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!

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is typically celebrated in the Northern Hemisphere January 18-25 (the proper on p. 61 of ELW may be appropriate). A question that may be worth exploring: To what end are we unified? Various groups through history have been unified towards some rather unsavory goals (two that come to my mind are the KKK and Nazi Germany). So, to what aims will the church be united?

1 Samuel 3:1-10 [11-20]
The Old Testament lesson narrates Samuel’s curious call. Several elements of the story are “preachable.” Of course, most obviously, there is the difficulty in recognizing God’s voice. Related, is the value of community (in Samuel’s case, Eli) in discerning God’s call. How does our Christian community (local, denominational, and ecumenical) inform our understanding of God’s call? In other words, who are we called to be and what are we called to do? (I think looking out for the most vulnerable people in our world has to be right near the top of our priorities.)

A second strain in the passage (mostly in vv. 11-20) is the difficulty Samuel encountered in delivering the message to Eli. It was not something he wanted to say and he suspected that Eli would not react favorably to the message. What difficult things might God be calling us to speak out against today?

You have no doubt heard the saying, “Too heavenly minded to be any earthly good.” Frequently Christianity has been understood in otherworldly terms. (Consider the words to this familiar tune: “This world is not my home, I’m just a passing through…”) Such a perspective inevitably impacts how we understand hunger and poverty in our day. If this world does not matter, physical needs are irrelevant. Paul reminds us in his first letter to the Corinthians that in fact this body does matter. The body is God’s temple and must be tended. It is holy work to work with and on behalf of those who are hungry.

This odd encounter between Jesus and Philip provides a delightful connection into the concept of seeking and serving Christ in others. Philip’s initial response (“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”) draws attention to the way in which our own prejudices may blind us to seeing Christ in others. What are those prejudices and predispositions that inhibit our ability to see Christ clearly?

January 22, 2012 (Third Sunday after Epiphany, Lectionary 3)

Jonah 3:1-5, 10
Psalm 62:5-12 (6)
1 Corinthians 7:29-31
Mark 1:14-20

The texts for today all speak to the imminence of God’s reign and invite us to live in light of that reality. The story of Jonah shows us how God’s grace knows no boundaries. This is good news for us as the people of God, and it is a reminder for us who think that some may be beyond God’s mercy.

The Gospel tells us that God’s kingdom has drawn near and that the proper response is to repent and believe in the good news. Mark’s audience would have recognized that both terms (“kingdom of God” and “good news”) were inherently political and set against the kingdom that Caesar ruled and the good news of his reign. Jesus teaches a new ethic grounded in love for God and neighbor that challenges Caesar’s desire to become God and to rule over neighbor.