from diseases of every kind. Could you hold up what we all have done to stop the quickening degradation of the world’s ecosystems – the source of all food, after all.
·         I can point you in a hundred directions for facts and anecdotes, such as the stories in the ELCA Hunger Packet, or Web sites I’ve referenced scores of times in these Sermon Starters. But maybe this week’s sermon preparation time would be a good occasion for you – and your sermon-study group? – to find those examples close to home. A couple of hints follow . . .
o        Part of what’s “good” about good news is changed attitudes. Any of those around you?
o        Ignorance – of the facts about the spread of hunger around the world or its many causes – might have been dissipated by your work together.
o        Some of your members may have become contemporary versions of John the Baptist – check the clothing references in the Matthew Gospel. (Yes, I’m grinning at you. Sortof.)
o        Other hints are jammed into today’s lectionary like stocking stuffers. Look for them.
·         And when you’ve found the stories and examples, the inspiring people and the hopeful changes – think about how you all might express your thanks and gratitude (to God. to each other, and to this church body).   That could be fun, too.
 
It’s time for a little (more) justice
 
·         Psalm 146 shows up again – last time was September 30th of this year – and once again there’s the voice of insistence coming out of its words, like the sound of a child asking Mom or Dad to stop smoking.
·         During worship time, the voice is small – the dutiful antiphonal reading or softly sung chanting of words between lessons. And yet . . . .
·         In short and easily understood phrases, this psalm (with backup from the Gospel and Isaiah) presents justice and food as co-equals. You probably already know – and wrestle with – the “charity without justice is not charity” equation. Perhaps today’s psalm could be helpful in reminding your congregation about this matter as well. Many questions occur to me . . . .
·         Where does justice show up in a canned-food drive? If God feeds hungry people through us, how does God bring justice through us? What are some “little” justice-bringers in which we engage? How do they gather together to become powerful currents of righteousness? What are the effects of insistent, even nagging justice – c.f. the child above – compared to one-time efforts? Who decides what’s just and what’s not?
·         Why we think about this subject at this time of year: It’s time to repent and to get ready. If we’re the unjust ones, repentance befits us. If we’re the silent, complacent ones sitting on our hands, repentance is required before we meet the Child whose birth and life set the world on fire.
·         Another reason embedded in Advent: There might not be very much time remaining for us to bring justice to the poor. “The end of times” could also be thought of as “the end of a time when people are not fearful” or “the end of the time when generosity characterized the human spirit,” or even “the end of the times when we can repent, seek forgiveness and amend our sinful lives”.
·         A little justice in a little psalm. A little voice in a smoking world.
 
 
Be like farmers
 
·         “Be like farmers.” An odd thing to think about in the winter, right before Christmas
·         Patient and kind, according to James. That’s a description of farmers. Seems good enough.
·         People who are dependent on what they can’t control – these are folks who understand patience and kindness. People who know how to wait.
·         Be like farmers, James says. For their patience and kindness, but also their ability to withstand suffering.
·         Easy sermon? Not really, because patience and kindness are always in short supply, like seed corn in a refugee camp that’s hungry NOW. Patience and kindness – and farmers? – get eaten up in the urgency of problems or selfishness.
·         Easy sermon? Not really, if the “farmers” are folks who tend smaller plots of land on which they depend for most of their food. Not if the “farmers” are people in other parts of the world who, like the first-century peasants to which James was referring, are nearly always victims of larger economic systems that steal from their capabilities to grow food. Their patience and kindness can get smushed into the mud of globalized food distribution systems or trade practices. All they may be left with is the ability to withstand suffering.
·         It’s comforting to know that, beyond the easy warm/fuzzy, Christmas-card images of rural life, there ARE still people who can teach us to be patient and kind, EVEN during times of suffering.
·         Perhaps that’s the Advent connection: Times of suffering are on the close horizon. For all of us. (Mortgage crisis spreads to whole economy; global warming kills more people than polar bears; war eats up more than Middle East countries.)
·         Be like farmers.
 
Proof positive
 
·         Your pews may start to fill (again) with folks looking for answers. (The evangelism axiom is true during this time of year: People visiting your worship services come there for a reason!)   Things are getting tough for more and more folks. More and more of us are closer and closer to poverty than ever before. More and more of our nests are fouler and fouler than ever before. More and more of us are disconnected from each other more than ever before.
·         We worship together because we hear (from God’s Word) the wisdom we need to stave off stupidity, to salve guilty consciences, to bind up wounds of body and spirit, to sidestep the effects of our punishable sinfulness. We want more than answers; we want deliverance.
·         We Christians claim that we follow Christ, and that he’s in the salvation business big time. But what’s the proof for pew-sitters, new or familiar? 
·         Today’s Gospel has Jesus engaging in rare self-promotion, proof for John’s disciples that it would be good for them to switch the center of their discipleship.
·         What Jesus does is who Jesus is. (Or is it the other way around?)  This is the center of Jesus’ answers to the querying Baptists. And what Jesus does is observable love for the people of the world.
·         More self-promotion: We Christians (Lutherans in this case) put God’s/our money on the table, our shoulders to the wheel and our eyes to the ground and we get things done. Through the hunger ministries of this church, we do the same things Jesus did personally. People ARE fed, people ARE healed, justice IS proclaimed and lived out.
·         All these actions prove LESS about us, and more about the Christ we follow. We’re not the answers that visiting pew-sitters need; Christ is. 
·         By what he did with his life – it ended in life-giving death and resurrection – Jesus proved to his followers and other answer-seekers two things: His way works, and it works for our lives.
·         The proof has never been in the pudding. It probably was always in the Cook. (Yes, you can mix metaphors in sermons . . . .)
 
STARTER TWO: CHILDREN’STHOUGHTS AND ACTIVITIES
 
1.       Try the “charity with justice” idea by making two simply lettered (paper) banners, one with DO JUSTICE on it, and the other with FEED THE HUNGRY. Ask children to read the banners and explain both. What’s “justice”; who gets it and who gives it? What’s “food”; who gets it and who gives it? How do justice and hunger work together? What would it feel like to a poor person to get only food and NOT justice? What DOES God require?
 
2.       Play around with insistence by holding up a cigarette and asking children what they would do to help someone stop smoking. What if that person was their parent or older sibling? After a few moments, move the focus towards justice: What would children keep doing to help someone stop being unfair to others? At the end of the learning time, crush the cigarette, noting that this is what God does with injustice, and unjust people, too.
 
3.       If this person is part of your fellowship, ask an older adult to talk about the beautiful natural world she or he experienced as a child. Combine this story-telling time with a paraphrased version of parts of the Isaiah text. A kind of environmental celebration.
 
4.       If life is a highway – Isaiah text? – then what is Advent? A stop sign, a highway leveling crew, a paving crew, a parade of returning refugees?   A fence along the highway? Draw pictures as you teach about the value of Advent thinking on folks.
 
5.       About this time of year your congregation may engage children and families in some acts of charity and/or justice. Add some oomph to the process by inviting as guest preacher or teacher one of the clients or beneficiaries of the children’s generosity. If funds are gathered, children might hear from someone taking on the persona of a recipient – of healing, food distribution, clean water, sight, economic justice.
 
 
STARTER THREE: BIBLE CONVERSATIONS
 
1.       With the texts in mind, find (and copy or download) news items that catch your eye as connections (good or bad) to the themes of Advent. Who’s repenting? (Who needs to?) What “highways” are being built? Where’s God’s justice showing its insistent strength? Where’s the proof that Jesus’ example continues into these times?   Who are the forerunners of Jesus today? For fun, ask teams of participants to browse the Sunday edition of a large urban newspaper in order to find these comparisons.
 
2.       If you didn’t do John the Baptist themes last week, think about those possibilities this week, or continue the discussion with more personal questions for participants, such as:
 
 
3.       Talk about this question, with all the day’s texts as references: Why would the lectionary choosers have selected so many “do justice” texts for this time of year?
 
4.       Ask world travelers to tell stories about farmers they’ve met – “peasants” in some places – especially stories about patience and kindness in spite of suffering. Where applicable, reference the work of ELCA World Hunger.
 
 
STARTER FOUR: ACTION STEPS
 
1.       Start an Advent-tide letter- or card-writing group that meets for breakfast or lunch once a week until Christmas. Your work: Ask, confront or congratulate those whom you believe are at the front of injustice or justice work. Use cards from the ELCA Hunger Program. (See the most recent hunger packet, or the most recent SEEDS for the Parish.)
 
2.       Select from the ELCA Good Gifts catalog one project that you believe incorporates many of the elements of today’s texts. (E.g., feeding the hungry, bringing justice to the poor, healing, bringing sight, etc.) Set a financial giving goal and make a poster to invite others to join you in this raising of funds and awareness.
 
3.       Gather a group to view together the new ELCA-produced NBC Television special focused on Uganda. Visit the ELCA Web site to find more information. The topic: Forgiveness in a country torn apart by war. Very powerful evidence that Jesus’ ways work!
 
4.       Add something special to any gift- or food-bags your congregation assembles: A personal invitation to a special event that bag recipients might enjoy. For example, a Mom’s Night Out just for them, or a bus trip to a tree farm (with a free tree thrown in), or a movie night at church, or a Games Night for kids. (Yes, the invitation is only the tip of the iceberg.)
 
5.       Arrange for gifts of magazine subscriptions to families (or children) who are poor. Make sure that your provide for some contact with the families – tailor the subscriptions to what the families might want – and budget the possibilities of extending the subscription for more than one year. Ideas: Anything from National Geographic, Discover, National Wildlife Federation, TIME, Inc.
 
6.       Start collecting candles for Candlemas --- February is coming soon! – so that you can “light a candle instead of cursing the darkness.” Think now how that idea might characterize your congregation’s pre-Lent emphases on poverty and hunger. Stay tuned.

THE SENDOFF
 
Outside the cold is gathering, as rain turns to ice, threatening trees and power lines. Inside, there’s a cold in my head, as my throat and eyes and ears fight back against garden-variety germs. Deeper yet, inside my soul, there’s the possibility that Dreary will win, at least for a moment, and that Despair will crowd in next to this loathsome creature. What keeps me hopeful? Christ is coming again, and much of this lingering battle against evil will someday be over. You’re another part of that hope, by the way. Keep at what you’re doing. Be like farmers . . . .
 
Bob Sitze, Director
ELCA Hunger Education