Holy food and groceries

"HOLY FOOD AND GROCERIES." How could you, or anyone who cares about hunger, not want to attend a lecture with this title! Especially when you see that the subtitle of the lecture is: How Feeding and Healing Transforms Lives. For many of us, isn’t this why we are involved in hunger work? 

This is a wonderful opportunity to hear someone who is involved in that feeding and transformation. Sara Miles, author of Take This Bread and Jesus Freak, will be giving the Mahle Lecture in Progressive Christian Thought at Hamline University on Tuesday, March 2, 2011 at 7:30 p.m. The lecture is in Sunday Music Hall at 1531 Hewitt Avenue and is free to the public. (Parking is available in the Drew Lot, one block east of Sundin along Hewitt Avenue.)

Sara Miles, also a war correspondent, cook, and poet, serves as the director of ministry at St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco where she founded The Food Pantry to increase food access for hungry people. Launched in 2000, the Food Pantry new registers more than 1,200, serving up to 600 a week and relying only on donations. Since the founding, Sara and volunteers have launched 18 pantries in the poorest parts of San Francisco under the theme “Peace on Earth & Food for All.” On Fridays at St. Gregory’s, 50 volunteers sit down for a meal together cooked by their priest, Paul Fromberg. Following dinner, they pack up free food for whoever comes through the open church doors. Families select the food they need from a wide variety of fresh fruits and vegetables, bread, rice, pasta, beans, and cereal served farmers-market style. Through this hospitality, the volunteers create a community that shares the unconditional welcome of Jesus’ table.

Come and be inspired!

Sunday morning words

By Vernita Kennen

My pastors usually include in their prayer as their sermons begin words that say something like "God, speak to us today, whether the words are ever spoken aloud or not." And one of the professors at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary (PLTS) that I really appreciated assured us that we would not always be moved by a particular sermon. He gave us permission to listen a bit and if we were not tracking simply to "preach your own sermon." I’ve been thinking more about these ways of hearing Sunday morning words lately.

One of the reasons might just be because I’ve been reading the sermon starters from ELCA World Hunger, written by David Creech. I have found reading them in preparation for the next Sunday makes me think during the week--and helps me listen to both the Word of God in scripture and the words of the sermon more carefully on Sunday. Go to www.elca.org/hunger and search for "Sermon Starters."

Bread for the World has a similar website and makes use of some materials published in Hunger for the Word: Lectionary Reflections on Food and Justice. Go to www.bread.org and search for "Bread for the Preacher." The three books for Years A, B, and C in the lectionary cycle are also available in print editions, too. They include hymn suggestions and children’s sermon ideas.

You can sign up to receive each or both of these on a regular basis. I think they will make your Sunday morning worship much more meaningful--and help you see how often the lessons speak to our work in hunger ministry.