SCROLL DOWN FOR MAY 25 AND JUNE 1

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!

Sunday, May 25, 2008
Second Sunday after Pentecost

First Reading: Isaiah 49:8-16a
Psalm 131
Second Reading: I Cor. 4:1-5
Gospel: Matthew 6:24-34

Isaiah declares celebration as the exiles from all directions returning home:

· using “covenant”, God’s people are blessed in order to be a blessing

· prisoners are called to freedom, those in darkness called into the light

· barren lands and a scorching sun shall not keep the returning exiles from being fed

· our God acts like a compassionate mother and will NOT forget the children (How can we do any less?)

Psalm 131, a song of humility and quiet trust, gives rest and comfort when we become tired or discouraged in the work of ending hunger

I Cor 4 gives us a bit more of the attitude of the psalm:

· A great way to talk about stewardship and the call to being trustworthy

· A trustworthy steward relies on God for judging, for strength, for wisdom

Several verses from the Sermon on the Mount provide these opportunities:

· The choice of whom to serve: What choices do our checkbooks show we have made?

· The command not to worry: about all the superficial matters with which our consumer culture constantly bombards us.

· Solomon viewed as the great and prosperous king who provided affluence to a few by taking from the many (see Walter Brueggemann’s The Prophetic Imagination)

· “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and its righteousness”…by providing food for the hungry, hope to the desperate, freedom to the captive

The season of graduations, confirmations, and weddings is coming quickly, if it’s not already here for you. Might your Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America group consider giving a donation to ELCA World Hunger Appeal in honor of each high-school graduate, perhaps along with some memento from the program?

Pastor Ellen Arthur
Trinity Lutheran Church; Valley City, ND

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June 1, 2008
Third Sunday after Pentecost

Deuteronomy 11:18-21, 26-28

Romans 1:16-17; 3:22b-28

Matthew 7:21-29

· The narrow path means that we are to pay more than lip service to the teachings of Jesus.

· How does Jesus know us? By visiting those in prison, clothing the naked, feeding the hungry (Matt 25:40)

· The good news of Paul empowers us to do the difficult news in Matthew.

· This good news and difficult news are to be fixed in our hearts and minds. Tied together. Not separated. With us wherever we go. Taught to our children.

· How do we teach about the need of others to our children? How do we raise their awareness is meaningful ways so that their lives might be intimately connected with those in need?

· Having the gospel start in v 13 might be helpful for seeing this section as Jesus’ end to the Sermon on the Mount. It also gives a few more images (narrow/wide gate)

Lip Service v. Life Service

· Lip service assumes that someone will do the work

· Life service assumes that we are to do the work

· Lip service is calling out “Lord, Lord look at how much we’ve done”

· Life service is crying out “Lord, Lord, where do you need us to go?”

· Lip service keeps us to ourselves

· Life service opens us up to the world.

· Lip service ends as we leave the pew

· Life service begins as we enter the community

· Lip service avoids the pain and suffering in the world

· Life service seeks out the pain and suffering in the world

· Lip service finds alternatives to the cross
- Life service is Jesus on the cross

Pastor Ben Sheets
Associate Pastor, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church