Sermon – World Hunger Sunday   United Lutheran Church             January 21, 2007

A Participatory Drama - - Hunger Banquet

Isaiah 58:6-9

Psalm 146:5-10

Matthew 25:31-40

A word of prayer:   Gracious God, open our eyes, our ears, our hearts and our hands

to anyone who is experiencing days of hunger.  Amen

Grace to you and peace from God our Creator and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

The confession, litany, prayers and songs in today’s service help us to think about hunger in the world and our connection within the global family.  There are hard realities in the statistics and it can be very hard for us to want to enter in to address the situation.  It is even hard to want to hear about them and to become aware of them.  Our lives are much easier without knowing.  When we do know, it becomes too deeply painful to continue

to live the way we do and not do something about the lives of others. 

Jesus makes it very clear in his words to the disciples, “Whatever you do to the least

of these my brothers and sisters, you do it to me.”   When we actually internalize these words, it makes it very difficult to - - not want to do something for those who are less

fortunate.

We have struggled a lot with how much we are willing to really become aware of the faces and feelings behind all of the statistics of hunger.  It is so much easier to live comfortably and untouched by the pain of others.  But as the body of Christ, we are challenged by these words.

Today I am asking you to take a risk.  We are struggling with our understanding,

and I ask you to struggle with me.  What do all of the statistics we hear really mean?  / /

On the back of your bulletin you will find a color.  The distribution of these colors represents the distribution of the world’s people.  We will attempt in a very limited way, in a very limited time, to try to grasp an understanding of the distribution of the world’s people and food.  You will be participating as a member of four world groups.

The simulation represents one day in the lives of the people world wide.

To begin, would anyone who has a blue mark on the back of your bulletin, please stand. // The Youth will escort you to the table that is set before you.  If you happen to be sharing a bulletin, I ask that just one of you come forward.

Those of you will be seated at the table represent the 16 percent of the world’s population fortunate enough to receive a nutritious daily diet.  You live primarily in countries like the United States, Canada, England, Australia, Japan, and most of Western Europe. 

A few oil-exporting countries also belong to this group, including Iran, Kuwait and

Saudi Arabia.

As members of this high-income group, you share many of the following characteristics:

• You have a per capita income of more than $10,000. a year.

• As a group, you consume 70% of the world’s grains.  Most of this grain you consume indirectly in the form of grain-fed meat.

• You receive far more than your minimum daily requirement of food.  For many

of you, this can lead to health problems such as heart disease and diabetes, two of the leading causes of death in the United States.  Americans spend over 5 billion dollars annually trying to lose weight.

• Most of our children are healthy and our infant mortality rate is low.

• Although we are rich, millions of our brothers and sisters live below the poverty line.  Most are women and children who lack adequate support systems. 

For them, infant mortality is significantly higher.

• The world spends 2 million dollars a minute, that is 1 trillion dollars a year on

the military while 1 billion people in the world live on less than one dollar a day. 

The breakfast of juice, roll and fruit you are being served this morning are symbolic of the full meals you typically consume three times a day, usually in pleasant surroundings.

Please eat as we learn more about our neighbors who are not as fortunate.

Will everyone with a green mark please stand.   / /  You may come forward

and be seated in the choir loft.  

Those of you with a green mark represent the world’s middle-income group. 

You represent many more countries and people than those in the high-income group.  Your combined populations make up roughly 23% of the world’s people, and your average annual income ranges from $1,000. to $10,000.  You live in countries like Thailand, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal and Mexico.

Middle-income countries generally have a smaller middle class than high-income countries.  That means most people are either very rich or very poor.

As members of this group, you share some of the following characteristics:

• The infant mortality rate in your country is six times that of high-income countries.

• You can expect to live to age 66; in high income countries, life expectancy averages 76 years, in low-income countries, 60.

• Your governments spend an average of 13% and as high as 55% of their national budgets on the military, often relying on loans from high-income countries to finance these expenditures. 

• Your economies are crippled by foreign debt.  Debt payments can consume half of all your earnings.  As your buying power slips world-wide, you fear becoming a member of the low-income group.

• The slice of plain bread you are receiving this morning is symbolic of your simple meals of rice, beans, and broth, often eaten in cramped, unsanitary houses.

Please feel free to eat your bread while we all learn about the lives of the even less fortunate.

Now will everyone with a red mark on your bulletin, please stand.   Would

you please proceed to the back of the sanctuary to receive your daily food.

For those in the balcony, there will be a youth there with a basket of crackers.

Your journey to the cracker basket may not be easy.    You may have to walk

in a disorganized, crowded line.

You now represent the lower income people in the world.   You live in countries such as Ethiopia, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Cambodia and Haiti. 

As a member of this group, you have the following characteristics:

• You are frequently hungry, and probably receive less than the minimum daily calories a human being requires just to survive.  To live a healthy, hardworking life requires twice the calories you consume.

• You are probably a landless laborer or a peasant who must pay rent for the land you farm.  You may work on a large plantation that produces crops such as bananas, sugar, or coffee for export.

• Your children are dying from unsafe water and hunger-related causes at a shocking rate.  One child under the age of five dies every two seconds.

• The root causes of your hunger lie in poverty, war, and the unequal distribution

of resources, not in overpopulation alone.  Many of the world’s well-fed countries are far more populated than hungry ones. 

• Natural disasters create a far greater toll on you.  Five years of drought in California resulted in no direct loss of human life.  During five years of

drought in Ethiopia, over a million people died.

The cracker you are about to receive is symbolic of the very small amount of food you might consume in a day. 

Some of you have a black mark on the back of your bulletin.  Would you please stand.   If you happen to be a ‘partner’ of someone who is seated at the table or

In the choir loft, would you also please stand.

As I mentioned at the beginning, our Hunger Banquet today represents the food intake

for one day.   Those of you who are now standing - - receive no food on this day.  

You represent those who are the poorest of the poor living in countries such as Darfur, Somalia, Sierra Leone, Malawi and Tanzania. 

• You might eat in a primitive lean-to or sitting on a quilt that has been sewn in far away countries. 

• You may have to journey many miles on foot to find safe drinking water. 

• Your children may die of dehydration on the way.

• As you see the ones standing they are your brothers and sisters.  They do represent our brothers and sisters in our community of Red Wing; our state

of Minnesota; our country of the United States and in our global world.

You may be seated.

Pastor Randy has shared with you that two years ago now I spent three weeks in

Malawi as we visited feeding centers in remote villages.   And I do mean remote. 

It might be a surprise for you to be aware that Malawi, a small African country

located near Kenya and Tanzania, is 80 per cent Christian - - 80% Christian!

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Malawi  has about 125 feeding centers  where

they can feed fifty children at each one - - but only three times a week.   They focus

on children five years old and under with orphaned children receiving priority. 

Many of the parents - - both father and mother have died from AIDS. 

There is always a waiting list for more to be fed.  They each receive a dish of lacunapale - - a type of porridge similar to cream of wheat or oatmeal. 

I mentioned remote villages.   One feeding center was on Chisi Island in the southern part of Malawi.   An elderly man there shared that we were the first white people on the island in at least fifty years and maybe seventy-five.  I needed clarification so when I asked if he meant white people to the Lutheran Church there, he responded with, “No, I mean white people to the island.”

Some of the very young children were afraid of us.   On our trek back to the very crude

boat with a motor, one little girl about five years old held my hand all of the way and occasionally would reach up and rub my arm - - wondering if my white skin felt like her black skin.

This is a picture of one little boy - - probably about three or four years of age.   They each received a small bowl of the lacunapale and usually a plastic spoon with which to eat it.

Some times there were not enough spoons for everyone so one little boy was eating with

a piece of rolled up paper - - rolled to look like a scoop.  And then there was a child who

had ­no spoon and ate with his finger.   As this little boy wanted to get it all, he ate with

the spoon and then used his finger - - like a scraper - - to get every bit from the bowl.

It might be interesting for pastors present - - that the annual salary for a Lutheran pastor in Malawi is $660.   They are given a parsonage.   Many of them walk to church or to visit their people.   They feel fortunate if they have a bicycle and truly blessed if they have a motorcycle.  Only a few have automobiles.

Thank you for being a part of the sermon today.  I am certain that it has raised a wide range of feelings in being a representative of a group of the world’s people.  I would like to very briefly give one or two people in each group an opportunity to share what it felt like to be a member of that group.

What kind of feelings did you have in this group as you were able to sit and eat comfortably?

What kind of thoughts came up for you as you were able to sit here, but only receive

a slice of bread?

What were some of the feelings you had as you watched the other two groups and as

you struggled to get your cracker?

And what about those of you who received no food today?

A common response to an experience such as this is a feeling of guilt.  Living in the United States and having access to goods and resources, most of us are part of the world’s high income group.  As we see and experience in a very limited way, the

reality for the majority of the world’s people, we often respond with feelings of guilt

and helplessness.  Sitting at the table, we may want to give some of our abundance

of food to those who received nothing, but we don’t know how and we don’t know

where to begin.

A feeling of guilt is not helpful for us or anyone else in the world who is hungry. 

Guilt only makes us feel helpless and hopeless. Responsibility however, is helpful. 

Once we become aware of the world’s distribution of food and resources, we need

to become responsible for change.

We can seek to learn more about our own consumption of resources and the consequences of that consumption for the rest of the global community. We can seek

to take direct action through giving to the ELCA World Hunger appeal, through sewing

of quilts and preparation of various kits, through giving food and clothing to our local agencies, and varieties of other actions.  And we can seek to change the inadequacies

of distribution and consumption through advocacy efforts such as working to transform foreign aid and supporting greater funding for WIC and similar programs.  Writing letters that support hunger endeavors to our legislators is also important.

The people here at United have done very well to support our Food Bank located at First Lutheran church - - we can always do our best to do more.    Last Sunday at the Hunger 101 awareness, we learned that with our financial donations, the food bank can buy five times more food than when we donate actual food items.   Our financial gifts are also most welcome.  We must remember that some of the hungry are right here in Red Wing.

As you leave, I expect that you will continue to ponder this experience.  I encourage you to talk with those with whom you came and talk with others throughout the week.  This is not a sermon with answers.  It is a sermon with many disturbing questions.  How do we

respond when we hear again Jesus’ words, “Whatever you do to the least of these my brothers and sisters, you do it to me.”     / /

As those in front return to their seats, we invite you to use this time for silence, reflection and for meditation concerning these things.  May we be inspired to respond with our eyes, our ears, our hearts and our hands - - to those who are hungry.   Amen.