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!

There are a couple directions to take if one takes on the task of identifying or contextualizing the suffering servant in this passage. One direction is to consider the servant as an individual or group standing on behalf of a people. This is probably the more academic/historiographical path for a sermon, but one which can be supported in the text. Another direction would be to make the connection to Jesus as the suffering servant for all humanity (which can be supported by historical interpretation without denying the passage had meaning within its context in Isaiah). In either case drawing connections to hunger and poverty can be made through observing the marginalization of the servant.

Isaiah illustrates that it is precisely among the despised, suffering, and oppressed of this world where God is acting to bring about righteousness. We need not make the assumption that suffering, hunger, or poverty has an especially utilitarian value—that God needs to be satisfied by the misery of the few in order to bring about righteousness for all (early interpretations don’t import this meaning). Though connections with gospel reading are not so linear, the language sets up a unique understanding of Jesus and Christian discipleship.

God’s response to Job in this passage is marked by a series of rhetorical questions that center on God’s sovereignty and knowledge of all creation. Verses 39-41 raise the issue of God’s provision in the world.

Though the specific examples here have to do with God’s relation to the animal world, the issue of provision is dependent on how we see divine action playing out in the world. The implicit answer to the question “who provides?” in verse 41 is “not humans,” an answer which works well in honoring God’s sovereignty, but does not offer any insight into how humans should respond.

Thankfully the Biblical witness addresses the issue of providing for the neighbor and stranger by affirming that we do have a responsibility as a matter of justice. We still pray for God to provide for the poor and hungry, though not independently of asking God to do so through us and God’s people.

This psalm ventures into territory similar to the Job passage. God’s sovereignty is the theme Job, while this psalm expresses confidence in God’s protection. We find these prayers necessary even though entrusting the poor and vulnerable to God’s protection does not relieve us from action. If anything, the verses at the end reflect trust in the promise of God’s care and can be received as an invitation to us to join God in mission in the world.

This passage parallels the account in Mark 9:33ff where the disciples are arguing who among them is the greatest. In both places Jesus lifts up the servant as the one to whom the disciples should aspire. In his response both diakonos (servant) and doulos (slave) are used, and the ransom language draws connections (if only implicit) to the role of the servant in Isaiah 53. In Binding the Strong Man, Ched Myers notes the servant is portrayed as the embodiment of non-violence. With this identification, the role of “least” and “servant” is not just a personal one, but also a political or public one.

Contextually, the vulnerable are the ones who are threatened by the style of leadership and reign that James and John are asking for at the beginning of this passage. Indeed, Jesus reminds them that this way of leadership has a way of producing tyrants (10:42). This passage helps us personally align with Jesus’ expectations of his disciples and it allows us corporately to evaluate how we are posturing ourselves in our public witness.