March Focus - A Hungry World

The season of Lent is upon us. In this season as a parish we try to keep a Lenten discipline. This year our discipline is a sustained food drive to support one of our partners in ministry, the Santa Maria Urban Mission in central San Jose.

Supporting this Lenten discipline our liturgical theme through the season of Lent is, "A Hungry World."

In the Common Lectionary, the first Sunday of Lent always begins with a reading of the story of Jesus' temptation in the wilderness. The Holy Spirit drives Jesus into the wilderness for forty days "to be tempted by the devil."

Jesus observes a fast during this time. He is famished. The devil tempts him to turn stone into bread. Jesus' response is the inspiration of our theme: "Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

Jesus is drawing on the passage from Deuteronomy 8. Moses is exhorting the Israelites to remember how the Lord fed them during their wandering in the wilderness for 40 years before they entered the promised land, the land of milk and honey.

Moses says, "He (the Lord) humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD."

Hunger highlights human dependence. Three times a day our stomachs remind us we are not self-sufficient. We need food to survive and flourish.

But our dependence does not end with a peanut butter sandwich or a burrito. The production, distribution, preparation, and elimination of waste associated with growing food, preparing food, and digesting food reveal a complex network of dependencies that include not only many, many people, but the land, water, and air as well. Truly, Man does not live by bread alone.

In addition to material and relational dependencies, feeding our bodies includes spiritual dependencies as well. Famine is not only caused by draught. Political unrest, economic exploitation, class conflict and social injustice contribute to hunger as well. These manifest spiritual dependencies that impact how food gets into the mouths of hungry children.

Jesus is Lord of the food chain.

In the same passage from Deuteronomy Moses says,

"Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today, lest--when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; when your heart is lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. . then you say in your heart, 'my power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.'"

Moses warns the Israelites to avoid the trap of believing they are self-sufficient. The illusion of self-sufficiency justifies a neglect of the basic needs of one's neighbor.

Consider some common numbers related to hunger.

• More than 840 million people in the world are malnourished.
• 6 million children under the age of 5 die every year as a result of hunger.
• Of the 6.2 billion people in today's world, 1.2 billion live on less than $1 per day.
• In the United States, 13 million children live in households where people have to skip meals or eat less to make ends meet.

Readers of the gospel know hunger was central to Jesus ministry. Feeding miracles may have been Jesus' most memorable sign of his identity as God's messiah.

A teaching unsettling to some but comforting to others pops up in Luke 6 where Jesus says, "Blessed are you who hunger now for you will be filled. . . woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry."

And when at the end of time some of Jesus' disciples are surprised to discover the final test of faithfulness was not just church attendance but whether they fed the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, clothed the naked and sheltered the stranger.

So important was hunger for Jesus that when his disciples asked him to teach them how to pray he included the petition: Give us this day our daily bread.

God created humanity with a capacity for hunger. Why? Perhaps it was so that the remembrance of our common humanity, the brotherhood and sisterhood of Man, may recur with every meal.

Monthly Focus Archive

2006:

Easter Focus: New Covenant
Lenten Focus: A Covenantal Response to Poverty
February Focus: Moving Forward

2005:

December Focus: Longing
November Focus: The Gift of Years
October Focus: Stewardship
September Focus: Foundations
Summer Focus: The Book of Acts
Easter Focus: Tapestry
Lenten Focus: Rule of Life
January Focus: The Next Wave

2004:

December Focus: Surprising Grace
November Focus: Free Indeed
October Focus: Money Madness
September Focus: The Outrageous Promise
Summer Focus: Into the Fullness
June Focus: Thick Faith
Easter Focus: All Things New
Lent Focus: A Hungry World
February Focus: Commitment
January Focus: Unity

2003:

December Focus: Hope
November Focus: Worship
October Focus: Stewardship
September Focus: Seasons of Faith
Summer Focus: The Gospel of John
May Focus: Faith
April Focus: Resurrection
March Focus: Truth
February Focus: Covenant Groups
January Focus: Sabbath

2002:

December Focus: Shut Up and Sing
November Focus: Spiritual Gifts
October Focus: Stewardship
September Focus: Intentional Faith