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!

· The psalmist states biological fact: In the morning we wake with our brains reset – the possible function of sleep and dreams – and ready for what will face us. Unless otherwise predisposed, our default position is positive, joyful and willing.

· Reading Psalm 30 I got to thinking about all the people in the world who will go to sleep crying, some lacking the ability to shed tears. And then I thought about how many of them would be physically able to find “joy in the morning.” Not many, I worry.

· Two directions to go here: Thinking about how we can bring “joy in the morning” for these people AND how we can avoid the temptation to worry or despair about the state of the world.

· How DID your sermon hearers wake up this morning, in regard to the problems of hunger and injustice? Sorrowing or dancing? Wearing sackcloth or with flowers in their hair?

· What would it take for your congregation to bring joy in the morning to folks who are poor and live nearby? Faraway? What if you showed up some morning to give them joy?

· (I volunteer at a homeless shelter, and have the privilege of waking up “the working poor” who get up at about 4:30 AM to catch trains and ride their bikes to low-wage jobs. Sometimes I think of myself as one of the night-shift angels who help protect them, and sometimes I think of myself and the other volunteers as the bringers of morning joy. Even if it’s just a cup of coffee before breakfast and a respectful and hopeful morning conversation.)

· The writer of Psalm 30 – strange that it’s written for the dedication of the Temple building process, hmm? – recalls his vacillating between joy and sorrow, between death and life.

· One way to think of this matter is to think of joy as being embedded inside of mourning. While we sorrow, we also praise God. While we grieve the loss of loved ones, we joy in their release from suffering.

· God gets the economy of which David speaks in verses 8-10: What good does it do if God’s people are ground into the dust and dead? God gets this transaction very well, not because God needs our praise or our work but because God loves us dearly. Poor people as well.

· So where’s the joy in our mourning over the prevalence of hunger and injustice in parts of the world? Our grieving over the loss of life in Iraq, including not just soldiers but innocent non-combatants – where’s the joy embedded in that mourning? Where’s the economy of God (the plan and will of God) in these matters?

· Perhaps it’s in our reactions to the mourning, our dedicating our lives – the temples of God’s Spirit – anew. Our redoubling our efforts to praise and serve the God of life, not death. Perhaps even the building of real temples – institutions, programs, buildings, organizations – that fight sorrow, death, and destruction.

· Ready to do that? Ready to admit that your congregation already does that? Yep, the Hunger Program of this church – along with visible and invisible partners and our ecumenical counterparts – mourns along with poor people. But we’re also working together to find the joy in this mission, too, and to praise God for that opportunity to offer life to people.

· In the Second Reading, Paul offers a slightly different resume than in his other letters. Here Paul talks less about religious heritage and more about where he’s been.

· The great good Paul offers to the early church is that wealth of experience past the small-mindedness of some other church leaders, the ones who were provincial or parochial in their view of God’s will.

· And you? Your congregation? Who knows the world well, and who has seen God’s action in places other than the four walls of your church? How do you honor their wisdom, by accepting it or learning from it?

· What would it take for your congregation to know and love people in other parts of the world, past pity and past paternalism? How are you already doing this?

· No, this isn’t a commercial; it’s a testimonial just like Paul’s: I know much better God’s will for the world when I know much better the people whom God loves. I’ve met lots of them at the Global Mission event. I have lots to tell. Lots to learn.

· This Sunday might be thought of as an almost-sorrowful echo of Mother’s Day: A single parent losing the light of her life.

· Both Elijah and Jesus make short shrift of this grave condition: healing/resurrection is immediate. No messing around, no teaching, no mourning. Just quick action.

· Who’s bringing those kids back to life? You and your congregation are! Kids about to die of starvation, kids dehydrated down to nothing, kids hiding from marauding soldiers, kids who have no place to live and no one to take care of them – they’re given new life (or taken back from the brink of death) by the work of the ELCA Hunger Program.

· Offerings to the ELCA Hunger Appeal enable the ELCA and its international partners to install, operate and maintain programs that keep children from dying. Almost anywhere in the world you can name, including here in this country.

1. Find and tell stories of children being brought back to liveliness by the work of the Hunger Program. A program itself made lively by the example and words of Jesus. (You just received your Summer Hunger Packet, so should be able to find some stories in there, yes?) The Hunger Web Site is always helpful, too: www.elca.org/hunger.

2. For a few weeks in a row, read some children’s literature from Africa – yes, the library is the place to find these, or good bookstores. Not just fables, but stories that African’s might tell each other. The point: We can learn valuable lessons about life from people in other countries.

3. Talk about pajamas with kids. (Find and bring along some examples.) Look at the messages that you find on these pajamas, and think about how most of them are intended to bring joy in the morning. (You knew I was going there, right?) Now talk about other clothing that gives joy. And think together how the children and you might provide clothing for people who want to find joy. People who are homeless, people in other lands – No, please do NOT send actual clothing because it mildews and rots in shipping containers.

4. Try a “citizens of the world” exercise with the children and others who may be listening while you talk together. Show the children a globe and muse about how good it is that God loves the whole world. Then ask for a show of hands as you continue musing – the word for today – about who among the children or in the congregation might have lived in or visited various places in the world. Encourage children _- and adults, too – to find these world travelers and ask each other how and what they learned from the people they met in these places. Big Question: Did they meet Jesus in any of these people? Big Answer: I hope so.

1. The stories of the loss of sons – could have been daughters, too – in the First Reading and the Gospel calls to mind the daily/hourly loss of children to people who are poor. Consider these two texts from the viewpoint of the women who have lost their children to death. What are the short- and long-term consequences of these deaths? What about poor widows who have lost everything in today’s world? What’s it like for them? What can we do about this? How could we stop those deaths from happening in the first place?

2. Psalm 30 is really about someone who has escaped certain death. This is a thankful person, to be sure, but also a reflective person. How might the participants in this conversation quietly reflect on their own experiences of rescue from death? You might try role-playing each of the verses in this psalm from the viewpoint of a grandmother in Africa who children have all died of AIDS and who is now raising her grandchildren single-handedly. You might also spend a good share of the session together in specific prayers for women in the world who today will face this prospect – or perhaps this rescue.

3. I’m struck by Paul’s meticulous description of his life experiences in the Galatians text. (The description actually includes some of the verses following this lectionary.) How long did it take him, living in all these places and meeting all these people, to become Paul the Missionary? And why all the non-Jewish places? A correlated thought: How might the life experiences of conversants be accumulating at this moment toward some greater task, role or mission for their lives? Go ahead and ask the question – some folks may have been waiting for a long time to talk about that prospect.

As I write this, it’s a bright Spring day in Chicago. Hope surrounds me – I office among the Hunger Program folks – and I am excited about this day’s possibilities. As I exult, though, I am cognizant of my colleagues and other Christians half-way around the world who are at this moment wrestling with very real sorrows, mourning very real losses, wondering where they’re going to find joy, whether in the morning and any time. I pray for them now, confident that God is working through me, through you, through them. It’s good to have a God like this, isn’t it?

· A sorry fact: In any story about the causes of world poverty, we live inside the “rich man” in Nathan’s parable told to David.

· Like it or not – of course we don’t like it! – our economic and political decisions (for our “way of life”?) affect the economies of the world. Even our smallest decisions reverberate around the world until they eventually land at the feet of poor people just trying to stay alive.

· In the First Reading, David is brought up short by the fact that his lust – a sin not confined to sexual desire – might have affected another, poorer person so adversely. In his mind, he was taking what was rightly his, to give him what he rightly deserved: pleasure.

· Still, he understands “justice” in the abstract well enough that, when confronted by Nathan’s bony finger pointing in his face, he realized that “sin” is not merely a concept but actions (and inactions) that ripple through the circles of cause-and-effect.

· The First Reading portrays a prophet who seems to be on retainer for the king. Not a bad job for a prophet – some of them were like the scruffy wild men Elijah ran with and Saul danced with – but certainly not without its risks.

· In this case, without any invitation from the king, Nathan shows up with a story – ostensibly calling on the king’s great wisdom as a judge, jury and executioner of justice. Although “God sent him,” in our time we might more accurately say, “Nathan decided to do something about this injustice.”

· Strangely, Nathan’s truth-telling works. (Think about what sometimes happens to people who tell the hard truth to someone in power.)

· The whole forgiveness cycle—accusation, confession, penitence, seeking forgiveness, being granted forgiveness—takes place in this one incident. Prompted by a man who dared to tell the truth to someone in power.

· The advocacy ministries of this church body – and other like-minded partners – does the same thing: truth-telling in difficult circumstance.

· At its heart, our advocacy work is NOT “lobbying” but truth-telling as we have agreed among ourselves it should be spoken.

· Right now, that advocacy is primarily legislative, but the ELCA also engages staff and time in “corporate social responsibility” as well. Further down the road, perhaps, might be advocacy that helps all of us approach anyone – in any castle – who could benefit from hearing and seeing God’s bony-yet-loving finger pointed in their direction. Who could have the opportunity to confess and be forgiven.

· A sometimes overlooked reality: The women who followed Jesus may have been the primary financiers behind his ministry. “Followers” who were actually the leaders!

· These are not “ordinary” women in any way. Mary Magdalene – who is NOT the crying, perfume-spilling sinner of the previous story – is known by the city where she lived, this a sign of influence. Joanna is married to an official of King Herod’s court, which signals her power as well. In the CEV version of this text, these women “owned” thing – property, homes, fields, etc.

· The notable thing: That we may ignore the powerful place of women in the workings of Christ’s ministries today. Women who may have been victims of oppression or violence but now are leaders in their countries or church bodies or organizations. Women who do more than teach and nurse and care. Women of power, influence and wealth.

· Would this be a day to note and celebrate those ministries today – perhaps your local WELCA chapter – in a way that moves beyond mere thanks, towards naming the significance of what women do to obliterate hunger from the face of the Earth.

· The “sinful woman” – we can surmise the nature of her sinning – is probably repentant as well as grateful for forgiveness.

· From those attitudes comes her gracious and self-giving hospitality toward Jesus, more than a social obligation in Jesus’ time.

· She is almost profligate in her use of perfume to wash Jesus’ feet. Jesus is almost profligate in calling attention to the importance of her actions.

· Many of us have experienced the gracious and self-giving hospitality of people who are poor, as they share abundantly with visitors or guests from their meager stores of food, time, energy.

· We can learn from these actions, and perhaps be humbled by our own fears – of people who are poor, downtrodden, sick, or dying—into confessing inhospitality of any kind as a sin.

· In the ELCA Hunger Program, we strongly encourage face-to-face experiences with and among people who are poor, so that humility grows, so that we learn from others, so that we confess our culpability in systems that promulgate poverty. Sometimes this is called “accompaniment.”

· Go ahead and sing the song. And when you’re done, come back and check out all of today’s lessons for their thematic solidarity: Confession and forgiveness are necessary once we understand our abject sinfulness. Willful or otherwise, we are chiefly sinners. (Also saints, but that’s another sermon starter . . . . )

· What, in the whole field of hunger and injustice, can we rightly name as our own sin? What actions do we take that eventuate in the destruction of someone else’s life, livelihood or environment? What actions do we avoid, powerful actions that would ameliorate or obliterate the effects of poverty?

· How might the psalm for this day remind and comfort us, about the joys of confession and forgiveness in the matter of hunger?

· When all sins are counted and we end up holding most of them in embarrassed silence, we are rescued not by our own actions but by the actions of Jesus the Christ.

· We get to start over, redeemed and blessed and made holy by Christ’s sacrifice. Christ, who took on himself our pile of chief-sins, our own presumptions of being kings and queens of all we see.

1. With some preparation – and some Web access and some LCD projection – you can offer a child-friendly exploration of the Web site, www.globalrichlist.comI, which takes information about annual income and compares it to the income of all of the globe’s inhabitants. Children could watch as you plug into this interactive site various income levels, then watch the projected image change as they realize how many of the world’s people are much, much poorer than them. The point: To explain to children – and those participating with them – how rich they really are.

2. The Dr. Suess book, Yertle the Turtle deals with the question of a ruler/king/boss who considers himself beyond the realm of ordinary concerns or responsibilities, who thinks of himself/herself as “ruler of all I see.” Talk with the children about unbridled ego-mania – yes, use different words! – and its eventual end. David’s narcissism regarding Bathsheba was seen in other places in his life, and David’s repentance is well-considered as a necessary corrective for this kind of self-centeredness. Children may already know the story, and for sure they can understand what lesson Yertle learned from all of this!

3. Nathan’s story told to David certainly has some contemporary coordinates and analogues. How might you retell the story as though Nathan were talking to a ruler today, say one who stole money from widows and orphans and poor people to fuel his own ego, or a person who stole from his workers’ wages in order to live high off the hog. Perhaps you just pick up a newspaper and read the headlines? Talk with children about the story, and make sure that you indicate the possibilities for confession and forgiveness. Otherwise, the story is just about “them” and not about “me” and “us.”

The lessons all focus on sin, confession and forgiveness. This would be a good Sunday to focus hunger-related Bible conversations on the same matters. Here are some possibilities:

1. Pull out any story of horrific injustice or widespread hunger and poverty anywhere in the world. Dissect its possible causes – even if you all have to conjecture in some places – by asking questions like: Why did this occur in the first place? What keeps this injustice going, fueled, vibrant, ugly-alive? Who benefits from this evil continuing?

2. Spend time in Psalm 32, where the writer – David? – gets very personal about the benefits of confession and forgiveness. If you know each other well enough, make the discussion more personal. For example: How do you pray like this? What hunger-related distress in the world might cause you to pray this way? Who in the world wishes you would pray this way? Why? What happens after a prayer like this is prayed in a heartfelt way? How do you know?

3. In the Galatians passage there’s the sense of all of salvation being wrapped into just a few verses. Connect this passage with participants by asking:

5. Each of today’s texts invites this basic question -- this one always works with people who are honest with themselves and each other: “Where do you find yourself in this story/passage? Why?”

Some of us wallow in our disregard for people who are poor; others of us wallow in our sinfulness when it comes to poverty. All of us need to confess our sins, specifically and repeatedly. Without confession, our pleas for mercy are baseless. Without our humility, God has no reason to lift us. Without our emptying ourselves of pretense and arrogance, we remain committed to the idea that “helping poor people get food” is enough. And so it goes . . . .