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!

This week’s texts invite reflection on sin. Often sin is framed in terms of personal choices and dispositions. It is often a discussion about individual issues. The biblical notion of sin, however, was much more relational. Sin is a wrong relationship. We see it in the story of Adam and Eve, when their relationship with God and each other is severely damaged. We see it in Jesus’ steadfast fidelity to God in spite of temptation.

So what does this have to do with hunger and poverty? This week we begin our Lenten journey, a time of penitence and self-reflection. The season of Lent lends itself to reflection on injustice in the world and the role that we play in perpetuating unjust systems and structures. In other words, it is a time to think about our complicity in hunger and poverty, and to seek ways to restore right relationship. It is a difficult and uncomfortable issue that is worth exploring this season.

The lesson from Genesis recounts God’s call to Abram. The fivefold blessing throughout the passage reverses the curses and punishments of the primeval history. What is of particular note is the purpose of the blessing: through Abram all the families of the earth are to be blessed. When we think about this passage from the perspective of those who are hungry, two ideas are worth noting. First, the blessing of God is intended to be passed on to others. The blessing is a gift (received by faith as this week’s lesson from Paul’s letter to the Romans reminds us), but it is not ours to hoard. We are to share the goodness of God. Our material blessings can be included in this. Second, although the blessing is given to Abram, it is clear that the blessing is intended for the whole world (see also this week’s Gospel, John 3:16, “God so loved the world…”)—“In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” We are not to withhold the blessing from anyone.