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!

On this Sunday we celebrate Christ the King. Jesus is crucified as an insurrectionist between two criminals and subjected to pain and humiliation. The soldiers in mockery place a sign that reads “This is the King of the Jews.” We, standing on this side of the resurrection, see the irony. Jesus is indeed the king, and his glory as king is revealed in this moment of ultimate self emptying. If this is the moment when Christ’s glory is revealed, what does this mean for us? What would it look like for us to live into the “kingdom values” that this king models for us?

Another way to explore this text from a hunger perspective is to think about how we view those who are poor and marginalized. The Jewish and Christian story speaks over and over of God’s activity in the world through those who are small or of little account. God chooses a tiny, obscure nation to be a blessing to the world. God leads a band of slaves out from under the hands of an oppressive superpower. God picks a small ruddy boy (with beautiful eyes!) to lead the nation. God chooses a young woman to bear the redeemer of the world. God brings salvation through a criminal. Too often, those who are poor, vulnerable, and marginalized are seen simply as recipients who need help. In the biblical story, however, it is those who are otherwise overlooked who bring salvation. What can be learned from those who are poor and marginalized? How can their voices be amplified? Thinking in a global context, how can we better listen to our neighbors?

The Advent season is an excellent time to bring hunger related themes into your sermon. In the time when the days are getting darker and we look forward to the coming of the light, we acknowledge the great darkness in our time, the unrealized human potential and millions of lives lost, all for something that is preventable. In this “Little Lent” let us recommit ourselves to doing God’s work with our hands.

November 28, 2010
Isaiah 2:1-5
Isaiah offers a vision of a time when all the nations will stream to Jerusalem that they may learn God’s ways and walk in them. Throughout the Bible, God’s way lifts up those who are poor and marginalized. God’s call to us is to work with and on behalf of those who are poor and vulnerable. Verse four offers the beautiful picture the nations learning God’s way of peace as weapons are beaten into tools that are used to grow food. This image would be very powerful in a subsistence economy where such simple tools are absolutely essential for harvest. In our own time so much of our money is spent in making weapons for war. What would it look like if we put that money and energy and ingenuity into feeding people?

The texts from Romans and Matthew can be read nicely together for an anti-hunger message. Matthew offers the vivid picture of no one knowing the hour when Christ will return. “For two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left. Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. No one knows the hour” (Matt 24:40-41). Paul uses that sense of urgency to encourage Christians in Rome to live upright lives. What changes in our daily lives can we make to live more fully into God’s vision for humanity? In what ways do we need a greater sense of urgency?