Stewardship of Life

Daily Bread: Enough for you, for the Community, and for the World

By Sharron R. Blezard, July 21, 2010

July 25, 2010

Ninth Sunday after Pentecost

He said to them, “When you pray, say:

Father, hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come.

Give us each day our daily bread.

And forgive us our sins,

for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.

And do not bring us to the time of trial.”

Luke 11:2-4

When you pray the Lord’s Prayer what comes to mind? Do you think of the act as an individual or corporate one? Does each word carry weight and meaning, or do the syllables and phrases flow off your tongue like a roller coaster at Six Flags?

This prayer is usually among the first ones a person memorizes, and it resonates throughout the life of faith, as timeless as the One who taught it. I have sat at the bedsides of dying faithful and watched as their lips form these words. I have prayed with individuals living deep in the valley of Alzheimer’s for whom this prayer is still somehow a concrete link with present reality. I have been moved to tears by these words, and yes, I have allowed them to slide glibly from my lips in as rote a fashion as the ABCs. How about you? What have been your experiences with the Lord’s Prayer?

One thing that strikes me in meditating on the gospel this week is the powerful communal nature of the Lord’s Prayer. Here in North America, where individualism takes top billing and the self claims precedence over neighbor, even this prayer can be reduced to an individual exercise. Not that it’s at all wrong to pray this prayer alone, but the intent is clearly a communal experience. Note the language of “us” and “our” and “ourselves.” There is no “I” or “me” in Jesus’ prayer lesson with his disciples.

The prayer our Lord taught is indeed powerful communication on the lips and hearts of the Body of Christ. Together we first offer praise and honor to God in a most intimate way—as a child to his or her father. We pray to be in line with Divine will, for God’s way not ours to map the journey, and we pray for enough for each day.

Yes, “give us each day our daily bread” is a petition to which the Christian community might wish to devote some time and thought. It sits at a key point in the prayer, a sort of peak, if you will, after praise and expression for the will of the Divine in the world but before seeking forgiveness and deliverance from time of trial. It is the petition for enough, asking that what is needed will be provided—nothing more and nothing less. It is basic and fundamental, and fundamentally important.

As surely as followers of Jesus prayed for something as simple as enough bread to satisfy their hunger for the day, we, too, as followers of Jesus may pray for enough to meet the basic needs of both physical and spiritual hunger. We pray that the needs of our physical selves will be met so that we will have strength enough to do the will of God and meet the needs of a hungry and hurting world. We don’t pray for magical solutions (as nice as those would be) and we don’t pray for more than we can use and handle. We pray for exactly enough to be a disciple of Christ individually and a member of the Body of Christ corporate. This petition is a fine example of stewardship, of caring and sharing, of desiring enough not more, and of trusting in God’s providence and ability to provide more than we can possibly imagine.

As Jesus says in verses 11-13, “Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” How much more, indeed, will our gracious Creator provide for our basic needs to live and thrive, while also equipping us to do God’s work in the world? As a disciple of Christ, an optimist, and a shameless dreamer, I can only imagine that the sky’s the limit. Thanks be to God for daily bread, for enough—enough that is more and overflowing with forgiveness, grace, and love.

Photos by daisybush used under a Creative Commons License. Thank you!