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!

The texts this week underscore how God wills and works for the well-being of those who are poor and oppressed. The church is called to be God’s hands and feet in the world, doing this work.

The violence of this passage is striking—“with vengeance, with terrible recompense” God comes to save (v. 4). God’s saving activity brings healing, wholeness, and life. God is adamantly opposed to those things that oppress. Do we have similar disdain and anger towards injustice? Desmond Tutu has a great quote about apathy or neutrality in situations of injustice. He writes, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.” Are there any mice with sore tails that challenge our neutrality?

This psalm, while showing God’s care for those who are poor and oppressed, needs to be held in tension with the other texts of the week (and indeed the rest of the Bible). The assertion that there is no help in princes (i.e., people in power) or mortals is a tad pessimistic. It is true that the self-interests of the powerful (including you and me) make progress in hunger and poverty issues difficult and tenuous (witness how the current economic crisis has wiped out ½ the gains we made in poverty reduction over the last ten years). That said, we need to use all the tools available to us—prayer, money, time, and, yes, political activism—to address injustice in the world. Princes and powers have worked hard to make a mess of it, they are necessary to fix it.

This passage in James, much like today’s psalm, reveals a certain cynicism about people with power. This is of course uncomfortable to many of us who, when compared with much of the rest of the world, are people with power. What would James or the psalmist say to us today? Would we be the object of their criticism?

Another way to bring the psalm and James into dialogue about justice issues is to compare their perspective on the need for human action. Psalm 146 is rather pessimistic about trust in princes and mortals—in them “there is no hope” (146:3). James on the other hand, while not shying away from a sharp critique of the wealthy (vv.1-7), seems to assume that human activity is necessary to care for those who are poor and vulnerable—hope in God is not enough, we must act on our faith (vv. 14-17).

The story of the Syrophonecian woman is in some ways problematic. Jesus seems to show a bit of disregard for a poor, marginalized, and needy person when he compares the woman to a dog stealing the children’s food. The woman, undeterred, responds with wit and charm that Jesus could not resist. How often do we turn a blind eye to those in need assuming they are not worth our efforts? How often do we allow our assumptions about others limit our willingness to respond to their needs?

Another lesson from the woman is her bravery and willingness to transcend social barriers (such as gender and ethnicity) on behalf of her daughter. Might she be a model for us in our advocacy with and on behalf of others? Can we find the courage to speak out and act, even if such action means stepping across social and cultural barriers?

The story of the deaf man with a speech impediment offers another way into a discussion on poverty and justice issues. Again, like all of the texts today, this story demonstrates that the work of God is to heal and to make whole. In this passage Jesus challenges the prevailing attitude that touching something or someone dirty makes you dirty. Jesus risks being polluted to make the deaf and mute man whole. What risks do we need to take in the interests of those who are vulnerable? Are we willing to take those risks, trusting that God will do God’s work with our hands?

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!

This week’s texts have a common theme of speaking as teachers. This is a great opportunity to think about the power of our words, how they can be used to effect change in unjust systems. It may be a good week to bring a particular advocacy related activity the church can do (or go home and do), such as Bread for the World’s Offering of Letters (learn more at http://www.offeringofletters.org/). Encourage your parishioners to be of one voice with and on behalf of those who are hungry!

This passage came to be interpreted in light of the Christ event, wherein Jesus becomes the speaker—the one who is the teacher, faithfully listening to the words from God, and unjustly persecuted (this reading fits well with the reading from Mark today where Jesus, the faithful messiah, predicts his betrayal and death).

Another way to read the text is to look at how we can use our voice in places where we have authority. The speaker is given “the tongue of a teacher” so that s/he may “know how to sustain the weary with a word.” How can our words sustain the weary? Where do we need to speak up?

Psalm 116:1-9 stays in the theme of speaking truth to power through a testimony of God’s activity. The last poetic line repeated as a refrain (“I walk before the LORD in the land of the living”) invites reflection on what it means to walk in the “land of the living.” What might the psalmist’s testimony look like in our context? Is there a story from your congregation or the local news that reflects God’s activity, particularly for those who may be marginalized or vulnerable (a story perhaps where someone marginalized now “walks in the land of the living”)?

James takes a rather negative view of the tongue in this passage—it is entirely wicked (“set on fire by hell”). Implicit in the passage, however, is the sense that the tongue can be tamed (why else raise the warning?). James is concerned throughout the letter to encourage proper use of speech (see, e.g., 1:19, 26; 5:12-20). In the theme of this sermon starter, James underscores the power of the tongue, how it can start a big blaze. We’ve seen a lot of stories about fires in the news lately (it is fire season); perhaps an example of a fire could effectively illustrate the power of the tongue. Reading against the grain, one could use James as an encouragement to use our voices to start a fire, a fire for justice.

This is the climax of Mark’s Gospel, Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Messiah. Again, the confession, the speaking of truth to power, is potent. (So too is Peter’s verbal rebuke of Jesus.) The tongue is a force to be reckoned with!

Another angle to get into issues of hunger and poverty this week is Jesus’ explanation of what exactly is means to be the messiah. Even more difficult is Jesus’ teaching on what it means to be a follower—denying oneself, losing one’s life—a high calling indeed! In Time magazine a few months ago, they described one type of modern activist, which they cleverly dubbed a “slacktivist.” Slacktivists are those who would be willing to join a cause on Facebook or buy t-shirt with a witty slogan decrying some evil, but would be unwilling to make any true sacrifice on behalf of that cause. Jesus’ call (which is uncomfortably extreme) challenges slacktivists to a deeper engagement. What might this look like for your church or community when it comes to issues of poverty and justice?