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6th June 2010 - "Give us this day our daily bread"

Stephen Fieldin - St Mary's

I expect you've noticed that some Christians, particularly younger Christians, wear wristbands with four capital letters on them. WWJD. What Would Jesus Do? I don't wear one myself, but I can well see how asking What Would Jesus Do? can be a powerful reminder that he is our companion, our friend, our guide, and our model to follow. To ask, ‘What Would Jesus Do?’ is to recall, to remember and to follow what Jesus the teacher taught and Jesus the man actually did.

And what did he do? He taught us to pray and he prayed himself. ‘Our Father who art in heaven.’ And for the last few weeks, many of us have been exploring what Jesus meant when he prayed to his Father and urged us to pray in the same way. Today, this morning I want to explore with you that little phrase ‘Give us this day our daily bread’, that part of the Lord's Prayer which a number of us considered last Wednesday here, as part of the prayer which Jesus taught us to say, every day, at least once a day, and three times a day if you follow the teaching of the early apostles, who told the followers of Jesus to pray the prayer that Jesus taught them three times a day. Our Father who art in heaven. So then -  ‘Give us this day our daily bread.’ What's it all about? How did Jesus actually put it?

It comes as a surprise to some people - though not of course to anybody here today in this congregation - that Jesus didn't actually speak English; a surprise in fact that he didn't actually speak the language of the Authorised Version of the Bible. As you know, Jesus spoke Aramaic. And the Aramaic phrase that Jesus actually prayed was this – ‘Our bread for tomorrow, give us today’.

What did it mean? Well there's something about time here and there's something about quantity here as well. Let's look at the time aspect first. You may have learnt as I did as a youngster that the bread for tomorrow was the soldier’s ration. You got tomorrow's rations today - food to enable you to march or to attack. Not too much because you have to carry it, but enough to keep you going to the next day; and that would be a very sensible way of understanding it. Give us, Lord, tomorrow's food at the end of today. That would be indeed very much in line with what Jesus said: ‘Our bread for tomorrow, give us today’.

But as one of our group asked on Wednesday, which tomorrow? The tomorrow with a small ‘t’, or the Great Tomorrow, the final consummation, the age of salvation, when Jesus will eat and drink with us anew? Because you see, there are those who invite us to see Jesus saying something more than the day after today. Something more than Monday's ration on Sunday evening, a bit more than tomorrow's packed lunch. As if it should mean something to last a bit longer as well, the heavenly bread, the bread of life, all of it pointing towards the time when the Kingdom of God will ‘come on earth as it is in heaven’, pointing therefore beyond the everyday time to the end time. So our daily bread becomes a matter of eternity, of heaven, not just a question of our bread for tomorrow given us today. It's the bread for always, the bread that we should eat at the heavenly banquet. So then the bread for tomorrow: a question of time and duration  - is it just for a day or is it rather forever as well?  Another perspective is to think about the quantity or the amount of bread that is asked for. You see God wants to supply our daily needs, does he not? So for some people, ‘our daily bread’ must mean ‘enough to stay alive’, mere subsistence. If you are starving, if you have absolutely nothing, then the subsistence view of our daily bread would be enough, would it not? In fact subsistence would be more than enough; anything would be enough. But I can't think that our Lord meant us to take such a stingy view of God's goodness. What is requested from God is ‘the bread we need’, that is a bit more than mere subsistence, in fact everything we need to lead a full life.

So then time on the one hand – bread for today or bread forever - and amount on the other - subsistence or everything we need to lead a full life. Can we bring these two ideas together? One writer says yes. He says if you look at a very close translation of what Jesus said - not the Aramaic but an old Syriac translation - a translation found in the 19th century and now lodged in the British Museum, this is the text that you will find. The old Syriac says: ‘Give us today the bread that doesn't run out’. I think this is a wonderful phrase – the bread that doesn’t run out.

Here then may be the way we deepen our understanding of ‘our daily bread’. It is what we ask God to provide us with for our immediate bodily needs, delivering us from the fear that there won't be enough, but really praying it because we seek the food that lasts forever, the life of heaven itself, the Holy Spirit. It is the prayer that God who holds us in the palm of his hand, the Father to whom we pray this great prayer, every day, many times a day if possible, will bless us with the riches of eternal life, the life lived with God forever, and the strength and power of the Holy Spirit which is its hallmark and seal.

Finally it is no accident that bread, and the sharing of bread, is a central part of this service of Holy Communion, the Eucharist. Indeed our Catholic friends of the Roman obedience have for centuries associated ‘our daily bread’ with the bread of the Eucharist. And the Lord's Prayer and the Holy Communion invite us to share not just the tangible bread but to see the bread as a symbol of Paradise, of the life of heaven itself, the heavenly manna, the bread that doesn't run out, a picture of the heavenly banquet which we shall share when the Kingdom comes on earth, as it is in heaven.

What we share in this Eucharist, and what we share when we say ‘give us this day our daily bread’, is the life of heaven itself and Jesus the King of Heaven is here, the host who fills the hungry and thirsty with the fullness of his blessings. Jesus is asking us to call down today right into our lives today, the glory of the final consummation, when his kingdom will come on earth as it is in heaven.

‘Let us pray. Our Father, may we pray to you in trust that there will be enough and to spare; we pray that you will give us our daily bread, the life of heaven itself, the bread that doesn't run out’.

Amen.

Sermon preached by the Rev Stephen Fielding at St Mary's Welwyn on Sunday 6 June 2010

 

‘Give us this day our daily bread’

I expect you've noticed that some Christians, particularly younger Christians, wear wristbands with four capital letters on them. WWJD. What Would Jesus Do? I don't wear one myself, but I can well see how asking What Would Jesus Do? can be a powerful reminder that he is our companion, our friend, our guide, and our model to follow. To ask, ‘What Would Jesus Do?’ is to recall, to remember and to follow what Jesus the teacher taught and Jesus the man actually did.

 

And what did he do? He taught us to pray and he prayed himself. ‘Our Father who art in heaven.’ And for the last few weeks, many of us have been exploring what Jesus meant when he prayed to his Father and urged us to pray in the same way. Today, this morning I want to explore with you that little phrase ‘Give us this day our daily bread’, that part of the Lord's Prayer which a number of us considered last Wednesday here, as part of the prayer which Jesus taught us to say, every day, at least once a day, and three times a day if you follow the teaching of the early apostles, who told the followers of Jesus to pray the prayer that Jesus taught them three times a day. Our Father who art in heaven. So then - ‘Give us this day our daily bread.’ What's it all about? How did Jesus actually put it?

 

It comes as a surprise to some people - though not of course to anybody here today in this congregation - that Jesus didn't actually speak English; a surprise in fact that he didn't actually speak the language of the Authorised Version of the Bible. As you know, Jesus spoke Aramaic. And the Aramaic phrase that Jesus actually prayed was this – ‘Our bread for tomorrow, give us today’.

 

What did it mean? Well there's something about time here and there's something about quantity here as well. Let's look at the time aspect first. You may have learnt as I did as a youngster that the bread for tomorrow was the soldier’s ration. You got tomorrow's rations today - food to enable you to march or to attack. Not too much because you have to carry it, but enough to keep you going to the next day; and that would be a very sensible way of understanding it. Give us, Lord, tomorrow's food at the end of today. That would be indeed very much in line with what Jesus said: ‘Our bread for tomorrow, give us today’.

 

But as one of our group asked on Wednesday, which tomorrow? The tomorrow with a small ‘t’, or the Great Tomorrow, the final consummation, the age of salvation, when Jesus will eat and drink with us anew? Because you see, there are those who invite us to see Jesus saying something more than the day after today. Something more than Monday's ration on Sunday evening, a bit more than tomorrow's packed lunch. As if it should mean something to last a bit longer as well, the heavenly bread, the bread of life, all of it pointing towards the time when the Kingdom of God will ‘come on earth as it is in heaven’, pointing therefore beyond the everyday time to the end time. So our daily bread becomes a matter of eternity, of heaven, not just a question of our bread for tomorrow given us today. It's the bread for always, the bread that we should eat at the heavenly banquet. So then the bread for tomorrow: a question of time and duration - is it just for a day or is it rather forever as well? Another perspective is to think about the quantity or the amount of bread that is asked for. You see God wants to supply our daily needs, does he not? So for some people, ‘our daily bread’ must mean ‘enough to stay alive’, mere subsistence. If you are starving, if you have absolutely nothing, then the subsistence view of our daily bread would be enough, would it not? In fact subsistence would be more than enough; anything would be enough. But I can't think that our Lord meant us to take such a stingy view of God's goodness. What is requested from God is ‘the bread we need’, that is a bit more than mere subsistence, in fact everything we need to lead a full life.

 

So then time on the one hand – bread for today or bread forever - and amount on the other - subsistence or everything we need to lead a full life. Can we bring these two ideas together? One writer says yes. He says if you look at a very close translation of what Jesus said - not the Aramaic but an old Syriac translation - a translation found in the 19th century and now lodged in the British Museum, this is the text that you will find. The old Syriac says: ‘Give us today the bread that doesn't run out’. I think this is a wonderful phrase – the bread that doesn’t run out.

 

Here then may be the way we deepen our understanding of ‘our daily bread’. It is what we ask God to provide us with for our immediate bodily needs, delivering us from the fear that there won't be enough, but really praying it because we seek the food that lasts forever, the life of heaven itself, the Holy Spirit. It is the prayer that God who holds us in the palm of his hand, the Father to whom we pray this great prayer, every day, many times a day if possible, will bless us with the riches of eternal life, the life lived with God forever, and the strength and power of the Holy Spirit which is its hallmark and seal.

 

Finally it is no accident that bread, and the sharing of bread, is a central part of this service of Holy Communion, the Eucharist. Indeed our Catholic friends of the Roman obedience have for centuries associated ‘our daily bread’ with the bread of the Eucharist. And the Lord's Prayer and the Holy Communion invite us to share not just the tangible bread but to see the bread as a symbol of Paradise, of the life of heaven itself, the heavenly manna, the bread that doesn't run out, a picture of the heavenly banquet which we shall share when the Kingdom comes on earth, as it is in heaven.

 

What we share in this Eucharist, and what we share when we say ‘give us this day our daily bread’, is the life of heaven itself and Jesus the King of Heaven is here, the host who fills the hungry and thirsty with the fullness of his blessings. Jesus is asking us to call down today right into our lives today, the glory of the final consummation, when his kingdom will come on earth as it is in heaven.

‘Let us pray. Our Father, may we pray to you in trust that there will be enough and to spare; we pray that you will give us our daily bread, the life of heaven itself, the bread that doesn't run out’.

Amen.