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 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!

As I wrote in an earlier sermon starter, in the United States we recognize the value of liberty, but often it means we are free to do whatever we want to, no matter the impact it may have on another person. Paul’s idea of freedom is a bit different. Paul sees the power of sin limiting human ability to choose to do what is right. The freedom that Christ has offered us is a freedom to live into God’s ethic (“Do not submit again to a yoke of slavery!” [Gal 5:1]). Paul’s aims in Galatians 5 and 6 to explain what such freedom will look like as it is lived out. Christian freedom manifests itself as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control. It is expressed in love for our neighbor (Gal 5:14). In the context of hunger and poverty, what will love look like? Can we say we love our neighbor if we are not working with on behalf of them?

In today’s passage, we are encouraged to use our freedom to bear one another’s burdens, and in so doing we “fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal 6:2). Verse 9 seems particularly appropriate for our context: “Let us not grow weary in doing what is right.” We have been inundated by wearying news stories—a long recession, two protracted wars, and a tragic oil spill, to name a few. In the midst of all this, hunger and poverty is on the rise. How can we resist the wearying forces? What good deeds might God be calling us to in these trying times?

In today’s Gospel, Jesus sends the 70 out to announce his imminent visit. As he sends them on their way, he reminds them that the “harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few” (10:2). Today, we see lots of bad news, and maybe even experience it a bit ourselves. It can feel like there are not enough laborers to get the work done. There is an urgency that pervades this passage—the disciples are exhorted to watch out for wolves, charged not to bring any possessions, and warned that they will not always find a welcome. In spite of difficult circumstances, the disciples are charged to heal the sick, and in so doing announce that “the Kingdom of God has drawn near” (10:9). In our own difficult context, might God be commissioning us in a similar way? How can we go forth as a life-giving community?

This week’s passage practically begs for a hunger related exposition. The parable is a beautiful and surprising call to act on behalf of those who are in need, irrespective of race or creed. What I especially like about the parable is that when the expert in the law asks, “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus completely changes the frame of reference. Rather than answering who, Jesus tells the expert how. The Samaritan exemplifies love of neighbor in his unfettered and extravagant care for a person in need. He transcends historic prejudices to bring healing, at no small expense to himself.

Augustine offers a curious interpretation of this parable. He allegorizes nearly every detail in the story—the man is Adam, the three robbers are the devil and the devil’s angels, the man is left dead in sin, the Samaritan is Christ, the inn is the Church (and Paul is the innkeeper!) and so on. I’ve always felt that Augustine’s elaborate interpretation revealed more about his brilliant mind than the intent of the parable. In fact, I wonder if his theological bent actually mitigates the force of the story—instead of hearing the call to “go and do likewise,” our attention is drawn to the activity of God. While reflecting on the goodness of God is not a bad thing, I worry that an interpretation like that of Augustine could lull us into complacency and inactivity.

But perhaps Augustine’s interpretation is not so sinister. The reality is that it is difficult to truly love and serve even people that we like, let alone those for whom we don’t have a natural affinity. Augustine reminds us of the grace of God revealed in the Christ event, that transformative power that enables us to live out the call to love our neighbors, both near and far, in the same way that we love ourselves.