“Give Us This Day our Daily Bread”
Matt. 6:11; John 6:1-35
There is something about bread that is special.
When
CARP (Covenant Association of Retired Persons)
Meets
we usually have bread baked by Vera
All
the rest of the food varies monthly
But
the bread is the constant (a good!)
One of
the most popular places to eat around here is
Named
“Paneras” which means “Bread”
When
people come to our church we give them bread
As
a sign of the bread of Christ that is central
To
who we are as the people of God.
When
our youth are hiking in the mountains of
There
is this very heavy bread that they take
That
is chalked full of calories
Which
you need on that long hike.
When
our mission team came back from
They
spoke about how important the food was
As
a source of nourishment and also a
Time
to be replenished spiritually.
So when we say that simple part of the Lord’s Prayer
“Give us this day our daily bread”
We are
moving in the Lord’s Prayer from
God
who is holy and awesome and revered To
a Triune God who participates in life.
William Barclay says that the next three petitions:
“Our
daily bread, forgiveness of sins and
Leading us
not into temptation”
Are reminders of the Triune God
participating
In the fullness of life- present, past
and future.
Indeed Barclay says that these petitions are reminders
of:
God the
Father- providing for us;
God the Son- forgiving & calling us to
forgive others;
And
God the Holy Spirit- leading and guiding us.
And Barclay makes the point that these
petitions are not
Individualistic
but corporate, communal petitions-
Our
daily bread…forgive us as we forgive…
Lead
us not into temptation.
As
Paul says if one part of the body suffers
We
all suffer together, if one part rejoices
We
all rejoice together.
The
Triune God is communion- Three in one even as
We
are communion in Christ,
created in
the image of the triune God.
And that is important in this first
petition
“Give us this Day our daily bread.”
It is not
demanding bread for each one of us alone
But
rather acknowledging that God provides
Enough
for the whole community,
If
we can share what God provides.
The
story of the Feeding of the 5000 is a twofold miracle
It
is a miraculous feeding by Jesus (He’s the star)
But
it is also the miraculous sharing by
the disciples (they are the supporting cast)
We
aren’t particularly good at sharing
And
yet when we trust that God will
Provide
then we can share
What
we have.
Jesus makes that point in the story of
Manna in the wilderness.
People
thought Moses was the star of that story
And
yet it was God who provided the manna,
Moses
was God’s distribution agent,
To
get the manna to God’s people.
So this simple petition assures us that
God will provide
And
it also challenges us to share that which God provides
As Moses organized the people to share
the Manna
And
the disciples organized the people to share bread.
It is an assurance that God will provide
for today
So
that we can stop being so anxious about tomorrow.
That may be easy for us who have not gone
hungry
But
it is a harder leap of faith for those who have.
The
word we translate as daily “epiousian”
In
translated in some versions of the Bible
As
“daily” and in other translations
As “for
tomorrow”
And both have some validity.
But
there is a connection.
Observations done with children who have
been hungry
Have
found that when these children do have enough food
They
still have trouble sleeping at night
for fear of not enough food for tomorrow.
The
answer in these cases was to let the child sleep with
A
loaf of bread in there arms.
Now is this petition in the
Lord’s Prayer encouraging us
To
go to sleep with bread in our arms- I don’t think so,
But
it is encouraging us to go to sleep with
Living
bread in our hearts.
When
we read, as we have the Lord’ Prayer petition
Along
with the teaching of Jesus in John 6
We
realize that in Jesus Christ we have this
Petition
of the Lord‘s Prayer answered
In
both the physical and spiritual sense
And
they are connected in Christ.
God is concerned with our physical needs
today.
God’s kingdom is breaking in- today.
Just
as Jesus challenged his disciples he challenges us
To
reach out to those we see and share the
Bread
that we have in the name of Christ.
That’s
why we volunteer at the Lord’s Diner,
That’s
why we send people on mission to
That’s why we send missionaries to
That’s
why we donate food to the deacon’s food cupboard
And
deliver that food to families in need.
I love number games and I was curious
since we were reading
Matthew
in response
and conversation to Matthew 6:11:
“Give us this day our daily bread”
“Then Jesus took the loves and when he
had given thanks,
he distributred them to those
who were seated;
so also with
the fish, as much as they wanted.”
God
is in the supply business-
We
distribute the bread God offers in Christ.
But the bread we offer is not just baked
bread for today
But
Living Bread for tomorrow and all eternity.
That
is the bread that is offered in Jesus Christ.
The
people at the end of the John passage ask
The
petition from the Lord’s Prayer almost verbatim
“Lord, give us this bread always”
And Jesus
responds:
“I am the bread of life.
Whoever comes
to me will never be hungry,
And
whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”
One of the most exciting stories that I
have heard
about the
mission trip to
work that the Presbyterian Disaster
relief people
have put into rebuilding and
restoring
the community of
Pearlington,
not only are
the people thankful for the bread for today
and the housing for today, and the
water for today,
but now they want to build
a
Presbyterian Church in Pearlington.
They not only want to praise and thank
God’s distribution agents
But they want to worship and praise the
source- the Triune God.
They will be other hurricanes in
Just
as they are Tornados in
Hungry
people in
And
orphans in
And yet when we believe in the Triune
God
revealed in
Jesus Christ, the living bread
we know that we are not alone and
without hope,
we will never hunger and
thirst alone,
we will be fed the
living bread of Christ
even as we
feed others in his name.
Amen