This advent reflection is part of ELCA World Hunger’s 2020 Advent Study. You can download the full study here. You can also download the corresponding advent calendar here. 

Advent Week Three

“Comfort”

Read

Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11
Psalm 126
I Thessalonians 5:16-24
John 1:6-8, 19-28

Study

Volunteering has always been the lifeblood of Cacilda Rodrigues Barcelos. Born in São Borja, Brazil, she moved at age 13 with her family to the metropolitan region of Porto Alegre. Alone, her mother raised 11 daughters and sons, until her 50th birthday, when she died. Cacilda was 22 at the time, and the community helped to support her. “People taught me how to do what I do, because I was welcomed by them,” she says.

Now 63, Cacilda has dedicated years to giving back through volunteering. Early on, she worked with young boys in the community to make and sell food at fairs to help pay for uniforms and tournaments for their soccer team. Today, as a member of the management board of the Fair Trade and Solidarity Network (a project of the diakonia foundation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Brazil), she helps train other women in entrepreneurship and helps plan workshops and fairs where they sell their goods. She also volunteers in the Peace Service and teaches women to prevent and overcome violence.

As much as Cacilda has changed her community, the biggest change has been in her personal life. “I learned to put myself in other people’s shoes and respect each other. I was very angry, as a way to defend myself, and it was in these meetings and meetings [with other women from the Fair Trade and Solidarity Network] that I grew and improved,” she says. “That’s why I say I’m the one who gains the most.”

As common — and often justified — as anger is, it is one of those emotions that we struggle to deal with in the church, at times. We might find it difficult to place raw, tumultuous emotions within the life of the people of God. Perhaps it is one of the reasons that this season we will sing songs about the “holy infant so tender and mild” (“Silent Night”) or “that mother mild” (“Once in Royal David’s City”) while we still await the writing of an ode to Jesus’ overturning of tables in the temple. Volatile emotions, particularly in the seasons of Advent and Christmas, feel so out of place. We aren’t quite sure what to do with them.

That has made 2020 particularly hard to navigate. This year, we have lived with the grief of the hundreds of thousands of lives lost to the COVID-19 pandemic. We have mourned isolation from one another and the loss of that most basic human need of touch, even as we understood the risk that accompanied handshakes and hugs. We grieved together as loved ones and neighbors died alone in hospitals or nursing homes. And when we couldn’t gather together for funerals, we lost a key ritual for processing our grief as a community.

We grieved the loss of livelihoods and the closure of family businesses that had been part of our communities for generations. We feared the long-term consequences for our communities as jobs were lost and more and more people around the world went hungry.

And we were angered together by the deadly injustice of racism and the persistent inequalities that exacerbated the pandemic in many communities. Demonstrations filled streets in cities large and small as a collective voice of rage was raised against a racist justice system that continues to disproportionately permit and even sanction extrajudicial killings of people of color.

Certainly, our hope rests in that just peace (shalom) that “surpasses all human understanding,” which will “wipe away every tear from our eyes” and bring such equity and harmony that the lion will lie down with the lamb and the child will play with the viper and not be harmed. But there are times when it is difficult to see this promise through the lens of overwhelming grief and righteous anger. And there are times when grief and anger are what we need to move us toward justice, which is the form of the love of neighbor takes in society. For many of us, 2020 was one of those times.

The promise of Advent is not merely the promise of a future when all shall be made well, when all grief and anger shall cease and when the weight of heavy emotions shall be lifted from our shoulders. The promise of Advent — or, perhaps, the comfort of Advent — is that, amid our grief and anger, God is present, walking with us, consoling us, inspiring us and prodding us to walk together toward the future
where justice and peace will kiss (Psalm 85:10).

The future day promised by Isaiah in this week’s reading is a promise not to those who are comfortable but to those who are afflicted. In “the year of the Lord’s favor,” God will “provide for those who mourn in Zion — to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning” (Isaiah 61:2-3). It is a promise that those whose burdens have left them with a “faint spirit” will be given the strength of “oaks” and that God will “cause righteousness and praise to spring up” like the first plants of spring (61:11). It is a promise that God, who “loves justice,” (61:8) will establish the same — and an invitation for us to be part of this.

Perhaps that is the reassurance of the Scripture readings for this week. The grief and anger that have marked so much of this year — and that mark so much of every year for many of us living in vulnerability to disease, injustice, hunger and violence — is where God meets us. We need not gather the strength to move on nor ignore the depth of our pain in order to find God. God finds us in these depths.

Cacilda, working tirelessly with neighbors in Brazil, was able to let go of her anger and felt herself changed by the experience. But God did not wait for that moment to work transformation and renewal through her. Indeed, it may be through this very tumult that God moves us toward greater actions of justice. Christ did not wait for a comfortable bed but was born in the sharp, chafing, ill-fitting manger, amid the noise of the animals and the loneliness of the stable. We need not wait to be comfortable, for our grief to resolve or our anger to subside, in order to draw close to God.

God has been there all along.

Ask

1. What caused you to mourn or angered you this year?
2. How does God meet you amid your grief and anger?
3. How can the transformation of our grief or anger help spur us to
   deeper acts in service of one another or in service of God?
4. What would a just peace (shalom) look like in your community?
   In the United States?

Pray

Comforting and empowering God, you meet us amid our pain and ease the load of our burdens. Be near us in our grief and anger, comfort us as we mourn and move our will toward acts of justice for one another. Grant the world just peace this season, that we may find rest and hope in you. In your holy name, we pray. Amen.

This advent reflection is part of ELCA World Hunger’s 2020 Advent Study. You can download the full study here. You can also download the corresponding advent calendar here. 

Advent Week Two

“Prepare”

Read

Isaiah 40:1-11
Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13
II Peter 3:8-15a
Mark 1:1-8

Study

Even as we enter this season of anticipation of the birth of Jesus Christ, our focus for this year is on the nearness of God. While our biblical ancestors awaited the coming of God’s promised Messiah, they still knew that God was never far from them and their plight.

The Gospel of Mark, like the Gospel of John, does not include a story of Jesus’ birth. Instead, it opens with a very different scene — the appearance of John the Baptist in the wilderness, proclaiming the coming of the Promised One and baptizing disciples in the river. John declares, “Prepare the way of the Lord!” (1:3). His message echoes the prophecy in Isaiah 40:3 of the approaching dawn of God’s promise to set all things right.

Both the original prophecy and John’s repetition are clear about what we are waiting for — the “day of the Lord.” The preparations the gospel enjoins are not preparations made amid absence, like the preparations that might be made for a visitor. The prophecies, instead, are precursors to an event. The message is not that God is coming at some time in the future but that the day is on its way.

This is an important distinction. So often, we view the future with expectant hope that God will come and set all things right. This kind of forward-looking hope is important. But this yearning for the fulfillment of God’s promise must be tempered by the faith that sees God already at work in the world as it is. We are not waiting on God; if anything, perhaps God is waiting on us (II Peter 3:9). John’s message is a reminder that, even as we await the final fulfillment of the promise, God is already at work, weaving the threads of God’s promise for us in our midst. To “prepare” is to “make straight” the ways, that is, to be about the ministry of the church now, participating in the work of justice and the full and final reconciliation God is making possible, even as we long for the day to come.

This message of active anticipation can be seen in a story of communities living around two different rivers, thousands of miles from the Jordan. In El Salvador, families from eight communities are working to restore the quality of the water they depend on from the San Antonio River, the Nejapa Aquifer and the Jiboa River. Through a project of the Sínodo Luterano Salvadoreño (Salvadoran Lutheran Church), the families have joined together to decontaminate the water from the tributaries to the rivers so that it will be safe to use for drinking, bathing and farming.

Miguel Angel Calderón Barahona is president of the La Granja Communal Association, one of the community groups working on the project. For Miguel, the project has meant more than just improving the water. “My life changed from the moment I decided to be part of this project,” he says. As a leader, “I have had the opportunity to reach beyond my perspectives as a member of the community [and to] reach out to other communities, see the needs in those communities and be able to be part of [their] development, as well.”

Part of the success of the program has been the ability to organize the people in the communities. That work began with an effort to improve the road to San Salvador, a route beset by fatal accidents. In working to improve the safety of the road, the community laid the groundwork and built the relationships that will now help them ensure access to quality water. Through the current project, Miguel says, the community has organized itself even more strongly, and now “the community at large is going to take a different course, and hopefully, it will be the path of success in our community.”

Reaching their goal has meant doing the hard work of preparation: petitioning communities and schools, building relationships and forging partnerships. The “path of success” is laid by the many small steps the communities take now that will lead to big changes.

We, as church together, know this. What is more, we know that even as we yearn for the day when all will be able to partake in the fruits of God’s good creation, God is at work now, through the efforts of people such as Miguel and his neighbors in Nejapa, El Salvador and other communities working for access to clean water around the world.

Preparing for the day to come means more than hoping for the final fulfillment of God’s promise. It means seeing, even now, that God is at work among us, and joining in this work. While we anticipate the event, we are not alone. In fact, we have never been alone, even this year. As we physically isolated from one another, God never isolated from us, as was evident in the many creative and courageous ways ministries adapted to ensure that the work of the church would go on — and that all would be prepared for the day to come.

Ask

1. Where have you found God at work through the ministries of your church this year?
2. How is working to ensure that all have clean water, sufficient food and resources to meet their other needs part of the church’s “active anticipation” of God’s promises for the future?
3. What is a “path of success” for your community? How is the
   church helping walk with neighbors on that path?

Pray

Ever-present God, through sickness, violence, discord and injustice we have yearned for the fulfillment of your promise. Make us, your church, a sign of the day to come, that we may reflect this hope to others. Knit us together with one another and with our neighbors, that none may feel alone or isolated from your life-giving love. In your holy name, we pray. Amen.

This advent reflection is part of ELCA World Hunger’s 2020 Advent Study. You can download the full study here. You can also download the corresponding advent calendar here. 

Advent Week One

“Keep Awake” 

Read

Isaiah 64:1-9
Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19
I Corinthians 1:3-9
Mark 13:24-37

Study

This year has felt like an awful lot of waiting already, and now here we are at the start of Advent, a season of … waiting. Many greeted the new year with expectant hope. Early reports signaled a strong harvest year for farmers. Economic news in the United States seemed to be largely positive, though critical issues of poverty and inequality remained present. The year, for many, looked promising.

But how quickly things change. By mid-March, COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, and economies started grinding to a virtual halt. Of course, the risk wasn’t the same for everyone, as we knew from the start. The lives of older adults and people with compromised immune systems or underlying health conditions were at significant risk. Small-business owners, service industry workers and farmworkers faced increasingly dire consequences for their livelihoods. In the United States, communities of color saw rates of infection, hospitalization and death that were many times higher than those of white communities. As the disease spread around the world, the uneven risk was brought into sharper relief — between wealthy countries and countries with fewer economic resources and lower access to high-quality, affordable health care. The inequities within countries, including the United States, was also brought into sharper relief.

Perhaps never before has so much of the world been glued to statistical data, watching every release of new case counts, changes in positivity rates, and testing capacity. We waited together for stores to reopen, for furloughs to end and for the chance to visit loved ones. As church, we waited for the chance to dine together at the table of communion, even as the Spirit refused to postpone inspiring the people of God to worship in new, creative ways.

Together, we felt the inertia and anxiety of waiting for good news about progress on vaccines or positivity rates. On the other hand, some commenters encouraged others to view the pandemic and its accompanying shutdowns as a welcome “pause,” a slowdown of the hurried pace of daily life. And perhaps, for some of us, the pause has been an opportunity to take a break and reflect on which demands on our time and attention are truly valuable.

But something is missing in this picture of the pandemic as a restorative period of reflective waiting. So many of us this year, and every year, do not have the privilege of uninterrupted self-reflection. The service industry workers and gig workers who immediately lost their jobs, or whose continued employment meant entering a scary field of person-to-person encounters, did not have the privilege of merely “waiting it out” in hope that the pandemic would ease. The millions of people in the United States and around the world who face severe food insecurity could not merely wait for sustenance or stability.

In a letter earlier this year, Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton wrote of the converging of two deadly viruses — COVID-19 and the ongoing virus of racism that continues to infect our communities and institutions. The distress named by Bishop Eaton in her letter is a more visceral and accurate description of what so many of us felt this year. The cries of people raised in supplication during the pandemic and lifted in protest are the cries of those who can no longer wait.

This Advent season opens with a story of another people sick of waiting. The Gospel of Mark, most likely, was written to the community of early Christians living under the shadow of empire in first-century Rome. This early community faced persecution and violence. They were no strangers to suffering.

Amid this suffering, Jesus, using what is often a general reference to humanity in Hebrew, promises them a future in which the “Son of Man” will come “with great power and glory” (13:26) to set all things right.

In the meantime, he tells them, “Keep awake” (13:37). To “keep awake” is to grasp the kind of hope that inspires and to renounce the kind of hope that incapacitates. It is to feed on the hope that propels and to starve the hope that paralyzes. It is the gospel hope that tells us not to “wait and see” but to “come and see.”

Em Musa, a grandmother in Ramallah, Palestine, knows that “just waiting” is a luxury she and her community cannot afford. Married at 20, mother to four children, Em Musa had more than enough responsibilities to occupy her time. But she also knew that her community in Palestine could not wait for progress. So, she chose to work toward justice for her people by becoming active in the Palestinian resistance movement. To this day, she bears the scars of this decision. In her time as an activist, she was wounded on her forehead, shot in her left thigh and imprisoned for almost a year and a half. Her husband passed away after her release, when their youngest child was just two-and-a-half years old.

Today, Em Musa participates in a Meals on Wheels project in Ramallah that is supported, in part, by ELCA World Hunger. The aim of the program is to help people isolated by health, age or circumstance experience a sense of community in addition to the food provided. The weekly gatherings help participants build connections with one another and with volunteers and staff, while home delivery of food meets the needs of people unable to come to the Arab Women’s Union due to health or limited mobility. A physician is available once a week, and the Meals on Wheels program helps distribute some of the medication needed by participants such as Em Musa.

Em Musa’s thirst for justice led her to costly activism, and now her hunger, for both food and community, has led her to the Meals on Wheels program. The ministries and programs supported by ELCA World Hunger are driven forward not merely by a deep awareness of the need in our communities but also by an even deeper awareness that, amid struggles for justice and wholeness, God will “strengthen [us] to the end” (I Cor. 1:8) — and what an end it will be!

As we enter this season of Advent, may we do so knowing that to hope in God is not to wait but to “keep awake,” not to lose hope when faced with challenges but to confront them together. To hope is to know that the coming of Christ happens amid daily life and all its struggles. It is amid those things where relationships are birthed and renewed and where God is, even now, at work.

Ask

1. Where have you found hope in the past year?
2. How can or has hope for the future motivated you to work for justice in the present?
3. What is your hope for the future? How is God calling you to make this hope a reality?
4. How is the church called to “keep awake” amid the suffering and injustices uncovered by the pandemic and all that has happened this year?
5. What can we do to make sure that our Advent discipline of “staying awake” does not become passive waiting?

Pray

Gracious God, you sustain your people through seasons of change and challenge. Breathe into us your Spirit, drive us from our waiting places and into the world to be part of the promise you proclaim. Inspire us with hope and courage to confront our needs — for justice, for health, for liberation, for one another and for you — and restore our relationships with one another and with all of creation. In the name of your son, Jesus Christ. Amen.

This Fall, ELCA World Hunger was invited to join leaders from Arizona via Zoom at the first statewide gathering of advocates and friends hosted by Lutheran Advocacy Ministry Arizona (LAMA).

John Johnson, program director for domestic policy for the ELCA, highlights the importance of this work to the work God calls this church to pursue:

Our return on investment for advocacy is one of the great untold successes of the ELCA. Our federal and state advocacy leverages BILLIONS of public dollars annually for vulnerable populations at home and abroad. In 2020, with COVID-19 recovery packages in Congress, Lutherans have engaged policy makers to the tune of trillions of dollars.

Ryan Cumming spoke about the importance of advocacy in the work and mission of the church and the difference between responding to hunger and ending it.

ELCA World Hunger is excited to announce the addition of two new staff members, Angela Galbraith and Nick Gaines. Read more about them below! 

Angela Galbraith

Hello! I’m Angela Galbraith and I am very excited to join ELCA World Hunger as the Program Associate for the Domestic Hunger Strategy Team. My passion for ELCA World Hunger began in my very first year of Sunday School, while we were participating in ELCA Good Gifts’ Global Barnyard. I had found a $1 bill and was extremely happy because it was enough to provide someone with a chicken! I have a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies with minors in Music, German, and Justice, Law & Public Policy from Wittenberg University. Most recently, I served with the Peace Corps as an HIV/AIDS and Adolescent Health Educator in Lesotho until operations were suspended globally, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

I fostered my passion for anti-hunger work and global health justice work through many different opportunities. Currently, I serve on the Board of a non-profit, Lesotho Nutrition Initiative, which is a Wittenberg student-run organization addressing food insecurity and chronic malnutrition. Previously, I held the positions of student body president, student body vice president, community engagement coordinator, and warehouse manager. I also was the marketing and communications intern for Second Harvest Food Bank in Springfield, Ohio, where I educated our partners and community.

I am from Pittsburgh, PA where my parents are both ELCA pastors in the Southwestern Pennsylvania Synod. I grew up attending synod assemblies and served on our synod council, along with my twin brother. I also was a committed summer camper, until being able to volunteer and serve on summer staff. At Camp Lutherlyn, I have been a Unit Leader, Counselor, and Kitchen Staff over the time of 7 summers.  I have been grateful to learn and grow in these communities while discerning my vocation.

In my free time, I can be found hiking, backpacking, kayaking, sharing music with friends, or watching sunrises and sunsets. Though it is not quite the same as the mountaintop views in Lesotho, I continue to find great joy in watching and reflecting on the beauty of the beginning and end of each day. I am honored to be a part of this team and look forward to working alongside you toward a just world where all are fed!

Nick Gaines

Hi everyone, my name is Nick Gaines, and I will be working on the ELCA World Hunger Team as a Temporary Assistant. I am excited to be a part of a group that works tirelessly towards a just world where all are fed. In the summer of 2018, I interned for AMMPARO, a team located in the ELCA’s Global Mission Unit. I am so excited to be involved with the ELCA once again! After graduating from Wheaton College with a degree in International Relations in May of 2019, I left for Sierra Leone as a Peace Corps Volunteer. This is where I had been for the past year until being evacuated because of COVID-19. In Sierra Leone, I taught English and mathematics at an all-girls middle school.

With my position mainly being a support role, it has allowed me to assist in many different aspects of ELCA World Hunger’s work. This has been both enlightening and rewarding. As I continue to learn about myself and where my passions lie, working with the Domestic Hunger Strategy Team has been extremely valuable towards my own growth and self-development.

When I am not in the office, I can often be found playing or watching soccer, watching a documentary, hiking, or planning my next trip. After being evacuated from Sierra Leone quite unexpectedly, I am hoping to make my way back there in the near future.

As many of you may already know, Rev. George Johnson, one of the foundational leaders of ELCA World Hunger has died. For seven years (1980-1987) George served as Director of the World Hunger Program for the former American Lutheran Church (now ELCA). Pr. Johnson rooted the then American Lutheran Church’s Hunger program, which would grow into ELCA World Hunger, on a foundation of justice. The ELCA World Hunger staff give thanks to God for his life and his service to the church.

George taught that a sustained life-long commitment to justice must start with one’s worship life. While this may not sound radical at first read, it was a bold statement in his time and is worth taking the time to explore what it means for life in 2020. It can be easy to relegate the work we do towards a just world where all are fed to something that is done outside of Sunday service. It is easy to look at our soup kitchens, meal packing programs, community gardens, job training programs, advocacy work, and more as standalone ministries, not as the central work of the church that flows from the shared songs and prayers of Sunday worship.

For George, creating a just world where all are fed started not with the chopping of vegetables for a soup supper or picking up the phone to call your congressperson, it stated with the songs, teaching, and prayers shared in worship. George’s work and life serve as a reminder of what it means to live into that Sunday promise of justice and carry it out into the world.

So, it is fitting that George’s final work from his very long and prolific life explores various theological understandings of justice that people can use to ground their personal and communal lives of worship in the justice that Christ preached. To celebrate Pr. Johnson’s life and service to ELCA World Hunger, here is an excerpt from the preface to his final book, No Time for Silence:

I HAVE ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE. Nothing to brag about, nothing to be ashamed about, and I see no reason to be silent about it. My brain served me well for eighty-five years, but now it has more and more difficulty remembering things.  I decided not to spend the remaining days of my life dwelling on what I have lost. Instead, I want to give people resources that will help them think and act critically in an age of confusion and conflicting voices. While I come from a Christian background, the points in this book pertain to people of all faiths, cultures, races, and genders.  The main premises of Silence Is Not the Answer are for all people to read and act on. I have read widely these past years about theology, politics, and suffering and its root causes. I cannot recall all that I have learned, but I can refer you to authors and spiritual leaders who I believe will challenge your preconceptions and give you hope for the future. One of my favorite authors and theologians at this stage in my life is Marcus J. Borg. His book Jesus: Uncovering the Life, Teachings, and Relevance of a Religious Revolutionary is a masterful portrayal of the historical Jesus and emerging Christianity. He explores the way Jesus resisted the domination system of the Roman empire power of his day. For Borg, both the personal and the political dimensions of Jesus’s message are important for understanding the revolutionary aspects of his life and teaching. I highly recommend Borg’s book if you want to understand who Jesus is for Christians today.

Another theologian I find inspiring is Leonardo Boff, a Roman Catholic priest from Brazil whose speaking out about the suffering of the poor and the death of millions in Latin America made head-line news. Despite attempts by the church to silence Boff because his speech was offensive to the establishment, his message made a difference. Boff’s book When Theology Listens to the Poor is a call for the modern church to create a better option for the poor. He points out how Mark 26:11, “The poor you will always have with you,” is used to support the status quo and creates an attitude of fatalism, pessimism, and cynicism that destroys any hope that things could be different.  However, Boff argues that the true meaning of this verse is that the opportunity to help is always there. Boff reminds us that when Jesus offered a better option for the poor, he was making it clear that God acts to free people from the bondage of poverty and oppression. It is the prophetic task of the church to do the same. Some people may say, “I don’t remember George espousing such progressive positions in his previous writings. Has he changed his mind?” In the past, I sometimes felt that I didn’t have enough information about an issue, that others had good points too, that I  should wait to see what happened and that my voice wouldn’t make a  difference.  But these excuses allowed bad choices to be made that cause suffering for our brothers and sisters.  As Brian McLaren says in his book The Great Spiritual Migration, we are all in the process of development. Sometimes new wine needs new wineskins, as Larry Rasmussen says. I have a certain perspective. My education and life experience have shaped my thinking and analyses. Others will see things differently. I respect that. But as Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel says, “What hurts the victim most is not the cruelty of the oppressor but the silence of the bystander.”

We need to read and listen attentively and then speak out for causes that we think are important. John the Baptist is described in the Gospels as “the voice of one crying out in the wilderness.” He calls us to “repent,” wake up and change.  Silence Is Not the Answer is a collection of prophetic voices urging us to wake up, notice what is happening, and take a stand. Our world today is filled with fear, conflict, war, and confusion. I encourage you to read the writers in this book with an open mind and think about their urgent cry. Some points will be made more than once.  Some truths are worth repeating. When I say to my wife, “I love you,” I am glad that Vivian does not say, “George, you already told me that. “When I began putting this book together, my wife said, “With your diminished hearing and eyesight and your memory problems, are you able to tackle another book?” Maybe not, but some things need to be said as we move toward the 2020 elections and beyond. So, with the help of Vivian and a professional editor, I collected some pieces written by myself and others to let our voices be heard and break the silence. If we remain silent, then our leaders and fellow citizens will not wake up and change course.  We must speak up and act now before our society is beyond saving

These reflections are a part of ELCA World Hunger’s Sermon Starter series which is published via email every Monday. You can sign up for the weekly email here on the right side of the page if on a computer or near the bottom of the page if viewing from a phone.

The Rev. Carla Christopher Wilson is the writer of this reflection. Pr. Carla serves as Associate Pastor of Faith Formation and Outreach at Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd in Lancaster, PA. She is also co-chair of Lower Susquehanna Synod’s racial justice task force and a member of LAMPa’s (Lutheran Advocacy Ministry of PA) statewide policy task force. A former Poet Laureate of York, PA and professional cultural competency trainer for the secular business world, Carla’s greatest joy is partnering faith and education with great storytelling.

1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

Just for fun, try something. Take this short passage and rewrite it as if it was being written about you. Imagine the saints of the church; the missionaries and the fundraisers and the preachers and the public demonstrators who were even willing to go to prison rather than turn their back on the hungry and the poor people that Jesus made a point of eating with and saying the kingdom of heaven was prepared for. Imagine they looked at you and said, “We always give thanks to God for all of you and mention you in our prayers, constantly remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, siblings, beloved by God, that he has chosen you.”

How does it feel to be addressed with that much love and gratitude? Do you feel as if you have lived up to those words? Do you feel challenged by them, knowing it was regular neighborhood folks just like you and me who they were written about? One of the glorious things of the early church was how much space was made for everyday people. Regardless of gender, birth, ability, or socioeconomic status, the gifts of salvation and a nurturing earthly community were available without restriction. An image we see repeatedly in scripture that represents what this open and steadfast loving God-family looks like is the table where are all fed. The house with rooms for all. We use that as a frequent ELCA World Hunger tagline as well; a reminder that “until all are fed” isn’t just a fundraising or donation goal-setter, it’s a Biblical call for justice and equity.

On October 16^th we celebrated World Food Day. World Food Day remembers the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United States. As far back as 1945, the United Nations recognized that enough food to eat is not a privilege, but a human right, and created World Food Day, to be observed every year, in1979. Why do we need a holiday to celebrate something that should be so simple as that eradicating hunger is a good thing? We should all get that, right? Well, why do we need such a simple and loving passage in the Bible as this reading from 1 Thessalonians? There are no parables, no miracles, no heavy-laden charges, or complex life-guiding wisdom.

We need both World Food Day and 1 Thessalonians for the simple reason they help us remember to stay encouraged because injustice CAN be ended. Success is possible. We ARE making a difference, and we must continue in our efforts. This passage contains a key reminder to us; stay grateful, keep praying, work in faith, remain steadfast. “The word of the Lord has sounded forth from you… in every place, your faith in God has become known.” Around the world, the table of God is being made bigger and seats are being set at the table, one food pantry or one bag of crop seed or one donated farm animal at a time. I think that’s worth celebrating.

Matthew 22:15-22

Oh, how often do we feel the sharp sting of sarcasm when a sly tongue lashes out at us? Whether it is a family member with a backhanded compliment or a co-worker with a sarcastic aside, there are many names to describe this type of gilded assault. “Microaggression” or “passive aggression” are good examples but they both contain a very telling word: aggression. Even when we coat it with padding to make it more intellectual, more palatable, less uncomfortably confrontational, to be deliberately unkind or flat out mean is an attack. To say something meant to entrap or intended to highlight another’s area of struggle or challenge is an attack. In our reading, we see that attacking another is not the way of Jesus.

In today’s passage, Jesus is the intended victim of an aggressive attack wrapped in a charged conversation that was likely harmless in appearance to an uninformed passerby. Pharisees, (“a member of an ancient Jewish sect, distinguished by strict observance of the traditional and written law, and commonly held to have pretensions to superior sanctity,” according to Oxford Dictionary) are joined by Herodians (“a party that favored the dynasty of Herod and stood for the Roman connection who cared little or nothing for religion and normally were bitterly opposed by the Pharisees,” according to Bible-Studys.org). Jesus is asked about the payment of taxes knowing that if he decrees that money should be given to God over government he will be called treasonous and if he calls for resources to go to the government over the needs of the people he will be denounced by the priests. The dialogue is rife with sarcasm and meant to set up an impossible situation that will make Jesus look a fool. Ironically, when we hear about microaggressions today it is usually the most marginalized among us who are targeted; sly remarks aimed at those speaking English as a second language, or a poor woman holding up a grocery line to pay for necessities with a food stamp card.

Instead of playing into the aggression or repaying injury with insult, Jesus cleverly avoids the trap by saying that both God and the emperor should be given what belongs to them. I like to think it’s because Jesus has the same high school counselor as I did or at least a mentor who gave similar sage advice. Ms. Fran took me aside when I was tempted to react with anger, respond with insult, or rise-up in aggression, and she told me about ‘results-oriented thinking.’ “You are here for a reason child, don’t let anyone distract you. You have bigger fish to fry.”

As I type this, we are heading into certainly the most controversial election season of most of our lifetimes. We are struggling as a country with the most faithful response to a pandemic. I get it. As a pastor and a justice advocate, I’m in the thick of it too. The temptation may be anger or frustration. It may be disengaging and shutting down. As hard as it is, my siblings in Christ, I am asking you to remain focused in this season. As you can read on the ELCA World Hunger website, 821 million people around the world – that’s more than 1 in 10 – can’t access the food they need to live active, healthy lives. We have important work to do my friends. Alongside Jesus, we are called to talk to those willing to listen, to sidestep those who are not, and above all to remain focused on finding creative and dynamic ways to teach and serve the most vulnerable among us. When we refuse the distractions of the devil (and hopefully practice some healthy self-care to strengthen our spirit), like the Pharisees, they often ‘leave us and go away.’

Children’s Sermon

Have a picture of a large sad face or an angry face. Have several smaller cut out hearts. Ask each child to share something they can do that brings them joy or makes them happy. Try to lead them to say something they can do with friends or family or that they can do for others or positive self-care actions such as deep breathing or taking a time-out break. Each time a child offers a suggestion write it on a heart and have the child tape the heart over a part of the sad/angry face. If you are virtual, make the suggestions yourself and let the viewers see the sad/angry face being covered and made to go away by doing kind actions for others. Remind children that the sad or angry face might still be under there and might even come out sometimes and that’s okay, but when it does, God helps up find ways to get through it so we can keep doing the things we love and having fun with our friends and family.

With gratitude for those who have donated to and participated in the ELCA’s COVID-19 Response Fund, ELCA World Hunger is happy to announce another round of Daily Bread Matching Grants this fall. Grant applications are being accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. Learn more below.

Hope Springs Up Through Daily Bread Matching Grants

Here in Chicago, the days are growing colder, the daylight hours are growing fewer and the impending arrival of a long winter looms large. As the season changes, we are confronted with the undeniable fact that the pandemic remains with us. Economic prospects are bleak, and hunger is on the rise. Many of us are grieving, lonely or afraid; we are isolated from one another in ways that would have felt inconceivable before this year. At the same time, we face such new challenges as managing virtual school, finding safe ways to vote, and adapting ministries to new models. The change is relentless and exhausting, like the political ads on our televisions and the news predicting a second wave of the virus.

On many days we may feel as if God has left us, God’s people, wandering in the wilderness. But God’s promises of renewal and hope for the future hold true: “Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness” (Isaiah 43:18-19). This is not just a promise for this pandemic time but a standing promise from God for all time. Especially in times such as these, when hope feels scarce, we need to create a space where we can look a little closer and remember the hope we are called to as Christians.

More specifically, this is a time not only to recall the hope we have in Christ intellectually but to “re-member” hope — to relearn that our Christian hope and God’s promise for renewal come to us through the fellow members of our communities. The hope we share as Christians is an embodied hope that shows us where God is already active in our communities and urges us to lend a hand.

Daily Bread Matching Grants — which launched in April, early in the pandemic — utilize the ELCA’s crowdfunding platform and create giving incentives, in the form of $500 matching grants, that have allowed 200 ELCA congregations with feeding ministries to reach out directly to their communities and raise much-needed funds to meet the increased demand for food. The grants enable ELCA congregations to embody hope by providing actual daily bread to their communities.

We are currently accepting applications for a second round of Daily Bread Matching Grants, to be awarded in November. If you would like to apply for a grant or donate to the program, visit ELCA.org/dailybread.

Success Stories From Congregations

The stories that have emerged from the spring round of Daily Bread Matching Grants truly reveal what it means to re-member hope. ELCA World Hunger staff have celebrated countless stories of communities and congregations mobilizing quickly and pivoting to meet the immediate needs of community members and continue our work toward a just world where all are fed — all while keeping their communities safe. Several of those stories are featured in our “Church Together – Apart” video series, which you can explore through the links below.

In Junction City, Ohio, New Lebanon Lutheran Church re-membered hope by creating an online community. Pastor Kristin Santiago explains, “For the first time in 204 years of congregational history, this congregation now has a website, access to online giving and newer social media, which helped us spread the word about the need for matching funds given to the Daily Bread Matching Grant.” Pastor Kristin notes that the pandemic hit her community hard: “Our southeastern, Appalachian Ohio community has lived with high amounts of poverty for a generation following the closure of coal mining and loss of manufacturing jobs. The onset of the pandemic has exacerbated that with more layoffs.”

With new access to online giving, along with traditional forms of giving, New Lebanon was able to raise funds for Shepherd’s Table, the church’s semimonthly feeding ministry. As a result, New Lebanon has been able to increase from 75 to 150 the meals it serves its neighbors every month. Pastor Kristin hopes that the connections made through this grant will continue to help Shepherd’s Table expand the number of meals it serves.

Hope Lutheran Church in Lynden, Wash, re-membered hope by expanding its “backpack buddies” program, which provides food for students and families who rely on free or discounted school lunches. The program’s founder, Tammy Yoder, explained that her community is home to many farmers and migrant farmworkers who were hit hard by the pandemic due to shifting food demands across the country. Tammy and her team used their Daily Bread Matching Grant to provide patrons with ingredients for two full family meals instead of smaller individual meals.

And in Huntington Station, N.Y, Gloria Dei Evangelical Lutheran Church re-membered hope with its food pantry, which has seen demand double in recent months and is the only ministry in the church building that has continued to operate throughout the pandemic. In fact, with the help of a Daily Bread Matching Grant, the congregation has even grown its ministry by working with food banks and other partners in its community. According to Pastor Joel, the congregation had never before used its Facebook page for fundraising. “Within a day or two, we’d already reached that $500 matching goal,” he said. “By the time we were done, we were up over $4,000.”

All told, through online fundraising the 200 congregations participating in the spring’s Daily Bread Matching Grants more than tripled ELCA World Hunger’s contribution toward domestic, community-based feeding ministries. These 200 congregations remind us that, even when days feel dark, hope is not a scarce commodity but an abundant blessing to be shared widely. God is doing a new thing through the members of this church. Do you not perceive it?

It’s hard to overstate the impact COVID-19 has had on our communities and our worship experiences. Summer 2020 has begun with a great deal of uncertainty – about our health, the health and well-being of our neighbors, jobs and more. But these past few months have revealed in surprising ways what we have known by faith – God is still at work in our world, inspiring hope, motivating change and leading us to a brighter future. And many congregations have been hard at work, adapting to meet the new needs and changing landscape of worship and faith formation.

To help with this, ELCA World Hunger is delighted to share an adapted version of this year’s Vacation Bible School: “On Earth As in Heaven…At Home!” This adaptation simplifies some of the activities in the original leader’s guide, offers tips for doing crafts and games at home, and provides links to pre-recorded videos you can share.

“On Earth As in Heaven…At Home” Leader’s Guide

The new leader’s guide for this at-home VBS provides simplified instructions for a shorter schedule, as well as alternative activities for parents or caregivers to use at home. The small-group times from the original format have been re-structured into short bible studies, with tips for hosting an online meeting or for households doing the activity on their own. We also included tips for helping children use a journal as part of the small-group times.

New game ideas have been added with an eye toward smaller households doing them, rather than large groups, and new craft ideas can be done with both younger and older children at home. There are also links to the songs for “On Earth As in Heaven” and to pre-recorded videos.

Videos

We are also happy to share that we have pre-recorded videos for the skits and for the Story Time station for “On Earth As in Heaven!” The skits were recorded and performed by Paige and Alexis Greve. There are five videos – one for each day – and these can be shared, posted to your congregation’s website, or played live during online gatherings. Each skit helps introduce the theme for the day.

There are also five skits that tell the stories of projects supported in part by ELCA World Hunger. ELCA churchwide staff tell the stories in the videos, so in each one, children will meet one person who works for the ELCA and hear the story of our neighbors working to end hunger around the world. Each story also includes some fun facts about the countries featured.

All of the videos can be viewed or downloaded from the ELCA’s Vimeo showcase page at https://vimeo.com/showcase/7224146.

Music

ELCA World Hunger also has original music for “On Earth As in Heaven!” There is a song for each day, and you can find zipped folders for each song on our resource page at https://elca.org/hunger/resources#VBS. Each folder will have a recording with vocals, an instrumental recording and a songsheet with chords.

In the leader’s guide for “On Earth As in Heaven…At Home,” we included a permissions letter that details the rights your congregation has to fair use and sharing of the songs and other materials associated with “On Earth As in Heaven.”

This adaptation of VBS for 2020 is the product of many conversations with leaders across the ELCA who provided their input and suggestions as it came together. All of the materials were developed, too, with the generous support of gifts to ELCA World Hunger, and we are happy to provide them for free because of this. If you use “On Earth As in Heaven…At Home,” please consider inviting participants to continue supporting the work of our church toward a just world where all are fed.

If you have any questions or feedback, please contact Ryan Cumming, program director of hunger education for ELCA World Hunger, at Ryan.Cumming@ELCA.org, or Brooke De Jong, program assistant for hunger education, at Brooke.DeJong@elca.org.

Blessings in your ministry!

These reflections are a part of ELCA World Hunger’s Sermon Starter series which is published via email every Monday. You can sign up for the weekly email here on the right side of the page if on a computer or near the bottom of the page if viewing from a phone. This reflection was written by Rev. Dr. William Flippin. Rev. Dr. William Edward Flippin, Jr. served as an ELCA parish pastor in Columbus, Ga., and Atlanta, Ga., for eleven years. He was the first African-American pastor at both churches.  He currently serves as Assistant to the Bishop, Director of Evangelical Mission for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod. He served on the ELCA Church Council 2013-19 and is on the Lutheran World Federation Church Council as Co-Chair for Advocacy and Public Voice. He received the “Prophetic Voice” Award in 2016 for Faith in Public Life, Washington, D.C., and serves on the Alumni Board for Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. He also was inducted in 2017 to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Board of Preachers and Laity at his alma mater Morehouse College. He has been married for seventeen years to Kedra Phillips-Flippin, a nurse care manager, and are the proud parents of Shamel Emani.

May 31- Day of Pentecost

Acts 2:1-21

Today is Pentecost, a day for remembering where the church came from, how the church came to be, and for asking what on earth the church is for and where in heaven’s name the church is headed. This is the day when we should envision what the Church could be, what its field of dreams would look like — and to start working to bring that dream to reality.

The disciples who were situated in the Upper Room, as the poet Langston Hughes described, had a “dream deferred” vaporized in their Messianic expectations. Despite their realities, Pentecost came with the gift of the Holy Spirit poured out on them in a topsy-turvy world. How can we still have hope for a field of dreams?

We must pour out our hearts: Jesus always reminds religious leaders, spectators, and followers that humanity examines them from the outside, but the spiritual dimensions are found in the heart. Pentecost reminds us that the authentic expressions of disbelief from the disciples were the catalyst of transformational change. This birthday celebration of the church reminds us that we do not need a lovely building, a good choir, a well-run church school, or any ordained clergy to be a church. Instead, we need the Spirit of Christ in order to be a Christ body community. This allows Christ to be enfleshed, incarnated, embodied through a Spirit-filled community, the Church must pour out a heart filled with self-sacrificing love.

Even in our present “dreamless” state, the church has managed pretty well to offer to helping hands to people in need. We run soup kitchens, stock food pantries, and provide showers, online worship and devotions, and shelter. But there should be a difference between being a “good citizen” and being the church. In the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, ELCA World Hunger is expedited and advocated through the means of sacrificial giving through accompaniment and trustworthy service to neighbors. Through being the embodiment of God’s hands, the works of love  are manifested in the global realities of hunger being minimized. To find stories about ELCA World Hunger’s transformative work, read the reproducible stories found here: https://www.elca.org/Resources/ELCA-World-Hunger#Stories

There is a new field of dreams that are endless for those to hear the clarion call of leadership. Jesus affirms that the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Why is the church stagnating? Could it be that the church, which began as a field of dreams for the outcast and outsiders, has become a field of keeping the status quo? An area of ideas seems outside the reach of even the highest imagination.

Nearly two centuries ago (August 18, 1807), someone watched as Robert Fulton tested his steamboat. He kept yelling, “It’ll never start! It’ll never start!”

Just then, the steamboat pulled away from the dock and moved majestically up the Hudson River. That observer quickly changed his tune.

He yelled: “It’ll never stop! It’ll never stop!”

We all know these people. They go by different names: the failure-predictors, the trouble-warners, the obstacle-visionaries, the problem-imaginers, the “we-can’t-afford-it” cost-estimators.

The truth is that the church — no matter how stodgy and out-of-shape it has become — is still in God’s hands. The church’s future is never predictable or plotted out because the Holy Spirit, the animating breath of the church, blows up storms and whirlwinds without any notice.

The Spirit must be allowed to circulate through the sanctuary, pushing us to our knees at unexpected moments. Does anything ever bring tears to our eyes in Church (besides the annual budget report)? Can the Spirit make us smile, or even laugh out loud in church?

 Just as found in the impetus of the Spirit, it is time for the church to spread her wings in being willing to “trust the Spirit.” We cannot take flight under our own power. Peter Pan’s “flying song” in the Disney version of this childhood dream story still offers sound advice. To soar, “all it takes is faith and trust … and a little bit of pixie dust. The dust is a definite must!”

As Christians, we can provide the faith and trust — while still admitting that we are mere dust and to dust we shall return.

At its heart, this is what building a church that is a “field of dreams” takes — the willingness to spread our wings and step off the edge, believing that the breath of the Spirit will bear us forward into the future.

John 7:37-39

In 1999, I was a Peace Corps Intern for Mickey Leland Institute of World Hunger and Peace, residing in the remote villages of Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast). My primary task was health education and the building of water latrines. On the surface, the water looked clean, but the children kept getting sicker and sicker. Malaria was the cause of this dilemma, affecting sixty percent in the village and within a fifty-mile radius. As I was treating water sources with chemicals, I would always think that new life begins with just one drop.

Jesus knows this, which is why he cries out, “Let anyone thirsty come to me and let the one who believes in me drink. As the Scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water'” (John 7:37-38).

Whenever the Bible speaks of “living water,” it is pointing us in several directions. Living water can mean fresh, running water – water from a spring, as opposed to a container. It can also mean life-giving water. In this case, Jesus is suggesting both because he knows that fresh, running water is also life-giving water – something everyone needs for a life of health and vitality. Just ask the residents in countries I witnessed in the remote villages of West Africa.

But John, the gospel writer, offers a third meaning in the very next verse: “Now [Jesus] said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive; for as yet there was no Spirit because Jesus was not yet glorified” (v. 39, emphasis added). John believes that living water Jesus offered is nothing less than the fresh, running, life-giving Holy Spirit of God, which comes to Jesus’ followers on the day of Pentecost.

Living Water. Holy Spirit. Both change our lives. Both give us hope for the future. Clean water and the Spirit of God can flow together in some powerful ways in the mission of the church today. The simple presence of one clean-water well can transform a community. Clean water leads to health, which leads to productivity, which leads to education and commerce and forward progress.

It isn’t just about a cup of cold, clean water. It’s about the future.

Jesus tells us the power of the Holy Spirit has the same effect. When we turn to Jesus in faith, we receive a free-flowing and life-giving Spirit who can transform our lives. The Spirit makes us happier, healthier, and better able to serve God with passion and purpose.

Just one drop. That’s where it begins. Then the flow of the Spirit in Pentecost and Christ’s divine breath becomes a river of living water.

All were together and filled with the Holy Spirit. The river of living water drenched all.

Our transformation begins with just one drop – a drop of concern for a child in poverty. If the Holy Spirit is working for health, welfare, and education, then we should too. We can volunteer at a free medical clinic, deliver food to a low-income family, or tutor a child requiring help with homework.

Such a drop turns into a trickle – a trickle of help for a neighborhood in need. If Jesus is the embodiment of divine power, overcoming the evil forces that inflict calamity and sickness on humanity, then our challenge is to be Jesus’ healing and helping hands in our communities. We can support dental clinics for the homeless, affordable housing for the working poor, and English classes for immigrants.

This trickle can become a river of living water – a river that carries the good news of God’s love around the world, washing over people with improvements to their spiritual and physical health. Whether

fighting cholera in Haiti or installing water filters in my own experiences in

West Africa, Christians are changing lives as they follow the Holy Spirit’s leading. Jesus’ words are coming true: “Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38).

It can start with just one drop. The installation of one water filter. The digging of one well. But once the water begins to flow, nothing can stop it. Same for the Holy Spirit.

Children’s Message

Pour a pitcher of water into a bowl and let the children watch and listen to the flowing water. Explain that this is what the Bible means by “living water” (v. 38) – water that’s fresh and running freely instead of sitting still. Then ask if everyone needs to drink water in order to stay alive. Nod your head yes and say that a person can live for only about three days without water . As you put your hand in the bowl and stir the water, share this second meaning of “living water” – life-giving water, the water we all need to stay alive. Then say that Jesus defines “living water” in a third way: He says that it is the Holy Spirit, which believers in Jesus receive from God (v. 39).

The world is mostly water, but most people can’t drink safe water that we can get at home in the United States and use for drinking, cleaning or bathing. Emphasize that this Spirit is like water because it’s running freely, and it gives everlasting life to us in this world and in heaven. Let them know that each of us has a soul and a body, and our soul needs the Holy Spirit just as our body needs fresh, clean water.