Sermons

“Praying with Jesus – Daily Bread”

Luke 11:1-13; Exodus 16:13-21 – Rev. Rebecca Littlejohn

Vista La Mesa Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), La Mesa, California – March 6, 2016

Holy God, bless the speaking and the hearing of these words, that we might learn to trust in you and discern our needs from our wants. We pray in the name of Jesus, Amen.

A few years ago, I stopped into a store to pick something up, and as soon as I came in the door, it became apparent that there was a child having a tantrum in the back of the store. There were hardly any other customers, so otherwise it would have been really quiet, but this kid was just screaming – screaming! – in the back of the store. The thing I needed was up front, so at first I couldn’t really see what was going on or what had gotten him so upset. But the noise got closer and closer, because his mom was clearly trying to get him out of the store. She practically dragged him toward the front, and he was so mad that when they got to the door – she was basically carrying him at that point – he literally tried to blockade himself in by jamming his legs onto the two sides of the door frame. This kid was mad. He wanted what he wanted, and he wanted it more intensely than anything ever before in the history of the universe.

What is funny about this story is that I was in what is conventionally known as a Christian book store, and what the kid was screaming at the top of his lungs was “I WANT A BIBLE!!!” Even more interestingly, as his mother dragged him past me, vainly trying to placate him, I heard her say “But you have three Bibles at home!” This might be one of those “only in Alabama” stories, I suppose, but who knows?

The truth is that Christians of all ages often have trouble distinguishing between what we need and what we want. We are continuing our “Praying with Jesus” sermon series today, and our focus this morning is on the phrase “Give us this day our daily bread” or “Give us each day our daily bread,” as Jesus puts it in Luke’s gospel. Just seven short words, and yet, there is so much there for us to learn from.

First of all, let me say that I consider it absolutely vital to combine our study of ‘daily bread’ in the context of what we call the Lord’s Prayer with the story of the Israelites receiving the manna in the wilderness. The story of the manna created the concept of ‘daily bread’. To act as though Jesus would have used the phrase ‘daily bread’ without intending to recall this story is to miss a huge portion of what he was trying to teach about prayer. So we have that story, and we have the stories he told just after teaching this prayer, to help us understand what it means to pray for daily bread. And as it turns out, these stories that provide the context for this prayer raise some very large questions. There are some very vivid images provided in these stories, and they offer us lessons worth pondering. I don’t know that I’m going to suggest any answers today, but I do want to point out some of the things we should consider as we work on discerning the difference between what we want and what we need and how to pray about those things.

There were a lot of things that happened during the Exodus, the forty-year-journey the Israelites made through the wilderness, in their escape from slavery in Egypt toward the promised land God had told Abraham about. You would think that it would be the promised land that would have been the focus and the goal, the place where the Israelites could finally be at peace, in close communion with their God. But this glimpse into their journey, just looking at the story of the manna (and the quails) from heaven makes me wonder if really the Exodus wasn’t the time when the community was actually closest to God.

It seems their leader, Moses, was communicating with God on a regular basis about where they were going and how to get there and how to hold things together in the meantime. But more importantly, I feel like once they’d gotten the manna thing figured out, they may have been as close to the kingdom of God as any community has ever gotten. There was enough for everyone. Those who collected more ended up with just an omer, that is 1-2 liters. And those who had collected less also ended up with an omer. Those who couldn’t collect manna for themselves were taken care of by others in their tent; no one was left out or neglected. Is it possible that the kingdom of God actually broke through, not when they finally arrived, but while they were on the journey, while they were still lost in the wilderness? Do you suppose they even noticed? Have you ever felt lost in the wilderness before, only to realize in retrospect that it was then that you were closest to God? There is something about the humility of admitting our utter dependence that opens our hearts to the presence of the kingdom of heaven.

What’s even more reassuring is that God didn’t send the manna because the Israelites humbly and faithfully prayed for it. God sent the manna because they needed to eat. In fact, they were complaining about how hungry they were. They were on the verge of rebellion, grousing about how they should have just stayed slaves in Egypt, because at least there they had enough to eat. God sent the manna, not because they were good, but because they needed it.

And yet, when Jesus is asked to teach the disciples to pray, he encourages them to pray for their daily bread. What is that about? Is he implying we won’t get fed if we don’t pray daily for bread? Is it a more general reminder that all we have comes from God? Is it just a way of giving thanks for God’s providence, day in and day out? Some may be tempted to spiritualize the phrase ‘daily bread’ and suggest it doesn’t have anything to do with actual food, but I’m of the opinion that there are too many hungry people in the world for that to be the case. ‘Daily bread’ may be more than a minimal allotment of nutrition, but it’s certainly not less.

This is where it starts to get complicated. The fact that Jesus included this sentence in his prayer suggests that it is important to God that we have what we need to survive. And just a few short sentences later, Jesus seems to be implying that we will get whatever we ask for. ‘Ask and you shall receive; search and you will find; knock and the door will be opened.’ What? How does he mean that? It certainly sounds nice, but it seems pretty far-fetched. In fact, it sounds downright not the case. We know it doesn’t happen that way. People die of starvation every day. There’s no way none of them thought to pray for food. Jesus wasn’t a dummy, and he wasn’t one for superficial platitudes. There’s got to be something more going on here. Let’s keep looking.

There’s this story about persistence. It’s kind of hilarious actually. It’s midnight. Your friends from out of town shows up, and you have nothing to feed them. So you go and pound on the neighbor’s door to see if you can borrow some bread. You like your neighbor. Your neighbor likes you. You get along. But it’s midnight. You’ve never had to get along at midnight before. Do me a favor. Close your eyes. Take a nice relaxing breath. Keep your eyes closed. [Repeated knocking on pulpit.] Are you feeling restful? (You can open your eyes now.) We get it, don’t we? That guy is going to go answer the door eventually. It’s not like he’s getting any sleep anyhow. My cat has strong convictions about what time he’s supposed to get his breakfast, whether or not it’s a day I have to get up early or not. He almost always wins. Because he’s persistent. (And loud!)

What is Jesus telling us with this story? What is he saying about God? What is he saying about prayer? What is he saying about daily bread? This story almost seems like a contradiction to what he says next about the door being answered if only you will knock. It’s more like the door will be answered if you pound and pound on it and never give up; the door will eventually be opened.

There’s another hint in this story, though, that might be even more important, and it goes back to the first sermon in this series from three weeks ago. The phrase Jesus puts in the prayer is “Give US this day OUR daily bread.” This is a collective hunger that is being addressed. That person pounding on the door at midnight isn’t doing it because she suddenly got the late-night munchies. That’s not it at all. No, company has arrived, and the holy obligation of hospitality must be met. The persistence is not for our own sake, but for the sake of those who have traveled far and long into the night, who arrive at our doorsteps famished and weary. If there are people starving in this world, is it because God doesn’t answer prayer, or is it because we are not persistent enough on their behalf?

I mentioned that there are a lot of vivid images in these stories. I put up that picture of empty hands, because the images I found of starving people seemed too cruel to put before you in this larger than life format. Another image you can thank me for not making you look at is what you might call the manna doggie bag. Did you catch what happened to the people who tried to save some of their manna, just in case there wasn’t more on the ground the next day? I don’t want to get too explicit, but remember that the words “foul” and “worms” were both used. Be glad I didn’t even search for that picture!

Perhaps one of the most important lessons we can learn about ‘our daily bread’ is that while God is the one who provides it, we are the ones who collect and manage and distribute it. If OUR bread is not going where it needs to go, that’s on us. That’s on those of us whose lives are so easy our needs and our wants get confused and we throw tantrums just because we’re discouraged from indulging in excess. Perhaps what we need to be persistent about is remembering and honoring the truth that the daily bread that God provides is ours, not mine or yours, but the free gifts of God for all God’s people. When we do that, the kingdom will truly be present among us. Amen.