SCROLL DOWN FOR NOVEMBER 25, 2012

Welcome to Hunger Sermon Starters!
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!
November 25, 2012 Christ the King Sunday
First Reading: Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14
 
“an Ancient One took his throne” – God has been, is now, and ever more shall be. The enduring faithfulness of God brings hope in the midst of persecution and hard times. This hope that the pain and suffering of this world, however, can become license to wait for the coming glory, forgetting that God reigns over all in the present as well. Too often people of faith look for the hope to come – and point those who are suffering to the hope to come – and do not meet the needs of people where they are. Our neighbors continue to suffer hunger and thirst, lack of access to clean water, lack of warmth, comfort and hospitality. God calls us not only to look to heaven but to lower our gaze to those around us as well.
 
Psalm (ELW): Psalm 93
 
The psalmist reminds us that God is king of all the earth – including the roaring waters which sing God’s praise. Sometimes, however, the waters lift up lament rather than rejoicing. Too many in our world continue to live without access to clean drinking water. Consider these facts from elca.org and the 2006 UN Development Report:
·        Combined, unclean water and poor sanitation are the world’s second largest killer of children.
·        Water-related illnesses result in a loss of 272 million days of school attendance for children, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
·        Millions of women spend several hours a day collecting water.
·        Close to half of all people in developing countries are suffering at any given time from a health problem caused by dirty water or unsanitary conditions.
Consider supporting the work of the ELCA and the 100 Wells Challenge. This is how we continue to use our hands (and our resources) to do the work of Christ our King.
 
Second Reading: Revelation 1:4b–8 
 
The author of Revelation, like the author of Daniel, speaks to a people suffering persecution and offers them a word of hope. Our hope – and the hope of all the world – rests firmly in the One who is and who was and who is to come. The Lord God reigns in our lives in the present, transforming us to be the people of God.
 
Gospel: John 18:33–37  
 
Jesus stands before Pilate – close to death – and testifies to the truth. Jesus is the truth and also testifies to this truth. The truth of Jesus is his saving love for all humanity in his death and resurrection. This is the truth which makes us free. This is the truth which transforms us with baptismal promise and the presence of the Holy Spirit within us. This is the truth which empowers us to live as God’s people every day – working for justice and peace in all that we do. We testify to the truth of Christ whenever we live God’s love in the world – whether in big or small ways. We make a difference every day – in a smile, in kindness, in grace, in compassion, in calm in the midst of chaos, in not joining in slander, in seeing God in our neighbor, in apologizing, in forgiving, in hope and in love. May our lives testify to the truth of the one who gave his life for us all.
 
Rev. Kelly D.B. Derrick
St. Philip Lutheran Church
Roanoke, Virginia