Daily Bread
Notes
Transcript
If I were to ask you, “What do you usually pray about?” I’m guessing, but pretty sure I’m accurate when I would say it would be for things you need, care about, and want. There are times we’re altruistic in our prayers and pray for others who are sick or in need.
We’ve been studying what we’ve come to know as the Lord’s Prayer, the prayer Jesus taught his disciples as their rabbi.
We’ve learned that the Sermon on the Mount has three parts: an introduction, a main body, and a conclusion. At the center of the main body the sermon focuses on righteousness as right relationships with God and other people.
This section on righteousness looks from three perspectives: The Law and prophets, Religious practices and right relationships.
We take that central section and we get to religious practices where Jesus focuses on True Reward, True Devotion, and True wealth. True devotion being that center.
And so we looked lastly at the center of the True Devotion where Jesus teaches on Generosity, Prayer, and Fasting. So prayer is right there in the middle.
So this at the center of the sermon on the mount is is the main body; at the center of the main body is a discussion of righteousness; and the center of discussion on righteousness is religious practices; at the center of religious practices is a discussion on true devotion; at the center of that discussion on true devotion is where Jesus teaches on prayer.
That prayer has 7 petitions in Matthew 6:9-13.
After we’ve addressed to whom we are praying we pray
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.
Forgive us our debts
lead us not into temptation
deliver us from evil.
Now we get to the center of the prayer itself which is a pivot point for the prayer. Up to this point we have been focused upon God, and now the focus changes to ourselves. We’ve prayed for God’s name to be holy, for God’s Kingdom to come, and for God’s will to be done, now there is a stark pivot at vs. 11 we read,
Give us this day our daily bread,
Now we’re invited to pray for the things we want and need. Still, Jesus isn’t inviting us to pray for excess, riches, that slick car, or latest gizmo.
Think about that.
Later in the sermon Jesus will speak about worry we all have from time to time about the future. If we’re honest we can get caught up in concern for what is to come. What will I wear? What will I eat? What will I drink? Jesus assures us that our heavenly father knows that you need them all (6:32). He concludes that section with these words: Matthew 6:34
“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
Can I get an amen?
Knowing that the Sermon on the Mount is likely not an audio recording of Jesus sermon I have to wonder if might have said that himself.
You and I can get so worried about what is happening tomorrow, next week, next month, next season, next year, or some imagined time in the future. Jesus’ reminds us to stay grounded in the present.
Give us this day our daily bread,
Jesus instructs us to pray not for what we will need in the future, but what we need day to day. It is so easy to get caught up in worry, and worry begets worry. It’s a spiral.
Have you noticed that?
We begin to have this warped sense of cause and effect and it always leads to the worst possible scenario.
Some time ago there was an ad campaign on television going through a cause and effect chain of events promoting Direct TV. One of them went like this:
When your cable company keeps you on hold you get angry.
When you get angry you go blow off steam.
When you go blow off steam accidents happen.
When accidents happen you get an eye patch.
When you get an eye patch people think you’re tough.
When people think you’re tough people want to see how tough.
When people want to see how tough you end up in a roadside ditch.
Don’t end up in a roadside ditch get rid of cable and order Direct TV.
Now for my disclaimer: This example is not to discredit cable companies nor promote Direct TV. That’s my disclaimer. Now I take you back 2000 years to this scene with Jesus and his disciples.
The idea of daily bread as daily provision is how this statement has come to be translated. Literally it could mean bread only, food only, or pertain to all that we need daily. Literally it also translates better as, “Give us today our bread for tomorrow.”
Part of the difficulty is the use of the word bread. Does it refer to bread in particular as in Mark 14:22, to food in General as in LUke 7:33; and John 13:18; to speiritual nourishment as in “bread of life” as described in John 6:31-34; or to the eschatalogical banquet described in Luke 14:15?
There are difficulties in translation here, but it seems that it was an idiom referring to our daily needs.
As we look at how the early church understood it we get to the standard understanding we have today of our daily needs. it harkens back to the provision of manna in the wilderness. As you heard in our reading.
You may remember that the bread only lasted a day, and after that it would become filled with worms and stank.
The Israelites were only to gather enough for the day, they were to live in the moment. The one exception was the day prior to the sabbath when they could gather enough to be fed on the sabbath as well.
It is not a sin to plan for the future - the Israelites in Exodus were clearly planning for the future - they were heading to the promised land. The Jewish people in Jesus time were awaiting the coming of the Messiah. Jesus taught us that he will return again.
Still this prayer teaches us to remain grounded in the present. Jesus gives us the prayer to remind us of the sovereignty of God - God is in control.
The challenge for each of us is - do we believe it? Do we trust it? Will we live with that faith.
It is a challenge.
Do we believe it? Do we believe that God is sovereign? Do we live as if that is true?
Do we trust it? Do we trust that God not only is in control, but is willing to have us approach and ask for the things that we need?
Will we choose to live by that faith even when it’s hard?
This prayer is not only instructional on how to pray, but it is a deep dive also into challenging us to live by faith as well. So how do we do that?
One step, one day at a time. In this prayer we’ve been invited to directly pray to God, to pray in community, to pray that we might represent God well, to pray for God’s Kingdom to come and God’s will to be done - all of which is a prayer of submission to the will of God. Now, we’re invited to pray for our daily needs in the same vein, and to live in the present.
Let’s choose to live out this prayer.
