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!

The Gospel and the Old Testament lesson both tell a story of an outsider being healed. In 2 Kings, Naaman is a foreign military leader who seeks out the help of Elisha. Not only is Naaman a foreigner, it is clear in the story that he is not the most endearing person—he is a foreign occupier who is informed of Elisha through a young slave girl from Israel that he abducted. When he goes to Elisha he is too arrogant to receive the prophet’s command and must be convinced to obey. In spite of Naaman’s initial hesitance, he ultimately washes himself in the Jordan and is cleansed.

The Gospel lesson likewise tells of a recalcitrant leper. In Mark 1:40, in many Greek manuscripts, Jesus is said to be angered by the leper’s request (a later copyist likely changed it to Jesus being moved with compassion). The text does not give a reason for Jesus’ anger, but perhaps the leper’s outright disregard for Jesus’ command to keep silence reveals a bit about his character, and thus also Jesus’ frustration at his request. In spite of the leper’s flaws, Jesus is gracious and heals him.

In both stories there are many reasons not to offer life and healing to the people in need. They are unclean. They are foreigners and outcasts. They have character flaws. Yet God is faithful to even these. How often do we make excuses not to help someone? What reasons do we make up to resist the call to do God’s work with our hands? In what ways do we need God’s grace to so infuse us that we may offer a similar grace to others?

The Gospel of Mark gradually reveals who Jesus is and what Jesus is about. In the Gospel there are three scenes that openly state that Jesus is God’s son. (The demons throughout the Gospel know this, but Jesus repeatedly commands them not to speak.) The first scene is Jesus’ baptism (Mark 1:9-11), wherein God apparently speaks to Jesus alone: “You are my son, the beloved, with you I am well pleased.” The last scene is at Jesus’ crucifixion, and it is a Roman soldier who recognizes in Jesus’ death that Jesus is God’s son and announces for all to hear, “Truly this man was God’s son!” (Mark 15:33-39). In this week’s text, Jesus is partially revealed to his closest followers as God’s son. The present revelation takes place in the central teaching portion of Mark’s Gospel, where Jesus describes what it means to be the messiah (he will be rejected and ultimately killed). The disciples consistently fail to understand (note in the present passage their awkward response to the transfiguration).

In the context of hunger, the way in which Jesus is revealed to be God’s son has two important tie-ins. First, Jesus is seen as God’s son not in glory but in humility (the early Christian hymn found in Philippians 2:1-10 describes this well). How often is Jesus in our midst in humble ways? Do we fail to see him because we are seeking a glorious and powerful king? How might God be revealed in those who are poor and marginalized? Second, Jesus models for us how we are to be in the world. Jesus’ relationship to God is most clearly visible (according to Mark) when Jesus self sacrifices for the good of others. How might God be calling us today to give of ourselves?