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!

· For fundamentalists – and, perhaps secretly, non-fundamentalists like us – the concept of godly retribution is high on our list of cause-and-effect logic about God’s mind. Bad people punished, good people rewarded. Kind people given kindness, mean people paid in reciprocating meanness. A logic not unknown to most of the world’s religions.

· It is not odd of God, though, to be forgiving of a family, a city, a nation or the world. Not because of the righteousness of a few good folks, but for their sake --- so that they can continue to be righteous people.

· If you hold in your mind the mental image of this world piling up sinfulness behind some about-to-break dam, or if you think of God only as a righteously angry ruler of the world, you might join with the sometimes secret thoughts of so many people – godly or not – in worrying about the moment when all the world’s evil pours over the dam and the world descends into economic or relational chaos. Anarchy, the rule of armaments, the tyranny of the few rich people who are protected from the flood – that sort of thing.

· If you understand God’s “for the sake of”, you understand that God might be holding back deserved punishment or natural consequences – how many forests do we chop down before we run out of air, hmmm? – precisely for the purpose of giving God’s people the time and the wherewithal to change the world.

· Perhaps God is the dam, perhaps God is the little boy with his finger in the dike, perhaps God is the night watchman, perhaps God is the protecting law officer. Perhaps God is the invisible protecting curtain. Why? To give you and the tens of millions of “good people” who constitute the church Jesus established the time and the reason to keep at this task of turning the world right-side-up again. Perhaps you’re the reason why the whole world is not collapsing. No pressure . . . .

· The ten good people of Sodom and Gomorrah did not materialize and so the natural disaster that followed wiped out these two examples of institutionalized evil. It may very well be that eventually some natural or unnatural disaster will materialize to wreak havoc on our civilization – some say it has begun already in global warming and in the spread of war over the past several years. It that case, we can only cry for mercy and ask for God’s protection.

· In the middle of another one of David’s songs, the plaintive please, “Don’t give up on us.” Rather odd for a song to be sung in church, but in other ways perfectly understandable.

· Think of it: We know God’s will for the world, at least in general terms, and we know of God’s loving rule of all that is. And yet we do what we want, sometimes ignoring commands and invitations like party-poopers ruining a perfectly good celebration.

· What we should expect – as we join with others around us in soiling this nest called Earth, in ignoring people who are poor but loved by God, in pretending to be generous with our gifts – is that this God would finally have enough of our failings and rebellions and just hammer us down like pegs in a child’s toy. Pounding us down flat, God would give to us what we deserve.

· God doesn’t give up, perhaps if only because we ask for God’s patience while we sort out this “doing God’s will” thing. We ask for God to teach us one more time —perhaps with poor people as our tutors – what God wants the world to be like. And we hope that God will understand our state of mind as slow learners.

· God’s steadfastness – sticking to the plan, keeping the promises, continuing the course, staying on message – is a definite gift. We mimic it, even though in small degrees, when we don’t give up on people who remain poor despite our generosity. We model Jesus’ love -- God’s own – when we don’t stop trying to eradicate HIV/AIDS, don’t stop teaching people to fish, don’t stop naming evil or danger --- or great opportunities – in the workings of government or the marketplace.

· Just as we are grateful for God’s sticking close to us in spite of our stubbornness or purposeful ignorance, so we can offer to the world our own stubborn refusal to give up, our own tenacious insistence about doing justice, our continuing friendship with people in difficult circumstance, our continuing willingness to ask poor people for forgiveness for our ways of living.

· The second of small aphorisms or reminders in today’s lectionary deals with gratitude, a fundamental starting point for our generosity regarding the problems of the world. “Donor fatigue” – good people eventually giving up – can happen if we forget to be grateful.

· The gratitude of which Paul speaks is NOT the kind that comes after a mission trip in which our youth group discovers the value of all their possessions and wealth and health and freedom from worry. Let’s be honest: THAT kind of gratitude – “I came back from (fill in the blank) really grateful for everything I have” -- is really nothing more than self-idolatry.

· Without gratitude, we are like little boys who answer their parents’ question about what to eat for supper with “I don’t like (fill in the blanks).” Without gratitude, we are immature brats whose expectations about self-fulfillment are non-sustainable and whose self-awareness never gets beyond that of chasing our unreasonable wishes or non-wishes.

· Paul suggests that grateful people are filled with thanks because that’s what God creates in us. It’s a part of the bigger picture of dying in Christ and being alive in Christ. We are dead, he says, to the stupid desires that keep us from being grateful (and therefore generous). We are dead to the proposition that we will live forever, that we are alive because of our own doing. We are dead to ideas like “It’s my money and I’ll do with it what I want” or “I think I’m pretty generous already, so don’t ask me for more of MY time or money.”

· Like the framework of a house set on a solid footing of rock or concrete, gratitude is grounded in a self-awareness suggested by Luther’s dying reminder, “We are beggars, after all.” Undeserving of anything except God’s retribution for our silly notions of self-godliness, we creep up to God with gratitude that anything we get is more than we deserve.

· Around the world, people who are poor can teach us this lesson. World travelers experience the gratitude of poor people in their hospitality to visitors. Stories of self-giving gratitude --
”We are so happy to have you as our guest” – are told over and over again, including tales of bountiful feasts being offered to visitors in spite of dire straits or limited food supplies.

· Jesus speaks about first century hospitality like it was a done deal. It might be interesting to think of what would happen in today’s culture if that same late-night visitor showed up at a security system-equipped starter castle. But I digress . . .

· Or do I? I think often of how “giving good gifts to our children” is the primary reason for existence for many parents who mistake “showering with gifts” for “showering with love.” Even a cursory analysis of family life in many middle-class enclaves would show parents thinking of themselves as essentially the gift-bearers for their children’s every need. Food of all kinds, toys and security at every turn, opportunities to become anything the little darlings desire, choices for lessons, clothes, friends. Perhaps thinking of that gift-giving as redemptive of their other shortcomings as parents, citizens, followers of Christ?

· Why twist this Gospel ever so slightly? Perhaps because our imagined capabilities to give our children good gifts has obscured from our minds the possibility of over-gifting those children to the point of obesity, early onset diabetes, narcissism and worse. In our “giving good gifts to our children,” we have honed our imagined responsibilities as parents to the point that we can’t see, at the edges of soccer fields and in the aisles of lesser-labeled clothing stores, those who actually can’t get much more than “snakes and scorpions” from their poverty-stricken parents.

· Perhaps, as bad as we are, we spend so much time with the development of our own children that we run out of attention, time and money for gifting the “visitors” in this semi-parable, the friends and strangers who appear in our lives at inopportune times, to ask us for a simple favors – justice, equal opportunity, a fair shake at jobs, our appreciation of their talents. Perhaps we have lost our ability to give when someone asks, to open doors when someone knocks, to help others search until they find what they need.

· The good news in all of this? God isn’t distracted by “good gift giving” to God’s children. God gets up in the middle of our nighttime neediness, God offers us the Spirit when we ask. The Spirit whose gifts help us do more than ply our children with gifts.

1. “Keep asking, keep searching, keep knocking.” Simulate those actions as though children in another land who are hungry or sick. Pretend to be both helper and the ones being helped. (For what needs do WE ask, search or knock?) How do we answer questions, help people find what they’re looking for and open doors? How do other people – including those who are poor – do the same for us?

2. Find a children’s story or fable about surprising or unrewarded hospitality and tell it as a complement for the Gospel story. Perhaps the story comes from Africa or Central America?

3. Construct or set up a “grateful tent” in the front of the nave. (A couple of step ladders and a large sheet might work well.) Invite children into the tent to talk about what they’re grateful for. Ask them to think about living life inside this tent – like some refugees in the world – and what they would be very thankful to have in the tent with them. Thank God together for people at Lutheran World Relief and Lutheran World Federation, who help give displaced people tents and the things they need inside those tents.

1. Take some time to talk honestly about how “I want to do the best for my children” becomes an excuse for ignoring the rest of the world’s needs. Not only the excessive amounts of toys and activities, but also the surfeit of food and the possibility of narcissism creeping into family dynamics. How can God’s people think differently about their possessions and their lifestyles, so that they can consider the needs of others? How do we keep “for the sake of the children” balanced so that ALL children across the world are wrapped up into that category?

2. Talk about the possible misunderstandings one might derive from the Gospel lesson for today. For example, the notion that our asking, searching or knocking is the cause for our receiving and having doors opened by God – this a sure evidence of works righteousness. Or think how we can misunderstand the obligation and privilege of hospitality, not only to family members but also to strangers.

3. The story of Abram’s negotiations with God is a kind of analog to the task of advocating for others. In the case of Sodom and Gomorrah, Abram’s speaking on behalf of the towns was really a way of protecting the few good people in them. How does the advocacy work of this church have to take into account the possible help that might be given to undeserving people who ride on the coattails of deserving people? (Some might name the pending Farm Bill as an example, and others might name the whole process of legislative amendments to important bills as another example.) How do “Don’t give up on us” or “And be grateful” apply to legislative advocacy?

I write from the table of a mountain cabin set in the Eastern Sierras of California. This past Saturday I dug the county cemetery grave into which my father’s ashes were placed, and I participated in a service of committal for that task. On this evening I am once again mindful of my own death and also the incredible blessings of the natural world around me. A good position from which to pray gratefully for God’s mercy. And for you . . . .

· Whether cynic, prophet or accurate observer of the human condition, “The Preacher” asks about the vanities of life and wonders whether anything makes sense.

· The question is front-and-center for a lot of folks, especially those who are rich by any standards except their own. (Poor folks know that getting enough food, shelter, water, and safety make eminent sense, so rarely ask the “meaning of life” questions we wonder about.)

· Strangely, the word “vanity” describes both self-aggrandizing attitudes and behaviors AS WELL AS the idea of futility and purposeless existence.

· They (and we) try to understand what’s going on, but in our present way of thinking we’re perhaps blinded to the reality that our lifestyles are basically empty and dry.

· Like the weather plaguing the Western U.S. and other parts of the drought-stricken world, our lives may very well be hot and dry, beset by the winds of change – breezes that are not cooling or comforting.

· How can we learn from people who are poor, not just about philosophies of economic well-being, but also about deep matters such as sufficiency, gratitude, generosity?

· The Hunger Program of this church body takes seriously the matters of simple living, and so produces resources and programs for people who want to take stock of their own wind-chasing and turn their lives into something important. (See “RESOURCES” under the Web address, www.elca.org/hunger for some examples. Especially important: The new journal/book, Sustaining Simplicity: A Journal, with its connected Web site.)

· Paul understood the “meaninglessness of life” question. Trained in both Hebraic spirituality and Greek thought, this Pharisee and secular man understood the moods of his day, especially among those who were well-off.

· The startling truth he proposes: Christ Jesus gives meaning to life. (That claim is harder to propose for other faith families, because the central figure is sometimes so demanding, so insistent on righteousness, or so unforgiving of presumed disobedience that “god” is just another word for “problem” or “danger.”

· Mostly “meaning” is about giving away your life for the sake of others. True altruism. (Not “kin altruism,” in which beneficent behavior is engaged with the presumption of reciprocal kindness.)

· What gives meaning – and joy and satisfaction and self-fulfillment – is following the example of Jesus, as well as following the tenets captured by his teaching. Hiding inside Christ’s life and person. Side-stepping the idolatry of greediness. Giving up old habits for the sake of new ones, patterns of behavior that actually work over the long haul.

· And what is “meaning?” For me, it’s knowing that one’s life has achieved a purpose greater than keeping one’s own brain bathed in nutrients and free of danger. It’s knowing that the goodness of God doesn’t stop with me, with my life, with my self-fulfillment.

· I talk about this way too much in these sermon starters, but it’s a key piece of my own witness: You get life by giving it away; you find meaning by helping others find it; you find joy in others’ joys.

· Let me say this again: We don’t engage in these Christ-like behaviors as though they cause good to return to us. That’s just a different form of selfishness.

· Instead, we give generously – of attention, time or money – to the hunger work of this church because that’s what Jesus would do. Instead, we measure our lives by Christ’s example. Instead, we see others’ wellbeing as important results of our own wellbeing. We see our blessings as cause and source for becoming blessing to others.

· The guy in the story makes for a good case study in basic lifestyle stupidity. Both a literal story and one whose meaning is deeper and wider than just “bigger barns.”

· Here are some facts – from a book I’m still writing – about that concept: According to the National Association of Home Builders, homes built in 2006 were, on average, 40% bigger than homes built 30 years ago. Another: The Self-Storage Association reported in 2006 that its estimate of the number of self-storage facilities scattered across the country is at least 55,000, double the number of facilities ten years earlier.

· Still another: The amount by which Americans’ total spending in 2005 exceeded their earnings: $41,600.000,000. (U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, as reported in “Harper’s Index, Harper’s Magazine, April 2006.)

· Yet another: According the findings of the World Health Organization (WHO), as of September 2006 there are more overweight people in the world – one billion – than there are undernourished people – about 600 million.

· This man, poor in the sight of God, misses seeing what others certainly know about him: He’s hoarding for a possibility that may never occur, and forgetting a probability – his own death – that will certainly occur.

· What, then, are the solutions and the ways of thinking that combat this way of non-thinking? Simplicity, in all its joyful forms, is a direction to head (before it’s too late?) and a way of thinking that works over time.

· Again, Christ is the example. Otherwise, we become the case studies in basic lifestyle stupidity for the generations that follow us. And what stories will they tell about our mindless pursuit of vanity?

· Good News: We don’t have to be stupid, greedy or case studies. Christ’s example and teaching gives us a choice beyond addictive accumulation. We can be free of the base attitudes and practices that capture us as surely as a credit card statement.

1. Although this might backfire – some kids are already acculturated to be materialistic – try a little cultural critique on the theme, “Does this make sense, really?” Bring in ads (for toys or snack foods or any product that advertisers want to offer to kids) and lead kids through a critique of the promises and premises of the ad. E.g., “Do toys make you more popular, really?” Does eating a certain kind of food really make you happy?” Be careful, because some kids may expose their own presumptions about lifestyle and perhaps embarrass the adults sitting in the pews!

2. One vanity or foolishness suggested by the psalm is the idea of “safe place”. Or more accurately, a walled fortress that protects against all danger, real or imagined. Use a puppet and several sets of cardboard blocks (or cardboard boxes) to construct a “fortress” or safe place for the puppet. Make it big and bold, and practice the process so that eventually the safe place – a form of bigger barn? – eventually falls and hurts the hapless puppet. The lesson: We encounter the world around us, not retreating inside our fearsome needs for imagined safety. Another lesson: It’s safe outside fortresses, too, when we come to know the people who we might have otherwise thought were dangerous. (Yep, I’m aware of the fine line here . . .)

1. An honest and heartfelt conversation might be good for all participants, around this question: What are you leaving for whom? (Or “What’s your real legacy?”) How’s that connect to the idea of saving or investing? What can you learn from the guy who builds barns?

2. Another question for an increasing number of your members, perhaps: What’s “retirement” all about, anyway?” (Perhaps you can talk together about “refirement” as an alternative concept? How’s this connect with what The Preacher is talking about?

3. Because fear of death has been identified as a primary factor in materialistic behaviors, talk together about participants’ attitudes about their own deaths. How does Christ give meaning when fear of death is all around us?

4. Take a peek at the section of Colossians that follows today’s lectionary, and talk about “the new person in Christ.” How’s that feel? What kind of meaningful life is embedded in this description?

5. What’s “work” all about, and “hard work”? Does it or does it not “kill someone?” What would The Preacher have to say if he were part of your conversation group? How does “hard work” help or destroy our becoming the new person in Christ?

Thunderstorms echo across the nighttime sky here in Illinois. Not the dry, fire-starter lightning of the Western US on this night, but life-giving reenergizing of soil through rain and lightning itself. I’m awed by God’s power on this night, thinking of firefighters in ten tinder-dry states, and grateful for what this kind of weather signals for my life. And ready for the gift of sleep. (But not while you’re preaching, friend . . . .)