Reading: Matthew 6:9-11; 7:7-12
How we pray is how we live. At least, that’s how it’s meant to be. And it is, when we pray as Jesus does, and as he teaches us to pray and to live. We read Matthew 6:9-11 and 7:7-12, two excerpts from what the Gospel presents as the Sermon on the Mount.
“Pray then in this way: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread.”
And, a little farther on in the Sermon, he says this:
“Ask and it will be given you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; they who seek find, and to those who knock, the door will be opened. Which of you, if your child asks for bread, will give them a stone? Or if they ask for a fish, will give them a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! In everything, do to others as you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”
Meditation
“Give us this day our daily bread.”
It sounds so simple. As I say this line of the prayer, I think of three simple meals a day. I think of saying grace and giving thanks before eating, not taking any meal for granted. I think of next-door neighbours from years past who to this day, now into their retirement years, still go together every day to the grocery store to pick out and pick up some part of their diet for that day, receiving their daily bread as a social activity and a daily discipline.
Interesting that as soon as the Lord’s Prayer turns to the "gimme" side of praying, the focus is on something so simple. This is no Miss America prayer for world peace or a cure for cancer. Nor is it the punch-line prayer of someone who rubs Aladdin’s lamp and for their three wishes asks the genie for a million dollars in their bank account, their own tropical island to live on, and then three more wishes.
Just, “give us this day our daily bread.” How much more simple can our desires and our request of God be?
Except, is it really simple? Is “daily bread” so easily available and so common for all the members of God’s family as it is for us? Is it so easy to come by for all who sit with us at God’s family table?
I think, for instance of the now-over 3 million people who have fled the war in Ukraine in the past three or four weeks. How easy is daily bread for them? Or for the unknown number still in the country but displaced from their homes? Or for those still in their homes like the Mariupol resident named Elena quoted in a story in Friday’s Sepctator, who said, “We are trying to survive somehow. My child is hungry. I don’t know what to give him to eat”?
And it’s not just Ukrainians who are affected by the war. Remember the phrase, “we’re all in this together”? Ukraine is known as “Europe’s breadbasket” because of its wheat harvest – normally accounting for 3% of the world’s wheat and 12% of global wheat exports, and nearly 20% of global maize exports. We’re told the effect on world wheat and corn supplies will not be catastrophic, and will be short-lived. But the experts base their projection on Ukrainian farmers being able to do fieldwork in April and Ukraine and Russia crafting a ceasefire in the next few weeks.
And it’s not just from far away that the question comes, as to how easy or hard daily bread is to come by.
Through the month of April – before, during and after Easter, the day of resurrection and new life, we’re having a food drive for the Stoney Creek Food Bank just down the road from us, for households and families around us who are at risk of not having daily bread enough for healthy growth and to keep body and soul together.
And it’s so common. I mentioned the story from Ukraine in Friday’s Spectator. In the same issue there was a story about a labour conflict at Mohawk College, and right in the middle of the story was one paragraph assuring readers that even with labour disruptions “the Mohawk College union rally and food raiser for students who require food support slated for 11 am Friday in front of the college on Fennell Avenue … will go ahead as planned.”
And there was another story a few pages on in the Business section about a non-profit called Food for Life that now operates 44 food programs and 16 community fridges across Halton and Hamilton stocked 100% with “rescued food” – food that is perfectly good but because of expiry dates is about to be sent to landfill as waste, and that Food for Life purchases to make available “for those who are struggling with food insecurity and do not have the means to otherwise purchase their food.” In 2019 Food for Life rescued more than 4 million pounds of food from going to landfill to help feed people around us are hungry.
And why is this? Enough food is produced in the world to feed us all – every man, woman and child on earth. But today over 800 million go hungry – about 10% of the world’s population, up from 8% two years ago. Why is “daily bread” so hard for so many in God’s global household?
According to the UN and the World Health Organization some degree of world hunger today is caused by climate change and the pandemic, as well as periodic economic downturns and weather-related disaster. But the two chief causes, hands-down, are poverty – number 1, and conflict – number 2. In other words, “daily bread” is a hard thing for many, when societies don’t take care of all their members, and when societies, nations, and tribes don’t get along with one another.
In other words, it’s in large part a spiritual issue. It seems to me that how we as human beings see and treat one another – and whether we even let ourselves see one another, to know how others are doing and are being treated beyond our immediate circle. is a spiritual question. It’s a question of how we see God, and the kind of God we believe in. It's a question of who we count as part as God’s family and our responsibility – our brothers and sisters, and what kind of people we choose to be within that family. It’s a question of what we think is the meaning of life on earth – the meaning of our own life, and of human life itself. A question of what we’re living for. And who. And why.
“Give us this day our daily bread.”
“Our Daily Bread” is a well-known little book of daily devotions, that’s been around forever, and that millions read every day to feed their souls with the knowledge of God’s good news and God’s love for all. This year in Lent, we’ve been promoting also a book of daily readings called “Lesser Evils” designed to help us think about the way of God in a world where good and bad are not always neatly defined, and sometimes we have to choose the lesser of evils to do good. I’ve also been given a copy of “Rediscover Jesus” – a series of 40 daily readings to help the reader focus their attention more clearly on Jesus and on the kind of life he models and makes possible for us in the world.
All of these are “daily bread” – and there’s no shortage of godly loaves for us to get our teeth into on a daily basis, to chew on and make part of our living, to nourish us in ways that help us live better and live well as God’s people in the world. And whether at first we like the taste of it, or not, we trust it is good for us, and through us, good for the world.
I don’t know, though. Are words and reading them – especially solitary reading of them, enough to help us grow in our openness to God, and to others, and to our own truest wat of being? Are good words and private devotional readings a full enough diet for a soul and a society to grow into helping God’s kingdom come, and helping God’s will for the well-being of all to be done on earth as it is in heaven?
Or do we also need some particular experience or other kinds of nourishment – other kinds of daily bread to help us grow in good ways?
Like the experience of belonging and of being part of something beyond ourself – like a spiritual fellowship, a community of faith, a circle of friends? It’s important to me. Belonging to a welcoming and supportive community is something I need to experience on a regular basis to feed my soul and keep my spirit growing in healthy ways. Belonging and being part of something bigger than myself and bigger than family, more inclusive than tribe, greater even than nation. Don’t we all need something – some experience or commitment that pulls us towards a bigger table and helps us to see all members of God’s family within the “our” of “our daily bread” and within the “us” of “give us this day”.
And how important – how nourishing and necessary too is the experience of being loved and forgiven and accepted and cared for by others beyond what we deserve or earn, and in spite of our weaknesses and mistakes. I can’t say enough about this – the deep and rich taste of being loved just because the other chooses to love me as God does, and as they know – or at least hope, God loves them.
If our souls, our spirits, and our faith are not fed in this way by others, how shall we ever be encouraged or even able to love and feed others as well, and as freely?
Are belonging and being loved necessary parts of your spiritual diet? Part of the bread you need for your soul to grow and be well? And are there other things – other gifts, too – compassion maybe, forgiveness, support, friendship, respect – that you also need to be strong and healthy, and a real human being the way you’re meant to be among others? And with others? And for others?
Give us this day our daily bread – both physical bread to keep body and soul together, and all the other things we need to keep us growing and healthy as children of God.
We lift up this prayer to God. Sometimes we say it together.
And I wonder if it’s mostly through others that God answers it for us.
And through us, that God answers it for others.
As we gather together around the table – any table – bringing what we have, bringing what we need, and enjoying together the feast, the great meal, the daily bread of what is, and is given.
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