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 week’s passages from Daniel and Mark are particularly apocalyptic in their orientation. Apocalyptic thinking arose in Judaism during the Second Temple Period. (In fact, this passage from Daniel is the first, and perhaps the only, unequivocal reference to resurrection in the OT.) It is an attempt to explain why those who are righteous must suffer while those who are wicked survive and thrive. The answer to this problem in apocalyptic literature is that in the end God will right all wrongs.

The apocalyptic perspective can be both helpful and dangerous in our thinking about hunger and poverty issues. It is helpful in that it reminds us of God’s desire for justice. God wants justice for those who are poor and oppressed. Those who are unjustly treated in this life can hope for redemption. In this way, the apocalyptic perspective reminds us that things are not the way they should be and that God stands against many of the systems and structures of the world (case in point: the prediction of the destruction of the Temple in this week’s Gospel). What systems and structures might God stand against today? How can we participate in bringing justice to those institutions (even if they work to our benefit)?

The danger in apocalyptic thinking (at least in my mind) is that it encourages a certain passivity. In the apocalyptic mindset, God is the one who in the end makes all things right, irrespective of human activity. And this is true—it is God’s work. At the same time, we can sometimes forget that God calls us to participate in God’s redemptive activity. This is God’s work, and we use our hands too (as the tagline says).

Psalm 16 underscores God’s gracious abundance. This is particularly so in the refrain in verse 6 (which speaks of a “goodly heritage”) and the final verse (which speaks of “fullness of joy” and “pleasures forevermore”). It is out of this abundance that we are empowered to live out the call to be God’s hands and feet.

Hebrews 10:19-25, like this week’s Psalm, begins with the activity of God. It is God who has acted decisively in history. For this reason we are encouraged to “consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds” (v.24). Our activity in the world is grounded in God’s gracious activity in Christ. We respond to that by being God’s hands and feet in a hurting world.

One of the ways you can “provoke” your congregation to “good deeds” this week is by drawing their attention to ELCA World Hunger’s new “Good Gifts” catalog (www.elca.org/goodgifts). With Christmas approaching, and more people hungry than ever, this would be an excellent year to consider alternative gifts. What other provocations can we propose?

This apocalyptic passage raises an important challenge to our faith. The Jews of Jesus’ time found God in their rites and rituals, and their Temple was the place where they encountered the divine. The Temple, however, had become a place that participated in oppression (at least in the eyes of some) and thus fell under God’s judgment. What systems and structures are at work in our church are complicit in injustice? What stones should be thrown down?

Complementary Series
Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14
For general comments on the apocalyptic perspective, see the comments on Daniel above (Nov. 15). This week’s text from Daniel easily lends itself to a Christological interpretation (especially on “Christ the King” Sunday!). It can be used as an entry point then to talk about the Kingdom of God that Jesus inaugurated and announced. What are the values of that kingdom? If Christ truly has dominion, what will that mean for us in our daily lives?

This passage from Revelation speaks of Jesus’ return. The imagery is of a triumphant king returning victoriously to his kingdom. It is key to note that Jesus is returning to earth. Often when we think of heaven or the end of time, we imagine some place other than our earthly home, somewhere “over yonder.” This is not the biblical vision. The Bible (particularly in its apocalyptic sections) affirms that this world is less than ideal. That said, the Bible still looks to the redemption of this world. God’s final act in history will be to right the wrongs here on earth. This is a helpful reminder to the church to care for the physical needs of those who are poor and vulnerable in the world. Mundane, physical needs matter. Robust eschatology does not preclude human action with and on behalf of those who are poorest and most vulnerable. Rather, it demands action on their behalf.

In this famous passage, found only in John’s Gospel, Pilate and Jesus discuss the nature of Jesus’ kingship. Jesus speaks of a kingdom not of this world (again, a fundamentally apocalyptic perspective that stands somewhat in tension with the reading from Revelation). In some ways Jesus’ kingdom is different—in the kingdom of God, the values that we normally live by are turned on their head. Those who are poor inherit the earth, those who are hungry are filled, those who are oppressed are set free. What might this look like in our time? How can we live into God’s kingdom?

The final verse of this week’s reading invites us to action. Jesus says in verse 37, “Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice." If we are people of “truth” (perhaps an uncomfortable proposition in our post-modern time), what might Jesus be saying to us? How might he be calling us to live out the kingdom of God? Will we listen?