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!

We are able to proclaim the gospel in deeds, as well as in words. The Prophet talks about a messenger preparing the way of the Lord. Our assistance to those who suffer from hunger and hunger-related issues, may prepare the way for those we serve to see the Triune God working in their lives. And our assistance may be the “offering in righteousness” that the Lord desires.

The Song of Zechariah or “Benedictus” is a prophetic song that looks to a fulfillment of all of God’s promises. Zechariah rejoices in the blessing of his son, John. We are able to sing of our blessings. And we look to a future when all people will be blessed; when all people do not suffer from hunger and hunger-related issues. As we sing this song, just like Zechariah, we are reminded that the fulfillment is not yet complete, and there is work to do.

We hear in this apocryphal text, a familiar metaphor of God’s fulfillment. A constant metaphor for this fulfillment is all creation being equalized: “mountains and hills made low and valleys raised up”. How are we working to make sure that those who currently do not have, will have in the future?

The metaphor the apostle uses in this letter to describe the spreading of righteousness is an “overflowing harvest”. The world may see the works of God as we work to provide an overflowing harvest for those who suffer from hunger and hunger-related issues.

On the second Sunday of Advent every year, we hear the Baptizer proclaiming what the fulfillment of the Kingdom will look like. As we heard in the alternative Baruch text, and in other places in scripture, the metaphor is that all creation will be equalized: mountains made low, valleys made high, crooked made straight, rough made smooth. It is in this state that we will see the salvation of God. Is it possible that those who suffer from hunger and hunger-related issues may see the salvation of God, when hunger in their lives is overcome? Might we see a glimpse of the Kingdom when we work towards making sure the “have-nots”, have?

Pastor of Pleasant City Lutheran Parish (Harmony Lutheran Church - Buffalo OH, St. Paul Lutheran Church - Pleasant City OH, Mt. Zion Lutheran Church - Pleasant City OH) and co-founder of "Potlucks to End World Hunger."

One aspect of hunger ministry that is sometimes overlooked is Disaster Response. We have seen close-up this fall with Hurricane Sandy, what many around the world see at various times: in times of disaster, the lingering affect once you have survived the disaster is hunger. The prophet states that God remembers those affected by disaster. Our response helps them overcome disaster’s lingering effects.

How thirsty have you been? Just imagine the joy one feels when they finally get a taste of water when they are parched. The National Youth Gathering took up the 100 Wells Challenge, so that people around the world could taste that joy. May we continue providing wells for people to have clean and accessible water.

We should always keep the hungry and thirsty in our thoughts and in our hearts. Continually pray for the hungry and thirsty. Continually pray for guidance on how we may respond to their situation. Continually give supplication and advocacy, adding our voices to their voices, so that others may hear their cries.

We continue hearing from John the Baptizer this week. The Baptizer calls us to a place of self-reflection. Our response to God’s gifts to us is to bear good fruit. One of the examples the Baptizer gives in bearing good fruit is; if we have food, we must share it with those who do not. Many source offer statistics that say there is enough food to feed the world. What we have is a distribution problem, what we have is a sharing problem.