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!

This week’s texts emphasize that life is more than one’s possessions. For the authors of these passages, there is no place for “keeping up with the Joneses.” The teacher in Ecclesiastes rather darkly laments our earthly existence as “vanity of vanities” and a “chasing after the wind.” Moreover, after all the toil “under the sun” is done, the fruits of our labors will be enjoyed by someone else (who is likely far less noble than we are!). The psalmist, likewise, laments our brief and fleeting life. He too criticizes those who put hope in riches or possessions (vv. 6-9). Paul in his letter to the Colossians encourages the church there to think on heavenly rather than earthly things. He urges his audience to avoid earthly vices, including greed, “which is also idolatry.” Finally, Jesus’ story of a man who built great storehouses for all his grain is unabashedly mocked as a fool, for at the end of his life all his possessions will not mean anything.

The texts can be both troublesome and helpful in the context of hunger. The pessimism about this life and the negative contrast with the life to come can lead to a feeling that physical wellbeing is not important. After hearing these passages one may wonder why we should care for the hungry at all – in the end this life is vanity and the real focus in on one’s future life in heaven. In some ways they encourage us to “be too heavenly minded to be any earthly good.” It is helpful to remember that these texts are not the only (or final) biblical voice on this life. In spite of a strong Christian tradition of denigrating our creatureliness, this world and our life in it is affirmed throughout the Bible. Moreover, the clearest moral imperatives of the Bible call us to care for the physical needs of those who are poorest and most vulnerable.

The texts are helpful (and challenging!) inasmuch as they encourage us to hold loosely our physical possessions. They offer a difficult countercultural vision but one that is a healthy corrective to our often (overly) consumptive lifestyle. What barns have we built? In what ways can we be more “rich towards God”? How can our daily lifestyle choices better help those who are poor and vulnerable?

Today’s text from Genesis is familiar to us on account of Paul’s sophisticated use of 15:6 in his distinction between faith and works (“Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness”). The larger context provided in today’s reading shows us the absurdity Abraham’s (in the text, Abram) faith. Abraham is without an heir, and not expecting to have an heir. Yet God promises that his descendants will be more numerous than the stars (in another passage the impossibility of the promise is especially evident when Sarah laughs out loud at the suggestion).

In the context of hunger, there are some claims that may seem equally outlandish. God promises to provide everything a believer needs, especially food and clothing (see, for example, the passage that immediately precedes today’s Gospel, Luke 12:22-32). As we saw a few weeks back in the lectionary readings from Revelation, God promises to right the injustices of the world when God brings God’s kingdom. Looking at the stark realities of hunger and poverty in the world it can be difficult to believe that God will make everything right. Can we have the faith of Abraham?

Even though Abraham believed God, this did not mean that he did not have some work to do! Abraham had to step out and live into the covenant that God made with him. How might we be called to live into our covenant with God, especially with regards to hunger and poverty? What work do we need to do with our hands?

The passage from Hebrews ties into the comments above about hope. The author of Hebrews is clear that the hope of our ancestors was unreasonable, a hope in things unseen. Many died without seeing the fulfillment. Yet they kept the faith. As we work for justice in the world, we may not see the victories we hope for but the text still calls us to be faithful.

In the Gospel, then, we are encouraged to give generously and warned against not storing up earthly treasures (see also the Gospel from last week). Jesus supports the claim with a simile about a thief coming unexpectedly. We work faithfully not knowing when God’s kingdom will finally arrive, but it is surely coming. God’s promises will be fulfilled, even though we may not see the clues we are looking for. In this way the present text is very much like the parable of the mustard seed—the seed is small and its germination is unseen until one day it is a mighty tree. What green shoots of God’s activity do we see today?