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!

The promise offered in Ezekiel 37 is that even in the most dire circumstances God can still work on behalf of God’s people. It has been a rough few years—we have experienced a difficult economic downturn, a spike in global food prices, several natural disasters (the most recent earthquakes in Haiti and Japan have been particularly devastating), two (and perhaps on our way to a third) large armed conflicts, and the list goes on. Sometimes it can feel like a valley of dry bones. But Ezekiel tells us that God can bring life to this valley. How will we participate with God in doing God’s work?

On Lazarus Sunday, watch the HBO Films documentary about the effectiveness of anti-retroviral drugs in bringing life to people impacted by HIV and AIDS. The impact is truly astonishing. People near death are brought back to life (for just $.60 a day!). The ELCA is implementing its HIV and AIDS strategy to address stigma, encourage testing, and help fund our international health work related to HIV and AIDS. Learn more at www.elca.org/aids. The Lazarus Effect documentary is available at http://www.hbo.com/documentaries/the-lazarus-effect/index.html.

April 17, 2011(Sunday of the Passion, Palm Sunday)

Matthew 21:1-11 Procession with Palms
Isaiah 50:4-9a
Psalm 31:9-16 (5)
Philippians 2:5-11
Matthew 26:14-27:66 or Matthew 27:11-54

The Sunday of the Passion is often filled with a reading of the Passion. The texts from the Bible speak to God’s work with and on behalf of those who are vulnerable. The lesson from Paul’s letter to the Philippians reminds us that we are to emulate Christ and that in so doing the glory of God will be revealed. This week as we remember Christ’s ultimate self emptying, how might God be calling us to empty ourselves for the greater good of those who are poor and vulnerable?