Grace and Peace to you from God, giver of all good things, and our Lord and Savior Jesus, who is our Christ. Amen.
Americans have a love affair with bread. I’m not sure about you, but bread was connected to many of my memories growing up. Every weekday, Mom made sandwiches for Dad and all the school-age kids: PB&J, bologna, or lunch meat and cheese. There was baked Italian bread or garlic bread with spaghetti, rye bread with Friday night fish fries. And dinner rolls on holidays. One of our wedding gifts, a print of an older man praying over his bread and soup, titled “Grace,” hung in our dining room for decades.
Do you have a favorite memory around bread?
<TAKE MEMORIES FROM THE CONGREGATION>
I think St. Louis folks may be the heart and soul of America’s bread mania. While we newcomers call it Panera, you long-timers call it ___________. You have it all: Ciabatta and Focaccia, Baguettes and Brioche. Why waste a bowl when soup can be served in bread?? And bread even serves as dessert: bread pudding or banana bread, just to name a couple.
So that’s the starting point for today’s words from the prayer that Jesus taught us: Give us today our Daily Bread.
Bread is one of the world’s staple foods. The Bible, written by Middle-Eastern peoples, is filled with bread, starting with God telling Adam that he would have to toil for his bread outside of the Garden of Eden. The Israelites made unleavened bread on the night God delivered them from Egypt, and ate the manna God provided in the wilderness. Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, but told Satan that bread alone is NOT the stuff of life, that people need God’s word. But Jesus turned a handful of bread and fish into a feast for thousands of hungry people on a hillside one afternoon. And it was over a simple meal that Jesus took bread and wine and told his disciples that this was now his body and blood, given FOR YOU, at this ever-widening table, for the forgiveness of sin. Just a few of the times when bread was central in scripture.
But bread is only one of the world’s staple foods. The bread metaphors, coming out of Middle Eastern culture, play well to Europeans and North Americans. Not so much in Central and South America, where the staple food is Maize, or Corn. And in Southeastern Asia and the Pacific Rim, rice is the staple food.
So, bread is just a metaphor for what we are asking in this prayer. What exactly DO we mean when we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread”?
Those of you who grew up in the Lutheran Church may remember this little booklet. Martin Luther wrote the Small Catechism as a way for parents to teach their children about the faith. And Luther explained “Our Daily Bread” like this:
It’s everything that nourishes our body and meets our needs, such as: Food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, yard, fields, cattle, money, possessions, a devout spouse, devout children, devout employees, devout and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, discipline, honor, good friends, faithful neighbors and other things like these.
It seems like “Daily Bread” to Luther was a LOT more than just enough to keep people alive! I think Luther’s definition looks a lot like Jesus’ words in John 10: “I came that they may have LIFE and have it ABUNDANTLY.”
Americans have a love affair with bread. I’m not sure about you, but bread was connected to many of my memories growing up. Every weekday, Mom made sandwiches for Dad and all the school-age kids: PB&J, bologna, or lunch meat and cheese. There was baked Italian bread or garlic bread with spaghetti, rye bread with Friday night fish fries. And dinner rolls on holidays. One of our wedding gifts, a print of an older man praying over his bread and soup, titled “Grace,” hung in our dining room for decades.
Do you have a favorite memory around bread?
<TAKE MEMORIES FROM THE CONGREGATION>
I think St. Louis folks may be the heart and soul of America’s bread mania. While we newcomers call it Panera, you long-timers call it ___________. You have it all: Ciabatta and Focaccia, Baguettes and Brioche. Why waste a bowl when soup can be served in bread?? And bread even serves as dessert: bread pudding or banana bread, just to name a couple.
So that’s the starting point for today’s words from the prayer that Jesus taught us: Give us today our Daily Bread.
Bread is one of the world’s staple foods. The Bible, written by Middle-Eastern peoples, is filled with bread, starting with God telling Adam that he would have to toil for his bread outside of the Garden of Eden. The Israelites made unleavened bread on the night God delivered them from Egypt, and ate the manna God provided in the wilderness. Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, but told Satan that bread alone is NOT the stuff of life, that people need God’s word. But Jesus turned a handful of bread and fish into a feast for thousands of hungry people on a hillside one afternoon. And it was over a simple meal that Jesus took bread and wine and told his disciples that this was now his body and blood, given FOR YOU, at this ever-widening table, for the forgiveness of sin. Just a few of the times when bread was central in scripture.
But bread is only one of the world’s staple foods. The bread metaphors, coming out of Middle Eastern culture, play well to Europeans and North Americans. Not so much in Central and South America, where the staple food is Maize, or Corn. And in Southeastern Asia and the Pacific Rim, rice is the staple food.
So, bread is just a metaphor for what we are asking in this prayer. What exactly DO we mean when we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread”?
Those of you who grew up in the Lutheran Church may remember this little booklet. Martin Luther wrote the Small Catechism as a way for parents to teach their children about the faith. And Luther explained “Our Daily Bread” like this:
It’s everything that nourishes our body and meets our needs, such as: Food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, yard, fields, cattle, money, possessions, a devout spouse, devout children, devout employees, devout and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, discipline, honor, good friends, faithful neighbors and other things like these.
It seems like “Daily Bread” to Luther was a LOT more than just enough to keep people alive! I think Luther’s definition looks a lot like Jesus’ words in John 10: “I came that they may have LIFE and have it ABUNDANTLY.”
*****
But when I read Luther’s definition, which is so expansive, it brought to mind the illustration that hung in my office when I worked for a poverty-relief organization, similar to Gateway180. Maybe you’ve seen the pyramid shape that is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs? Abraham Maslow was a psychologist, and about 80 years ago, Maslow proposed a theory. In short, if people are struggling with basic needs, more complex human motivations aren’t even considerations. They have to meet basic needs first.
Just some examples of how Maslow’s theory plays out:
- If people are living in substandard housing and wondering where their next meal is coming from, relationships take a back seat.
- If children are not safe, they can’t focus on schoolwork.
- If a person doesn’t have decent employment, creativity and future planning are beyond them.
So, for the person who doesn’t have decent housing and enough food, daily bread may be a prayer for food. And for the couple who just found out they are expecting a second child, perhaps daily bread looks like a better job or a home in a safer neighborhood.
Does that make Daily Bread a subjective thing? Perhaps in this broken world, Daily Bread looks different to people who are fairly well off, and those living on the edge of survival. We don’t have equity. We’re still praying that God would work out God’s will and bring in the kingdom through us.
Does that make Daily Bread a subjective thing? Perhaps in this broken world, Daily Bread looks different to people who are fairly well off, and those living on the edge of survival. We don’t have equity. We’re still praying that God would work out God’s will and bring in the kingdom through us.
*****
But let us not forget one important word in this line. Jesus didn’t teach us to pray “Give me today my daily bread.” The Lord’s Prayer is always for ALL of God’s people, and ALL of God’s creation, every time we pray it, whether we are praying it in community, or praying it individually. It’s “Give Us Today OUR Daily Bread.”
So, when we pray, we are asking God to take care of the basic needs of ALL of us. To raise all of us to a way of living that is not just surviving, it’s thriving. To give the whole world its daily bread means to pray that everyone would have what they need to have life, and have it abundantly.
And not only to pray this, but to live it. We become kingdom bearers in helping people everywhere have their daily bread.
In those six words, we are praying that all people have what they need to live into God’s vision for them.
In saying “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread,” we pray:
- For an equitable world where all children and adults have adequate, healthful food.
- For a just world where artificial barriers to achieving one’s dreams disappear.
- For a livable world where all people have resources like clean air and fresh water.
- For a peaceful world where families do not have to flee the terror of war and violence.
- First, that we all are children of a loving God.
- Second, God’s kingdom is both here and coming, and our every day words and actions bring in the kingdom.
- Third, that we pray for Our Daily Bread, and we respond in love to create a world where all of God’s children have everything they need too.
*****
Danish theologian Soren Kierkegaard wrote something about prayer that has stuck with me for years.
"The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays."
Let me say that once again:
"The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays."
Kierkegaard is not the last word on prayer. Some people disagree completely. I’ll admit I’m not committed to the first part, but I’m pretty sure about the second part. If we pray with an open heart for all people and all creation, prayer does change us. If we continue to pray “Give us today OUR daily bread,” we will live into the ways to make that happen for all of God’s people.
Amen.
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