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 reading tosses us right into the middle of a story. Peter and John healed a man crippled from birth in the name of Jesus at the gate called “Beautiful.” The man gets up and goes about “walking and leaping and praising God,” causing a bit of a stir. The reading begins with Peter’s explanation of what the healing means. One key point to note is how God cares about the whole person. We sometimes separate the physical from the spiritual, but the two are in fact intricately intertwined. God calls us to care for the whole person. Note also how this all takes place in the Temple. How can we be like Peter and John in caring for the whole person? How can our places of worship better care for those who are spiritually, emotionally, and especially physically needy?

In this passage, the author marvels at the love that God has for us, that we should be called children of God. Raymond Brown, in his commentary on the Johannine epistles (pp. 388-91), explains how being a child of God is both a beautiful expression of God’s grace and love, and also carries definite moral connotations. He surveys OT and intertestamental literature that may be useful in your preparation, showing how divine “childship” brings a moral obligation to live for justice and to care for those who are most vulnerable.

When Jesus presents himself to the disciples, he offers the simple phrase (often repeated in our liturgy), “Peace be with you.” Peace in the bible implies wholeness, peace for the whole person (as we already saw in the first reading from Acts 3:12-19). Again, I think it can be underscored that God wishes that humans be whole, and this includes the needs of the physical body.

One thing that the present passage underscores is the physicality of Jesus’ resurrection. True, the physicality is somehow different that what we are used to (Jesus simply appears in their midst, they think they are seeing a ghost, the still disbelieve and wonder). But by narrating how Jesus ate, the author shows that Jesus was physically raised. This has implications on how we think about the physical needs of others. Just as creation and creatureliness was declared good at the beginning, so too God’s raising of Jesus fundamentally affirms our humanness.

The psalm and Gospel reading for this week devote special attention to shepherd imagery. Though an agrarian lifestyle may be far from our experience, the imagery draws us to a God who is active in creation and our lives. The readings for this week present an opportunity to connect discipleship with mission.

The question asked by the council, “By what power…by what name?” is reminiscent of the question asked of Jesus’ healings and teachings (notably Luke 20:1-2). The conflict between who Jesus is and the unbelief of the leaders is solidified with the rejected stone imagery (Luke 20:17-19; Mark 12:10-11). It comes as no surprise that by the Holy Spirit his followers teach the resurrection of this rejected stone and continue witnessing to the resurrection power through healings. The salvation claimed through only Jesus’ name (v.12) has a very physical and present effect in this narrative.

This narrative invites us to develop a more robust view of discipleship and life in the spirit. We reflectively ask what we do in Jesus’ name, and we are challenged to look for ways in which we can bear witness to the healing power of our savior. This passage helps us articulate our theology and connect it with our ministry and outreach to the vulnerable and hungry of the world.

The prepared table (v.5) captures an important theme of the feast to come. It is one of provision, but because it is set in the presence of enemies, it is also a powerful reminder of God’s vision and the scope of our redemption. It is this vision that our shepherd leads us into (John 10 offers an explanation of what this will cost the shepherd) and here again where we will be satisfied enough to say “I shall not want.”

But we live in a world where many experience wants: for things both trivial and essential for survival. People who lack proper nutrition or access to quality food may feel far from the green pastures of this world, but the psalmist envisions the comfort of God in a very present way. As ones who follow the same shepherd, how can we walk with the poor and hungry? How might we share our table in anticipation of the coming feast?

This passage offers a firm challenge to any who conceive of abiding as “relaxing” or merely “being.” Here the laying down of one’s life is a necessary behavior of those who abide in God’s love. The question posed in verse 17 should not be overlooked. Many who live in this country are considered to have “the world’s goods” (NRSV), but we often aren’t sure how to lay down our lives. The Greek root bios is found elsewhere in 1 John (2:16) where the warning is clear that “pride in riches” (NRSV) is a product of the world and not compatible with the love of God. Here a refusal to help (“shut up compassion”) also constitutes an action that is incompatible with the love of God.

The writer imagines this community is capable of abiding in God’s love, and thus laying down their lives. The exhortation to love in “truth and action” need not be confused with works, but more accurately is a mark of life in the spirit (v.24). When those who are blessed with the world’s goods share with brothers and sisters in need, they are abiding in the love of God, which is always a love made known in truth and action. This is the love of God that is to infuse the believing community.

The texts today point to Jesus as the love of God come into the world— the good shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep. Connections can be made between the love of God shown here in the person of Christ, and how the Spirit guides the community of believers who are abiding in God’s love. An important point here is that the Spirit is not limited to guiding the community of believers in their own personal lives, but guides us into God’s ongoing mission in the world, leading us to action on behalf and with the vulnerable, poor and hungry of the world.