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!

Previously, the prophet has foretold of the coming destruction, and emphasized that will be known by the whole people of Israel. The prophet’s style has been to use illustrations meant for a certain group of people rather than focusing on the totality of destruction. The specific indictments have been directed toward those who have actively oppressed and cheated the poor, but this one is addressed to those who have done no intentional wrongdoing. The prophet finds fault with their economic choices, but the deeper question is whether their lifestyle has been the result of a misplaced trust and identity, whereby they are no longer able to grieve over the ruin of Joseph (v.6). Is the prophet using this illustration to communicate the completeness of the coming destruction? Or illustrating the behavior of yet another population that has turned away from God?

The prophet has already indicated that economic life matters. It probably would not have occurred to the prophet that faith life would be considered separately from economic life. The prophet envisions people who have done well enough economically that they are in a position of comfort or affluence, and this has changed their devotion and attention. The prophet illustrates that getting to make these decisions, like which ivory bed to purchase, come at more than an economic cost. As a result, those who have chosen a life of comfort and ease, fitting the picture Amos portrays, are unable to hope along with the prophet that justice rolls down like waters and righteousness as an ever-flowing stream (5:24).

This passage in Timothy draws similarities to the reading in Amos. While Amos relies more on the power of prophetic imagery, the exhortation here is more direct and pastoral as it warns against the temptation of wealth. The instruction equates the love of money with wandering away from the faith. The connection between trust and motion is an interesting one. Implicit is the idea that placing our trust in something (God, money, a person) does not just leave us idle or stationary. It is not something that we can just think about or meditate on and find satisfaction. Instead trust takes us somewhere. Money is singled out here, but trust placed in anything other than God distorts our view of both faith and neighbor.

Luke does not have kind words for rich men in his parables (see Luke 16:1-12; and Luke 19:11-27). While Jesus does not say outright that their desire for wealth has clouded their judgment, we get a sense that this common characteristic has allowed their decisions to lead to troubling consequences. The story presents the most dramatic consequence of the three parables, with a glimpse at where the roads lead after death. In this parable Abraham is chosen as the spokesperson for the faithful and the message is clear, if not serious—there is enough here to make a decision about where to place our trust. We have been given enough, through scriptures and tradition, to be able to communicate how our trust in God is expressed in this life.