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SCROLL DOWN FOR AUGUST 23 AND AUGUST 30, 2009
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 23, 2009 (Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost)
Complementary Series
Joshua 24:1-2a, 14-18
The passages from Joshua and Ephesians take on new meaning when read in light of the work of Walter Wink. In his Powers trilogy (see Naming the Powers [1984], Unmasking the Powers [1986], and especially Engaging the Powers [1992]), Wink offers a helpful interpretive lens for the principalities and powers language used throughout the New Testament (but applicable to the Bible as a whole). Wink reads the principalities and powers as the systems and structures within which we operate and assume to be normative. In the Joshua passage, the gods we serve can be seen as the things we value most highly. Often in the
Psalm 34:15-22 (15)
This week’s psalm reminds us of God’s values. God watches over the righteous, which in biblical parlance refers to those who live in right relationships with God and with others. Verse 18 tells us “The Lord is near the broken hearted, and saves the crushed in spirit.” What would God’s work with our hands look like in this context?
Ephesians 6:10-20
The same lens used above in the Joshua passage can easily be applied to this passage in Ephesians. In fact, the two may be read in light of each other quite naturally. The Ephesians passage is a bit more militant (perhaps to the consternation of those, who like me, have more pacifist tendencies). The passage reminds us that when the systems and structures of the world inhibit human flourishing they must be countered aggressively. We can make personal choices that challenge the prevailing worldview. We can educate ourselves about the issues in the world that call the Church to action. We can advocate with and on behalf of those who are poor and marginalized. We can continue to pray that God’s kingdom come (while we continue to seek out ways to do God’s work with our hands.
John 6:56-69
This passage celebrates the abundance we find at the Lord’s Table. Our shared fellowship and the life we share at the table remind us that we live out of plenty not scarcity. It is a call to share that abundance, to live in God’s economy.
Jesus is the bread of life. Is Jesus saying that hungry people don’t really need food? Surely not! This is the same Jesus who taught us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” It’s the same Jesus who taught that the two greatest commandments are to love God and to love one another. From a world where hunger exists alongside plenty, Jesus promises to lead us into a different reality. On our way to that reality, we can (and must!) take an aggressive stance against hunger. We can (and must!) act against the spread of deadly diseases and senseless deaths from lack of health care or clean water. We can (and must!) give every child the opportunity to go to school. We can (and must!) care for creation and do what we can to address climate change. Jesus teaches us that God cares about the very real needs of people… people who are hungry, thirsty, sick, in prison. Jesus teaches us how to live. Jesus is the bread of life!
We’ve explored this passage for four weeks now and at the end of it we are told that many turned back on account of Jesus’ teachings. How will you respond to Jesus’ call?
More food for thought:
· Jesus’ “bread of life” teachings follow the feeding of the 5,000. In Jesus’ time, it was common for local authorities to try to buy the support of the population by supplying them with bread.
· God isn’t like the earthly kings and rulers. How often do you hear people refer to their wealth as a “blessing from God?” What does that imply about God’s relationship with people who are impoverished? All of creation is a gift from God, but is it right to claim that God has chosen some to be rich and some to be poor? In the scriptures, who does Jesus name as “blessed?”
· Jesus says that the bread of God gives life to the world. Jesus is the bread of God, the bread of life. Following Jesus is very different from following an earthly ruler. Following Jesus is countercultural, sometimes counterintuitive—depending on your perspective. But the bread that we receive as a follower of Jesus never runs out—it will strengthen us forever.
David Creech
Director of Hunger Education, ELCA World Hunger
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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!
Complementary Series
Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9
In this short passage, Moses reminds
The early Christians were notorious for their care for orphans and widows, numerous ancient authors commented on their care for those who were poor and marginalized. In this way they lived out the vision of Deuteronomy—their care for vulnerable people was a witness to their God. How might we reclaim that identity today?
Psalm 15 (1)
Psalm 15 in many ways reiterates some of the “minor” commands noted above—it encourages us to do what is right, to be on the side of those who are marginalized and vulnerable. People who live life this way “may abide in [God’s] tent” and “dwell on [God’s] holy hill.” Most striking to me is the charge to uphold an oath, even to the point of one’s own “hurt” (v. 4). In our covenant with God, made at baptism and affirmed in confirmation, we commit by the grace of God “to proclaim the good news of God in Christ through word and deed, to serve all people, following the example of Jesus, and to strive for justice and peace in all the earth” (ELW, p. 236).
James 1:17-27
In this passage, the so-called “epistle of straw” offers for us a challenging vision of “true religion”. The passage is grounded in God’s gracious activity—“Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above…” (v. 17). In light of this gracious empowerment, James challenges us to live out the faith, not to just hear the proclamation, but to do it (vv. 22-25). But true religion, religion that is “pure and undefiled” (v. 27), is especially marked by care for orphans and widows, i.e., those who are most vulnerable. What might this look like in our context?
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
In this odd passage, Jesus and the Pharisees debate purity laws. Verses 14-15 reveal a bit of Jesus’ (or at least Mark’s) wit with a clever double entendre—food comes out a lot dirtier than it goes in! But the gist of Jesus’ message, much akin to the passage in James, is that religion can get in the way of God’s call. Jesus challenges his followers to be pure in their relationships (vv.21-22), not to get caught up in traditions that do not bring life. Is our religion getting in the way of living in right relationships? Have we gotten caught up in debates about purity that have led us to neglect other pressing issues? What would Jesus say about our religious priorities?
David Creech
Director of Hunger Education, ELCA World Hunger