"Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread" - Matthew 6:9-13

One of my favorite places to be in seminary was the kitchen. Perhaps it was creating something wonderful out of a mixture of ingredients, or just preservation, there was no longer anyone else to cook for me, but I found a deep sense of joy being in our hot, sticky, and cramped kitchen. Somedays I would cook food to eat for the week. Other days I would make sweet treats for my roommates. And still other days I would cook elaborate meals for friends. But there was something deeply fulfilling about being in the kitchen. So much so, that for my second year of seminary I choose to spend every weekend in the kitchen of a retreat center, creating liturgy around food.

Maybe being in the kitchen cooking isn’t your favorite place to be. But even if you don’t like to cook, do you like to eat? Do you have a favorite food? Family memories around the dinner table? Or different traditions for meals? There is something about food that is central to our survival, central to who we are.

For the last few weeks as we have been discussing the Lord’s Prayer we have looked at phrases that were God-centered petitions, that is to say they are about God. Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name. Your Kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. Today we look at the first phrase that is about us, “Give us this day our daily bread.” It seems like such an abrupt change, from asking for God’s kingdom to come, to asking for our daily bread. But they are connected. For it is only after we know who God is that we can begin to seek God to fulfill our needs. Trust that the God of the universe is concerned about our daily needs. For this reason, in the words of Pastor Max Lucado, the prayer is structured to “reveal God to us before revealing our needs to God.”

The story is told that during the bombing raids of World War II, thousands of children were orphaned and left to starve. Some were rescued and put in refugee camps where they were given plenty of food and good care. But the care givers soon realized that they had a problem, these children who had lost so much - their family, their home, their security - could not sleep at night. They were afraid that one day they would wake up and find themselves again without a home and food. Even the care they were receiving and the bounty of the food around them could not calm their fears. Then one of the care givers had an idea - give each of the children a piece of bread to hold during bed time. The children, holding the bread, could finally sleep in peace as they were reassured, “today I ate and tomorrow I will eat again.”

The Lord’s Prayer has the same reassurance for us, brothers and sisters. That today we were provided for by God and tomorrow we will be provided for as well. Yet all too often we hesitate to ask God for what we need, hesitate to show our dependance on God. Instead we cram our pantries and cupboards with as much food as they can hold, 40% of which will be wasted on national average, just so we can feel secure - feel like we can provide for ourselves. It reminds me of the story of the Israelites wandering through the wilderness. God promised that he would provide manna from Heaven each day for them for strength along the journey. But they were only to collect enough food for that day (except for the day preceding the Sabbath when they were to collect enough for two days). Any more they collected would go bad. And even though sure enough there was manna each and every day, their daily bread provided, some Israelites still insisted on trying to collect more then they needed, hoarding, “just in case”. 

We live in a “just in case” world, where we look out for ourselves and have as much food for ourselves and our families as we can. But looking at today’s scripture text I must ask, how does that help us come before God in prayer, asking for what we need, and showing dependence upon him? How does our “just in case” attitude help us rely on God for the necessities in life? And more over, what do our stocked pantries teach us about the fact that we are asking that our daily bread be provided.

Not our as in us as individuals, or even our families, or this church family. But the collective our, our brother and sisters around the world. In far too many place people are starving. Think of how many people the food banks in Mansfield, Wellsboro, Millerton, and Blossburg serve each month. The number of families in need in our back yards. How is our living providing food for them as well? Think back to the stories of the loaves and the fishes. A little boy volunteered all that he had - five loaves of bread and two fishes. He didn’t know what Jesus was going to do with them. He didn’t save half of it for himself, “just in case”. He trusted that he would be fed and that others would be as well. 

When you give to the food bank what do you offer? Your very best? The same things that you eat? Or the cheaply processed food that you pick up at the grocery store? God looks to us, like Jesus looked to the small boy, to share the very best of what we have so that all may have their daily bread. Brothers and sisters, God wants to use you to feed others their daily bread - are you letting him?

The matter of feeding others is truly one of trust. Trusting that God knows what we need and will provide. Max Lucado illustrated this point in a plate of food he set before his small daughters one day during family devotions. On the plate were fruits, veggies, and Oreo cookies. He asked his daughters what they wanted and they immediately went for the cookies. He told them that sometimes God provides cookies for us - things that we really want, but aren’t very nutritious, but brighten our days. Other days God provides fruits - something sweet and nutritious and other days veggies - things that can be seen as boring in the eyes of a child. God knows what we need and provides. But we aren’t given our daily bread just for ourselves; we are to share it with others, whatever it may be.

This analogy reminds me of advise one of my friends who is rearing a toddler received from their pediatrician. Don’t worry if your child only eats fruits one day and only veggies the next. Their bodies know what they need and by the end of the week they will be filled with the nutrients they need. Brothers and sisters, how much more so with our Loving Father God! God knows what we need if only we trust for him to provide. And trust that we will be provided enough to share with our community and world so desperately in need of food. 

There is a song by Audio Adrenaline that describes God’s house as one with “a big big table with lots and lots of food”. Do we ask God to provide this bounty for us now or do we, like the Israelites, try to hoard as much as we can “just in case” God doesn’t provide one day? Do we trust that God will provide enough for all, or do we just worry about ourselves, unlike the little boy who shared all that he had? There is something powerful about praying for our daily bread that reminds us that we are connected as a community in need of the necessities of life and that reminds us where those provisions come from - God alone. May we find our security and peace in the God who will provide and as we look around our kitchens and tables in the coming week may we ask ourselves how we can become even more dependent upon our Loving Father. Amen.