SCROLL DOWN FOR JUNE 3 AND JUNE 10

• What does it mean to answer “Here am I; send me!” This is easy to say and very hard to do. How do we discern what it is that God calls us to do? How do we persevere?
• If we have heard the call to attend to the poor and the hungry, how do we know how best to give aid? What is the difference between emergency relief and long term development aid? How are these two kinds of aid related?
• How can the answer “Here am I; send me!” extend to the way we understand and engage the world? How do economic, political, and social realities come together to perpetuate hunger? How can economic, political and social realities bring and end to hunger?
• Scripture tells us all kinds of ideas that we do not understand. What does it mean that the last are first and the first are last? What does it mean that the greatest of all must be a servant? What difference does it make to hear that the poorest among us are to be held up and blessed?

• John 3:16, part of this lection, is quite well-known and quite well-used. It is doubtful whether the majority of those who know and use it are able to articulate why it is an important text. That task could be an important job for a preacher. What does it mean to say that “God loves the world…”? What does that suggest about how we are to interact with and function within the world?
• Verse 16 is an all-encompassing statement. It does not say that “God loves part of the world…” or that “God loves the prosperous in the world…” or that “God loves the vibrant, life-giving part of the world.” God loves the world. If God loves the places where childhood disease claim the lives of too many; and the places where the environment is parched, stripped of its vitality; and the places where the people close their eyes to the plight of the poor, what does that mean for us and how we live?
• What does “eternal life” mean? John’s gospel makes it clear that eternal life is not a statement of quantity but of character. What is the character of eternal life? How does the promise of eternal life exist in the present and become a statement about the future? How can we proclaim eternal life without perpetuating the notion that the present is only temporary and outside the realm of God’s concern? Preachers need to be cautious not to suggest that we just need to wait for some time off in the future when God will make all things right. A notion such as this will define poverty and hunger as inevitable and acceptable since it is only temporary. It is difficult to imagine that God who loves the world would find any measure of hunger and poverty acceptable.
• This Gospel text makes a deliberate connection between salvation and judgment. Even though the human family lives within the promise of salvation, that does not exclude the reality of judgment. The promise of eternal life and the reality of judgment coexist. The reality is that there are choices to make regarding how we will live within God’s beloved world.

• Consider the connection between verse 24 and the reality and hopelessness of hunger: “I bring low the high tree, and I make high the low tree; I dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish. I the Lord have spoken; I will accomplish it.” What does verse 24 say to those who hunger? What does this verse say to those who are not hungry?

• How do we participate in what God is doing and “will accomplish”?
• Hopelessness and despair are great obstacles in combating hunger and poverty. What does hope for the future mean for a community struck by poverty? What form does hope take for a family living out of its car? How can hope be realized?
• An interesting question to ponder is this: What do starving people need more—a meal or a sermon about hope? Why?

• The Dominion of God (or Reign of God, or Kingdom of God, or Way of God) is not a plot of geography. Rather, it is a vision of what things are like when they are as God intends. A very logical question to ask is how hunger and poverty relate to God’s intentions. What are God’s people to do when they are confronted with realities contrary to God’s way?
• The parable suggests that like a small mustard seed, the Dominion of God grows into significance from seemingly small beginnings. A sermon-worthy topic would be to explore how small things are able to make great impact in addressing hunger and poverty. For example, consider the far-reaching implications of one well. Safe drinking water reduces the risk of water-born illness, a great contributor to hunger. A well provides irrigation for crops that can diversify a family’s diet. A nearby well can erase the need for people, often children, walking long distances to secure water, and have time to go to school. Literacy brings with it the potential to escape hunger and poverty. Out of a small well comes great possibility.
• Contained within the philosophy of micro-credit is the notion that great opportunity arises for individuals, families, and communities when they have access to small loans. Micro-credit has an amazing track record of contributing to economic and financial stability. For a succinct discussion of micro-credit see the “Background for Leaders” in Session 4 in Taking Root (ELCA World Hunger’s curriculum).
• Pay particular attention to the connection between the Ezekiel 17 text and the Gospel text. It may well be that Jesus helps us to see that greatness is not always defined in predictable ways. A mustard bush is great, but not in the way that tall trees are great. Perhaps we need to define greatness according to God’s way and not according to the world’s way. Often today we find attribute greatness to those with economic power and many possessions. Those with little economic power and opportunity are disregarded. Today’s parable asks us to rethink our ideas of greatness and importance. When we do, we just might hear the relief of those left in hunger and poverty…those typically considered unimportant.