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!

The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah previously warned of the coming exile. There was a thread of repentance in that message, but now that part of the population has been taken into captivity (the professional class) the tone has shifted. Jeremiah tells them to put down roots and prepare for the long haul. Interestingly, this new message seems quite applicable to our neighborhoods and contexts. The instruction to build houses and plant gardens is a message of taking root and becoming part of a community. As if to emphasize the point, the final verse in this passage gets to the key message: pray for and seek the welfare of the city, “for in its welfare you will find your welfare.” Even though our neighborhoods may not feel familiar, the prophet challenges us to see become intimately connected with our neighborhood. How would this change how the exiles view themselves and others? How does it change our view?