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!

April 17, 2011 (Sunday of the Passion, Palm Sunday)

Matthew 21:1-11 Procession with Palms
Isaiah 50:4-9a
Psalm 31:9-16 (5)
Philippians 2:5-11
Matthew 26:14-27:66 or Matthew 27:11-54

The Sunday of the Passion is often filled with a reading of the Passion. The texts from the Bible speak to God’s work with and on behalf of those who are vulnerable. The lesson from Paul’s letter to the Philippians reminds us that we are to emulate Christ and that in so doing the glory of God will be revealed. This week as we remember Christ’s ultimate self emptying, how might God be calling us to empty ourselves for the greater good of those who are poor and vulnerable?

L: In this season of baptismal rejoicing, let us call to mind the prophet’s vision: “If you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted,

L: Let us pray. God of our salvation, through the waters of the sea you rescued your people from slavery and through the baptism of death Christ freed us from death’s hold. Let us who have passed through baptismal waters know ourselves to be blessed with power and grace,

L: Risen Lord, victorious over death: in compassion for your troubled friends you appeared in many places that they might dare again to trust. In a world of dire hunger and shattered faith, strengthen us, also, with signs of your presence;

L: Lord Jesus, hidden traveler along the road: at your companions’ request you stayed for supper, and they recognized you in the breaking of bread. Open our hearts to the words of those who walk beside us; move us to ask new friends to table,

L: God, whose will is well-being and life: you gave your apostles power to heal and to witness boldly before the rulers of the age. Inspire us also to speak with power for the sake of those who are hungry and poor,

L: Gracious God, whose mercy is everlasting: your followers in Jerusalem acted with one heart and soul, owning all things in common and dividing their goods that none might need. As we gather like them for the breaking of the bread, give us freedom toward our belongings and glad and generous hearts,

The following reflection was written by Rev. Susan Engh, Director for Congregation-based Organizing in Congregational and Synodical Mission:

Of course, this week’s lessons all revolve around the Resurrection and new life! Even our Old Testament choices (obviously recorded well before the time of Jesus) celebrate the new and just things God is doing on behalf of all that God cherishes, in the creative order as well as in human society. Now, often we (and our parishioners) place the highest emphasis on what Easter means in terms of our own eternal destinies as believers. Yet it’s also important, since we’re still living, to consider what Easter means for this earthly life and those with whom we live it in the present age.

When Peter encounters a group of non-Jews who are eager to receive the good news of Jesus, he makes the comment, “I truly understand that God shows no partiality.” But perhaps Peter’s learning in this context about God’s wide embrace of people from every walk of life indicates a “new partiality” on God’s part – one toward those formerly forgotten, even ignored, by those who consider themselves God’s chosen ones.

Peter emphasizes this universality of God’s compassion when, later in this same passage, he notes how Jesus “went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed.” I would argue, despite Peter’s claim, that God IS partial; partial to all those who have yet to know of God’s impartial grace and abundant providence!

Peter’s willingness to go outside of his own comfort zone into the midst of Gentiles, in order to bring the news of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, provides a model of courage for all of us to share our abundance of good news AND our abundance of daily bread.

Finally, in this passage Peter does not neglect to note that the resurrected Jesus himself “ate and drank… after he rose from the dead.” Physical sustenance was a reality for Jesus every day of his life, pre- and post-resurrection. As Easter people its incumbent upon us to address those hungering and thirsting for both spiritual and physical food and drink.

George Johnson, former director of ELCA World Hunger, offers an equally compelling read of Peter’s encounter with Cornelius at http://www.bread.org/what-we-do/resources/preacher/lectionary/easter-sunday-2009.pdf.

Some Resurrection theorists have tried to reason that the empty tomb accounts were fabricated as a way to explain Jesus’ followers’ experience of his profound – but spiritual – presence to them after his death. I’m not buying it! The consistent testimony that Jesus’ actual, physical body was first absent from the tomb, and then actually and physically present to many witnesses is a powerful affirmation of God’s regard for mortal existence. And mortal existence is tied to bodily sustenance and nurture through food and water, touch and emotion.

Again, Jesus’ Resurrection is a resounding “Yes!” to life here on earth, which is best affirmed when those living have their “daily bread”, in all its fullness, as Luther describes it in his Small Catechism.

Mary may not have recognized Jesus immediately, in her shock and grief tomb-side, but she was able to hold onto him long enough, once she did see who it was, that he had to ask her to let go. Jesus’ full-body-experience upon being raised cast him back into the realm where fullness of life requires that one’s basic needs get met. To celebrate Resurrection without tending to these needs of the earthly living is, in my view, hypocrisy.