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!

In this episode the prominent role of poor and disenfranchised people is a bit surprising. Naaman, who is a mighty military leader, is informed by a slave girl of a possibility for healing. The commander must travel with his mighty horses and chariots to the occupied lands of Israel (another sign of weakness). The demands of the prophet Elisha are off-putting, for the waters of the Jordan are dirtier than his homeland’s. It is only after he is urged by his servants that Naaman obliges and is healed. This text thus presents a unique opportunity to explore how we may stereotype those who are poor and vulnerable. Too often those who are poor are envisioned as weak or dependent. We fail to see their power and resolve and wisdom. We think we come with all the answers. We need to struggle against that type of attitude.

This text, like the Gospel, also shows God wishes that all people be whole. Naaman is not of Israel, yet God works through Elisha to bring healing. Who might God be calling us to minster to? Where does God want to bring healing but we have been resistant?

In today’s Gospel Jesus heals ten lepers. The mere fact of healing fits well with a theme of hunger – so often disease and hunger are intertwined. Those who are hungry are often more susceptible to disease and those who are sick often need more nutrients. As in the story from 2 Kings, God is about bringing healing. ELCA World Hunger’s health initiatives, such as the HIV and AIDS strategy and the Lutheran Malaria Initiative are excellent ways to be involved in God’s work of healing (this point was made well by Jennifer Barger in the September 26 Sermon Starter).

This passage also challenges our penchant for discrimination. The one who is despised returns and is made truly whole. It is curious to note, however, that the other nine, who did not return, were nonetheless healed as well. God is in the business of healing, even those who are different than us, and who may not even wish to join us on the way.

In this familiar passage Paul reminds Timothy that all scripture is God breathed and useful for teaching and training in righteousness. The point is not so much to have the right ideas about what scripture is as to listen to what the scriptures have to say. Over and over they reveal what the Liberation theologians call “God’s preferential option for those who are poor.” In what ways might the Bible offer teaching, reproof, correction, and training, especially as regards to our attitudes towards those who are poor and vulnerable? What would it look like for God’s people to take seriously the Bible’s teaching on justice?

The widow, powerless and really unable to do anything that would truly impact the powerful and unscrupulous judge took what she had and used it to bring justice. What do you have? It might not feel like much but it can nonetheless have a huge effect. A great example of this is support of water projects: it is estimated that, internationally, every $1 spent on water and sanitation generates about $8 as a result of saved time, increased productivity and reduced health care costs.

The point of the parable, of course, is to encourage prayerfulness. Again, it does not require much of us (and prayers are something that every one of us can offer). If an unjust judge can be moved by a powerless woman’s faithful pleas for justice, how much more will our prayers and intentions influence a good God? Pray for justice that all God’s people may be fed.