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!

“…But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people…”

What does your heart have to say when you see that people are going hungry? What does your heart have to say when you learn that there’s plenty of food – it’s just that millions of people—nearly one billion—can’t afford to buy it?

Note: Article 25.1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says, “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.”

Just as in the gospel passage last week, Jesus speaks of his death in terms of being lifted up. The Greeks at the beginning of this passage who ask to see Jesus most likely do not have in mind seeing him in this light. And yet Jesus is clear that those who wish to see him, must see him in this way, like the grain of wheat that falls to the earth. God’s glory has an odd way of being realized. But this ground, which receives the dead grain of wheat, is precisely the place where God’s glory can be made known.

In the context of caring for the hungry, we can say that the gospel breathes life into this dead ground. Just as Jeremiah’s proclamation of a new covenant comes when the land is reeling from exile, the news of God’s glory is waiting to nurture the lives of the hungry. How can we share the news of God’s glory? And how can we creatively envision God’s glory made known in the lives of others?

The Lectionary this week gives us a couple of choices. Since many celebrate Palm Sunday today (as opposed to Sunday of the Passion), I will comment on Mark 11:1-11. Though it should be noted that Mark 14:1-15:47 has some great vignettes (especially 14:1-9, which deals fairly specifically with the attitude we should have towards those who are poor—we are to be with them, doing for them what we can).

An interesting exercise would be invite the congregation to reflect on the Psalm as if they were a poor person (another option would be to think about the Psalm in the context of the current economic situation). If you were poor or in desperate need, what would you seek from God in your distress (v. 9)? How would “God’s graciousness” be manifest in your situation? What would it mean to have your “life spent with sorrow” and your “years with sighing” (v. 10)? How are those who are poor and needy a “horror” to their neighbors (v.11)? What would that feel like? In what ways are people who are poor forgotten, as if they were “one who is dead” (v. 12)?

In spite of all these afflictions and all the loneliness, the psalmist still professes trust in God (vv. 14-19). Do we have the same faith?

In this hymn, Paul uses the example of Jesus’ ultimate self-emptying (kenosis)as a model for how we are to serve one another. This is radical call. Jesus, whom Paul identifies as divine, becomes a human, but not just any human, a lowly human, a slave who dies a criminal death. If this is the model of the lord we serve, what might that look like in our lives of discipleship? What would self-emptying look like? What cultural assimilations or human conditions need to be named as inhibitors of self-emptying? To what end should we empty ourselves?

The scene with the throng of people yelling “Hosanna” carries a joyous connotation for many of us today. It is a moment of celebration. The word in the NT is actually a transliteration of a Hebrew word that means “Save now!” (as in Psalm 118:25). The people are coming to Jesus, seeking salvation, which in the Bible implies holistic healing—physical, emotional, and spiritual.

It may be useful to recall that these people lived in an occupied land, with sometimes hostile overlords. We recall similar situations in recent events—Syria, Palestine, Libya, to name a few. These are places where those who are poor and vulnerable need salvation. Even in the U.S., systems and structures are in place that keep certain people struggling just to make ends meet. As God’s people, how can we participate with God in salvific acts? What might God ask us to do on behalf of those who plead, “Hosanna! Save us!” What sort of self-emptying might God be calling us to?