Text: John 6:30-35; James 2:15-17
During this season of Lent, we are taking time to dive deep and explore together the prayer that Jesus taught us.
Already, we have thought about what it means to be in conversation and relationship with our Holy Parent.
We spent last week thinking about what God desires and intends for our lives – for all of creation to thrive under God’s reign.
And one of the threads that is woven throughout this entire prayer is that in all of these petitions, our attention is shifted.
We are invited to think bigger… to focus on “Thee and Thine” not “me and mine.”
But that shift is also away from a kind of individualistic “me, myself, and I” to the communal.
Every part of this prayer uses plural pronouns.
We are not just praying for what we want, but are called to be aware of the needs and hopes and yearning of others.
And that is one of the reasons I am so excited that we are joining in this study together.
Some of you have been participating in the small groups in our congregations.
But what you maybe haven’t realized is that other churches in our area are learning and exploring and praying with us.
For these next three weeks, Immanuel, Windsor, and Valley United Methodist Churches are making that connection more explicit as we share our pulpits with one another.
It is my honor to get to speak with you all today and I’m looking forward to how Pastor Lee and Pastor LaTonya will bless us all in the coming weeks.
This morning, we have the opportunity to focus on the third phrase in the Lord’s Prayer:
“Give us this day our daily bread.”
There they are again… those plural pronouns.
The Lord’s Prayer centers us in the body of Christ and our needs and responsibilities towards one another.
After all, food is all about community.
One of the things I have missed the most as a United Methodist over these last two years of Covid-tide is the potluck.
You know – where everyone brings something to the table.
Crocks of hamballs, jello salad, far more deserts than you could possibly imagine…
But even if it isn’t a large communal gathering, in our prayers and blessings for meals, we often invoke the truth that most food before us is only possible because of our shared life.
From the hands that planted crops and cared for animals…
To those who have harvested and butchered and packaged…
To the workers who brought our food to market and the people who work to sell them.
In the modern world, every time we eat, we do so thanks to others.
As the authors of Becoming Jesus’ Prayer write: “bread is a cooperative endeavor.” (p. 53)
We became far more aware of this reality early in the pandemic as so many of these employees all along the food distribution chain were labeled “essential workers.”
I find that particular language intriguing as we think about what it means to ask God for our daily bread.
For those of you who are reading along with us in the study book, Adam Hamilton points out that our English translation doesn’t quite capture the fullness of the original languages.
There is a word used here, “epiousian” which we translate in English as “daily.”
But it is an unknown word in the Greek language.
Breaking it apart, scholars guess that it could mean that which is “necessary” or “that which is needed for us to be”; something that is “sufficient” or even “essential.”
Give us today the food that is essential for life.
Our gospel text this morning comes shortly after the miraculous feeding of 5,000 people.
The disciples are quick to connect this amazing experience with how God provided for their ancestors in the wilderness.
They remembered how the Hebrew people were starving in the desert, having just left the land of bondage, but every day… well, every day but the Sabbath… manna came down from heaven and quails appeared every evening.
Every day, there was enough to fill their bellies and satisfy their hunger.
Every day, their essential needs were met.
But as Jesus responds to this eager group of followers, he tells them that God is not just focused on the kind of bread that fills our bellies.
The gift of bread from God, or the bread from heaven, gives life to the world.
And in doing so, he calls them… and us… to think beyond our individual physical need for food today to what is essential for all people to experience abundant life.
All across the world, there are children of God who do not know if they will eat today.
There are hospitals in war-torn areas running out of medicine and supplies.
We have elderly neighbors choosing between paying for groceries or their medications.
Families are fleeing violence with only what they can carry and are desperate for clothing and shelter.
For them, this prayer is a petition spoken out of desperation and a need for survival.
I confess that every single time I have prayed the words “Give us this day our daily bread,” there has been food in my cupboard and a safe, warm place to sleep.
Growing up, we didn’t always have a lot of resources, but we always had the essentials.
Just a few days ago, I threw out a loaf of bread that had grown moldy.
The truth is, compared to so many people in the world, I have more than I need.
And maybe that has been your reality as well.
And yet, Jesus calls us to pray these words.
And in doing so, they are transformed into a call to action.
I might have enough, but does my neighbor?
How am I called to put this prayer into action?
As part of the body of Christ, how can my hands and feet become the answer to the prayers of my neighbors?
This week, the DMARC offices are closed as they transition to larger facilities here in Des Moines.
This vital partnership between so many area churches, organizations, and individuals, is one way that we make sure that our neighbors are fed.
And more than ever, this partnership and effort is vital.
Food insecurity has continued to grow among our neighbors, rising 80% over six years (https://www.dmarcunited.org/capital-campaign/).
The new facility will triple the available warehouse space, completely change cold storage capacity, and will also house a permanent on-site pantry.
It is just one way that as a community we are putting prayer into action and making what is essential available to our hungry neighbors.
But this prayer calls us to do more than just share our leftovers or extra canned peas with those who lack food.
We are called to adopt this mindset for all that is essential to life.
St. Basil the Great famously wrote:
“The bread that you store up belongs to the hungry; the cloak that lies in your chest belongs to the naked; and the gold that you have hidden in the ground belongs to the poor.” (https://www.inspirationalstories.com/quotes/saint-basil-the-bread-that-you-store-up-belongs/)
I am reminded that when God provided manna to the Hebrew people in the wilderness, each day they had enough.
Anything that they tried to save and hoard and store up would rot away.
Maybe part of what it means to pray and work for our neighbors to have what is essential for their lives is to also reflect upon the excess of our own consumption.
It isn’t just the bread that molds in our cupboards.
It is also the dress that is too small hanging in my closet that could benefit a woman newly released from prison.
The bed taking up space in your storage unit that could benefit a family from Afghanistan that has found refuge in our community.
If you are anything like me, your heart has been broken apart over and over again by the stories coming out of Ukraine.
But one in particular that I think exemplifies the spirit of this particular prayer is from a train station in Poland.
Polish mothers began dropping off their old strollers for Ukrainian mothers arriving with nothing but the clothes on your back.
What is essential for life?
What do our neighbors need to thrive?
Every time we say this prayer, we are making a commitment to center our lives around what God intends for all of creation and that means joining Jesus in reaching out to people in need.
Whether it is food, or clothing, or shelter, or the money you have saved up, it all has the capacity to be a blessing to others.
We are praying for the strength to work and give and advocate so that others might have enough.
We are paying for the courage to see other people on the fringes of our community as children of God, people of worth and dignity who deserve food and shelter and health care and relationships.
We are praying for justice for our neighbors.
Our scriptures are full of passages that speak of God’s justice in relation to caring for the orphans and the widows, in concern for the strangers or sojourners, the prisoners, the sick, the slaves.
Because of circumstances beyond their control, each of these groups are kept from full participation in the community and find themselves without access to things that are essential for life.
As St. Basil would say, whenever we keep people from what is rightfully theirs – according to the principle of need – we are committing injustice.
But over and over, scripture tells us that God hears and God responds and God calls us to act as the people of God.
According to the Holman Bible Dictionary – “When people had become poor and weak with respect to the rest of the community, they were to be strengthened so that they could continue to be effective members of the community.”
God’s justice is about meeting the needs of our neighbors and restoring people to community.
It is our task and calling as the body of Christ to care for the poor and the marginalized.
To look out for the least among our siblings.
To band together, to hold one another up, to reach out to those on the fringes and offer each other life and life abundant through the power and grace of Jesus Christ.
We do so through prayer, but we also do so through what we share.
Out of our abundance of food and clothing, time and money, even hope and strength, we can reach out to impact the lives of our neighbors so that every single one of us has what is essential for life.
May it be so.
Amen.