LISTSERV 16.0 - HUNGERSERMONSTARTERS Archives

The lessons for each Sunday in the church year proclaim God’s grace in Jesus Christ. Also derived from a Sunday’s text 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.

In the season of Advent we wait expectantly for the promised light. During the twelve days of Christmas, we celebrate the light revealed in the incarnation. Epiphany is the day we celebrate the appearance or revelation of Christ to the nations. All the texts of the day are thus intended to be read through a Christological lens.

Almighty and ever-living God, you revealed the incarnation of your Son by the brilliant shining of a star. Shine the light of your justice always in our hearts and over all lands, and accept our lives as the treasure we offer in your praise and for your service, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Isaiah 60:1-6 describes the dawn of the kingdom when the Gentiles will flock to Jerusalem (the “you” in all these verses is a feminine singular). The prophet promises that the light of God will arise and draw nations and kings. The “wealth of the nations” (v. 5) will find its way to Jerusalem and camels will bring gold and frankincense. The parallels to Matthew 2:1-12 are clear.

The selection from Psalm 72 (vv.1-7, 10-14) is a plea for God to help the king rule with justice. Read Christologically, this psalm describes many of the ways in which Jesus lived out the kingdom of God: judging the poor with justice (v. 2), defending the cause of the poor and giving deliverance to the needy (v. 4), having pity on the weak and the needy (v. 13), and so on. Verse 11 also has a clear echo in the passage from Matthew’s Gospel.

One interesting phrase perhaps worth exploring a bit is found in verse 10: God revealed the mystery “so that the multifaceted wisdom of God may be known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places through the church…” This verse has an interesting connection to the Magi and Herod. Though the lectionary reading stops at verse 12 (the rather ominous warning to the wise men not to return to King Herod), as the story continues, Herod in a rage kills all the children in and around Jerusalem who were under two years of age, the so-called slaughter of the innocents (Matt 2:16-18). This is where I see the connection—the wisdom and activity of God upset the normal power structures. Princes and principalities (both earthly and heavenly) are threatened by God’s kingdom.

In our own time there are systems and structures (in biblical parlance, rulers and authorities) that stand in opposition, even violent opposition, to God’s Kingdom. The church exists to make known the wisdom of God to those rulers and authorities. What does the coming of God’s kingdom look like in our own time? What systems and structures need to be challenged? (My own thoughts are immediately drawn to our current economic crisis.) How will the church today make known the wisdom of God?

Matthew 2:1-12 describes the journey of the Magi to Jesus. The text in many ways can be read as a fulfillment of prophecy (explicit in Matthew’s narrative in vv. 5-6 and connecting nicely with the other texts assigned for today). The Magi may be understood to represent the full inclusion of the Gentiles. In this way, God’s promises have been fulfilled, and a new era has dawned.

In our current context, however, this neat and tidy summation of God’s activity can be explored more deeply. In spite of the fulfillment language in both Ephesians and Matthew, we nonetheless still live in a liminal stage (what George Eldon Ladd called the “already and not yet”). Yes, the light has come in the Christ event; yet we still await the final fulfillment (Romans 8:18-25 expresses this idea well).

Although Christ has come and we have a taste of God’s promises, we still live in very uncertain times. The current financial crisis threatens the livelihood of millions (one estimate I’ve read is that by the time we emerge from the recession, nearly 50 million in the US will be living below the poverty line [see the report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, available at http://www.cbpp.org/11-24-08pov.pdf]; already the crisis has plunged more than 115 million people into poverty worldwide [see www.bread.org]). Wars, famine, and disease persist throughout the world. In this way, I find Psalm 72 to be a beautiful prayer for our times—that God would empower rulers (in our cities, states, nations, and world) to govern justly and defend the cause of the poor. May the church, empowered by the gracious Holy Spirit, lead by example!

X Baptism as an identity marker—when we are baptized we join the people of God and as such take on a new identity. What will that identity be? The earliest Christians were notorious for their care of widows and orphans (Rodney Stark, in his book, The Rise of Christianity, has an excellent chapter detailing this), it was one of the ways in which Christians were identified. As the baptized people of God, can we reclaim this historic identity?

X Luther saw baptism as a daily practice of dying to the old ways of being and rising up “to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.” The term “righteousness” carries for many of us a moral or pietistic connotation—to be “righteous” is a personal state or condition of purity. In both Hebrew (tsadekah) and Greek (dikaiosunê), however, the term also carries a relational sense—to be in right relationship. In fact, the words and their cognates in both languages can be just as comfortably translated as “justice” (and they often are in our Bibles, depending on the context). If we reclaim this biblical sense “righteousness,” in the context of baptism, we die to unjust, wrong relationships and are raised “to live before God in justice and right relationships.” What might this look like in our day to day interactions with neighbors near and far?

X In the Baptismal covenant and the Affirmation of Baptism outlined in ELW we make commitments to “care for others and the world that God made” and to “work for justice and peace” (pp. 228; 236). The profession of faith (p. 235) includes a renunciation of the “forces that defy God” and the “powers of the world that rebel against God.” We can reasonably include greed, strife, and self-interest in those forces and powers that defy God and leave God’s people impoverished, hungry, and ill. In our baptism we commit ourselves to work with God in the bringing of God’s kingdom.

Celebrant          Will you strive for justice and peace among all
                        people, and respect the dignity of every human
                        being?
People              I will, with God’s help.

I am especially inspired by the idea of proclaiming the good news of God in Christ by both word and deed. Not only do I speak out for justice, but I also strive to make lifestyle choices that make justice on earth more feasible. I also appreciate the call to seek and serve the Christ who is in all persons (see e.g., Matt 25:31-46). Finally, note how the people’s response (“I will, with God’s help”) draws attention to the synergy involved in God’s work. We commit to living justly trusting in God’s empowering grace.

Holy God, creator of light and giver of goodness, your voice moves over the waters. Immerse us in your grace, and transform us by your Spirit, that we may follow after your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever

Genesis 1:1-5 narrates the beginning of the created world. God’s spirit moves over the chaotic and dangerous primordial waters. With a simple word, God brings order to the chaos. This is not creation ex nihilo, and has nothing to do with current debates about evolution. The point for the author is that God simply speaks order into disorder (Psalm 29 on the power of God’s voice and Mark 1:11 on God’s declaration about Jesus are both excellent tie-ins here). If you were to read all of Genesis 1:1-2:4, the structure of the poem itself reinforces the order described (six times we see the following pattern: God speaks à It is so à God declares it good). Where do we want to hear God’s voice today? In our world, where is the chaos into which we long for God to speak order? The financial markets are a microcosm of some of the chaos facing us today. Globally, hundreds of millions are mired in the chaos of poverty, war, and disease. Many in the Global South, especially Africa, live in very unstable environments. Can God’s voice speak into those situations?

Acts 19:1-7 is a curious interaction between Paul and some Ephesian “disciples.” The author of Acts, as he has elsewhere, draws a distinction between water baptism and baptism in the Spirit. I would focus on the empowerment that comes immediately following their baptism. That empowerment is what we need to carry out God’s work on earth.

In Mark 1:4-11 we are given avery brief account of Jesus’ baptism. The voice connection to Gen 1 and Psa 29 may be worth exploring. God’s speech is efficacious. What does it mean for Jesus to be declared God’s son? How then do we understand the way in which Jesus lived his life? What does it mean for God to declare us his children in our baptism? How would that look in our daily life?