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!

· 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?

· Yesterday a large portion of the electorate of this country turned out NOT to celebrate Shrove Tuesday but to vote in primary elections that by now may have determined the candidates for two major political parties. Hope is in the air, some changes, smiles and joy.

· Preceding this time – and perhaps the afterglow will last for a few more pundit-infested days – you and your congregants have doubtlessly been turning over and over in your minds the question, “Where is God in all of this?” Inquiring minds want to know.

· Recent events around the world – natural disasters, wars and their rumors, shocking terror, insidious evil showing its pinheaded face – also draw this question out of our souls. Desperate minds want to know.

· In the lives of congregation members, difficulties and happiness-chasing lifestyles circle souls like hungry hyenas, mocking and licking their chops. People whose lives are crammed full of stuff and yet devoid of meaning plaintively page forward in their calendars and checkbooks, asking the same question. Purpose-seeking minds want to know.

· We can easily face Ash Wednesday as a time for necessary sin-expunging. Yes, we are sinners and yes, our consumptive lifestyles are the cause for an out-of-whack global economy and ecology. And yes, people are dying of poverty and injustice on this quiet night of contemplation.

· Self-flagellation doesn’t become God’s people, though. (See Jesus’ take on the subject in the Gospel for this Day.) Abject sorrow can become its own universe, a place of basically inactive wallowing that serves as an excuse for inaction.

· Perhaps the question from the Joel reading is a better way to approach these matters. By asking about God’s presence in whatever situation – by looking Jesus square in the eye – you get the sense of both God’s condemning and forgiving presence, but also of God’s very, very active stirring and recharging of God’s people towards action, change, victory over evil.

· In the hunger ministries of this church body, you have a chance to confront sin – your own, of course, but also those of this civilization. Perhaps more importantly, you have the chance to do something about that sinfulness. (NOT to redeem yourself by paying for your sins – that Job #1 has already been finished by Jesus!) Your contributions, your voice, your energy, your self-image can be collected together in one focused place – ELCA World Hunger – and God’s good work can get done.

· Our usual point of departure for Ash Wednesday applications of the psalm is to see ourselves in David’s sorrow-over-sin. Like-minded, we may wrap ourselves in the mantle of David’s hopes – for forgiveness and for a new spirit – and so might be protected from what we surely know about God’s wrath and punishment. We, too, want to change our hearts, if only to regain integrity so that our words and actions – in this case, about people who are poor – will be consistent with each other.

· Second, whatever David’s change of heart, this event became a tipping point for a gradual devolution of his capabilities. You can read the remainder of David’s disintegrating personal, family and political life in the closing chapters of 2 Samuel, and can see how David’s pattern of mindless abuse of power continued toward his diminished capacity to rule.

· To put this straight out: Changes of heart don’t redeem us. Another: Even though we seek and receive forgiveness, sometimes the natural results of our sin keep playing out like the unraveling of an adulterer’s relationships.

· When it comes to hunger and justice matters – especially as they connect to matters of politics, the environment, wars and economies – we can certainly call for and experience changes of hearts. And we can certainly be forgiven and live forgiven as well.

· But one terror on this night might very well be this: The natural results of our sinfulness over against those who are poor around the world – those almost inevitable imbalances of human relationships and the planet’s sustainability -- might continue to occur. For example, no matter the change of our hearts regarding the carbon-loading of the world’s fragile biosphere, and not matter how much we cut back right now, it is possible that the destruction of the earth’s environment will still continue.

· Where else still? To see this as an ultimate foundation for an ultimate Good News: No matter what the condition of our hearts, our lives, our world – God alone is God-with-us. In Christ – the one who will take on our name, “Ugly Sinner” – we find God coming back to us, picking us up, brushing us off and starting over with us.

· The bits and pieces of the Gospel for this day include Jesus’ famous adage, “Where your heart is, there will your treasure be also.” (Okay, okay, you caught it: That’s NOT what Jesus said; the actual quote is “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

· So how does that work out on Ash Wednesday? If God’s people are looking to change their hearts, and only then to change their behaviors, they may miss the point Jesus is making. It’s rooted in God’s wisdom, manifested in brain science and applied in current learning and change theory: You act your way into thinking.

· How that works out here: By the very act of giving treasure – here “money” – we become generous. In contributing we become contributors; in sacrificing we think of ourselves as sacrifices. In piling up money to do great things we become builders, innovators and entrepreneurs of justice.

· This night and this sermon may very well be a good time to explore “changed behaviors”, to move people past first-level repentance. This may be the time to begin a campaign of treasure-identifying, treasure-collecting, treasure-giving. Tonight may be a time of deciding about and doing what’s truly important, cherished, life-changing, treasurable, memorable.

· For ideas about practical ways to put together a time of treasuring and giving, visit www.elca.org/hunger and click around inside that Web site to see how to plan and execute an effective program for collecting world hunger funds.

Possible Posture Postulants: What if you were to preach the entire sermon from in front of the altar, as though addressing God? What if you were to preach the entire sermon in a kneeling position, or in the penitent position Luther adopted early in his life, completely prone on the floor? Or how about asking worshipers, as they are able, to hear the sermon from a kneeling position? What if, at the point where the sermon splashes good news, you asked worshipers to stand? All of these are postures that change the way words are spoken, as well as the way words are heard.

In deference to the elements of a worship service on this occasion, only one starter is here included. If you wish to bring meaning to the service, let children examine the ashes and talk about the real and symbolic meaning of ashes. Think together about ashes as a kind of trash leftover after destruction, as a reminder about transitory things in life. Maybe you can quickly burn something – slips of paper with sins written on them? – to illustrate the positive symbolism of ashes as well.

1. The meaning of ashes might be a good place to start with adult Bible conversants on or around Ash Wednesday. (See above for starters.) One of the fascinations: How “ashness” symbolizes both everything and nothing. Everything because we all return to ashes, and nothing because ashes are evidence of what has departed. Ashes are useless – you can’t build a home out of its ashes – and useful – certain plants love ashes for their growth. Ashes destroy and they create, they make some actions impossible and make possible other actions. Connect the conversation to questions about participants’ experiences with ashes, their feelings about being marked with ashes, and the connections of ashness to the Sermon on the Mount selections in today’s Gospel.

2. Depending on how well participants know each other, take Psalm 51 as a starter-block for a series of personal stories about times of contrition, forgiveness, complete changes of heart. Make the stories rich by asking participants to recall specifics, to describe emotions fully, to answer in-depth questions (such as “What happened over the long haul?”).

3. Play with the selections from the Sermon on the Mount: Find places in life where these practical elements of Jesus’ teaching really work, as well as places they don’t seem to work. Name people who exemplify these precepts of Jesus. Think together about times when these pragmatic bits of wisdom helped you out of life-changing stupidities, how they guide your life now, how they could help you care for people who are hungry as well as care for people who oppress hunger people.

3. Smear the ashes on something more than foreheads or hands. For example, ask congregants to smudge up completely a beautiful piece of fabric with ashes. Hand the fabric as a banner that symbolizes sackcloth-and-ashes. (And yes, you will wash and clean up that piece of fabric for Easter, and rehang it as a banner of joy and resuurection!)

4. Write letters of repentance, and send them to leaders or workers in social justice organizations. Ask for their forgiveness in not doing what they ask, not supporting them more fully, not engaging in prayer for their work and their personal wellbeing. See what happens when they answer you.

Californians, Floridians and other warm-climate folks welcome you into one of the new effects of global warming: Lent – even this early one -- is likely to feature warm, Spring-like weather. What if your sermons during Lent were all tinged with the joys of Spring, the warm of the Gospel’s compelling invitations and the bounce-in-the-step motivations that come from being among God’s people? Hunger-and-justice matters don’t usually promote those feelings – you’ve seen and heard a lot of Jeremiah-aping thoughts in these starters – but perhaps creation’s response to changing weather patterns might inspire you to stand Lent on its head, shake out of its pockets all the doom-and-gloom that it harbors and then to sit down next to its themes and say together, “Thanks be to God!” Just a thought . . . .

· A slightly scatological expression – does this make it through your spam filter? – is one way to characterize the First Reading. It’s “butt-ugly stupid” (BUS) and describes the condition in which Adam and Eve – the Devil, too, when he isn’t a snake – found themselves.

· They were this way before the legendary fruit-eating episode, hoping to cure their lack of wisdom in one mystical/magical act. Sadly, their act of disobedience yielded even greater stupidity: They were ashamed of the way God created them and scared stupid about God.

· The naked truths about hunger-and-justice may redeem us from BUS-like lives – as though there are no poor people, as though we don’t cause the economic/environmental collapse of the world’s systems, as though poverty is an idea and not people-who-are-poor.

· But perhaps another naked truth is that discernment – about the causes of hunger, what’s right and wrong, what’s factual and what’s mythical – can sometimes lead to disgust and disregard. Disgust about the lives and hopes of people who are poor, self-loathing that paralyzes us from taking action. Disregard that separates us from the God who most wants to love and empower us. Our knowledge-seeking may, in fact, help us learn more but know less, confuse information with wisdom, and excuse us from acting on what we already know.

· ELCA World Hunger values “hunger education” as one way to inform people about the nature, causes and solutions of world hunger. But the resources and programs of this church’s education efforts also compel us to do something with that information, to probe our own BUS self-images, to take into our hearts our shared humanity with people who are poor, to examine our own lifestyles’ contribution to world hunger.

· Psalm 32 describes in exquisite physical detail what it feels like to be contrite. Nice stuff, and visceral. What makes the psalm “special” – see the annotation at the start of the psalm – is that we can feel our way into David’s soul, and once there can find ourselves at one with him.

· Lent is about confession, certainly, and the lessons for these Sundays can certainly bring on that kind of behavior. At the same time, each Sunday is Gospel-reveling time, a wonderful wallowing of downtrodden spirits in the warm, healing mud of God’s Spirit’s spa!

· When it comes to doing what God invites and requires, there are certainly dumb animals – let’s start with but not end at “mules” as a primary example – and certainly dumb people – let’s start with but not end at Good Old David. When it comes to hunger-and-justice ministries – read here “the world is crammed full of people who will today die because of poverty-related ugliness” – we can find (or typify) any number of stupidities that render others and us as mule-like.

· On this day, water pumps gush out clean water, malaria-infested mosquitoes are unsuccessful, distended bellies receive healthy food, HIV/AIDS-ravaged families receive life-saving drugs, children go back to school, an armed conflict matures into a truce, crops are being planted or harvested, community agencies are more capable of delivering sustenance to elderly residents, unjust laws or regulations are being changed and the outrage of poverty is being challenged.

· The God who knows about the mud from which we were created – yet another twist of metaphor – also knows what happens when the “gift of kindness” (this is how the CEV Bible translates “grace”) is applied to formerly mud-laden people.

· Instead of wallowing in the mud of our sinfulness – return to previous mud analogy – we find God next to us, washrag in hand, cleaning off what we most dislike about ourselves and start to get a vision of whomelse we really are.

· And so, instead of berating ourselves for NOT thinking highly of people who are poor, for NOT considering the state of the world’s environment, for NOT giving sacrificially to change the low estate of people trampled by oppressors, we stand next to God, and ask “What can we do now?”

· God’s kindness begets kindness, and instead of slinging mud at each other – still another mud analogy – for our shortcomings and selfishnesses – we seek others as washed and redeemed partners in God’s work.

· So ELCA World Hunger cannot be described as a set of propositional truths that feel all muddy and difficult to understand – are we EVER going to run out of analogies here? – but as a clear and consistent reminder that because of God’s kindness we get to be kind, we get to be joyful, we get to clean up the world.

· What exactly did these angels do? Certainly NOT flutter around with harps, singing songs or blowing trumpets. (Those are another group of angels called The Fluttering Harpists.) Did they speak kindly to Jesus, peppering him with atta-boy’s? Did they affirm his worth as a human being? Did they help him remember the allegorical meaning of each of the temptations so that his biographers would get that part right?

· It’s easy to take for granted – or even to forget – that one essential element of ELCA World Hunger is plain-and-simple providing of foodstuffs to people with food. It’s called “direct aid” and it can consist also of oral rehydration therapy – look it up! – clean water or simple things like sheltering tarps or ground-covers, fuel for fires or warm clothing on a winter night

· We do this part well, and it’s important for us to remember: We are like those food-bringing helper angels, sent by and powered by God’s Spirit, when we provide immediate relief to people suffering from hunger or disease or natural disasters.

1. Imagine with children what “famine” (fasting?) means. No food or little food, meager meals with minimal quantities. No choice about what kind of foodstuff you will eat; eating things that you would never have otherwise consumed. Eating infrequently rather than regularly. Eating desperately, not knowing when your next meal with take place, or of what it will consist. Can children imagine themselves into the mind (soul or body?) of a child enveloped in a famine? Can they understand how fasting can be a helpful exercise in solidarity?

2. If “dumb mules” is something kids can understand and accept – Hey, PITA-like folks would argue that point, or at least point out how humans can also be mule-like – then think together how stubbornness – about helping hungry people – is really dumb. Invent a character – a puppet? – who doesn’t want to help poor folks – they’re always asking for more, they probably deserve it, they’re lazy, they just waste what we give them – and move the story towards the eventual dawning of this dumb character’s discernment about what’s REALLy true about people who are poor.

3. If angels show up anywhere within children’s immediate circle of vision during your time with them, spend some moments thinking together about what angels are and what they do. (Be careful to confine your conjecture to what Scripture – not pop culture – says about angelic behaviors.) The likely feeding of Jesus in today’s Gospel is a good place to start. The connector: How might children be like angels in the large and small tasks they undertake to alleviate or eliminate world hunger? You might here connect to the wider work of your congregation or this church body. Angels abound!

1. The temptations of Jesus ARE a good place on which to center conversations about hunger-and-justice. Each of the temptations can be thought of as a marker for the human condition, especially the condition in which we all imagine ourselves to be godly, in charge of what we do, responsible for what we get, deserving, lovable and capable. How do poor people view these temptations? Do they even get tempted in the same ways? What about the notions of “power” or individual self-sufficiency, and their corrupting influence on our kindness towards others?

2. If you didn’t spend time on contriteness during Ash Wednesday, use the psalm for this day – especially the first part – as a kind of quiet shared confessional, but with hunger-and-justice sins as the special focus. How do participants feel, down deep, when they sin against people who are oppressed. (NOTE: “Sins” are known both by what we do and by what we fail to do.) People who are hungry? People who never get a real chance?

3. Ask participants to think out loud together what was happening to Jesus’ mind and body as he slowly starved towards death. If there are medically trained participants, ask them to describe, in stark medical terms, what “starving to death” actually means. How the body literally eats itself, how brain cells stop working, how systems shut down, how self-awareness dulls way past “dumb” to an atrophied sentience that is almost animal-like. If they are present, ask participants who are fasting – or who have lived in poverty – to describe “food insecurity” – a subset of starvation is which the hungry person has little or no clue about the nature or source of his/her next meal. An interesting/compelling thought: Jesus and starving people have a lot in common; they may even look alike.

1. Help stock a food pantry with significant amounts of food. If possible, DON’T conduct a “canned or packaged food drive.” Instead, bring in a food pantry operator and ask what specific products they need and provide those. Or gather funds in significant amounts so that the food pantry can purchase foodstuffs and other items at extremely low cost from area food banks.

3. Write notes or send cards to “helper angels” in your congregation, whose ministries keep people alive or well. (Think “nurses” and “doctors” for sure, but how about supermarket clerks, hospice volunteers, mothers/fathers, people who drive the trucks that bring food, workers in factories.)