Grace, mercy and
peace be unto you from God who is Creator, Christ and Comforter. Amen
Daily bread. When you hear the words daily bread, what
comes to mind? Do you think of just
food? Or, do you think of daily bread as
some jive talk from the 60’s that meant money, as in “lay some bread on me”? Or, are you more in tune with what Martin
Luther said about daily bread in the Small Catechism which is:
In fact, God gives daily bread without our
prayer, even to all evil people, but we ask in this prayer that God cause us to
recognize what our daily bread is and to receive it with thanksgiving.
What then
does “daily bread” mean?
Everything included in the necessities and
nourishment for our bodies, such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, farm,
fields, livestock, money, property, an upright spouse, upright children,
upright members of the household, upright and faithful rulers, good government,
good weather, peace, health, decency, honor, good friends, faithful neighbors,
and the like.[i]
Wow! Luther covers everything in this
understanding of daily bread! If we
unpack this meaning fully this morning, we can see that in many ways we are
starving here in the United States, even as we suffer with physical issues of
obesity, heart disease, etc.
Good government? How many people here this morning feel that
we have a broken governmental system? It
takes so much money to run for almost any office these days that average citizens
simply cannot afford the cost of a campaign!
Yet…how many people in other countries around the world would LOVE to
have the issues we have with their governments…to the point of making very
dangerous and perilous journeys just to get here?
Upright and faithful rulers? Luther lived in the day where his world of
Germany was ruled by feudal lords. Each
small fiefdom was self-governed and self-regulated. There were terrible rulers and there were
benevolent rulers. How do you feel about
the rulers of our city? county? state? country?
However you feel, do you take the
time to pray for them so that they can be upright and faithful rulers? I confess, I do not…but I will! It’s too important for us not to – especially
in this election year – especially as we deal with increasing amounts of
housing shortages, homelessness, poverty, war, and a presidential election that
is frightening!
Doesn’t it make you see the power
of this simple prayer that we pray every week in a new light? I don’t think glibly, numbly going through
these power-filled words is going to be so easy when we pray in a few
minutes! At least, I pray not!!!
And isn’t that just like
Jesus? His disciples ask for a prayer to
pray because John’s disciples were given one, and Jesus gives us words that
have such depth of meaning, such power, and such intimacy! His relationship to God is given to us in
these words…Abba in heaven…Daddy who watches over this universe – and even
me! Here is what I need…and here is what
you provide…help me to see!
Give
us today our daily bread. I wonder if
Jesus’ disciples had a gut reaction to this particular petition. After all, being good and faithful Jews, they
would know in the core of their being the story of the travel from slavery into
freedom – where God provided “manna” from heaven every day. Daily bread was what sustained the Hebrews as
they moved through the desert and they knew that their life was intimately,
directly and physically tied to God and God’s generosity! This story was told in their family units
every Passover from the time they were born!
They were reminded as they sat around the Passover table and heard the
story, that God will provide – everything we need!
I
wonder if we have made that transition as Christians. Do we realize, do we recognize that as we
gather at the Altar, as we hear the powerful words of our sacrament of Holy
Communion, that God will provide everything we need?
I’m
afraid that too often in our culture, we forget what NEEDS are, because we are
so bombarded with advertising to entice us into WANTING things that aren’t
necessary – or even good- for us. The
average American citizen is exposed to 4,000 to 10,000 advertisements every
day![ii] It’s no wonder we don’t know what we
need! And it’s also no wonder that we buy into the
Better, More, Bigger, Faster, Today!
mentality. It’s exhausting! And we forget the fact that God will give us
everything we need – sometimes in the most unexpected ways.
The
story goes that in a field on the English countryside, G. K. Chesterton stood
up from where he had been sitting and exploded with laughter. His outburst was
so sudden and so loud that the cows could not take their eyes off him.
Just
minutes before, the Christian writer and apologist had been miserable. That
afternoon he had been wandering the hills, sketching pictures on brown paper
using colored chalks. But he was dismayed to discover he had no white chalk,
which he considered to be essential to his artwork. Soon, though, he began to
laugh when he realized that the ground beneath him was porous limestone—the
earth’s equivalent of white chalk. He broke off a piece and resumed drawing.
Like
Chesterton, who realized he “was sitting on an immense warehouse of white
chalk,” believers have God’s unlimited spiritual resources within reach at all
times. “[God’s] divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life
through our knowledge of [God].” (2 Peter 1:3).[iii]
Daily
bread – all the necessities we need for daily living. Is it true that what we need is all around
us? Of course it is! Give us today our daily bread…And, O loving
God, give us eyes to see, hearts open to your nudging, ears alert to your
voice, and bodies ready to move at your impulse. And, most of all, Dear God, thank you for
everything!
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