Who's Hungry?
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
Object:
We are all too familiar with the commercials and TV spots depicting starving children halfway around the world while asking us to send $30 a month to feed them. While those images may pull at our heartstrings, it is so easy to shrug it off. "They're there; I'm here. It's sad, but what can you do?" So many of us let them go hungry while our pantries are full. What does the Bible have to say to a world of haves and have-nots? Barbara Jurgensen will write the main article, with Paul Bresnahan writing the response. Illustrations, liturgical aids, and a children's sermon are also provided.
Who's Hungry?
Barbara Jurgensen
THE WORLD
A question: Is anyone at your house going hungry these days?
Try this on for size: In Asia, prices for rice have almost tripled this year. Tripled? In one year? Rice is their basic food, and today it's costing families almost three times as much as it did not many months ago! How many families can bear such a price hike?
What are the nations of this earth doing to try to help with such problems? The United Nations reports that in recent years we've spent over $1.2 trillion to try to solve this world's troubles through weapons, but only $3.4 billion on trying to make things better by feeding the hungry through improving agriculture. We've spent about 350 times as much for weapons as for what could help feed people.
What might you and I be called to do in this world where we spend $20 billion a year on excess food that makes us overweight (and keeps us from being as healthy as we could be), while, if we add $10 billion to that, agriculture around the world could be revised so that there would be enough food on everyone's table?
The question again: Is anyone at your house going hungry these days?
The answer is: Yes, in our world home, some people are going hungry. What can you and I do about it? Might Abraham and Sarah, as they entertained three strangers by the oaks of Mamre, offer an example for us (Genesis 18:1-15)?
THE WORD
Genesis 18:1-15 tells us the story of Abraham and Sarah's hospitality to three strangers. In the ancient Near East, where there were few inns across long stretches of dry, almost desert land, travelers of small means often looked to tent-dwelling nomads like Abraham and Sarah for food and overnight lodging.
The lives of such travelers could actually depend on such hospitality. Besides, the isolated life of such tent-dwellers could get a little monotonous, so Abraham and Sarah probably welcomed a chance to talk with someone from "the big outside world."
In Sarah and Abraham's case, their gracious welcoming of the three strangers brought them a wonderful blessing.
In Psalm 116, the psalmist asks, "What shall I return to the Lord for all his bounty to me?" As the Lord's faithful people, as part of their faith life, Abraham and Sarah offered their very best to their visitors -- and therefore to their Lord.
Jesus says that if we see someone who's hungry and we feed them, we've actually done it to him (Matthew 25:40).
In our Matthew text for today, Jesus says, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest" (Matthew 25:40).
Agricultural experts tell us that this world can produce enough food to feed everyone -- if we're willing to work through the problems. And share. And be laborers in the effort. People need not go hungry.
CRAFTING THE SERMON
Can you think of a time recently when things were going so well for you that you wanted to sing, or dance, or do something out of the ordinary to express your happiness, your joy? Maybe it was the safe arrival of a baby into this world. Perhaps it was good news after you, or someone you love, had to go through a series of tests at the hospital. It could have been the safe return of a loved one from a battle area.
Like Tevye in the musical, Fiddler on the Roof, did you want to climb up onto some high place and express your feelings?
Of course we know that life is not all "mountaintop" experiences; we all know times when fear, anger, and guilt try to overcome us. These are times when we need to turn to our Lord Jesus for help, comfort, and support.
If we keep open to all the good things that the Lord is sending into our lives (rather than dwelling endlessly on our many difficulties), we will be saying with the psalmist, "What shall I return to the Lord for all his bounty to me?"
In recent days, the United Nations has been holding a conference -- a "food summit" -- in Rome to see what can be done about skyrocketing food prices around the world. The leaders of many countries have sought the help of leading agriculturists to see what steps can be taken to keep food on the table for all of the earth's people.
Perhaps we can learn something from Abraham and Sarah. When they saw three travelers -- three strangers -- approaching their tent, they began preparing food to share with them. Abraham selected the finest animal from the flock and Sarah prepared the finest dishes to go with it.
Our denomination helps the hungry around the world through our World Hunger Appeal. Last year our 5,000,000 members gave about $15,000,000 to the WHA, about $3.00 a person. Three dollars a person? That's hardly more than a cup of coffee at Starbucks!
Abraham and Sarah were blessed for sharing, receiving something far beyond their wildest dreams: a son, finally, in their extreme old age. How might the Lord bless us if we see the world's food crisis as a call to share some of our many blessings?
Jesus says, "The harvest is plentiful" (Matthew 9:37). If we are willing to share, if we are willing to spend less for weapons and more for agricultural help that will put food on the tables of all the families of this world, surely there will be a blessing in it for us.
Like Abraham and Sarah, we may experience a birth, not of a child but of a new spirit within ourselves -- a spirit of seeing all men, women, and children as our brothers and sisters. We may gain more family even than they did.
Is anyone at your house going hungry these days? Yes, in our world home, many are going hungry. Have we let the love of our Lord fill our hearts so that we care -- so that we do something about it?
ANOTHER VIEW
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Canaan
Paul Bresnahan
There are times when the truth is stranger than fiction. There are times when the truth is funnier, too. Such is the case with the news from space these days. In an impressive piece of technical know-how, the Japanese have assembled the billion-dollar Kibo-lab (Kibo means Hope), and have thus instilled a sense of national pride for the folks from the land of the rising sun. In the meantime, the Russians are sending up a $30 replacement pump for the toilet on the space station that has not been working. If incongruity is a source of humor, the two tasks facing the crew aboard the space station have to bring a smile to all involved. Mind you, given the scarcity of "necessary" sanitary devices in space, the case of a broken toilet is really no laughing matter.
Still we cannot help but "rib" one another when it comes to pointing out the foibles of human nature. So it was with Abram and Sarai. God and Abram had a wonderful heart-to-heart about the hope Abram had for a child. Still, he had to break the news to his wife. I can well imagine the conversation, as the father of our faith approaches the mother.
"Sarai, I think we need to go for a walk."
"How long a walk do you have in mind?"
"I thought we should go to Canaan."
"Canaan!" she fires back. "Do you know how far away Canaan is from here?"
"Only a couple of hundred miles," returns Abram.
"A couple of hundred miles! That's a bit much for us at our age, don't you think?" Sarai continues quite reasonably, "So what are we going to do when we get there?"
Abram had to approach that question in a gingerly way. After all a lot was riding on Sarai's cooperation: "Well, you and I are going to become the mother and father of many nations."
"What!" now becoming somewhat more animated, Sarai incredulously asks. "Do you not know that we are both in our 80s and are quite unlikely to be mothers and fathers of anybody? You're talking foolishness!"
The wise old man with a twinkle in his eye, looks lovingly at his wife. "I'm not kidding, you know, I can give you a guarantee."
Sarai stops in her tracks and looks long into Abram's eyes. "Who have you been talking to?"
O dear, I knew it would come to this, Abram may have thought to himself, but Sarai deserves to know.
"I've been talking to God. He told me to look at the stars of the sky. He told me to count the grains of sand along the shore if I didn't believe him... so shall my descendents be, God told me."
Sarai began to laugh. She began to laugh, and then she began to laugh even harder and then she laughed so hard that tears came to her eyes. "God has given me laughter!"
So it was that, in the fullness of time, Sarai brought forth her son and gave him the name of laughter. Isaac... in Hebrew the name carries with it the sound of laughter. In the way that words in any language can sometime bring imitative harmony with them, so does the sound of Isaac (Yitzak) in Hebrew bring the sound of laughter to those listening to the sounds of those two amazing syllables.
There are many wonderful stories filled with humor in the holy writings of the Bible. Given the truth of the Bible, it can really be said that truth is stranger than fiction... and funnier, too.
ILLUSTRATIONS
In this week's program, Protestant theologian Don Saliers observes that churches sometimes transmit principles and rituals without passing on some of the original dynamics of faith behind them. Saliers and my other guest, Catholic priest and theologian Edward Foley, frame the meaning of the Christian Eucharist or Communion in terms that are basic and human....
One of the most salutary observations of this hour for me is Don Saliers' reminder that in the earliest churches, which gathered in homes, the community meal was afterwards shared with outsiders and especially the poor. Communion was inextricably linked with service. Though Foley and Saliers have different theologies of what is happening in the bread and the wine of Communion, they agree on this: to partake of that "body of Christ" means to participate in the suffering of God in the world, to embody the church "in the world and for the world." The intimacy of "supping with God," isn't meant simply to confer grace and inward spiritual blessings, Foley says, it asks something of communicants. It calls Christians to embody the notion of sacrifice, and, as best they are able, to be agents of justice.
-- Krista Tippett, Speaking of Faith online journal, 11/24/05
* * *
Carolyn Winfrey Gillette's recent hymn, "Where is Bread?" (set to the familiar tune, "Abbot's Leigh") could prove useful this week, either as a sermon illustration or for congregational singing:
http://www.churchworldservice.org/Hymns/whereisbread.htm
* * *
We are involved now in a profound failure of imagination. Most of us cannot imagine the wheat beyond the bread, or the farmer beyond the wheat, or the farm beyond the farmer, or the history beyond the farm. Most people cannot imagine the forest and the forest economy that produced their houses and furniture and paper; or the landscapes, the streams and the weather that fill their pitchers and bathtubs and swimming pools with water. Most people appear to assume that when they have paid their money for these things they have entirely met their obligations.
-- Wendell Berry, "In Distrust of Movements"
* * *
The Union of Concerned Scientists notes that there are two main areas where US citizens take a hoggish bite of the world's limited resources and fuels. First is transportation. Anybody would guess this....
Gas-guzzling area number two, and this may surprise you, is our diet. Americans have a taste for food that's been seeded, fertilized, harvested, processed, and packaged in grossly energy-expensive ways and then shipped, often refrigerated, for so many miles it might as well be green cheese from the moon. Even if you walk or bike to the store, if you come home with bananas from Ecuador, tomatoes from Holland, cheese from France, and artichokes from California, you have guzzled some serious gas. This extravagance that most of us take for granted is a stunning energy boondoggle: Transporting 5 calories' worth of strawberry from California to New York costs 435 calories of fossil fuel. The global grocery store may turn out to be the last great losing proposition of our species.
-- Barbara Kingsolver, "Lily's Chickens," in Small Wonder: Essays (New York: HarperCollins 2002), pp. 113-114
* * *
One of my Internet friends, Dwyn Mounger, once wrote, "I remember, from seminary days, a Taiwanese student who told me that, in his native Taiwanese language, the every-day greeting isn't, "How are you?" or, "How goes it?" but, "Have you eaten?"
Susan Forbes, another Internet colleague from Saint Louis, adds, "In Indonesia (where she lived for 6 months) the question is not, "Have you eaten?" but, "Have you eaten rice yet?" If you haven't eaten rice, you haven't eaten.
-- Gayle Bach-Watson on the Ecunet computer network, 1/19/02
* * *
After the Dalai Lama delivered a lecture, a member of the audience asked him what the answer to world hunger is. He responded, "Sharing."
-- The Christian Century, 7/12/05, p. 6
* * *
In Barbara's teaser, she mentions that it is estimated that we spend $20 billion on excess food that makes us overweight and that it would only take $30 billion to solve the food crisis. All of this reminds me of Gandhi's famous quote: "The world can produce enough to meet the world's need, it just cannot produce enough to meet the world's greed." If we could solve the problem of greed in the world, we could go a long way toward solving the major problems that plague us. We may not be able to eliminate greed from everyone but we can clearly begin to work on our own greed.
* * *
I once saw a cartoon that in the first panel had a figure sitting under a tree speaking to God. He said, "God, why do you allow so many people to die of hunger in our world?"
In the next panel, the voice of God comes out of the sky. "I've been meaning to ask you the same question."
* * *
In Deuteronomy 8:3 it says, "He humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord."
Dorothy Soelle, in her book, Death by Bread Alone, speaks of the danger of our overly materialistic society experiencing death by bread alone.
Death by bread alone means being alone and then wanting to be left alone; being friendless, yet distrusting and despising others; forgetting others and then being forgotten; living only for ourselves and then feeling unneeded; being unconcerned about others and wanting no one to be concerned about us; neither laughing nor being laughed at; neither crying for another nor being cried for by another. How horrible is this death by bread alone.
-- Dorothy Soelle, Death by Bread Alone (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1978), p. 4
Perhaps, as Christians, we need to be concerned about hunger in this world for the sake of our own soul.
WORSHIP RESOURCE
Call To Worship
Leader: On an ordinary Sunday,
we come to worship God.
People: We come, trusting God will speak to us;
we come, hoping God will surprise us.
Leader: On this day, like every other day,
we seek to follow Jesus.
People: We follow, believing Jesus will be with us;
we follow, hoping Jesus will work through us.
Leader: On this day,
we lift our souls to God's Spirit;
People: we open our hearts, that the Spirit may fill us;
we open our hands that we might be a gift to others.
Prayer Of The Day
The little child struggling with fears,
the grandfather facing failing health,
the parent who lies awake until the early morning hours,
the teenager pressured by peers,
the lonely who are prey to con artists,
all of us with ordinary aches, pains, and worries;
each is cradled in your infinite compassion,
Tender God.
Those who work through the night,
those who walk the street,
those who are called exceptional,
those who are differently gifted,
those who are filled with doubts,
those who spill over in laughter,
the youngest,
the oldest,
the ordinary;
each is called by you,
Lord Jesus.
Joyous praisers of your name,
seekers of hope,
those walled out by prejudice and hate,
babies who cry from hunger,
the poor who share their last coin
with those in greater need;
all the ordinary people around the world
are not disappointed by your presence,
Spirit of Hope.
God in Community, Holy in One,
hear us as we lift our voices,
praying as Jesus has taught us, saying,
Our Father...
Call To Reconciliation
This is all the proof we need: It was when we were least able to save ourselves that God did it for us in Christ Jesus. Because we trust that God forgives us, let us bring our confessions to God, praying,
Unison Prayer Of Confession
Merciful God, if we committed extraordinary sins, we might feel a need to confess to you. But our failings seem so everyday and petty:
ignoring our friends and families,
forgetting to look after creation,
hoarding the blessing you have given to us,
following political agendas instead of Jesus.
Forgive us, Compassionate God, for we not only harm others and our world by our sins, but we break your heart. Call us again, and strengthen us to follow in the footsteps of Jesus -- sitting with the sufferers, offering ourselves in obedience to you, opening our hearts to all your children. In the name of Jesus, we pray.
Silence is kept
Assurance Of Pardon
Leader: Christ has died for us -- can God's love be made any clearer to us? By this gift, we enter into God's kingdom, and are graced to serve others.
People: Forgiven, gifted, restored, called;
we are God's people. Amen.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Can I do it?
Object: a sticker you would use in Sunday school
Matthew 9:35--10:8 (9-23)
These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: "Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, proclaim the good news, "The kingdom of heaven has come near' " (Matthew 10:5-7).
Good morning, boys and girls. How many of you know the name of one of the disciples who worked with Jesus? (let them answer) Do you know how many disciples there were? (let them answer) What kind of work did the disciples do with Jesus? (let them answer) The names of the disciples were Andrew, Bartholomew, James, James the Less, John, Judas, Matthew, Peter, Philip, Simon, Thaddeus, and Thomas. They followed Jesus for almost three years in the land of Israel. But what did they do? Did they just walk around or sit by the water listening to Jesus? Did they have jobs? (let them answer) No one ever really said what each one did. We know that some of them were fishermen before they began to follow Jesus. One of them was a tax collector.
Today the Bible tells us about the time that Jesus told all of the disciples that he had something special for them to do. He gave them really good advice. He wanted them to go to all of the nearby villages and towns and tell the people that "The kingdom of heaven has come near." They were told to cure the sick, raise the dead, heal the people who had leprosy, and get rid of evil spirits.
What do you think the disciples thought? (let them answer) I would have thought, "Wow, can I do those things?" Jesus did not let them think about it too long. He sent them out with this to say, "The kingdom of heaven has come near."
Today, we are going to pretend that we are the disciples. I brought along some stickers and I want you to give them to people here in church. I don't think many of them have ever had someone visit them and say, "The kingdom of heaven has come near." But you can do it. Let's practice saying it one more time. (let them say it with you) "The kingdom of heaven has come near." (Turn them around and begin to lead them down the aisles, stopping and giving people stickers and saying, "The kingdom of heaven has come near" -- it will be a new experience)
Boys and girls, you could be like one of Jesus' disciples. When the disciples went out and said this to the people in the villages, things really happened. People were cured, people who were so sick they could hardly move were given new life, and the evil spirits in the town flew away as fast as they could. It was a wonderful day. It was the beginning of their ministry and they did things like this often. The next time someone asks you what the disciples of Jesus did, you can tell them that you are a disciple of Jesus, also. Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, June 15, 2008, issue.
Copyright 2008 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 517 South Main Street, Lima, Ohio 45804.
Who's Hungry?
Barbara Jurgensen
THE WORLD
A question: Is anyone at your house going hungry these days?
Try this on for size: In Asia, prices for rice have almost tripled this year. Tripled? In one year? Rice is their basic food, and today it's costing families almost three times as much as it did not many months ago! How many families can bear such a price hike?
What are the nations of this earth doing to try to help with such problems? The United Nations reports that in recent years we've spent over $1.2 trillion to try to solve this world's troubles through weapons, but only $3.4 billion on trying to make things better by feeding the hungry through improving agriculture. We've spent about 350 times as much for weapons as for what could help feed people.
What might you and I be called to do in this world where we spend $20 billion a year on excess food that makes us overweight (and keeps us from being as healthy as we could be), while, if we add $10 billion to that, agriculture around the world could be revised so that there would be enough food on everyone's table?
The question again: Is anyone at your house going hungry these days?
The answer is: Yes, in our world home, some people are going hungry. What can you and I do about it? Might Abraham and Sarah, as they entertained three strangers by the oaks of Mamre, offer an example for us (Genesis 18:1-15)?
THE WORD
Genesis 18:1-15 tells us the story of Abraham and Sarah's hospitality to three strangers. In the ancient Near East, where there were few inns across long stretches of dry, almost desert land, travelers of small means often looked to tent-dwelling nomads like Abraham and Sarah for food and overnight lodging.
The lives of such travelers could actually depend on such hospitality. Besides, the isolated life of such tent-dwellers could get a little monotonous, so Abraham and Sarah probably welcomed a chance to talk with someone from "the big outside world."
In Sarah and Abraham's case, their gracious welcoming of the three strangers brought them a wonderful blessing.
In Psalm 116, the psalmist asks, "What shall I return to the Lord for all his bounty to me?" As the Lord's faithful people, as part of their faith life, Abraham and Sarah offered their very best to their visitors -- and therefore to their Lord.
Jesus says that if we see someone who's hungry and we feed them, we've actually done it to him (Matthew 25:40).
In our Matthew text for today, Jesus says, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest" (Matthew 25:40).
Agricultural experts tell us that this world can produce enough food to feed everyone -- if we're willing to work through the problems. And share. And be laborers in the effort. People need not go hungry.
CRAFTING THE SERMON
Can you think of a time recently when things were going so well for you that you wanted to sing, or dance, or do something out of the ordinary to express your happiness, your joy? Maybe it was the safe arrival of a baby into this world. Perhaps it was good news after you, or someone you love, had to go through a series of tests at the hospital. It could have been the safe return of a loved one from a battle area.
Like Tevye in the musical, Fiddler on the Roof, did you want to climb up onto some high place and express your feelings?
Of course we know that life is not all "mountaintop" experiences; we all know times when fear, anger, and guilt try to overcome us. These are times when we need to turn to our Lord Jesus for help, comfort, and support.
If we keep open to all the good things that the Lord is sending into our lives (rather than dwelling endlessly on our many difficulties), we will be saying with the psalmist, "What shall I return to the Lord for all his bounty to me?"
In recent days, the United Nations has been holding a conference -- a "food summit" -- in Rome to see what can be done about skyrocketing food prices around the world. The leaders of many countries have sought the help of leading agriculturists to see what steps can be taken to keep food on the table for all of the earth's people.
Perhaps we can learn something from Abraham and Sarah. When they saw three travelers -- three strangers -- approaching their tent, they began preparing food to share with them. Abraham selected the finest animal from the flock and Sarah prepared the finest dishes to go with it.
Our denomination helps the hungry around the world through our World Hunger Appeal. Last year our 5,000,000 members gave about $15,000,000 to the WHA, about $3.00 a person. Three dollars a person? That's hardly more than a cup of coffee at Starbucks!
Abraham and Sarah were blessed for sharing, receiving something far beyond their wildest dreams: a son, finally, in their extreme old age. How might the Lord bless us if we see the world's food crisis as a call to share some of our many blessings?
Jesus says, "The harvest is plentiful" (Matthew 9:37). If we are willing to share, if we are willing to spend less for weapons and more for agricultural help that will put food on the tables of all the families of this world, surely there will be a blessing in it for us.
Like Abraham and Sarah, we may experience a birth, not of a child but of a new spirit within ourselves -- a spirit of seeing all men, women, and children as our brothers and sisters. We may gain more family even than they did.
Is anyone at your house going hungry these days? Yes, in our world home, many are going hungry. Have we let the love of our Lord fill our hearts so that we care -- so that we do something about it?
ANOTHER VIEW
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Canaan
Paul Bresnahan
There are times when the truth is stranger than fiction. There are times when the truth is funnier, too. Such is the case with the news from space these days. In an impressive piece of technical know-how, the Japanese have assembled the billion-dollar Kibo-lab (Kibo means Hope), and have thus instilled a sense of national pride for the folks from the land of the rising sun. In the meantime, the Russians are sending up a $30 replacement pump for the toilet on the space station that has not been working. If incongruity is a source of humor, the two tasks facing the crew aboard the space station have to bring a smile to all involved. Mind you, given the scarcity of "necessary" sanitary devices in space, the case of a broken toilet is really no laughing matter.
Still we cannot help but "rib" one another when it comes to pointing out the foibles of human nature. So it was with Abram and Sarai. God and Abram had a wonderful heart-to-heart about the hope Abram had for a child. Still, he had to break the news to his wife. I can well imagine the conversation, as the father of our faith approaches the mother.
"Sarai, I think we need to go for a walk."
"How long a walk do you have in mind?"
"I thought we should go to Canaan."
"Canaan!" she fires back. "Do you know how far away Canaan is from here?"
"Only a couple of hundred miles," returns Abram.
"A couple of hundred miles! That's a bit much for us at our age, don't you think?" Sarai continues quite reasonably, "So what are we going to do when we get there?"
Abram had to approach that question in a gingerly way. After all a lot was riding on Sarai's cooperation: "Well, you and I are going to become the mother and father of many nations."
"What!" now becoming somewhat more animated, Sarai incredulously asks. "Do you not know that we are both in our 80s and are quite unlikely to be mothers and fathers of anybody? You're talking foolishness!"
The wise old man with a twinkle in his eye, looks lovingly at his wife. "I'm not kidding, you know, I can give you a guarantee."
Sarai stops in her tracks and looks long into Abram's eyes. "Who have you been talking to?"
O dear, I knew it would come to this, Abram may have thought to himself, but Sarai deserves to know.
"I've been talking to God. He told me to look at the stars of the sky. He told me to count the grains of sand along the shore if I didn't believe him... so shall my descendents be, God told me."
Sarai began to laugh. She began to laugh, and then she began to laugh even harder and then she laughed so hard that tears came to her eyes. "God has given me laughter!"
So it was that, in the fullness of time, Sarai brought forth her son and gave him the name of laughter. Isaac... in Hebrew the name carries with it the sound of laughter. In the way that words in any language can sometime bring imitative harmony with them, so does the sound of Isaac (Yitzak) in Hebrew bring the sound of laughter to those listening to the sounds of those two amazing syllables.
There are many wonderful stories filled with humor in the holy writings of the Bible. Given the truth of the Bible, it can really be said that truth is stranger than fiction... and funnier, too.
ILLUSTRATIONS
In this week's program, Protestant theologian Don Saliers observes that churches sometimes transmit principles and rituals without passing on some of the original dynamics of faith behind them. Saliers and my other guest, Catholic priest and theologian Edward Foley, frame the meaning of the Christian Eucharist or Communion in terms that are basic and human....
One of the most salutary observations of this hour for me is Don Saliers' reminder that in the earliest churches, which gathered in homes, the community meal was afterwards shared with outsiders and especially the poor. Communion was inextricably linked with service. Though Foley and Saliers have different theologies of what is happening in the bread and the wine of Communion, they agree on this: to partake of that "body of Christ" means to participate in the suffering of God in the world, to embody the church "in the world and for the world." The intimacy of "supping with God," isn't meant simply to confer grace and inward spiritual blessings, Foley says, it asks something of communicants. It calls Christians to embody the notion of sacrifice, and, as best they are able, to be agents of justice.
-- Krista Tippett, Speaking of Faith online journal, 11/24/05
* * *
Carolyn Winfrey Gillette's recent hymn, "Where is Bread?" (set to the familiar tune, "Abbot's Leigh") could prove useful this week, either as a sermon illustration or for congregational singing:
http://www.churchworldservice.org/Hymns/whereisbread.htm
* * *
We are involved now in a profound failure of imagination. Most of us cannot imagine the wheat beyond the bread, or the farmer beyond the wheat, or the farm beyond the farmer, or the history beyond the farm. Most people cannot imagine the forest and the forest economy that produced their houses and furniture and paper; or the landscapes, the streams and the weather that fill their pitchers and bathtubs and swimming pools with water. Most people appear to assume that when they have paid their money for these things they have entirely met their obligations.
-- Wendell Berry, "In Distrust of Movements"
* * *
The Union of Concerned Scientists notes that there are two main areas where US citizens take a hoggish bite of the world's limited resources and fuels. First is transportation. Anybody would guess this....
Gas-guzzling area number two, and this may surprise you, is our diet. Americans have a taste for food that's been seeded, fertilized, harvested, processed, and packaged in grossly energy-expensive ways and then shipped, often refrigerated, for so many miles it might as well be green cheese from the moon. Even if you walk or bike to the store, if you come home with bananas from Ecuador, tomatoes from Holland, cheese from France, and artichokes from California, you have guzzled some serious gas. This extravagance that most of us take for granted is a stunning energy boondoggle: Transporting 5 calories' worth of strawberry from California to New York costs 435 calories of fossil fuel. The global grocery store may turn out to be the last great losing proposition of our species.
-- Barbara Kingsolver, "Lily's Chickens," in Small Wonder: Essays (New York: HarperCollins 2002), pp. 113-114
* * *
One of my Internet friends, Dwyn Mounger, once wrote, "I remember, from seminary days, a Taiwanese student who told me that, in his native Taiwanese language, the every-day greeting isn't, "How are you?" or, "How goes it?" but, "Have you eaten?"
Susan Forbes, another Internet colleague from Saint Louis, adds, "In Indonesia (where she lived for 6 months) the question is not, "Have you eaten?" but, "Have you eaten rice yet?" If you haven't eaten rice, you haven't eaten.
-- Gayle Bach-Watson on the Ecunet computer network, 1/19/02
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After the Dalai Lama delivered a lecture, a member of the audience asked him what the answer to world hunger is. He responded, "Sharing."
-- The Christian Century, 7/12/05, p. 6
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In Barbara's teaser, she mentions that it is estimated that we spend $20 billion on excess food that makes us overweight and that it would only take $30 billion to solve the food crisis. All of this reminds me of Gandhi's famous quote: "The world can produce enough to meet the world's need, it just cannot produce enough to meet the world's greed." If we could solve the problem of greed in the world, we could go a long way toward solving the major problems that plague us. We may not be able to eliminate greed from everyone but we can clearly begin to work on our own greed.
* * *
I once saw a cartoon that in the first panel had a figure sitting under a tree speaking to God. He said, "God, why do you allow so many people to die of hunger in our world?"
In the next panel, the voice of God comes out of the sky. "I've been meaning to ask you the same question."
* * *
In Deuteronomy 8:3 it says, "He humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord."
Dorothy Soelle, in her book, Death by Bread Alone, speaks of the danger of our overly materialistic society experiencing death by bread alone.
Death by bread alone means being alone and then wanting to be left alone; being friendless, yet distrusting and despising others; forgetting others and then being forgotten; living only for ourselves and then feeling unneeded; being unconcerned about others and wanting no one to be concerned about us; neither laughing nor being laughed at; neither crying for another nor being cried for by another. How horrible is this death by bread alone.
-- Dorothy Soelle, Death by Bread Alone (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1978), p. 4
Perhaps, as Christians, we need to be concerned about hunger in this world for the sake of our own soul.
WORSHIP RESOURCE
Call To Worship
Leader: On an ordinary Sunday,
we come to worship God.
People: We come, trusting God will speak to us;
we come, hoping God will surprise us.
Leader: On this day, like every other day,
we seek to follow Jesus.
People: We follow, believing Jesus will be with us;
we follow, hoping Jesus will work through us.
Leader: On this day,
we lift our souls to God's Spirit;
People: we open our hearts, that the Spirit may fill us;
we open our hands that we might be a gift to others.
Prayer Of The Day
The little child struggling with fears,
the grandfather facing failing health,
the parent who lies awake until the early morning hours,
the teenager pressured by peers,
the lonely who are prey to con artists,
all of us with ordinary aches, pains, and worries;
each is cradled in your infinite compassion,
Tender God.
Those who work through the night,
those who walk the street,
those who are called exceptional,
those who are differently gifted,
those who are filled with doubts,
those who spill over in laughter,
the youngest,
the oldest,
the ordinary;
each is called by you,
Lord Jesus.
Joyous praisers of your name,
seekers of hope,
those walled out by prejudice and hate,
babies who cry from hunger,
the poor who share their last coin
with those in greater need;
all the ordinary people around the world
are not disappointed by your presence,
Spirit of Hope.
God in Community, Holy in One,
hear us as we lift our voices,
praying as Jesus has taught us, saying,
Our Father...
Call To Reconciliation
This is all the proof we need: It was when we were least able to save ourselves that God did it for us in Christ Jesus. Because we trust that God forgives us, let us bring our confessions to God, praying,
Unison Prayer Of Confession
Merciful God, if we committed extraordinary sins, we might feel a need to confess to you. But our failings seem so everyday and petty:
ignoring our friends and families,
forgetting to look after creation,
hoarding the blessing you have given to us,
following political agendas instead of Jesus.
Forgive us, Compassionate God, for we not only harm others and our world by our sins, but we break your heart. Call us again, and strengthen us to follow in the footsteps of Jesus -- sitting with the sufferers, offering ourselves in obedience to you, opening our hearts to all your children. In the name of Jesus, we pray.
Silence is kept
Assurance Of Pardon
Leader: Christ has died for us -- can God's love be made any clearer to us? By this gift, we enter into God's kingdom, and are graced to serve others.
People: Forgiven, gifted, restored, called;
we are God's people. Amen.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Can I do it?
Object: a sticker you would use in Sunday school
Matthew 9:35--10:8 (9-23)
These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: "Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, proclaim the good news, "The kingdom of heaven has come near' " (Matthew 10:5-7).
Good morning, boys and girls. How many of you know the name of one of the disciples who worked with Jesus? (let them answer) Do you know how many disciples there were? (let them answer) What kind of work did the disciples do with Jesus? (let them answer) The names of the disciples were Andrew, Bartholomew, James, James the Less, John, Judas, Matthew, Peter, Philip, Simon, Thaddeus, and Thomas. They followed Jesus for almost three years in the land of Israel. But what did they do? Did they just walk around or sit by the water listening to Jesus? Did they have jobs? (let them answer) No one ever really said what each one did. We know that some of them were fishermen before they began to follow Jesus. One of them was a tax collector.
Today the Bible tells us about the time that Jesus told all of the disciples that he had something special for them to do. He gave them really good advice. He wanted them to go to all of the nearby villages and towns and tell the people that "The kingdom of heaven has come near." They were told to cure the sick, raise the dead, heal the people who had leprosy, and get rid of evil spirits.
What do you think the disciples thought? (let them answer) I would have thought, "Wow, can I do those things?" Jesus did not let them think about it too long. He sent them out with this to say, "The kingdom of heaven has come near."
Today, we are going to pretend that we are the disciples. I brought along some stickers and I want you to give them to people here in church. I don't think many of them have ever had someone visit them and say, "The kingdom of heaven has come near." But you can do it. Let's practice saying it one more time. (let them say it with you) "The kingdom of heaven has come near." (Turn them around and begin to lead them down the aisles, stopping and giving people stickers and saying, "The kingdom of heaven has come near" -- it will be a new experience)
Boys and girls, you could be like one of Jesus' disciples. When the disciples went out and said this to the people in the villages, things really happened. People were cured, people who were so sick they could hardly move were given new life, and the evil spirits in the town flew away as fast as they could. It was a wonderful day. It was the beginning of their ministry and they did things like this often. The next time someone asks you what the disciples of Jesus did, you can tell them that you are a disciple of Jesus, also. Amen.
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The Immediate Word, June 15, 2008, issue.
Copyright 2008 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 517 South Main Street, Lima, Ohio 45804.
