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Welcome to Hunger Sermon Starters!
 
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!
 
August 19, 2007
Time after Pentecost – Lectionary 20
 
First Reading: Jeremiah 22:23-29
Psalm 82
Second Reading: Hebrews 11:29-12:2
Gospel: Luke 12:49-56
 
 
STARTER ONE: PREACHING THEMES
 
Buying your own brand of God
 
·         In Old Testament times, the gods of the nations surrounding Israel were essentially house gods writ large. For example, small statues of Baal in the fields – for good weather/good crops – were supplemented by larger representations housed indoors in magnificent edifices.
·         The effect and the intent were the same, though: A god you could please by virtue of your virtue. Offerings of any kind – some of them sexual, some material, some horrific – would perhaps please one or more of these gods towards your desired ends: more children, fertile fields, victory in battle, rain.
·         The god of Israel was different, though. This was not a god to be bought and sold, a god made to order, cut down to size, malleable as to purpose or behavior. “Whimsical” and “capricious” did not describe his preferred decision-making method. This no-name God was bound by covenant and other forms of loving promises
·         Fire-and-hammer forceful, this God could destroy for good cause – disobedience – as well bless for good cause – his love.
·         Because this god could not be bought and then housed as one’s private deity, Jeremiah’s somber thought – you can’t hide from God – was intended as somber warning for false prophets and those who paid attention to them.
·         In our time, false prophets abound and their presence in our lives is pervasive. They expound on electronic street corners, from pulpits, in conversations close at hand. They may even talk to us from our own mirrors. One of the falsities that they may expound: Don’t worry, be happy. A persistent non-truth: Prosperity will continue until morale improves. Another: You don’t have to pay for what you get. Still another: Poverty is not our fault. A capstone lie: God isn’t paying attention to you or the world.
·         Although we do NOT engage in hunger and poverty ministry for reasons that turn God into probing bogeyman, it is still important to recall that lies are exposed and punished, that we must exercise probity in our perceptions of truth, that we just can’t buy our own brand of God to please our own brand of living.
·         The good news in this: We are blessed by truth; we are forgiven in spite of our self-idolatries; we are known.
The judge has ruled
·         The verdict is in: You can be known (and punished?) by how you treat the poor and helpless.
·         If you live inside of an earthquake fault during an earthquake, you know the terror of this kind of dangerous darkness; Treating the poor poorly has consequences. (If you would like the location of some of my personal earthquake faults in California, please let me know here.)
·         This word of judgment is very clear, making this psalm as hard to swallow as the MDG’s of current fame. (MDG = Millennium Development Goals). However complex the particulars may seem, the core truth is pretty simple: God desires, commands and invites justice for all.
·         God also empowers us as basically selfish beings to transcend our fears and desires to consider the lives of others as worthy of our attention and emotions.
·         As for the heartless people who rob the poor at the same they ignore the poor: They are living between the moment the verdict is pronounced and the day the punishment is meted out. 
·         Good news: This judgment need not apply to those of us who have heeded both the implicit warning here as well as the implicit invitation: Love as Jesus loved. We have another choice of how to live.
 
Hello, Jesus!
·         Somewhere inside the cloud of witnesses that surrounds us – there’s some godly good news we can put in our emotional banks – we can find Jesus as lead runner (yes, the metaphor is mixed, but I didn’t write Hebrews . . . . ) for a race we’re running whether we like it or not.
·         Jesus the Divider, certainly – we can’t have it both ways, running along our own path or running alongside Jesus – but also Jesus the Motivator.
·         “See, I did this,” Jesus says. “Watch me run,” yells Jesus from over his shoulder. “Want to see how ‘faithful’ works?” queries this long-distance harrier.
·         And now we look around – inside or outside the clouds of history – and see a string of other runners. Leaders like Moses and quiet examples. Rich people and beat-up, worn-down people. Lessons from life, walking/runner poster people who exemplify what a Christ-like life can be like.
·         When it comes to hunger-and-justice, the cloud gets comforting – like a pillow? – when we consider that part of Jesus’ presence (then and now0 is to help us transcend the notion that we lead the pack, we decide the course of the race, we get to be the winners. Stripped of any notion of our athletic prowess and disabused of the possibility of flying through life in a daring solo flight, we show up on this morning ready to get at the tasks first begun by God millennia ago, and ministries most dear to Jesus’ own heart.
·         Hello, Jesus! Indeed . . . .
 
 
Discerning the times
·         One of the true gifts of being among God’s people – and a quiet blessing of this church body’s hunger program – is the continuing invitation and equipping for discernment about the true state of things.
·         We learn about ourselves internally – we are redeemed sinners still worthy of God’s mission. We internalize what we know externally – we live in a world heading toward its cliffs or toilets. Whether economically, spiritually, environmentally, politically --- we know the times in which we live.
·         But – here’s the good part – we don’t crawl down into the darkness of our earthquake faults (see earlier) to hide from evil, God or the call to justice. Somehow our discernment sidesteps despair and depression; somehow we’re still willing to beat back hunger (with dollars, prayers and, where necessary, “sticks” of many kinds). Somehow we’re still able to love others even though we can discern that they may not be able to love us. Somehow we assay the death-dealing realities inside of us and in the wider world and we defy them.
·         In Christ’s name and by his power, we confront the world of evil and evil people. We discern not only what time it is, but what time it will soon become. And with the time we have left, we get to work!
 
STARTER TWO: CHILDREN’STHOUGHTS AND ACTIVITIES
1.       Given the implied heroism of the Hebrews reading – especially the listing of kinds of unknown saints – this would be a good day to find and read heroic stories from the Hunger Appeal. For example: Missionaries who spend their whole lives in a single place; children who risk ridicule to take up a funding challenge; medical personnel who minister to seriously ill people even at considerable risk to themselves; indigenous churches who proclaim and live forgiveness even while being surrounded by their former torturers. Through your retelling, make the stories vivid and larger-than-life. Some of these saints are on a par with those of Hebrews 11. A variation: Listen to some members of the congregation tell their stories of courage and heroism – hopefully about social justice.
2.       Demonstrate the difficulty of trying to live the Christian life – a “running” – while being weighed down by stuff. Ask two children to race down and back the aisle. But before the race, give one of them some “gifts” – cool things like dolls or toys or a big wallet or something big and heavy and awkward. Most likely “the race” will be won by the child who travels light. Make obviously application of this true-life lesson (and Hebrews-inspired truth) towards the matter of living simply.
3.       Gather a bunch of pillows – or pillow-like things like beach balls and air mattresses – and surround children with them. As children lounge in these protective comforts -- just like the Children of Israel were protected by two kinds of clouds during their journey – talk to them about how good it feels to be surrounded and comforted. Think with children how it might feel to be on the receiving end of someone else’s love and care in a big way.  This happens, of course, because of their gifts to the ELCA World Hunger Appeal. But there is also care and love that comes back to comfort them, from the people who they surround. Perhaps we’re all comforted AND comforting pillows?
4.       Just to make the point – for children who haven’t experienced these phenomena and thus may lack experiential referents – use a sledge hammer or blowtorch to completely pulverize or melt an item that represents “evil.” And yes, consider all the possible ways you need to make sure that the demonstration is conducted within the bounds of safety!
 
 
STARTER THREE: BIBLE CONVERSATIONS
1.       With a newspaper or newsmagazine in hand – and with participants’ knowledge of the current local/national/international situation in mind – talk seriously about the idea that we will be judged by our response to the people who are poor. Avoid debating about nationalism or patriotism – these matters are important, but not the stuff of these texts – and prepare for an outpouring of emotion about our supposed righteousness or piety. One important question: Why would the leaders who first chose todays set of lessons consistently spotlighted this theme?
2.       Unpack the Hebrews text, especially noting how many of the unnamed individuals are poor, trampled, pushed-aside people. This gallery of faithful saints presents an astounding idea: Invisible people are notable examples for us. Who might participants name, from their own lives, as this kind of saint? Talk specifically and talk personally.
3.       “Shedding whatever keeps you from running” is another way to say “simplify your lifestyle” and/or “Become who you really want to be.” At first these two ideals may seem to be self-serving, but in fact they are not about individual “winning” but about service to others. A connected question: How does the cloud of witnesses in your own life – do they have names? – help you keep on running. (What a cool mixed metaphor: People running a race, even though they’re inside of a cloud! Perhaps this text was the impetus for the first “Bay-to-Breakers Race” in the San Francisco fog|?)
 
 
THE SENDOFF
An airport seat is my writing venue at this moment. The presence of other weary travels tempts my eye toward self-pity – I, too, am a weary traveler. But in the distance are clouds filled with the promise of rain, waiting to remind me that I, too, am surrounded and pillowed by the presence of saints all around me. It’s a privilege to be in this race, yes? And a privilege to have you as part of the cloud around me. Thanks for that!
 
Bob Sitze, Director
Hunger Education

__________________
 
Welcome to Hunger Sermon Starters!
 
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!
 
August 26, 2007
Time after Pentecost – Lectionary 21
 
First Reading: Isaiah 58:9b-14
Psalm 103:1-8
Second Reading: Hebrews 12:18-29
Gospel: Luke 13:10-17
 
 
STARTER ONE: PREACHING THEMES
 
Up close and personal
·         Today’s lessons might be helpful for the people you serve, as they move/mature from “taking an offering to help the hungry” toward deeper and longer-lasting responses to injustice, poverty, hunger and homelessness. You can find both Law and Gospel in the lessons, both joy and sorrow, both command and invitation.
·         What a joy to know that the matters of hunger-and-justice give us the opportunity to get close to those who are hungry and homeless. “Food” is not an abstract concept – neither is “hungry.” PEOPLE with names and faces starve for lack of food; PEOPLE with names and faces are hungry right now.
·         “Feeding hungry people” and “providing housing for people who are homeless” are tangible, observable activities that put people in touch with each other. Face-to-face ministries of presence, touch, conversation, brains that connect, relationships that last. 
·         Our denomination’s global mission folks call this “accompaniment.” This is the way they do mission in the world. So do many organizations that walk alongside people who are poor.
·         The psalmist reminds us how healing and protection are available to us as well as for those we claim to help.
·         A good example from the first lesson: Building houses and repairing cities. 
·         Yes, the Gulf Coast comes to mind – and most likely you can find and tell those good stories with great joy. But other examples might be equally close at hand: Your congregation’s participation in food cupboards or feeding programs; your work to establish and volunteer at homeless shelters; your tutoring programs; your presence at community meetings to change laws or protect people who are poor, your encounters with needy strangers who drop in at the church office.
·         The great joy and privilege in these examples is heard in the psalm and the first lesson: We understand that “they” are us; that “we” includes those who help and those who are helped; that God provides for us all; that we both give and receive kindness. Perhaps even that we meet Christ in the faces of those who are poor.
·         The primary benefit of face-to-face hunger/justice ministries is that come to know as unique, blessed individuals those among us who are poor. We remove “helping the poor” from forebrain—based “good idea” towards emotion- and relationship-rich “loving people who are poor.” We move from the arrogance of being helpers towards the humble solidarity of being among the helpless ones graced by God.
·         This church body’s hunger program includes opportunities for you to contribute funds for those who are directly in contact with people who are poor, certainly. But if you look at the program more carefully, you’ll also see wonderful ways in which you can participate directly in the lives of people who are poor and homeless. 
·         There’s great joy in this idea. (But then, you already knew that . . . .)
 
 
Shaken and removed
·         The Hebrews lesson is a tough one for sermon construction, but let’s try out a slightly weird take on its meaning/application: How to think about the collapse of the world, an environmental and spiritual matter.
·         Two time-honored locations are contrasted in this text: the dangerous Mount Sinai – a kind of gigantic bug-zapper place – and the New Jerusalem – a kind of large congregational picnic. Fear of punishment contrasted with the pleasures of casual conversation. The possibility of vengeful retribution contrasted with the hope of safety.
·         In the middle of the bug-zapper: An angry God. In the middle of the picnic: Jesus, strolling among the picnickers, laughing and patting people on the back. Touching with his presence, his eyes, his words.
·         Still, the picture is not complete if we forget that thunderstorms – the shaking, earthquaking rumbling roarings of nature’s awesome powers – are always possible. The picnic is never immune from those threats, even though there is more than reasonable assurance that this kingdom, this time together, will not be easily shaken or broken.
·         Where am I going with this? I think that we live in a time when our celebrations of God’s grace – our material blessings – take place inside of our gut-level feelings that “created things will someday be shaken and removed.” (Hebrews 12: 27 CEV) God’s gracious love for us surrounds us, now and into the future, but we also know that we live in fragile circumstances when it comes to matters such as drought, changing weather patterns, the availability of arable land, potable water, sustainable economic conditions.
·         And inside that sense of fragility – shared deeply by people around the world, especially among those who are poor – we find ourselves not quite sure whether to pay attention to the picnic or pay attention to the gathering clouds.
·         How much do we express gratitude for safety and deliverance – per the psalm today – and how much do we give voice to our worries about environmental degradation or collapse? How much do we relish the company of the angelic voices – including the people of God and Christ himself – and how much to we pay attention to those who warn about the collapse of this planet’s systems?
·         It’s a question that can shake any of us, removing us from our engagement with the world around us. We could retreat from this world’s realities, imagining ourselves into the glories of congregational life that resemble an eternal picnic. (Or at least a walk in the metaphorical park.)
·         In this church’s hunger program are places and people who can help with the questions and their answers. Wonderfully, those people include worldwide partners – especially people who are poor and prophetic – who can look us in the eye and tell us honestly how it is with them, with those they love, with the context in which we live. Some of them warn, and some of them reassure.
·         Can you make something of this? Thanks . . . .
 
Skirting silly/subtle rules
·         “Healing” – as metaphor or as physical reality– is part of the work of the hunger and justice work of this church body and its worldwide partners. On the one hand, “healing” is any good and godly work that brings any kind of health to minds and bodies; on the other hand, this word denotes direct/observable touch that results in a return to physical or mental wholeness.
·         This congregation’s members are healers, too. The daily ministries of this congregation’s members are a bona fide outreach of the congregation’s hunger-and-justice work. Not just doctors and nurses – an easy example – but also insurance workers, ambulance repairpersons, people who manufacture medical equipment or healing drugs, kids who write letters to legislators about health care. The people of God are healers in everyday situations.
·         In this lesson, Jesus skitters around the barriers of brittle religiosity – mostly about propriety and purity -- in at least four ways: 
  1. He interrupts his teaching at a synagogue (purposefully deflating his status as guest rabbi).
  2. He pays attention to and – gasp! – actually touches a woman in public.
  3. He violates the supposed purity of Sabbath laws – a kind of last vestige of Jewish spirituality that separates the men from the boys (and the women from the men).
  4. He openly mocks the Synagogue Guy, a breach of etiquette that flies in the face of the supposed hospitality of the synagogue’s manager/ruler/boss/trustee/elder/deacon.
·         There’s justice in this story because this woman was likely considered a sinner who was suffering the punishment for some unknown sin. Perhaps you can also look at how “skirting barriers” might be a helpful concept in getting justice accomplished.
·         While not all rules are silly, and while not all rule-skirting is admirable, there IS something to be said for the spirit of Jesus when he cuts to the heart of the matter and makes possible a healing that brings joy to the woman and the people who watched the miracle happen. In spite of the eventual consequences, Jesus does what needs to be done. And it works!
·         So how does that happen in your congregation, and how do you rejoice when that kind of healing-past-the-fences takes place? Directly, or through the ELCA World Hunger Appeal.
·         Or take the opposite tack: How does your congregation perhaps stand in the way of that kind of healing, directly or indirectly?
·         One note: Not all barriers are “silly rules.” Sometimes we might go around barriers and only then find out that they were put up to protect us from the washed-out road ahead. Someone who’s been there before us wanted to help us, not hinder our progress.
 
 
STARTER TWO: CHILDREN’STHOUGHTS AND ACTIVITIES
 
1.       Use BandAids (or their more generic cousins) to tickle children’s fancies about healing and being healed. Using a red marker, draw pretend “cuts” onto the wrists or hands of each child. Distribute BandAids, one per child, and ask them what they could do to take care of these wounds. As the children begin to bandage the pretend wounds, stop them with “regulations” you invent, such as:
 
Elicit children’s feelings about being prohibited from taking care of each other. You can stop the activity right here – and segue into observations about the Gospel lesson – or continue by encouraging children to find a way to bandage each other’s wounds right now, despite the restrictions of the rules. Thoughts about the text would follow.
 
2.       Another tack: To think together about – and thank God for – people around the world (especially those funded by the ELCA World Hunger Appeal) who try to be healers even when rules and regulations make that work difficult.
 
3.       Still another: Think together how all of us are both healed and healers. (In this case you would make sure that children bandage each other.)
 
4.       Use a couple of large paper bags and some articles of food – a piece of fruit, or a cup of water – to illustrate the idea that we might want to know something about the people we serve through a hunger program. Place large paper bags over the heads of several children – eye and mouth holes might be good ideas – and name them as “poor people we want to feed.” Offer these poor kids some food or something to drink. Ask the remainder of the children if they notice anything odd about what just happened. (We don’t know anything about these people who are poor because we can’t see their faces.) After a few moments, remove the bags and introduce yourself to the “poor kids” and ask them a few questions about themselves. Close the lesson with references to the First Lesson, and the examples of face-to-face work with the poor. If possible, talk about the ways in which your congregation meets people who are poor, as individuals with names and face, NOT covered by paper bags!
 
 
STARTER THREE: BIBLE CONVERSATIONS
 
1.       If you’re offering Bible-based study or conversation during the summer, today might be a good time to sit outside as you consider the matters I’ve proposed in examining the Hebrews text. As you talk together, seek both spiritual and intellectual honesty as you think about the idea of a “shaken creation” that peeks out of that text. The hunger connections are these:
 
2.       The idea of “rules” will bring good thinking and good sharing to these Bible conversations. Think through the Gospel lesson from Jesus’ point of view, using questions such as these:
 
3.       You could have some interesting conversation about the ideas of “knowing personally people who are poor” or “accompaniment”. But in eliciting thoughts are the ideas, also probe towards participants’ inner thoughts or identities regarding people who are poor. Try questions like these:
 
 
THE SENDOFF
 
The thematic threads that I pulled out of today’s lessons are ones I’ve considered – and lived – most of my adult life. Stuff I’m passionate about. Although I realize how easy it is to think everything is a nail when you have a hammer, I’m also aware how many of the intellectual concepts regarding hunger and justice are just labeled tools – never put to use by passionate people. I’m not apologizing for the ideas – or for my hammering – but encouraging you to consider and honor the value of your enduring passions for justice as you pound words into shape with your hammer. God keep you working . . . .
 
 
Bob Sitze, Director
Hunger Education