SCROLL DOWN FOR SEPTEMBER 26 AND OCTOBER 3
Welcome to Hunger Sermon Starters!
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!
September 26, 2010 (Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost)
Complementary Series
Amos 6:1a, 4-7
Psalm 146 (7)
1 Timothy 6:6-19
Luke 16:19-31
Some thoughts on “the rich man and Lazarus” and “diseases of poverty”:
In our world today, there are 8 million Lazaruses.
8 million people like Lazarus who suffer unto death from diseases intensified by poverty like HIV and AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, and water borne illness. And tens of millions more people whose struggles with these illnesses won’t lead to death, but will result in lost income, heavy debt burdens due to health care costs, interrupted education, homelessness, social stigma and other devastating setbacks.
Thanks be to God for God’s promise that Lazarus will be comforted.
But let us not rest at this!
Let us hear what this story calls us to hear: Lazarus is lying at the gate of our wealthy society. Lazarus suffers even though the resources to help him exist. Let us honor the humanity of Lazarus and make sure that Lazarus has the food and health care he deserves as a child of God.
Here are just a few ways to respond to Lazarus at the gate:
* Give generously. Browse the ELCA Good Gifts catalog (www.elca.org/goodgifts) and give a gift that will heal, nurture and nourish.
* Take action. Visit http://www.elca.org/aids to learn more about what you can do to respond to HIV and AIDS in your community and around the world.
* Pray and reflect. Study Lazarus at the Gate, a resource produced by the ELCA Church in Society Unit to promote analysis of the construct that maintains both wealth and poverty in America. It contains information, Bible studies, bibliographies, and some network referrals for doing work among people in poverty. Available from Augsburg Fortress (Item # 9786000219499)
Jennifer Barger
Associate Director for Development, ELCA World Hunger / HIV and AIDS Strategy
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Welcome to Hunger Sermon Starters!
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!
October 3, 2010 (Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost)
Complementary Series
Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4
This passage begins with the prophet’s lament about the lack of justice—destruction and violence, strife and contention abound in the midst of perverted judgment. Sounds a lot like today! We see violence and perversion of justice all around. And we wonder when (or even if) God will act. O God, how long shall we cry for help?
The answer offered in 2:4 is familiar to us. Paul quotes this text in his letters to the Romans and to the Galatians: “The just shall live by faith.” As Lutherans we often focus on the word faith, using it as an antidote to “works righteousness.” In the context of the prophet demanding God to act, however, the emphasis may actually be on the call to live. Though the world may be unjust and systems may perpetuate hunger and poverty and violence and oppression, God calls us nonetheless to live by faith. To live out what we know to be true—to be faithful to our baptismal commitment to renounce the powers that defy and rebel against God and to work for justice and peace. In an unjust world may we have the courage to live by our faith.
Psalm 37:1-9 (5)
2 Timothy 1:1-14
Luke 17:5-10
Yet another difficult Gospel text from Luke! The passage in some ways demands public interpretation because it can sound so offensive. The United States’ history of abusive slavery and continuing struggles with racial equality make this text particularly problematic. The text provides an opportunity to speak to that history and to commit to not repeating it. In this way it also opens a door to hard conversations about race. According to the most recent poverty statistics, about one in seven people in the United States lives in poverty (a frightening number, indeed). However, in Black and Latino communities, that number jumps to one in four. While we have made some strides in making our country more just, much work remains to be done. What might God be calling us to do today?
David Creech
Director of Hunger Education, ELCA World Hunger
