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!

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.

The death and resurrection of Jesus is a cosmic event. The world is changed. Christ—who is elsewhere described as the creator (e.g., Colossians 1:15-20)—is the one upon whom all creation awaits for salvation (Romans 8:19-22). God in Christ is redeeming the world. The Christian hope of redemption is not some otherworldly reality, but a renewal of this earth, this home. And the earth is in need of redemption. It is groaning. We see hints of our fragile planet suffering. Weather patterns are less predictable, ecosystems are disrupted, species are disappearing, mounds of trash continue to grow, and on and on. All of these shifts also take a toll on those who are poorest and most vulnerable. To this day, God is redeeming and healing of all creation. God calls us to be about that work as well. On this day give thanks for God’s restoring work in Christ and pray for the healing of God’s earth. Commit to following Jesus’ way of life and redemption.