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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!

September 2, 2007

Time after Pentecost – Lectionary 22

First Reading: Proverbs 25:6-7

Psalm 112

Second Reading: Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16

Gospel: Luke 14:1, 7-14

STARTER ONE: PREACHING THEMES

Never getting what we really want

· Buried in today’s texts are some little reminders that, despite the relaxation of summer vacation, the calm of time away and the ease of life that summer so readily symbolizes, many people are not satisfied with what they have, what they do and who they are.

· In one text, it’s favor of the Popular Kids that we want; in another text, just a good seat at the ballgame, in full view of the cameras. Hidden in Hebrews are other hints that people around us – us, too? – are just at all satisfied with our lives.

· It’s easy to understand: stock market jitters and palpitating; housing market in the toilet, a never-ending war and growing dislike of our country, environmental woes piling up like recalled toys at the loading dock of a Chinese factory.

· Summer is over – we wanted it to keep promising an idyllic life – and now we face the music, and the homework and the messy relationships at work and runny noses and dripping faucets of ordinary life.

· Perhaps the easiest way around the problem is to change what we want, hmm? To bring our hopes and yearnings into line with God’s mission for the world – see below – and Christ’s example. To stop paying attention to the people and culture around us that wants us to stay dissatisfied – unfilled people are perhaps more easily persuaded to buy more things, yes? To recommit ourselves to being like Christ.

· Sidebar: We are not gaining anything in the big picture when we export our Western notions of “the good life” into developing parts of the world. Do the math: Every Chinese family can’t drive two cars and live in starter castles. Every African can’t own a cell phone Every child in the cities of this country can’t have new Nikes every sports season. (Every congregation can’t grow exponentially, either.)

· So let’s name the lie and the vanity. Let’s confess our chasing after the lies of summertime living. Let’s reframe our notions of how we should live. Let’s read the next theme to see if it’s any different than this one . . . .

Textbook in Christian identity

· In tandem, today’s lessons could easily suggest a way to reshape – I know, I know: we all say “transform” these days – your basic identity.

· Maybe this is a good time to think about what it really means to be “the church in the world,” starting with the lives of individual believers and moving up through the levels of aggregation to your congregation as a collection of saints.

· Start of “program year,” end of summer. Back to school. Committees coming out from hibernation, people thinking again about what it will take to keep this group of saints functioning well. A good time to think seriously about identity

· What if your congregation’s identity was wrapped up in the specific behaviors described in Hebrews, in the psalm and in the Gospel? What would that look like?

· And what if the lives of the congregation’s members were also wrapped in the brown kraft paper of humble service to people around them? What would that look like?

· Note that the behaviors here are quite specific and tangible. One-on-one visits to prisoners, inviting poor people to dinner, stopping the silliness of trying to outsize or outperform the neighboring congregations.

· There’s good news in having an identity. Not the quilted spread of required tasks in your constitution or your mission and visions statements – that sometimes feels like too much work.

· No, we’re talking about a singular identity – much like Christ’s – that reaches in visible ways to be helpful and respectful of people who are poor.

· How would you “transform” yourselves with today’s lessons in mind? What would you give away or stop doing? What would you start doing?

· Here’s a thought – not for the sermon, thank you – that comes from some quarters of generational theory: Young adults might more readily become part of your fellowship if your purposes (and identity) were more aligned in the direction of these texts than in some of the other, more institutionally oriented directions. An outward-turning congregation, say the theorists, is likely to attract a broad swath of young adults who in these turbulent times are seeking purpose and meaning that puts them in the company of others who are changing the world. Like Christ.

What’s next?

1. Here’s another thought, perhaps for the sermon: After we’ve taken the offering for “the poor people,” what next? After we’ve filled a gazillion plastic baggies with rice and spices, what’s next? After we’ve prayed vague or general prayers about “God blessing the people who have no food,” what’s next?

2. Today’s texts don’t condemn those activities, but they all answer “What’s next?” within the same general pattern: Face-to-face, down-and-dirty, sleeves-rolled-up ministry among people who are poor.

3. Granted, there were back then no societal mechanisms for the kind of large-scale work we can do together as denomination or congregations, so the only choice for social ministry in biblical times was either face-to-face or doing the alms thing.

4. Think, though, whether this might not be a good time to challenge your congregation to take up the deep and necessary actions of individual contact with people who are poor, in behaviors and tasks suggested strongly by today’s texts. There’s good news in whatever answer you find to the question, “What’s next?”

STARTER TWO: CHILDREN’STHOUGHTS AND ACTIVITIES

1. Two story games applied to hunger. Both invite children’s imaginations to probe causes and effects of the actions they or you might take to combat hunger or injustice through congregational programs. Here’s how they could work: Choose either of these two phrases/questions: “And then?” or “So then?” Start telling a story about good things that your congregation is doing to help poor people. On cue, the children chorus one of those phrases, and you continue the story to answer the question. Pretty soon one or more of the smarter children will insert one of the two story-shaper phrases at a time of their choosing, not yours, and then the story will get interesting. The point: What you do together as a congregation has consequences, effects, next steps, deeper meaning. The two phrases elicit that kind of discernment about the good things that happen in your congregation’s hunger ministry.

2. Back to school time suggests a good kickoff for a program of assembling School or Health Kits for Lutheran World Relief use. Visit www.lwr.org/parish/schoolkit/asp or www.lwr.org/parish/healthkit/asp for more information. Today might be a good time to talk about the value of education in the lives of people around the world, and the ways in which it helps to eliminate or mitigate extreme poverty. Again, the Web sites www.lwr.org or www.lutheranworld.org will have specific stories for your use.

STARTER THREE: BIBLE CONVERSATIONS

1. Take the Hebrews text to heart today, and spend time together with other participants imagining how they could engage, here and now, in any of the activities in this text. What would it take to start doing that? Who would lead and who would follow? What are the assets you already have to begin doing these things?

2. Take apart the story of Jesus in the home of the important Pharisee, but from the viewpoint of the social and sociological dimensions of this situation. Think who Jesus is talking to, and what he is telling them. (This material is doubtlessly more than parable, and probably directed straight at the Pharisee and those like him.) Who is watching Jesus and why? (Be careful: Not just his enemies were watching – and learning.) What might Jesus be saying to poor people about rich people? And what does the Greek literally say in verse 10b, “Friend, come up a little higher.” For the clincher, transfer this incident into today’s setting. Where would Jesus be and what would he be saying to whom? And for what reason did Jesus say and do any of this, hmmm? (Hint: This story could be about much more than humility in a crowd of important people.)

3. Read the psalm with today’s newspaper in mind. (Okay, okay, the “lending” thing jumps out quickly, but what else?) Where are there, in today’s news stories, evidences that the Psalmist’s message needs heeding this day as well as tomorrow? How do you know?

THE SENDOFF

Show me your ID. By that directive – and my willing compliance – I establish my place in a society that wants to authenticate my validity as a citizen or participant in the economy or a capable driver of automobiles. I’m compelled by an identity that I can’t shake – even at my advanced age – and it has to do with shaking up the world, in however small ways I’m given. Whatever the size of my earthquake, I wish its trembling, earthen dance on your soul as well. The more of us doing this kind of work, the better . . . .

God keep you joyful.

Bob Sitze, Director

Hunger Education

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Welcome to Hunger Sermon Starters!

September 9, 2007

Time after Pentecost – Lectionary 23

First Reading: Deuteronomy 30:15-20

Psalm 1

Second Reading: Philemon 1-21

Gospel: Luke 14:25-33

STARTER ONE: PREACHING THEMES

A good labor: Choosing life

· Quoth Moses at the end of his life: Life comes from God alone; we don’t make ourselves.

· The obvious choice in the First Reading is to choose life. Nice slogan – many church programs and posters and spiffy albums use this memorable phrase.

· But what constitutes the chosen life in this text? Obeying the precepts that our covenanting God lays out. Obedience to God alone.

· No other gods, including one’s self.

· One of the precepts: You aren’t God, nor can you make your own gods.

· Another: Love your neighbor as yourself.

· You can make the hunger connections from there, yes?

· BTW, the text can easily morph into works righteousness, as though by our obedience – “See how we love people who are poor?” – we somehow save ourselves. That’s not the way it works with God’s working.

· Another way to see this: The ways of idolatry – including self-idolatry – lead to death and destruction.

A good Labor Day?

· How does it feel to get “back to work” after a summer that might have more leisurely?

· In Psalm 1, the wicked do their work and they get a bad rap. Deservedly.

· The righteous do their work and they get a good deal here. Undeservedly.

· What makes evil people stand out: taking bad advice from other evil people and sneering at God.

· What does it mean to “sneer at God?” Can this happen quietly, like overlooking the people God loves, the people God has saved? Could it be poking God in the ribs and taunting God into retaliating?

· Could “sneering” be taking God for granted, or God’s invitation or advice-through-righteous people?

· Could “sneering at God” be the same as NOT getting God’s work done, as in “I have other stuff to do first, MY work and MY priorities.”

· Could “sneering at God” be ignoring God’s pretty-clear commands and promises and laws and invitations like God was Old Uncle Ned Who Drools?

· What work made this Labor Day a good one? Maybe it was the work you do, alongside those who are poor, to change the world’s work to godly work.

· Maybe your participation in ELCA World Hunger is a good work to recall.

Redefining relationships

· Onesimus – “useful guy” in the Greek? – is a slave, property of Philemon. Fairly straightforward relationship. Superior/inferior; owner/owned; powerful/powerless.

· Paul intervenes in this relationship with some zinger-words: Love, friend, dear, friend, kindness, son. The point is obvious: When Christ fills relationships, old words go out the window.

· So what do we do with “illegal alien”, “needy, “them”, “the poor” or “my starving children”? Demeaning words that keep up the old relationships, even while claiming love and care for people who are poor. The power equations stay the same, even though we may claim great pity or concern.

· Paul appeals for something more radical: An emergent equality between Onesimus and Philemon. “Your slave is now your brother,” Paul seems to say. Almost like “That person who is poor is now your teacher” or “the person who you are helping wants to help you.” Or even, “The people who you think you have power over are ready to share power with you.”

· This Sunday follows the day when “labor” of all kinds was recognized. Not just “work” but also organized labor, people banded together to exercise power in the face of previous powerlessness. Miners aggrieved by lack of mine safety, “the working poor” trying to make it on wages that are not livable, ordinary people being ground down by their supposed superiors, women and young workers having hope sucked out of them by disappearing benefits, stagnant wages, phantom pension funds or unhealthy working conditions.

· Labor Day wasn’t a religious holiday – justice doesn’t wait for one day a year.

· Neither do the joys of new relationships born by the Spirit’s blessings.

· You don’t have to look too far behind the curtains of ELCA World Hunger to see this church pounding quietly at these radical redefinitions. In some places, “accompaniment” theology and practice are the onstage actors; in other places, development workers in villages where those who receive aid are involved in the decisions about it use.

· This church’s program of hunger work is useful, an Onesimus kind of thing. . . .

Give it all away

· A squirmy text, the “Gospel” for today. (Where’s the “good” in this “good news”, hmmm?

· Give it all away, love Jesus more than family, keep counting the costs for this kind of lifestyle – not anywhere close to “good” in most of our minds.

· And yet . . . .

· And yet there is something good about just giving up on the notions of piling stuff higher and higher, running faster and faster, trying to keep up with tower building and army recruiting.

· And yet, don’t you ever get tired of counting the costs for things in life that aren’t really all that important – a tower, for goodness sake! – or going to battle with too few soldiers and no exit strategy.

· No, not the national tiredness. Yours, the people you serve. Is it not possible that “giving away everything” is an ultimate kind of good news. Like nuns and priests and simple living folks, missionaries and relief and development workers, Young Adults in Global Mission, Lutheran Volunteer Corps folks --- any of us could find certain joy in just chucking all the frenetic presumptions about “the good life” and trying this “following Jesus” at its most basic level.

· This is not just metaphor, this way of thinking. Google “new monastics” and see the kind of young folks who are trying to figure out to take this passage literally, and right into their ways of living.

· The fall program of your congregation – whatever that might mean – is starting up, and you’re probably looking at the frenzied questions every church leaders faces right now. But what if you gave this all up, too? What would your congregation look like? What would you do together? Who would benefit? And how good would that be?

STARTER TWO: CHILDREN’STHOUGHTS AND ACTIVITIES

1. Look through hunger-related stories – try www.lwr.org or www.lutheranworld.org or www.elca.org/hunger -- to find the places where tree-planting or water-related projects are cited. Retell one of these stories from the viewpoint of a child who benefits from the project.

2. This past Monday was Labor Day. Talk with children about their understanding of “work” with some starter question like:

Why do people work?
What’s “good work”? What’s not?
What kind of work do you like to do?
What would happen if your parents didn’t work?

You can move from the quick, preliminary discussion toward items such as:

The work that relief and development workers are engaged in, at this moment, in tough places around the world;
Taking apart the adage, “Teach a man to fish, etc.” (These days this maxim goes toward, “Give the man the pond and his descendants will fish for their lifetimes, too!”)
Being grateful for parents who have work, who like their work and who are good at their work.
Thinking of the work we do together in this congregation to help people who are poor.

3. Think with children about what would happen if they gave away everything they had. What would that feel like and what would happen next? Be careful NOT to pre-determine how the answers should be capped or finished by your comments.

STARTER THREE: BIBLE CONVERSATIONS

1. Take apart the “Choose life” text from a deeper-than-slogan viewpoint. Think together about matters such as these:

How much life-choice do people who are poor really have?
The choice Moses throws out here is not an individual one! It’s directed at a whole nation. How does our nation choose (or not choose) life?
What kind of life comes to people from the money you contribute to the ELCA World Hunger Appeal? (Lots of good leveraging here, where $1.00 buys more than food in many places!)

2. Although formal slavery does not exist in civilized countries today, virtual slavery remains. The Philemon text – with all its historical baggage – is relevant to millions of people who are poor at this very moment. Talk together with participants about matters such as:

Who are the virtual slaves in today’s economic universes? (Think about child labor, forced labor, people with no choices about where and how to work, folks mortgaged to the hilt or buried in credit card debt.
What would it take for any of us to stop thinking of the people who receive our care – in the ELCA world hunger efforts – as merely needy recipients? How could we think of them as equals, or even greatly gifted? How would we behave if we truly practiced that belief?
What gets in the way of power shifts – big or little picture – that might benefit people who are ground into the dust by poverty?
What’s “accompaniment” and how could it be helpful in this discussion? (HINT: Visit the ELCA Global Mission Website and play around with buttons until you get some material on this subject.)

THE SENDOFF

Today’s themes come out of my personal experience with these matters in today’s texts, Jacob-with-the-angel wrestlings that have preceded career changes, moved me from one place to another, stood up as lifework markers. Nothing in today’s texts is theoretical for me at this moment of writing, because of floods and fires and a continuing war and my turning over another calendar page to celebrate my natal feast day. That’s the way it is with sermon preparation, right? Wrestlings and sweatings and thrashing about in the night time. A blessed task, this sermon-writing, and not one iota of it is “theoretical.” Enjoy your wrestling and sweating. I’ll be cleaning out the muck from my basement and pulling downed trees from my yard. And thinking of you, of course . . . .

Bob Sitze, Director

Hunger Education