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!

What kinds of messages are arriving at doors and in mailboxes (and e-mailboxes) for “the holidays”? We labor to send these to friends and families and we anticipate receiving them. The messenger described here is bringing a message from the Lord—whom we are seeking but somehow will appear even faster (more “suddenly”) than we might expect. Who can endure this message and appearance—the implicit answer is none of us! Even the Levites, the priests (those traditionally charged with being “especially holy” in order to present sacrifices), will be purified and refined. How can the rest of us stand? The covenant to which God is faithful and in which we delight—this is what the messenger comes to speak of—and it is Good News for us who have now been justified by God’s appearance in the form of Jesus. This promised appearance and action for us allows us to get over our “holiness concerns” and live for our neighbors.

Hey, never enough Luke, right? This psalm-like song of praise is from Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist and husband of Elizabeth. It has become part of the church’s worship in Morning Prayer. As you recall, he was struck speechless earlier in Luke’s great story for not believing God’s messenger or the message that he and Elizabeth would be parents. He recovers his voice when the baby is born- not to be outdone by Elizabeth’s cousin, Mary, who offered us her song of praise and of God’s actions in favor of the powerless a few verses prior to this.

This is a great song of thanksgiving from an old man for a messenger and for the expected Messiah whom he now thinks he’ll see in his lifetime. It is also the song of a new parent in thanksgiving for a child, and a kind of holy satisfaction and thrill at being part of a holy plan. “You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High”. Zechariah and Elizabeth had been waiting and anticipating for so long, they had given up. What is the difference between waiting that leads to giving up, and waiting, expecting, in hope, as with a pregnancy? This man’s son was now the sign that his people’s waiting and longing could become expectation of the Messiah’s appearance.

In some translations, this is called “Paul’s prayer” for the Philippians. What a great community-minded ethic. Paul is not praying for himself and his own needs and status, but with joy for the well-being of others; with concern for others. Many prayers this time of year resemble lists for Santa or lists of to-dos for the family, tree, travel, dinner, cards, etc. Neither a wish list nor a busy list, Paul labors to pray constantly with joy for others. This allows him the sensitivity and space to know that what any community needs is to be bound by and to reach out in love.

The “harvest of righteousness” is a great metaphor for talking about the decreasing ability of many around the world to harvest what they have planted because of toxic soil, water depletion, and runoff- all intensified by climate change and its effects on arable land. When food prices rise because of less food, more people will go hungry. This reality and its causes are not a “harvest of righteousness” in God’s sight. What does Paul’s community ethic say about our concern in love, knowledge and insight for our neighbors?

What a list of the power elite! While traditionally seen as a method of marking the exact time by ancient writers, this naming of reigns—everyone from the Emperor to the high priests—is quite a who’s who of the time. The names also evoke for hearers other gospel appearances by Pilate, Herod, Annas and Caiaphas. Good story-telling by Luke. This list presents a contrast between the world’s way of operating, and God’s way. From the out-right claim to divine status by the Emperor to the incestuous and grasping reigns of the Herods to the religious elitism of the high priests, these officials operate differently from the Word of God spoken through John as a lonely voice in the wilderness who preaches repentance and forgiveness as well as the great reversals brought by God’s reign.

God chooses to act through us and with us to remind the powers of this world of their servant role in God’s holy purpose. As Lutherans, we cannot join others to throw up our hands in frustration at our government, nor can we seek to baptize it. For us, governments are instrumental, only as good as their willingness to work for the common good of all people. We remind our authorities of their place in God’s alternate plan—how God is working to fill, straighten, smooth and address places and people who are forgotten by our standards. It is when those who are poor are included and those who are hungry are fed that “all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”