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!

September 21, 2008 
Matthew 9:9-13  

• Jesus said to Matthew, “Follow me.” “And he rose and followed him.”
• “I desire mercy and not sacrifice. For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
• I wonder, would we follow if a religious one whose “Word” seems to have power invited us to follow? I felt the call of God during church camp after my sophomore year in high school. Most said that my call came too early and that I would change my mind. But I did not struggle with my call until after ordination. The struggle now is different. It is not one of should I heed the call but what is it that God is calling me to.
• “I desire mercy.” Several years ago this synod organized a trip to Biloxi, Mississippi. We were all geared up to help the poor recover from Hurricane Katrina. We were given our daily work orders and we drove to the appointed home. For several moments we sat dumbfounded staring at a $400,000 home. Later we would learn that this family had days to show progress or the entire home would be bulldozed. The owner had severe breathing difficulties and could not work inside his home that at one time had with stood 8 feet of flood waters.
• The ELCA World Hunger Appeal theme has been “go and do likewise.” Matthew followed Jesus. In his following he did acts of mercy. He did as Jesus did by eating with sinners. Where is it that God is calling us to serve? Where are we called to show mercy? 
• A friend of mine questions the World Hunger Appeal. He claims that we do not ask enough. He firmly believes that if each member of the ELCA would give up a “Happy meal” per week and donate that $4 per week to the Hunger Appeal we would have $200 million dollars annually to fight world hunger. Now, that would show mercy!!

Rev. Ralph W. Dunkin, Bishop of the West Virginia-Western Maryland Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

 __________________________________________________

September 28, 2008   20^th Sunday After Pentecost
Matthew 21:23-32

• Have you eve had a change of heart? My wife and I were blessed with two sons. Our assumption was that we would teach them so very much about life. Our surprise, our change of heart, came with the recognition of how much they taught us!
• A change of heart….could that be the same as remembering our baptism daily? Could it be that we are faced with change-of-heart situations more often than we wish to admit? I falsely believed that seminary would teach me all that I would need to know and I could finally quit going to classes. My change of heart tells me that I will never stop learning.
• A changed heart….One year ago during our Synod Assembly we focused on social ministry. Every congregation was invited to bring to the Assembly on poster board a listing of their outreach. During the Assembly we made use of one of the segments from the “Just Neighbors” activity kit. Hearts were changed when two groups encountered the poor who serve on Church Council and worship in “our churches.”
• This text from Matthew also questions by whose authority, or better yet, who is the authority in our lives? 
• Matthew is the Gospel that speaks the most about bearing fruit. By Jesus’ authority we are called to bear fruit that befits repentance. Bearing fruit and showing mercy are signs of a phrase that I like…because, therefore. Because we are the saved children of God, therefore we want to respond to this good news with acts of mercy, with hearts that are changed and by bearing fruit.
• Former Presiding Bishop George Anderson said that if we do not care for the poor, then God will give that call to someone else. We are called to feed the hungry, cloth the naked, visit the imprisoned.
• One year ago I attended the World Hunger Leadership Gathering. The emphasis was on water. The prediction was that by 2040 this world will see severe shortages of water, especially in third-world countries. Since that training I have worked to be a better steward of my use of water. By whose authority? Because of Jesus’ authority in my life, therefore I want to respond for the sake of my sisters and brothers.

 Rev. Ralph W. Dunkin, Bishop of the West Virginia-Western Maryland Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America