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.

It’s mid-January—time to think about Lent!

What?! But we just turned the calendar to a new year!

Yes, but even with a late Easter this year (maybe the snow will be gone by then!), now is a perfect time to think about and plan for how you and your congregation will incorporate hunger issues into your Lenten practices. And you are not alone. There are some wonderful new resources available to help you:

1. A free 2011 World Hunger Lenten Series, “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread,” is available online. It was created by members of the Upper Susquehanna Synod and provides comprehensive materials for Bible studies, worship services, drama/dialog sermons, children’s sermons, meal ideas, table prayers, take-home family devotions, and fundraising ideas.



Placemats from ELCA World Hunger

2. The ELCA World Hunger program also has new materials for your use. The placemats are especially appealing—you can download them in two sizes and then have copies made locally for use at your soup suppers or other meals, to send home with children in your Sunday school, or to use for tables/trays in the local senior facility you support. 

Find these and other resources at www.elca.org/hunger/lent.

2011 new year's resolutions for ending hunger

Many of us make New Year’s resolutions each January 1, but few of us manage to keep those resolutions much into the new year. Hopefully these resolutions for working to end hunger in God’s world will be ones that you can keep well into 2011. Ending hunger is possible but it takes each of us, reaching out both with charity and advocacy to bring that about. Resolve today to:

1. Pray each day for those who hunger as well as for those who are working to alleviate and end hunger around the world; ask God to nudge you in new ways you may be involved in ending hunger.
2. Commit to six hands-on thing to help those who are hungry in your community this year. Maybe it’s volunteering for Meals on Wheels or serving a shelter meal. Perhaps it’s contributing to and/or volunteering at your local food shelf. Or maybe it’s encouraging a youth group or Scout troop to collect food for local needs. Ever consider contributing an equal amount to a local food shelf as your bill when you dine out?
3. Commit to six advocacy actions in the coming year. You may want to designate three of them to be on the state level and three on the federal level. Be alert to information from the from the Lutheran Coalition for Public Policy in Minnesota (LCPPM) and the Joint Religious Legislative Coalition (JRLC) for state issues. And watch for information from the ELCA’s World Hunger program and Bread for the World (BFW) to guide you in federal advocacy on a timely basis.

''Fear Not!' the Angel Said,' a new Christmas hymn for you

Carolyn Winfrey Gillette, a wonderful and prolific hymn writer, shares this new hymn for the Christmas season. The hymn tune used in TERRA BEATA SMD 6.6.8.6 D "This is My Father's World." Please give her credit if you use her words; she shares them with Bread for the World churches and members.

'Fear Not!' The Angel Said

"Fear not!" the angel said, "God's joy is in the air!
Now go to Bethlehem and see a newborn baby there.
A Savior, yet a child! So young, and yet the Lord!"
God's grace astounds, God's love surrounds this sinful, hurting world.


Fear not, you hungry child, you homeless refugee,
you battered woman, burdened down - - God came to set you free.
For God's own Son was poor;  He cried and suffered, too.
God's grace astounds; God's love abounds for people just like you.


Fear not when questions come: "How can I know God's way?"
"Do my possessions weigh me down?" "Can God change me today?"
For Jesus came to be true bread that satisfies;
and in his birth, God touched the earth. Christ saves, forgives, and guides.


Fear not, you church of Christ, distracted and distressed,
for long ago in troubled times, Christ came, and we were blest.
Our Prince of Peace is born - - Our light, our life, our song!
In him we see our unity; in him God makes us strong. 

Resources: The Kafley Family Story
Chicago, Illinois
Watch the Kafley family get a fresh start after living as refugees for 18 years.

More videos from ELCA World Hunger available at www.elca.org/hunger/video

10 tips for a simpler, more meaningful Christmas

Bread for the World (BFW) shared these thoughts from Gary Cook, BFW's director of church relations. He wrote the introduction for this year's Whose Birthday Is It, Anyway?, the annual resource from Alternatives for Simple Living.

1. Plan ahead. Instead of going on auto-pilot the day after Thanksgiving, hold a family meeting to decide what the group really wants to do and who's going to do what.
2. If you need a symbol for giving (in addition to Jesus and the Three Wise Ones), learn about St. Nicholas. Santa Claus has been completely taken over by commerce.
3. Avoid debt. Refuse to be pressured by advertising to overspend.
4. Avoid stress. Give yourself the gift of time. Don't assume that things have to be the same way they've always been.
5. Draw names rather than everyone giving something to everyone else in your giving circle. Set a ceiling for each recipient. Give children ONE thing they really want, rather than so many gifts. If need be, pool funds.
6. Give appropriate gifts. Get to know the recipient. Give what they want to receive not what you want to buy.
7. Give alternative gifts. Give 25 percent of what you spent last year to the needy--individuals or groups locally, nationally, or internationally. Buy crafts and clothing from developing countries at alternative gift markets, not from commercial importers, so that the artisans receive a fair price for their work. Give of yourself, not just "stuff"--a coupon book for future services (such as baby-sitting or an "enchanted evening"); something baked, sewn, handmade, composed, etc.; or a family service project, such as working together at a soup kitchen.
8. Celebrate Advent for four weeks before Christmas.
9. Put the gifts under the tree shortly before opening them. Then take turns opening them around the tree, not all at once, so that each gift can be admired and each giver thanked.
10. Make changes slowly but persistently. Don't try to change everything and everybody all at once. The resistance will make you feel defeated and lonely.

ADVENT AND CHRISTMAS HUNGER RESOURCES

Whose Birthday Is It, Anyway? includes reflections, activities, how-to's, and other ideas, and it is designed to be used as a congregation, family, or by an individual. To order, visit www.simpleliving.org.

A collection of Advent and Christmas resources for hunger awareness can be found at www.bread.org/go/advent. These downloadable documents include activities for both children and adults. Be sure to check out the Christmas Cards to Members of Congress (PDF).

A Prayer based upon Psalm 103

Lord of steadfast love and mercy,
Through your Word, you have set promises before your people.
Promises for good and not for evil,
Promises for care and not for harm,
Promises fulfilled through life and death,
Promises realized through sorrow and joy.

You have washed us clean, and guided us in righteousness.
Eternal is your Word and life-altering your love.

Still, we have strayed all too often and trusted too little.
Our words have been cold, and our hearts closed off.
In emptiness we have trusted and falseness we have acted.

Yet you have washed us clean, and guided us in righteousness.
Eternal is your Word and life-altering your love.

In these seasons of giving and thanksgiving, remind us of
that love which knows no bounds. Guide us in your desire
for justice and forgiveness. And teach us to give, even as you are giving.

In the name of your Son Jesus Christ, we pray.
Amen

From Lutheran World Relief