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!

Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26

· How have we, like Israel, been unrepentant? Are we willing to face our guilt – the guilt of our excess, our overlooking of those who starve?

· Have we listened to the prophets in our midst? Who are they?

· What do we willingly offer up to God in place of mercy?

· We are killed with the words of the prophet – and are brought to new life with the call of Christ.

· How are we like Matthew – waiting at the tax collection booths- waiting for others to pay us, to come to us?

· Do we wait for the hungry to come to the church door? Do we wait for the hungry to get their lives in order before we help?

· In this waiting is our death. It is our need for repentance.

· Matthew “arose” (resurrection word) and follows Christ.

· Matthew is called to leave his station in life, his place of stagnancy and to follow.

· Christ’s call leads us to follow in the steps of mercy and not sacrifice.

· What does it mean for us to show mercy/steadfast love/loyalty to one another?

· Jesus shows mercy by encountering the diseased and the dying.

· We can show mercy by actively by turning our burnt offerings into offerings that feed the world.

· We can show mercy by actively seeking out those who hunger in the world.

· Where is your community? Are they waiting at the tax booth? Are they torn to pieces from the words of the prophets and in need of Jesus’ call to resurrection? Have they begun to follow and are seeking ways to show mercy – in what concrete ways will they begin?

Pastor Ben Sheets

Associate Pastor, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church

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TIME magazine's "What the world eats"

June 15, 2008

Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

Exodus 19:2-8

Romans 5:1-8

Matthew 9:35-10:8 (9-23)

· How would the disciples fair in our communities?

· Would they be welcomed? Would they receive hospitality? Would they receive food?

· Are there strings attached when we give?

· What would it mean for us to freely give?

· What does it mean for us to have freely received?

· How does the hope received through God’s free giving of the Holy Spirit move us into freely giving?

· Our God is a God of the harvest – of abundance – both in those who are ripe to be brought into the reign of God and also in the grace that has been given to us.

· See these photos from an email forward I received. It is a series of photos of families with the food that they consume in a week. The photos poignantly show the abundance of many of us compared to the need of others.

· How will we respond to what God has given us? Will we freely give as we have received? Will we respond together with the Israelites: “We will do everything the Lord has said”?

Pastor Ben Sheets

Associate Pastor, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church