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 lesson looks forward to a time of peace. War and conflict inevitably lead to hunger and poverty. The author of this text no doubt knew the devastation of violence and thus looked to the coming king who would bring peace. In the New Testament this text is applied to Jesus. Jesus comes as the prince of peace; what might this mean for us in our time? How are we to continue in Jesus' way?

As the lectionary would have it, we read the lesson from Romans alongside the reminder from the Gospel that Jesus' burden is light. Paul reiterates (repeatedly!) the difficulty in fully living into the gospel's demand on our lives. Yet Jesus tells us the burden is light. In our anti-hunger work both are true as well. Sometimes, we know what will help a situation but we do not have the strength or courage to do what we are called to do. For myriad reasons we fail to live faithfully. Thank God for the grace to continue, and for the reminder from Paul that we are not the first to struggle in this way. Thank God too for the power to live faithfully when it is difficult. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, the burden is light. May we continue to look to God in our efforts to follow Jesus’ example.

Isaiah 55 is generally thought to be the final chapter of Second Isaiah. It echoes many of the themes throughout Second Isaiah and functions as a summary of the promises contained therein. The chapter opens with a promise of water for all who thirst (nearly 1 in 6 people in the world lack access to safe drinking water; 1 in 3 lack access to sanitation) and food for all who have no money (roughly 1 billion people in the world are hungry). The eschatological vision is thus one in which all people have access to basic necessities. Today’s lesson assures us that God’s promises will indeed come to pass (see esp. vv. 10-11). The great gift is that we get to work with God in fulfilling this vision.

Today’s psalm reminds us that God provides food for those who are hungry. The thrust of the psalm (echoed clearly in the refrain) is that God provides in abundance. Even in these trying times, God’s bounty is still evident: the earth is capable of producing enough food for all to eat their fill. Yet hunger still exists. How might we more fully live into God’s promise of bounty? What work can we do (by the power of the Holy Spirit) to ensure that the bounty is experienced by all?

The Old Testament lesson and the Psalm speak of God’s intention that all be fed and watered. While this is God’s promise and God’s work, we participate in that work by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit empowers us to resist the works of the flesh, including those tendencies to hoard and to look out for only oneself, and to live more fully into God’s vision for humanity.