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!

· This text is repeated – except for the part about The Child being born – from its Advent home for a reason: It’s still winter and things may still be dark. We join with people who are lost in darkness of all kinds in shared wishing for more than flickers of candles.

· And when light hits – a super-nova of truth – we rejoice because we’re not knocking about in the dark like lost souls. Super-bright light shines on the falsehoods of economic or political presumptions that strangely favor only the rich. Rays of bright penetration pierce evil people who try to hide their intent with dark arguments of individuality or supposedly beneficent corporate greed.

· Justice stands like a beacon in a world consumed with fear of others. “What’s fair” spreads into the dark corners of human interaction so that no one can get away with thinking of themselves as most- or first-deserving of fairness.

· In its education and interpretive functions, ELCA World Hunger shines a part of God’s great light on the nature, causes and solutions of hunger and poverty in the world. By your contributions and your insistence on shared learning, you help dispel ignorance about hunger – “Poor people are just lazy” – and help each other gain courage to do what’s right inside of what’s light.

· On Saturday the nation’s press will dutifully report on the goings-on of Punxatawny Phil – reportedly a Lutheran groundhog – whose antics are locked inside the lore of weather prediction akin to that of The Farmer’s Almanac.

· The psalmist – presumably David here – is almost groundhog-like as he pokes his head and his spirit into varieties of safety-seeking semi-questions. Who saves you after all? What doesn’t save you? Who doesn’t save you? What do you fear? What does protection look like?

· You can almost see David sticking his literary head back into tried-and-true axioms, protective cloaks for his sense of self: God protects from enemies, from the cold winter of dangers, from one’s own self. God has been doing this for quite awhile. God knows best how to protect.

· While Phil is left to the imagined task of weather prediction, his real work is self-protection. Being no fool, our little furry friend knows what to do if dangerous light reveals dangerous shadow: RETREAT! (Or, in Pythonesque speech, “RUN AWAY!!”)

· The metaphors beg mixing here: Light protects – and redeems – those who have lived in darkness. (And yet a precocious near-rodent fears light as the cause of danger!) The people who see the light get to rejoice, while a dim-witted animal plunges back into its dark burrow. Light saves and light scares.

· Hunger and justice? These matters are, for many people in the world, not metaphors or the stuff of whimsical fillers for newspapers. For people in war-torn regions of the world, the light of day is a dangerous time, filled with marauding gangs or militia. Darkness brings safety.

· For others, the light – powered by electricity or kerosene or solar-powered flashlights – is a salvation from terrors of the night and a key to meaningful and sustainable jobs. For them, light enables, and light protects.

· Back at the Metaphor Ranch, “light” can be a marker of “truth” and here the meaning is clear: God is god, and does God’s holy protective work with no if’s, and’s or but’s. God’s truth cuts through the darkness of ignorance – read here “See how ELCA World Hunger helps establish schools and spread learning across the globe – and people understand more fully what before had been only dangerous mysteries.

· Is it my imagination, or is Paul in the Second Reading showing us a kind of written mumbling, as he gets off the subject just a little bit? (His “Oh, by the way” seems to be interrupted by other sidelining “Oh, by the ways”.)

· A connector, albeit slim – to hunger-and-justice: How big are the words we use to describe this outrageous condition in the world, and how easily apprehended are our verbal constructs that explain this sinful reality and its amelioration? (And yes, I count myself among those whose shame includes using too many big words.)

· Could today be a sermon filled with terse, direct, little-worded statements about hunger and justice? Here are a few: The Gospel of Christ had better be good news for poor people, too. By the way we live, most of us here might be a major cause for the hunger of others. We can beat poverty if we want to. People who are poor are people who are hungry are people who are sick are people who live desperate lives. Jesus did not want the poor to “always be with us.” As long as one other human is hungry, the whole world is hungry. We fight hunger because Jesus invites us. None of us deserves anything; none of us earns our way of life. Poverty is not a punishment or a sign of weakness. No one chooses poverty or hunger for themselves. We who are rich are responsible for those who are poor.

· The big words that get in the way of the Gospel are side-tracking arguments – like who baptized whom among the Corinthians – or over-complications that tempt us to groundhog-like inaction, deep in the burrows of our comfortable homes or arguments about economic theory or ethics.

· His preaching – not confined to careful explication of the Torah – was radical and unique. Not unlike his cousin, Jesus was speaking about God’s sweeping hand turning the world upside down (or rightside up). Social systems, economic inequities, class and racial prejudice, false religiosity, the primacy of the Temple – all came under Jesus’ withering verbal attacks.

· The time is coming – a theme we ought to be paying attention to. Not just during dutiful Advent times, but now as we approach the repentance and sorrows of Lent. Many social critics point out that the world’s systems are nearing their breaking point, as environments and economies head toward entropic endings.

· Jesus meant his message to be hopeful, too. He wanted more than fearful groundhogs to follow him into an Essene-like existence in some desert retreat. He asked for confession and repentance, adherence to the Law’s most basic precepts. He knew that the coming kingdom of God would be full of rescue, protection, the righting of wrongs, casting off oppressors, devotion to God. All hopeful things.

· We may stand at a similar juncture in history, where we are called to proclaim the coming of God’s punishment and God’s hopeful rescue. Prophetic at best and fearful at worst, we may be called to join with people who are poor in critiquing the current social system, asking hard questions, insisting on justice where there is only charity.

1. Candlemas will occur this week, a time historically given to the celebration of light. You might echo the “bringing of light” theme for children by burning the baptismal candle, amassing into a glorious bundle five or six strings of multicolored Christmas lights or filling the church with a candle-lighting similar to that of Christmas Even. (What? You threw away those candles? Aaaargh!) Talk with children about the “greatness” of light in a world that may lack light. You can go symbolic or literal here, either talking about Christ as Great Light, the light of truth or the equally real joy of people in places in the world where electricity first becomes available. In ELCA hunger ministries, we work at both meanings!

2. Spend some fun time with a “Big Words Made Little” semi-lecture to children (and those who pay attention to them). Prior to your time with children, write several big-word concepts about hunger ministry onto a sheet of newsprint. (Examples might include: injustice, famine, poverty, starvation.) With children present, define all these presumably big words into language that children can understand. Yes, you’ll have to think how to do this! Perhaps you could tell definition-stories?

3. Without milking the Groundhog Day theme too much, spend some time with a groundhog-like puppet explaining false and correct notions of safety and danger and protection. Perhaps the puppet could come to some understanding of how God protects in spite of danger. Perhaps the groundhog puppet could learn to trust God from some world hunger stories. Perhaps by the end of your time together, both children and puppet could be less fearful, more grateful and more hopeful?

1. Danger, safety and protection can also be adult-specific themes. Think gated communities, anti-theft devices and systems, the devolution of parts of the legal system into a protector class. Compare David’s seeking of protection from God – remembering that David is the KING! – with Jesus’ nearly nose-thumbing form of preaching. Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians are also interesting when viewed through the prism of danger/safety/protection. What do participants know about dangers that poor people face? What happens to the human spirit when people live with constant fear? What happens to the human spirit when people over-protect themselves, perhaps even from people who are poor?

2. As a connector to the daily newspaper, look at the Matthew text’s proposition that Jesus’ actions fulfill prophecies. Then ask how “prophecies” from the past – from Scripture? – are coming true in today’s world. What “times are coming” for participants? What might “the kingdom of God” mean for people who are poor? For people who are rich? Where do the warnings and the hopes intersect? How dangerous is the world today? What DOES God have in mind?

3. As an exercise in guided peer learning, ask participants to come up with a list of shining-light truths about hunger that are Scripturally based or true to the spirit of Scripture. Today’s lessons may suggest some starter thoughts. No big words allowed, by the way.

1. Collect new or slightly used books for a local homeless shelter or transitional housing enterprise. (Yes, homeless folks read and think about important subjects.) Stay eclectic. Think of the books as great lights. Don’t forget children’s books. Yes, Bibles are books . . . .

2. Fold a piece of paper lengthwise. On the left-hand side, write all the things, people or eventualities that make you want to burrow into your home and never come out except to buy groceries, go to work and worship. On the right-hand side, write anything, anyone, any truth, any memory that dispels your fears. Compare the lists, and draw lines that connect a danger with its diminisher. What’s next?

3. With some friends, resolve to be “protectors” for people around you this week. Think of how your words and actions might ward off real or imagined danger, how you can dispel fear, how you can challenge dangerous people or conditions. Next time you’re together, talk about the experience and see what you’ve learned.

This is the final Hunger Sermon Starter that I will write as Director for Hunger Education for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. After more than a quarter century working for this church and its predecessors, I’m hanging up my spikes and walking back to the dugout of retirement. Spring training is just around the corner, though, and I expect to play some metaphorical baseball on some other fields, in some other leagues, with some other players.

· These words of Peter can be both comfort and indictment for Jesus’ followers. Then and now, there and then – we can derive joy from knowing that we serve a great and glorious Lord, whose power lights up our lives. At the same time, we can enjoy basking in that glory so much that we want to take up residence at the place of our mystical mountaintop experiences.

· We need the comforting from time to time, assuredly. And we probably need to bask in the glory of God’s power, to hobnob with the great heroes of the faith, to see ourselves as part of something bigger than our sometimes dreary or ordinary lives.

· The big picture can sometimes look pretty dismal – somewhere someone in the world dies at about the same rate as the blinking of your eyes – so we need to know that the biggest picture is tinged with the yellows and golds of God’s glorious power.

· We can easily fall prey to a kind of perpetual dependence on mountaintop experiences, to get trapped into near-addiction to their providence of rushing endorphins. Yet another conference with inspiring speakers, yet another success-infested video about our denominatiion’s great-and-glorious accomplishments, yet another trip to faraway lands to be inspired by the example of heroic leaders and even more heroic “ordinary Christians”.

· Perhaps Jesus was right in putting the whole transfigurations things in perspective. (Yes, transfigurations in the plural sense, because three ordinary fisherpersons were also changed that day, as Peter witnesses in today’s second reading.) Jesus understood that perpetual enjoyment of his glory could turn into a retreat away from the grit and grime of daily ministry. He knew what lay ahead – martyrdom for the sake of the world – and didn’t want his followers to think of mountaintops as the sine qua non by which to measure Christ-like behaviors.

· The way out of this tension? Both-and thinking. All of us need, from time to time, to wallow in the rejuvenating waters of warm mineral springs – there’s an analogy for you spa-soakers! All of us can benefit from having our visions of ministry reloaded with a healthy dose of glory and power. All of us can use a few days on mountaintops, loaded with ineffability, so that we can gather around us the courage we need to beat down injustice and face up to our responsibilities. And once we’ve retooled our engines, refueled, refined and refired our sense of calling, we trudge downhill – off the mountain – so that we don’t get caught in endless glory-seeking or lotus-eating.

· For all you voters out there, super Tuesday looms this week. It promises the possibility of determining the course of U.S. electoral politics, the shape of our government and perhaps even the directions God’s world will take over the next four years or more. No pressure.

· Some of us – in primary-election states – will get to choose the “king” who will help these things take place. Our anointing – little pieces of paper placed in ballot boxes, the slightest pressure on touch-screen voting machines, the tiniest chards separating themselves from the smallest of holes – will help determine which of the many would-be leaders will keep at this presidency-seeking.

· Read the psalm for the day, seeing the Lord’s derision – Händel’s Messiah gets it right here! – for rulers who don’t get it. What don’t they get? That “chosen kings” are subservient to God’s chosen King. Jesus is the reason for this season, too, here revealed as leader and cause for all that’s glorious.

· When it comes to hunger and justice work, we risk the Lord’s derision – and God’s capability to dash our work into pieces like broken pottery – if we forget that what we do is ultimately a derivative of Jesus’ work. Our glorious accomplishments are not caused by our glory, our victories or successes are not evidence of our power.

· So in our voting this Tuesday we look for contemporary kings who understand that their power is framed by Christ’s power, their promised mountaintops small, their glory a reflection of the God who makes, redeems and sanctifies the world every day.

· “Who are you going to pay attention to?” For some social theorists, that’s the first (only?) question any of us faces at any time. Attention is the basic commodity of human interaction, preceding and undergirding all decisions and actions.

· When it comes to getting attention, even prophets – back then and now – have a difficult time of it. Jesus gets his disciples’ attention with a spectacular light-and-cloud show, but for most of us, it’s a tough go when we want to be persuasive about God’s will, God’s intent for the poor, God’s ferocious love for the world.

· There’s a source-and-norm matter embedded in the second reading for this day, too: We who claim prophetic utterance don’t just make up this stuff. We echo and amplify what’s already been said, or name as our source the example and words of Jesus. Spirit-filled, we point at others – Jesus first of all – and refrain from claims of wisdom, from hopes that hordes of followers would hang on our every word.

· At his Baptism and here on the mountaintop, Jesus the Prophet was assured by God that he was worth paying attention to. God’s voice affirmed his value as truth-teller, thundering like a commandment-giver but also as way-powerful lover of the world.

· We who claim prophetic utterance – woes and warnings as well as grace and hope – do best when we point at Jesus the Christ. Here he’s glorious and beyond words, but by next week he’ll be a lot more ordinary – and approachable -- as Ordinary Guy Doing God’s Extraordinary Will.

· Pointing at Jesus means giving him first attention, delving into his words, his example, his identity. Pointing at Jesus means that, on this day as with all others, we acknowledge his preeminence in our own words, example and identity. Pointing at Jesus means that we name him as Wisdom, name ourselves as stewards of his work, name the elimination of injustice and poverty as his compelling vision and ministry.

1. Try this little “pay attention” exercise with kids: Ask an adult congregant familiar to the children to come before them dressed very shabbily. As the children watch, place on this person a brilliant white liturgical garment such as an acolyte might wear. Then remove the garment. Ask the children who they would pay attention to more, the shabbily addressed person or the one dressed in bright clothing. (AND ask for the reasons for their answers!) If there is a “correct” answer, it’s probably “We would pay attention to both kinds of people, but for different reasons.” Now have the adult say things about ending world hunger, truths, invitations – to contribute and pray – and see how the words themselves are what make the person worthy of attention. The dismissal: Encourage children to pay attention any/all of “God’s beloved sons/daughters” and all of God’s Spirit-inspired prophets when they talk about ending hunger.

2. Enact a little “tabernacle” experience with its concomitant meanings: Use small pup tents, large trash bags or blankets stretched over chairs, or even large sheets of butcher paper propped up over coat-hanger wire frames. Tell children that these are tents where they can rest, or go hide from all that’s bad in the world. As children enter the tents, play some glorious music or ask worshipers to sing loudly one stanza of a Transfiguration hymn. At the end of their time in the tabernacles, ask children whether they want to stay there for a long time. (Eventually the answer will be NO!, which will elicit your next question, “Why not?”) You’re looking for any reason that approximates “We have other important things to do!” And that’s where you jump into the connecting thought that fighting against hunger and what’s unfair is something worth leaving the tents for. Remind them, too, that coming to worship each Sunday is like a short rest – a good thing – from the hard work of getting God’s will accomplished. You know the rest.

1. Spend some time on the Psalm for this day, asking participants what might cause God to deride – “make fun of” in the CEV Bible – rulers of nations. Is this just a matter of Jerusalem’s geo-political primacy in the eyes of a loyalist psalm-writer? What shuts off this derision – and possible destruction? What in today’s rulers/leaders would God make fun of? Why? Of what might contemporary political leaders be afraid? How do any of us know when a modern-day ruler is God-fearing? (This quality seems to be a required base-line attribute of presidential candidates in this country.)

2. This is also a good day to talk about mountaintops, times when participants have felt the presence of God in a way that inspired them for daily ministries wherever they live and work. (For biblical connections, sneak a peak at the chapters following this story.) Who are the spiritual heroes participants have encountered in their lives? What inspired them? What did they do next? What about mountaintops can be addictive or even counter-productive? How do participants keep a balance between high-emotion experiences and the work they do every day to fulfill God’s purposes?

3. The Second Reading suggests that personal experiences – and testimony about them – are compelling motivators for lifework. Talk about the kinds of experiences that participants name as primary motivators for their passions about hunger and justice. NOTE: Some of the experiences may stretch back into participants’ childhoods.

1. Plan a mini- or large-scale retreat (read “mountaintop experience”) for yourself and a few friends. Focus on matters of justice, peace or other positive and hopeful elements of hunger-and-justice work. Keep notes about the experience in order to share those thoughts with others.

2. Discipline yourself today to find “mountaintops” in small places. Look for people and events in which there is the possibility for inspiration or examples for your own life. One sure place to find these compelling experiences: Heartfelt conversations.

3. Spend some time today in a long, long, long prayer. See what happens when you get past petitions that ask for help, or that thank God. What would happen, for example, if you mentally “flew” above the entire country, and invoked God’s blessings on those below?