Seasons of Thanks for Simple Things, 4th Petition, Lenten Midweek 5 March ‘18

1.       Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.  This Lenten series of worship has focused on prayer, the Lord’s Prayer, but, as we dig further into God’s Word, it teaches us that there’s still so much to learn, so far to grow when it comes to imagining the dynamics of Scripture and its meaning for our lives. Like how prayer, and the Lord’s Prayer, above all draw us to the cross.

2.       Originally, this focus on the Lord’s Prayer came from a study of the book, “The Calling,” by one of our Lutheran authors, Kurt Senske, which encouraged some spiritual disciplines in deepening our growth in the Lord. One of those suggestions was to say the Lord’s Prayer at least three times each day. As we do that, we might begin inserting into our prayers personal thoughts, needs, fears, thanks, and individuals—knowing there are seasons in our lives when one of those petitions are more dominant than another. Plenty of those to talk about this week. This week, let’s talk about how, The Lord’s Prayer Is for Our Seasons of Thanks for Simple Things.

3.       That’s the whole point of the Fourth Petition, as Luther explains in the catechism:  Give us this day our daily bread.  What does this mean? God certainly gives daily bread to everyone without our prayers, even to all evil people, but we pray in this petition that God would lead us to realize this and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving.

4.       We pray this petition so that when God generously and graciously provides for us, we’d notice that he was the giver and remember to give him thanks. That ought to be a no-brainer, except that more than sometimes we neglect to do just that, taking for granted or assuming that they will always be there, those very basics of life—the simple things—that keep us alive and keep us going.

5.       Our catechism reading reminds how much that entails:  Give us this day our daily bread.  What is meant by daily bread? Daily bread includes everything that has to do with the support and needs of the body, such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, home, land, animals, money, goods, a devout husband or wife, devout children, devout workers, devout and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, self-control, good reputation, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like.

6.       As plentiful as that list I just read from Luther is, I’m sure there are still other things we could add: church life and worship; use of our senses—if not all, then at least some; a brain that functions clearly; ability to help those in physical need. (What if we always had to be on the receiving end of generosity?) And there is so much more that has to do with “the support and needs of the body.” If we started inserting specifics throughout the day as we thought of them and experienced them, we’d barely get on to the next petition! What we see, what we touch, what we hear, whom we love, creation, no matter the season of the year—all of it is wrapped up in this petition. No wonder it’s so important, every day, “to realize this and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving.” One thing for sure: whenever we’re in those seasons of our lives that are cluttered with “stuff,” whenever we’re in those seasons of our lives when our demanding for something more and better confuses our priorities, then it’s time to pray with humility and simplicity, “Give us this day our daily bread.”

7.       As I said earlier, studying God’s Word always begins to draw us deeper, and as we go deeper, there’s ultimately one destination. We’ve seen it, haven’t we—the connection between the Lord’s Prayer and the Passion of our Lord Jesus. As he was teaching the disciples and us the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus was thinking ahead to the events surrounding the cross, his suffering and death on Calvary.

8.       How so with this petition? What do you suppose was in our Lord’s mind and heart as he taught us to say, “Give us this day our daily bread”? Why do you suppose he chose these words as the one petition that concerns physical needs while the other six are about our spiritual health and well-being? Maybe Jesus was thinking back to the people of Israel in the desert being fed manna from heaven. Or thinking back to his own days in the desert, when he was hungry and the devil told him to turn rocks into bread and Jesus said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Mt 4:4). Maybe Jesus was thinking ahead to the miraculous feeding of the five thousand with five loaves of bread and a couple of fish. Or when he would say to the people, “It was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. . . . I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger” (Jn 6:32–33, 35).

9.       Or maybe he was thinking of an even greater miracle!  It was to be on the night of Jesus’ betrayal and arrest and denial, the night his suffering would begin to become intense, the night he would be left alone to be shuffled between Annas, Caiaphas, Pilate, Herod, and back again. It would be the eve of the Passover, and he would share it with his disciples and with the betrayer in their midst. They would be together for their last meal this side of the cross, though the disciples were oblivious as to what was about to unfold . . . well, except for one disciple who would help to make it happen! Later, as they rehearsed the night, the disciples all agreed that it had begun strangely. The Master had washed their feet, each one of them, and they had been uncomfortable with that. So am I, almost always, when someone waits on me humbly without fanfare. Humbly.

10.   And then it happened. On the night of his betrayal as he sat with his disciples, Jesus the Bread of Life took bread, gave thanks—as he always did before he broke bread—and gave it to them, saying, “Take, eat; this is my body given for you.” It looks like bread, and it tastes like bread, and it feels like bread, and it is bread. A simple thing. Simple bread. But it’s also the body of Christ, broken and battered and bleeding on the cross as full and final payment for the sins of the world. The body of Christ, offered up, selflessly and sacrificially, that we may have life and have it to the full, presently and eternally. The body of Christ, sign, seal, and symbol of God Almighty entering our world through a baby, with flesh and blood and fingers and toes, a boy, then a man, a man named Jesus of Nazareth. A man on a mission from the Father, to die, to live, to be the Father’s ambassador of extravagant grace.

11.   And this bread and this wine? They are the Means of that Grace, one of the ways through which God makes known and delivers his sincere love for us.  And so, every time we come to the Lord’s Supper to eat and drink bread and wine, the body and blood of Christ, we believe and know the real presence of Christ among us. It’s simple, but there’s nothing simple about it; it’s Sacrament. Mystery. Miracle. And it’s not for a season, but for a lifetime. It’s not something on the fringes of the Church, the Body of Christ on this earth now, but essential to our life together.  Can you not imagine with me then that the same Lord Jesus who gave himself to us through something so basic as bread and wine was picturing this as he sat on that hillside overlooking the lake called Galilee and said, “Pray like this: Give us this day our daily bread”? Amen.