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 is traditionally a Sunday when the reading of the Gospel supplants the time slot usually reserved for the sermon. You will find here a sermon starter suggestion that takes the no-sermon option into account, as well as another starter that presumes that a sermon is preached, albeit shorter and more focused.

· Spend sermon preparation time finding news clippings, Web-stories, squibs and storylets from hunger-related materials – all of them telling of people in contemporary days who experience treachery and suffering similar to that faced by Jesus the Christ. Think of people who are homeless, people facing starvation, individuals fleeing war or environmental disaster, people looking for a second chance, victims of torture, political prisoners, women who are victims of domestic violence, beggars. For balance (and hope), also include stories about relief workers, governmental officials trying to do the right thing, anonymous benefactors or philanthropists trying to alleviate suffering, individuals whose lives have been saved.

· As the Gospel narrative is read, position another read at the opposite end of the sanctuary, who will read from these contemporary texts the accounts of people who suffer needlessly the same kind of injustice that Jesus faced.

· The reading/sermon might end with a short sentence or two, such as: “Christ’s suffering extends into our world today, needlessly so,” or “Christ suffered for our sins. Still the world groans under similar sufferings today, as though we had not learned from Christ.” Another good ending: Some selected verses from the Psalm.

· Although we count his suffering and death – and Resurrection – as redemptive, we can also learn from the lives of others who have borne the weight of undeserved punishment, despair, cruelty or oppression. We can resolve to be part of God’s continuing redemption for people who suffer endlessly.

· Those people live – sometimes poorly, sometimes barely – in our world today as well. On this day we would do well to recount some of their stories, to remember them in grateful prayer, and to gain courage in our own struggles to live justly in a selfish and greedy world.

· If time allows, relate name and faces and story snippets of these contemporary examples. Be sure to include the names and descriptions of some hope-filled and hope-bringing individuals. (Check www.elca.org/globalmission for stories in this ilk.)

1. This might be a good time to acknowledge that part of the story of Jesus is downright scary. Here was someone who tried to do what was right, and all he got was horrible punishment by very important people. If children are able to handle the explicit horror of this day’s Gospel, show them a large cross, large spikes of nails, a whip or thorns plaited into a circle. This is what killed Jesus. Contrast this object lesson with a bowl of dirty water, a tattered piece of clothing, a bowl with only traces of old food, a machete or large knife, or a piece of rope or chains. THESE are the instruments or devices by which people today are killed, some of them innocent victims or war, political intrigue, racial or tribal hate, or the “natural disaster” of the lack of potable water or edible food. Suffering abounds, even today.

2. If you choose a dramatic version/reading of “sermon” for this Sunday, ask children to follow along, literally, as the story unfolds from place-to-place within the sanctuary. Interrupt the flow of the reading for brief moments when you invite children to look at what’s happening now (or next), or direct them to come along to the next scene or next travesty of justice.

3. Give each child an artifact, as though reminiscent of Jesus’ suffering. A twig with large thorns, a rusted spike or nail, rough wood cross, a piece of leather thong with a piece of metal tied to it (part of a whip). You might also provide artifacts that remind children of the travesty of hunger in the world. Small, dirty bowls, battered cups, pieces of rope or chains – all can symbolize the evils of hunger and poverty in the world. Perhaps each of these items comes with a card that explains the meaning of the artifact, or that encourages children to bring offerings that will help alleviate the sufferings of people who are poor.

1. Sometimes the sufferings of Jesus are sanitized into symbolic sadness. For him – and for those who suffer injustice in today’s world – the sufferings were real. Take the time to do some research about the cruelty of crucifixion, the loss of blood in a whipping, the effects of sleep deprivation. Be explicit with participants, and don’t spare the gruesome details. Now do the same thing, only this time with the very real sufferings of people who are dying from hunger, people who are tortured in slow degrees as they use most of every day just trying to get their next meal. Be explicit and don’t spare the gruesome details. Use the Web, sending your search engine looking for “biology of starvation” as a starter. (For an older reference, see Jim Bishop’s The Day Christ Died.)

2. If applicable – and if participants are comfortable talking at an emotionally honest level of discourse – talk about participants identification with David’s lament in Psalm 31. In what ways have they experienced the same feelings (or situations) as they tried to do the right thing? How do they understand David’s thoughts? What rescue(s) have they experience or do they desire? How are the sufferings of Christ different or similar?

3. Ask participants to recall the Gospel reading for today, with this thought: What perhaps-small detail did they notice, one that actually has great significance when you think about it for some time. (For example, the amount that Judas was paid to turn Jesus over to the religious authorities, or the meaning of Judas’ name compared to his deeds.) How do these small-but-significant details connect to the small-but-significant details of hunger and injustice here and around the world? What can we do to keep these details from disappearing in the swirl of information of our habituation on hearing the Passion Story?

1. Fast this week -- however that works out for you -- as a visceral reminder of the fact that Jesus did not eat from Thursday night until the time he died on Friday. As you fast, think of the millions of people in the world who regularly eat less than Jesus did!

2. Organize a series of simple (potluck?) meals that take place inside the homes of selected congregation members. (Members invite whom they wish – or those assigned to them – for a shared meal.) Provide a simple liturgy, or prayers or hunger-related stories for use during the meal. Encourage hosts to make the mealtimes thankful and appreciative for the food that is shared.)

3. Change the standard greeting on your personal phone answering machine or service this week to reflect some small nugget of this week’s Scripture messages. Focus on the alleviation of hunger or injustice.

· On this night, the mandates – maundate, hence “Maundy” – of Jesus yield one institutionalized holy act: The Sacrament of the Altar. It offers forgiveness of sin to penitent sinners, the grace of God embodied in bread and wine.

· But what if the holy act that carried through all of history had been, instead, the washing of the disciples’ feet, along with the abundant Scripture passages to complement this central teaching of Jesus? What if actual, ceremonial and symbolic foot-washing were also evident in the kind of self-giving service that this act suggests? What kind of world would it be today?

· What if Christians had, for all of modern and post-modern history, taken this sacramental act as seriously as the distribution of Holy Communion? What if the church was institutionalized in its views of ordination toward the Sacrament of Holy Foot-Cleaning?

· The facts bear out, of course, that the church has counted both Thursday night activities by Jesus as central to its identity. Forgiveness, free and clear, as well as service, humbly and often. Random acts of kindness with the targeted grace of God. The taking of life blood alongside the giving of life blood for the sake of others.

· That’s what the hunger and global mission efforts of this church body accomplish: Sacred acts, in the name and with the example of Jesus. Somber and sober recollections of his final night on earth along with joyful, gritty and grimy pouring out of love in measurable acts of generosity.

· The Exodus is, after all, a big story. Big numbers, the ruin of one whole civilization for the benefit of another, the freeing of an entire semi-nation from slavery – large-screen stuff, all of it.

· However you unfold its story, the Exodus is eerily similar to the mass exoduses of displaced persons in today’s world. Many congregants will remember the WWII displacement of war refugees to this country. Recent memory recounts Palestinians, Ethiopians, Rwandans, Central Americans, Somalis, Chadeans, residents of the Gulf Coast and even Bulgarians and Romanians. Refugees not only because of wars, but of economic necessity.

· A stark difference: Increasingly the mass migrations of our time are countered with walls, real and symbolic. Walls that prohibit free movement, that gather danger around them like the lint trap in a dryer. Walls that keep people on one side from knowing – and loving? – people on the other side. Semi-righteous have’s prohibiting semi-starved have-not’s from justice in their back yards. Fearful people imagining and inventing fearsome people on the other side of the barriers. Walls with names, and walls without.

· In the Exodus, God propels people out of captivity like they were shot from a fire hose. In the Exodus, God sends people toward a place and an identity promised to them centuries earlier. In the Exodus, God gives people an identity.

· In today’s exoduses, though, the imagined protection needed by one group of people can shut out the distressing needs of another group of people. Immigrants criminalized, xenophobia elevated to the level of theology, fear wrapped in national interest.

· What to do? Certainly celebrate the work of agencies and enterprises that help refugees escape from certain death in their own countries. But also to work towards immigration laws that draw people toward protection and relief from the grinding poverty that ruins the whole world. Perhaps congregations can adopt and help re-settle refugees in a way similar to post-WWII and post-VietNam. Perhaps thank God for the work of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service. (www.lirs.org)

· Some social theorists have concluded that attention is the primary commodity in today’s information over-stuffed world. Anyone who pays attention to anyone else is giving that person a gift. Rare as it is, full and loving attention is precious for any who receive or give it.

· So it is, then, when we realize that, because of God’s attentive care for our sorry state as sinners, we have the opportunity to extend – to become – God’s attention to those who are poor. We can learn to know their names, listen to their stories, understand their feelings, counter their self-deprecating self-images and reflect their capabilities back onto them.

· In the hunger program of this church, attention is shined on the lives of people who are poor, not because of pity, but because of God’s grace. Love has to find its destination somehow, and in our attentiveness to people who are poor – not sidelong glances or quick dispersals of temporary aid – we embody the direct gaze of Jesus on those he loved – even those who betrayed him. We become God’s attention when we listen to the voices of those who are poor, when we learn the names of people stricken by poverty, when we understand deeply that “they” are part of “us”.

1. Give each child an inexpensive wash rag, and ask him or her to take it home as a symbol – a useful tool, actually – for cleaning someone’s face. Yes, NOT feet, but faces, which reflect hearts and souls. Talk together about what it feels like to have a new face, to move with that new face into a new way of acting, to start over, and to always want to have a clean face. You might even demonstrate this new “holy act” by using baptismal water to wash the face of one of the children who are listening to you.

2. IF you engage in footwashing as a part of the observance of this holy night, ask children to do all the washing. Then talk about the experience from the viewpoint of an adult who learns from children what obedient and faithful service might be. Tell the stories of some of these children, the work they do to help others, the way some of them have given of themselves to help people who are poor. Footwashers as teachers . . . .

3. “Re-enact” the Exodus with the entire group of children. “Escape” and try to find a better place to live. Like Mary and Joseph seeking suitable lodging – Los Posadas? – go from place to place in the sanctuary, looking for someone who will take you in – into their pew? – and welcome you. Talk about the people in the world who, this very day, are trying to escape their countries and find a better place to live. Tell children stories of congregation members who have been refugees, or who have helped refugees in the past. Be specific. Be thankful.

1. If you haven’t done so already, talk about the biblical and theological dimensions of the current debate about “immigration”. Without getting into U.S. policy or the views of political candidates, see if you can discern from any of the lessons today any principles that seem to characterize what might be a Christ-like response to the plight of economic refugees. You can determine the questions by yourself, yes?

2. With participants, talk about the grimiest, dirtiest, most disgusting service-to-others in which participants have ever engaged. (Changing diapers doesn’t even count on this scale!) How did participants come to these occasions of “foot-washing”? How did they feel as they engaged in the work/service? How did they feel afterward? What did they learn from those they served? How did their work correspond to what Christ did in today’s Gospel Lesson?

3. Tell stories of other “holy acts” that participants see happening in today’s world, evidences that Christ’s foot-washing example is being replicated almost everywhere. Ask that the stories be specific, so that the full dimensions of these acts of godly grace are fully understood.

1. Collect and distribute – to a local homeless shelter – washrags and towels for the personal hygiene needs of guests there. Be generous with the quantity and quality of these items.

2. Adopt a local family who have recently arrived as refugees from another country. For references, talk to other churches, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service representatives, your state human services offices, your town council or local service club. Make sure that the “adoption” includes paying attention to these people, NOT just providing food or clothing or money.

3. Take a special offering on this night, and send it to ELCA World Hunger, as a way of celebrating the continual work that your church – and its partner agencies and church bodies in other countries – engages in order to benefit refugees.

· There is no doubt that Jesus fits the description of The Suffering Servant, forethought by Isaiah and emblematic of the entire nation of Israel in its captivities, both pre- and post-Babylon.

· It is also legitimate on this day/night to consider Jesus as highest/lowest model of the person who is poor. That unless we see Jesus at the bottom of his social stratification, subject to the same sociologies that robbed life from beggars and out-of-work peasants, we miss the point: Jesus was not only one who godliness was poured out, but one whose life was lived at the edge of poverty.

· He spoke from experience to those who were being ground in the dust of Palestine by the evils of occupying Rome and the stratified social system that continued to favor those who were oppressively wealthy. (See Herzog, Parables as Subversive Speech: Jesus as Pedagogue of the Oppressed or Jesus, Justice and the Reign of God as good texts for this thought.)

· In his recent work, Poor People, novelist and social thinker William Vollmann factors out the following phenomena by which poverty can be described. Better stated, the characteristics of daily life faced by those around the world who consider themselves poor. (Vollmann’s fascinating work is the result of years of interviews of poor people around the world!) They include these: Invisibility, deformity, unwantedness, dependence (on others’ generosity), accident-prone-ness, pain, numbness, estrangement.

· Look at the texts for this day – as well as those for Passion Sunday – and see how these phenomena are reflected in Jesus’ life, in the prophecies that preceded him and the “emptying out” described by Paul. Can you see what Jesus’ poverty might have meant to him?

· Even more striking is this thought: On this day/night, we might very well observe the pain and suffering that came not only from Jesus’ martyrdom at the hands of well-meaning religious leaders, but also as a result of his rural poverty. An Appalachia-like heritage, followed by a short adult life without work, with no possessions and no other signs of economic well-being.

· It could be said, then, that what we are most distressed by, what most bothers us about Jesus’ needless suffering is that he was poor. Like people who are poor almost everywhere in the world – the majority of the world’s peoples – Jesus exhibited the characteristics of poverty that left him bereft of economic choices, victim of upper classes of his society.

· Perhaps the greatest sadness: That he was not successful in pulling away from the squashing weight of his state of affairs, and by most accounts would have been a forgotten teacher, a flash-in-the-pan rabbi – like so many others – whose impact on his nation and on his followers soon disappeared.

· But think about “empty” for awhile and then imagine yourself emptied out – or better yet, purposefully emptying yourself out – for the sake of something laudable.

· That’s the essential choice that faces all of Western society right now: Grab and hold – a presumptive “fullness” – or being emptied by a deteriorating environment, the increasing cries for justice from terrorists and social activists alike, the collapsing economies of consumption.

· Square in the middle of those two non-sustainable choices is Jesus’ own: pouring himself purposefully. Splashing and spilling what he had and who he was for the sake of God’s greater purposes.

· His emptying was more than martyrdom – our concept perhaps more than his? – and more than love for the world. He had in mind what God had in mind – that the world needed righting, turning right side up. His mindful giving up of everything that comes with being God was a deliberate tactic, a measured response to his burning wish to change the world toward God’s economy (economia means “plan”, not “household rules”).

· What would it mean for each of you to purposefully give up everything in order to accomplish some piece of God’s will? What would that look like? What words would you use to describe the risk?

· Think of volunteers who retire early, parents who sacrifice their future to care for a child or their own parents, generous givers who put their own financial wellbeing at risk, folks who give up successful careers in order to give themselves to some noble purpose, people who live with few possessions so that their time and financial resources can be directed past themselves. These are “emptied out” people. You know them. You are probably one of them.

· But the Philippians text doesn’t end with valuable water slurped up by a hot, uncaring desert soil. There is the small ending hymn, “Jesus Christ is Lord.” A small-but-important voice that reminds us who’s who, whose we are. In the end, we are not emptied out shells, husks of value scraped clean of worth, crumpled plastic containers at the side of life’s road. Instead, we share in Christ’s victory – stay tuned for this Sunday – and we live assured that we have not followed false and non-sustainable goals. We stop trying to protect ourselves, we stop erecting walls of fear, we stop hoarding and hurrying, we stop worrying about what time it is, what we don’t have, who is out to take from us. We may even stop worrying about the measurable results of our purposed pouring-out.

1. Illustrate the amazing properties of “emptied out people” with a pitcher, a potted plant and a few glasses of water. The water-filled pitcher represents God’s people who empty themselves out for good causes – e.g., the glasses of water and the thirsty plant. But – shock and amazement! – God refills each of us with more water (cue much larger pitcher that has been hidden until this moment, or event a hose?) so that we can keep doing what God wants. Intermediate questions for empty-pitcher people: How’s it feels NOT to have anything more to give, or nothing left? How’s it feel to know that, even though you’re empty, something good as come of the emptying?

2. This is a scary time for kids – the dark, the somber adults around them, the fake thunder sound in the middle of a darkened sanctuary, the symbols of nails, thorns, crosses. Talk about that feeling, but from the viewpoint of someone who is poor. How frightening it must be to face the dark, to be chased and disliked and not wanted anywhere you go. How scary to know that you may be trapped into being poor for your whole life. This is a scary day/night, and perhaps it’s enough to acknowledge that for poor people around the world Jesus’ sufferings and death are very real, very familiar, very sad indeed.

1. Share stories together of people who have “given up everything” in order to accomplish some greater good with their lives. Tell what you know about the reasons for this behavior, its eventual purpose and the development or ending of the story. Now enter into the same discussion with people who have “lost everything” in a natural disaster. What similar feelings and personal learnings occur? What could you learn from these two groups of people?

2. Reread the Isaiah text and the psalm, but from within your imagination, as though you were a very poor person living somewhere in the world where poverty is a common phenomenon. What happens as you hear/read these scriptures from that viewpoint? Quick test: Over time, what group – very rich or very poor – have heard these texts the most? How do you know? (A variation: Given these two categories, which group has the highest number of listeners throughout all of history?)

3. What makes Good Friday “good” for people who are poor, after all is said and done? HINT: Even though the day is somber, the texts hold out great amounts of hope and opportunity.

1. Clean out one part of the congregation’s budget completely. Give or send it somewhere where it will accomplish some great good. (Yes, the ELCA Hunger and Disaster Appeal comes to mind here!) Don’t plan on replacing the money.

4. Fast for this entire day. Give the money you would have spent on food to an organization you’ve never contributed to before. Read their literature first, of course.
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· In his impromptu sermon to Cornelius’s household, Peter notes that Jesus appeared as Risen Lord to the disciples as they were eating and drinking. At the moment of ultimate fellowship and highest hospitality – a meal – Jesus reveals himself as resurrected person.

· Although this concept has more connection to texts in coming weeks, it might be well to recount how meals themselves are “resurrection” experiences any place where people are suffering from hunger. Because of proteins and carbohydrates and vitamins and minerals, bodies work well; because of glucose and enriched blood, brains work.

· In ancient times, the fasting of Lent would be broken on this day, with feasts of eating and drinking celebrating not only Christ’s resurrection but also the very capacity of God’s people to receive the blessing of food! The privations of fasting – with their symbolic tantalizing of death itself – are cast aside as celebrants take into themselves (at the time of the Easter Vigil, perhaps) the very body and blood of Jesus, broken yet alive!

· It’s more than symbolic that on this day, throughout the world, people with no hope of eating anything, people thirsty for potable water, people wasting away in mind, body and spirit – these people are eating and drinking again. Through the efforts of ELCA-related hunger ministry partners throughout the world, people who had no option to eat or drink now are “resurrected”, almost literally, because of immediate relief – food, water, medicine – that takes them back from the brink of starvation.

· In a sense, their communion with Christ may be simple-yet-profound act of eating and drinking. Not as celebration only, but as a wondrous miracle that they could not have otherwise imagined.

· Because of your contributions to the ELCA World Hunger and Disaster Appeal, you bring these revivifying miracles to people you will never meet. In the moments of eating and drinking, hey also meet Christ – alive and well –as compelling Lord and Savior.

· “Hidden with Christ” could also be thought of as a kind of burial, an out-of-sight, out-of-mind experience from which Christians can take comfort. In a world rife with difficulty and danger, being hidden – read “protected” – means safety and comforting presence.

· Paul understands that aspect of the Resurrection Story – we are first buried with Christ, hidden away as though we were gone away. Safe with him in the soon-to-be-triumphant tomb.

· Hidden away, stuffed safely into places out of the gaze of the rest of the world, we’re ready for resurrection, though. Comforted, we are being strengthened to comfort.; secured safely, we are being renewed to secure safety for others; quieted, we are being equipped to quiet anxious minds. Our hidden-ness, we soon discover, is a time of growth!

· As surely as the fall-sown seeds rest for a time within the grave of dark dirt, so we can find comfort in the out-of-the-way burial that may come by virtue of being part of a congregation. We rest, we avoid conflict, we step aside, and we are hidden. But the time of resurrection awaits, and soon we, too, will spring forth as renewed people of God, prepared and encouraged to do what God wills.

· On this day, we celebrate the gift of life itself. But we also celebrate our temporary hidden-ness, our burial alongside Christ as a time of necessary preparation for what’s next.

· “What’s Next?” is the title of what we will do as fully-alive people, no longer hidden from sight.
”What’s next?” will characterize our attitude about this congregation’s response to the death-dealing evils of poverty and injustice. “What’s next?” will become a question whose answers accompany us out of our hidden-ness into the light of day.

· Christ’s death was accompanied by an earthquake strong enough to split rocks and open graves. That earthquake – not doubt horrific for residents anywhere in the neighborhood of Jerusalem – was followed by an aftershock on Easter morning. The fact that the aftershock was also strong and frightening is a testimony to the original temblor.

· For anyone within the reach of the undulation of geological substrata, the aftershocks were evidence of something powerful in the natural world, some force of nature that changed things-as-they-were into things-new-and-lasting.

· Think of it: a mere Galillean preacher-man turns the world right-side-up with his teachings about God’s will for justice. Uncurable diseases are no match for his powers. Hunger multitudes turn into well-fed crowds. Rag-tag followers later become powerful leaders. A small band of disciples multiplies into one of the great religions of all history.

· The aftershocks continue into our times, too. Jesus’ example ripples like seismic waves, throughout time and among the people of every nation in the world. His message – of love, justice and compassion – undulates into every corner of the world. What’s broken becomes what’s fixed; who’s hungry becomes who’s fed; who’s ignored becomes who’s in charge.

· The earthquake of Jesus’ resurrection continues to this time and place. The ground we think we stand on – things-as-they-are-normally – continues to rise and fall under the influence of the resurrection aftershocks. People in this congregation know full well what it means to live as Christ did, do what Jesus commanded, accept his invitation to be servants of the world.

1. Children can understand ripples pretty well. Use a large piece of flexible material to illustrate the concept of waves in solid materials. (Yes, we’re heading toward “earthquake” analogies here.) Place a toy – house or small car – on the undulating sheet of material and watch what happens when even the slightest motion at one end of the material results in the movement of the whole sheet. So it is with earthquakes, and so it is with the “resurrections” that Jesus’ own coming-to-life brings to the world. Because he lives, the whole world lives. Because he promoted the whole ethic of kindness and love, the whole world still has hospitals, health care, relief and development programs, and even disaster relief itself. The ripples of Jesus’ life and teachings, his death and resurrection still continue today.

2. Big seeds planted in the ground – a good reminder of how “hidden with Christ” eventuates in “live with Christ”. You have probably done a gazillion seed-in-the-ground illustrations, so do another one, perhaps with a large glass jar, lots of dark earth and lots of big seeds. The jar is the church, the dirt is the example of Jesus, the seeds are God’s people. We may be hidden for awhile – thinking nothing is happening? – but pretty soon the dirt gets warm and all the seeds break into life again. They pick up the nutrients from the dirt and transform them into living plants. The plants do what the dirt makes possible? The church protects but then sends out? (Seeds eventuate in more seeds.) (Work with this analogy until it breaks down!)

3. Food and water – and the ability to eat and drink – are two of the requirements for life as we know it. With children, look at the fact that food and water are available to them almost always, that their bodies can take in and use food and water, that because of food and water they can do what God wants. Use pieces of fruit as examples. Transition these thoughts towards those who will on this day have food and water (again). Because of your congregation’s participation in hunger ministries such as ELCA World Hunger, you bring food and water – short- and long-term – to the mouths of people for whom eating has become difficult.

1. It’s possible that among participants, not too many have experienced earthquakes. But for those who have, the feelings and physical reactions to earthquakes are deeply remembered, even at a physical level. Use the experiences of those who HAVE been in earthquakes to recall how their bodies and minds reacted to the power of the earth moving under them, of the fragility of human life and enterprises, of the power of the God who created the world, of the permanent changes to the earth’s landscape. Even aftershocks have the same kind of power. Think together how the “earthquake” of Jesus’ resurrection did the same thing to the world-as-it-was-then. How his example and his life shocked the world into thinking and behaving differently with regard to people who are poor. How the aftershocks of his teachings continue to this moment.

2. How does this congregation “hide” people for awhile, before sending them out as renewed followers of Christ? That’s a good question for congregations that appear to be “doing nothing” regarding social justice. Think together how “being hidden with Christ” in this church may actually equip individual members to be powerful forces for God’s will in the places where they work and live. Talk together about the hidden-ness of this congregation and what good might come of it.

3. It’s good for adults to think about food and water every so often. The idea that Jesus’ resurrection is connected to food and water – by his appearances to eating-and-drinking disciples – is a good one to explore today. You might read together some of the insights of Food for Life: The Spirituality and Ethics of Eating (L. Shannon Jung, Augsburg Fortress, 2004) as some food for thought! See where “feeing the hungry” enters the picture, too.

1. Plant fruit trees today as part of your worship. Eventually they produce food for the people of the world. Thirty three years from now – Jesus’ lifespan – these trees will be a gift for the generations that follow.

2. In your daily devotions, pray for a spirit of “breaking out of the grave”, in terms of your own resistance to leading your congregation towards hunger ministries that are risky-but-important.