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!

Complementary Series
Genesis 18:1-10a
In this passage Abraham and Sarah model hospitality to strangers. The narrator tells us that the Lord visited Abraham and Sarah but there is no suggestion that Abraham knows he is entertaining a divine guest. Abraham’s urgency (he “hastens” repeatedly) to offer the best (“choice flour,” a calf that is “tender and good”) underscores the extravagance of his hospitality, that also stands in stark contrast to the lack of hospitality seen in Sodom and Gomorrah. What might welcoming the stranger (something we are charged to do in Matt 25) look like in our context? How do we welcome with open arms those who are strangers to us? Immigration issues are a natural connection here, though hospitality can be extended beyond our borders as well (especially as we work with and on behalf of those who are poor and oppressed).

The first part of today’s reading speaks of Christ’s work of reconciling the world to God. In 2 Cor 5:18-19, the ministry of reconciliation is entrusted to us. What will this look like? How do we live out that reconciliation and proclaim it in our world? What role might working for justice play in true reconciliation?

The work of hospitality or reconciliation or seeking justice is hard. Sometimes we may feel like Martha bustling around trying to get the work done. This familiar passage reminds us that the work is God’s (as the tag line goes, “God’s work. Our Hands”). There are times when we need to stop and be refreshed at the feet of Jesus. God will still be doing God’s work.

The passage is not without its tensions though. Note that Jesus’ rather tongue-in-check response to Martha’s complaint (in somewhat of a loose translation, “Don’t worry about a big four course meal, only one dish is necessary…”) does not encourage Martha not to stop working (“only one thing is necessary”) but praises Mary for her recognition of the importance of hearing Jesus’ teaching. The work still has to be done and we need to sit at Jesus feet.

This week’s reading from Genesis provides an opportunity to speak about hunger from two angles. The first, underscores God’s disdain for injustice. God has heard the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah and now wants to visit the cities and confirm “how very grave their sin” (18:20). In the verses that follow, we see that Sodom and Gomorrah, as noted in last week’s sermon starter, lack hospitality and seek to humiliate visitors (19:1-11). The prophet Ezekiel (16:49) tells us that Sodom’s sins consisted of “pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease.” In spite of this excess, they “did not aid the poor and needy.” On account of these egregious missteps, God vows to destroy the cities. This picture of God is perhaps troubling. The vow to destroy a city in spite of collateral damage (Abraham talks God down from 50 to ten righteous people; more on this below) may make some uncomfortable (I certainly am!). That said, the point is clear, injustice is an affront to God. Some questions to ask (and they are not fun ones): Is there a similar outcry that may be raised against us? If God were to “go down and see whether [we] have done altogether according to the outcry” (Gen 18:21), would the accusations be confirmed?

The second angle involves Abraham’s pleas that God have mercy. His care for the unjust suffering of people mirror God’s concern for those who are vulnerable. It is Abraham’s bartering that reminds God of God’s commitment to justice. In this way Abraham is an example for us and challenges us to seek and pray for justice (as Jesus challenges us to pray for God’s kingdom to come in this week’s Gospel reading). Do we believe that our prayers and our pleas could have a similar effect on God’s activity in the world?

This week’s Gospel encourages us to persist in prayer (much like Abraham continued to press God on God’s commitment to justice). We pray for God’s kingdom to come. We are given the assurance that if we know how to give good gifts to those who ask, how much more will God, who even gives the Holy Spirit. Let us commit ourselves to pray for God’s kingdom and to do our best, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to live by that kingdom’s values.