LISTSERV 16.0 - HUNGERSERMONSTARTERS Archives

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!

An interesting theme runs through the readings for Ash Wednesday that could be summarized as “the haves and the have-nots.” In this text from Joel, there are many couplets that pervade the readings—some that convey opposites, others that depict a scene before and after. For example, “before them the land is like the Garden of Eden, but after them a desolate wilderness.” This points to the central theme of the day that will demand repentance. In Hebrew repentance (shuv) is seen as a “turning.” In Greek (metanoia) it is a “change of mind.” Both these nuances include a dualism, a before and after, a both/and aspect. This is a central idea for us as we think of our saved selves as being “simul Justus et Peccator” – at the same time saved and still sinner.

This classic psalm is the source of numerous hymns and liturgical references. In worship planning one could substitute the chanting of the psalm with many hymn versions or other adaptations of parts of the psalm. The psalm is interesting in its use of adjectives that transform or enrich its words, such as steadfast love, abundant mercy, right spirit, and clean heart.

The haves and have-nots theme is continued in the second reading with couplets such as “impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet are well known; as dying, and see – we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.”

This passage points us to an irony of our world, that wealth and power and fame as we see them are illusory. Likewise, humility and poverty are where true wealth is to be found. Thus the have-nots become the true haves. How might this change the way we engage those who are poor and vulnerable?

The Gospel for Ash Wednesday introduces us to the Lenten disciplines of prayer and fasting, and exhorts us to perform these not for outer recognition, but rather for inner edification. The passage however concludes with a last couplet that could be turned around in an interesting way for Ash Wednesday. “For where you treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Heart and treasure are portrayed as flip sides of the same coin, that what you value the most will be where your heart follows. What could be turned around for preaching effect would be to ask a congregation how it works to put it the other way around. “For where your heart is, there your treasure will be also.” How does this change the meaning? We have as much ability to redirect our hearts as we do to redirect our wealth. The dual meaning of repentance, as seen as “turning” or “change of mind,” reflects this emphasis. What is needed in Lent therefore is to place our hearts firmly and intentionally in a new place, and to then watch our priorities, attention, and wealth to follow suit.

Gracious God, out of your love and mercy you breathed into dust the breath of life, creating us to serve you and our neighbors. Call forth our prayers and acts of kindness, and strengthen us to face our mortality with confidence in the mercy of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

The Hebrew Scripture reading shares the commandment to bring “first fruits” as an offering to God. Here is a strong opening for a preacher to share a message of justice, equity, and stewardship by describing the difference between giving to the needy from the beginning of one’s own wealth rather than just from what may be left over after taking care of one’s own needs. The passage also contextualizes this emphasis by recounting the oppressions that the Hebrew people had felt in bondage and finally in liberation into a land “flowing with milk and honey.” There are many images here that one can share about hunger ministries.

The psalm provides one of the scripture quotes lying behind Jesus’ temptations, namely, “he will command his angels concerning you to hard you in all your ways…so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.” A preacher could weave as well the image of “shelter” from the first verse of the psalm into a sermon emphasizing hunger and poverty issues.

A powerful message in the second reading that can undergird a message of justice is found in the words “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” The faithful of the church and pastors and preachers can sometimes take on an ownership of the power and presence of God that limits God to the places where we and the church are and work and minister. This passage powerfully reminds us that God is at work in the world ahead of us and sometimes instead of us caring for people in need, and filling people with the Holy Spirit. “Everyone” means everyone.

Some interesting images can be drawn from the familiar story of Jesus’ temptation to emphasize hunger and poverty themes. A preacher could note that Jesus lives essentially as a homeless person during this period. Additionally he feels in his body ardent hunger and can therefore recall how painful it is to hunger and thirst. He cares for the homeless and hungry and lives as they live and speaks therefore from true knowledge when he tells his followers, “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink…” (Matt. 25:35)

Another interesting direction a preacher could pursue is to explore the symbolism of “bread.” Bread means more than just bread. As Luther described in the explanation of the Lord’s Prayer in the Small Catechism, “Daily bread includes everything needed for this life, such as food and clothing, home and property, work and income, a devoted family, an orderly community, good government, favorable weather, peace and health, a good name, and true friends and neighbors.” As well a humorous point can be brought about how in English language, “bread” has been used in slang for “money.”

O Lord God, you led your people through the wilderness and brought them to the promised land. Guide us now, so that, following your Son, we may walk safely through the wilderness of this world toward the life you alone can give, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

The Hebrew Scripture passage contains one of the verses that stood at the heart of the Reformation as Luther struggled with Paul’s use of it in Romans and elsewhere, “And he (Abram) believed the Lord, and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.” A preacher could explore this territory, and perhaps add in a hunger and justice emphasis by exploring the fuller meanings of the Hebrew word tzedaqah (righteousness). The word is also synonymous as “charity” and Jewish practice includes a home having a tzedaqah box, where family members place change and money to be given to the poor.

The psalm contains many familiar passages that have been adopted into song which could be used in worship planning in place of a chanting or recitation of the psalm. If a preacher wished to explore any passages from the psalm in connection to the other readings, an interesting connection to feminine imagery of God occurs in verse 10 of the psalm, “If my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will take me up.” The passage is not made inclusive only in NRSV translation, the Hebrew text carries both the father and mother words. The implication that God supersedes both father and mother is an interesting wrinkle on divine imagery.

The second reading contains a challenging message about peace and justice and church in society with the phrase, “But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” One observation that could be made is that citizenship in Paul’s time was a different concept than it is in our time. Citizenship in the Roman Empire was not something every person living in the Empire possessed. One could attain citizenship by birth in the more central parts of the Empire, or by service to the Empire, but regular people in Philippi to whom Paul addresses this letter didn’t have citizenship. One could explore what life is like without citizenship, and how the words “our citizenship is in heaven” would have sounded (and may in fact sound for many today!).

The Gospel passage presents one of the most original and creative images in Scripture, that of Jesus stating, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing.” The use of feminine caring imagery associated with birds is found elsewhere in scripture, such as in Deuteronomy 32:11, “As an eagle stirs up its nest, and hovers over its young; as it spreads its wings, takes them up, and bears them aloft on its pinions…”

A preacher could explore the meaning of metaphor and divine imagery. Even as some metaphors for God used in scripture may seem challenging, it may be helpful to note that the metaphor of God as suffering servant in the crucifixion, while now familiar to us, was bizarre and impossible to the listeners of Jesus time, as when he spoke in the reading, “Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.”

God of the covenant, in the mystery of the cross you promise everlasting life to the world, Gather all peoples into your arms and shelter us with your mercy, that we may rejoice in the life we share in your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.