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SCROLL DOWN FOR March 3, 2013
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!
Isaiah 55:1-9
The prophet’s announcement of God’s covenant with the people takes the tone of an invitation. It is an invitation to God’s hospitality, where there is an abundance of wine and milk, rich food, and teaching. But this is unlike any economic system the audience would know, for where else could people buy with no money, or where could something be sold with no price? Or better yet, if the covenant is not accepted, where else could one find freedom from an economy where only the strong thrive and do so at the expense of the weak? This invitation to covenant life features an accessibility that is not rivaled and mercy and pardon for all comers. How can we witness to this new reality that God has prepared?
Psalm 63:1-8
The language of the soul is undeniably physical. The experience described by the psalmist is one of thirsting and fainting (as if there were no water) and then being satisfied, as if with a rich feast (Heb: “fat and fatness”). The physical language should be a reminder that our physical experience is very much connected to our spiritual journey. This is a reminder that the life God sustains is not just a soul-health or existence, but that God cares about our physical well being and thriving.
1 Corinthians 10:1-13
The final verse in this passage offers some encouragement for any who are undergoing a time of trial. In the setup to this Paul uses Israel’s history as a warning of what could happen when succumbing to the trial or temptation, or at least loosing trust in God in the midst of it. Hunger and poverty cannot simply be thought of as trials or tests that God inflicts upon us. But the message of God’s faithfulness and desire for human good reminds the Corinthians of the community they are drawn into.