Scripture: Matthew 6:11; John 6:26-35; Exodus 16:4-30; Exodus 3:5 Series: 2023
A Lenten sermon in a series on the Lord’s Prayer focused on the petition ‘Give us this day our daily bread.’ The pastor bakes matzah live while preaching, tying the unleavened bread of Passover and the Exodus to the prayer’s claim that God, not our own effort, provides our material sustenance. He distinguishes need from want (illustrated by his picky child and the wilderness manna), frames Lenten fasting as freeing us from being defined by our desires, and moves from bread as material gift to the deeper meaning in John 6, where Jesus declares himself the bread of life. The aim: a changed vision that receives food as gift and longs for God as for daily bread.
Illustrations: making-matzah-while-preaching, sourdough-starter-wild-yeast, passover-exodus-flight, picky-child-at-bedtime, manna-in-the-wilderness, augustine-restless-hearts, restless-scrolling-switching-hobbies
March 12
Give us this day our daily bread.
This message is going to be a little different and unusual because I’m going to make bread while I preach. A specific kind of bread. Matzah. Matzah is the bread of Passover. It is unleavened bread, which means there is no yeast used to make it. Over the last few thousand years, the specific rules for make Matzah have been refined. There are only two ingredients to Matza: flour and water. More than that, the flour and water cannot sit for more than 19 minutes before the dough goes in the oven or else it ceases to be Matzah. There is yeast all around us. This is how sourdough starters come about. If you leave flour and water out for a few days, the yeasts will grow and smell and you will have a sourdough starter that can make your bread rise without any commercial yeast. Commecial yeasts are monocultures, one kind of yeast. Natural yeasts have tons of variety. And even after a short while, they will come into the dough and give it leaven. So we have to be quick. Matzah comes out of the Exodus story. The Hebrew people were slaves in Egypt. God met Moses at the burning bush, and said, Take off your shoes, for the land you are standing on is holy ground. It’s the first time the word holy takes place in the Bible.
Then God sends Moses back to Faroh to tell Pharaoh, let my people go. Then the plagues en sue. Finally, the last plague takes place with the death of the firstborn. All the Hebrew people are saved because they listen to God and paint their doors with lambs blood, so death does not enter; it passes over them and then Pharaoh finally says yes to Moses and the people go. They take what they can. They plunder the Egyptians, but they don’t wait around for the bread to rise. They take it still in dough form. And every year at Passover, Jews celebrate the feast of the unleavened bread. A Passover Seder is a retelling of the story of freedom with a number of elements, the two central ones being the matza and the wine, but it’s really The matza. When Jesus teaches his disciples to pray, give us our daily bread. He’s talking about real things (hold up the bread).
Series Intro
My friends, for this season of Lent, we are going to be slowly reading and praying through the Lord’s Prayer. These familiar (or unfamiliar words) are a radical call to seek God’s will in this world. And to understand God’s vision for ourselves and those around us. Today, Give us this day our daily bread.
Bread has a pretty bad wrap. Nowadays, a lot of diets tell people not to eat bread. There are gluten intolerances in this world. There’s celiac disease and things like that, which affect people in serious ways. But most of the people do not have celiac and bread is still blamed for a lot of things. Bread is calorically dense, which is great for growing populations. Not great if you’re trying to limit the calories you’re consuming on a day to day basis. Jesus says, give us this day our dear bread. Jesus teaches us to pray for our material sustenance, which is a pretty radical thing for him to do. There were jobs in the ancient world. People labored in fields or fished in the sea, or collected taxes or were soldiers or all of these sorts of occupations. And Jesus is telling those people to never take their jobs for granted. And the prayer is not just about spirituality, but materiality and the things that matter in our life. Give us this day, our daily bread. Give us Lord what we need to survive. It’s a very humbling thing to earnestly pray. Give us our daily bread. Because when we say that, it means that we are not the ones to provide it. I know there are a lot of successful people in this church who’ve earned a lot over these years who have been compensated for their effort. Yes, to pray the Lord’s Prayer, the basic Christian prayer, is to say that all of that doesn’t come from me. My material wellbeing is not the result of my efforts.
Need vs. Want
Jesus also teaches us to make this distinction between what we need and what we want. Those are always two different things. Sometimes at night before bed, our youngest will say, “I’m hungry. I’m hungry.” I’ll say, “would you like an apple?” “No.” “Would you like an orange?” “No.” “Would you like some carrots?” And then I’d say to him, “you’re not hungry. You’re picky.” Then he admits, “I’m picky. I would like these things.” At least he’s being honest. Most of us though, with what we consume in our lives, claim necessity when it most often is really just what we want. It is an act of faith to ask God for daily Bread. It is an act of faith to be satisfied in what we need. In the wilderness, the Hebrew people cried out to God. They were hungry and God responded and gave them manna. He gave manna enough for a day. And then on Fridays he gave them a double portion so they wouldn’t have to gather on the Sabbath. On the seventh day. On Saturday. Yet People still tried to gather more and accumulate more. But the extra rotted away. God always gave them exactly what they needed.. Give us this day our daily bread. Give us this day what we need to flourish in you, Oh Lord. It may be bread. It may be fish, it may be all sorts of things. Remember, our future with God is full of feasting. The disciples of Jesus were criticized again and again because they were always so happy and drunk and partying. Pharisees came to Jesus and said, “why are your disciples not frowning like the rest of us. Jesus said, “the bridegroom is here so we celebrate. There’s time for fasting. The season of Lent gives us an opportunity to fast, to control our desires, to remember that our desires do not define us. We’re not made by what we desire. Fasting is not about dropping a few pounds, but remembering that the things of this world that we want do not define us. It’s not just the bad things. Those are easy to name and let go of. We also have an amazing way to distort good things, to make idols of them and conflict with Christ. Give us this day our daily bread, oh Lord, is a claim of faith. That God is the one who provides what we need. And if we seek God, we will be satisfied. Maybe that’s at the table of the Lord. Maybe that’s in service to the Lord. St. Augustine said, our hearts are restless until they rest in you. Oh Lord.” In this world, that is often the condition in which humans find ourselves. We’re restless. So many people are restless. Our children, our neighbors are restless. They’re looking for the next thing. And they’re switching hobbies. They’re switching sports. Trying to find something that can hold their attention. They’re skimming Facebook and Instagram and TikTok. They’re looking for answers. They’re looking for meaning. Ultimately, they’re looking for the lamb of God who gives us our daily bread. We need to ask for it. We to not go through the motions. We need to not repeat words. We need to ask for it. Our Father in heaven give us this day Our daily bread. We have to ask for it again. Yesterday’s bread is not going to feed us today. Tomorrow’s bread is not going to feed us today. Seek Jesus for your material bread. Then seek Jesus for your spiritual source. If we skip the material, we can’t take seriously enough the spiritual. The material has testable consequences. The spiritual is easier to lie to ourselves about, but the material hits directly at our pride. To believe God gives us our sustenance is to let go of the lie that it all comes from our unique strength and ability, our risk taking in this world.
When we have seen our daily bread as material, we are ready for the deeper spiritual aspect revealed in John 6. John 6 gives us the story of the feeding of the Five thousand. It also gives an explanation to the story. Jesus walks on water and the next day the crowd finds him and asks about the food again.
“Jesus replied, “I assure you that you are looking for me not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate all the food you wanted. Don’t work for the food that doesn’t last but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Human One will give you. God the Father has confirmed him as his agent to give life.” They asked, “What must we do in order to accomplish what God requires?” Jesus replied, “This is what God requires, that you believe in him whom God sent.”” “They asked, “What miraculous sign will you do, that we can see and believe you? What will you do? Our ancestors ate manna in the wilderness, just as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.” Jesus told them, “I assure you, it wasn’t Moses who gave the bread from heaven to you, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. The bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said, “Sir, give us this bread all the time!” Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” John 6:26-35 CEB
Our ultimate future and end is living face to face with the bread of life without hunger or thirst. In our world today, we still have hunger. We still have thirst. We still get cranky when we don’t eat. We are still picky.
In our world today, we still deceive ourselves into thinking we are the providers. We still deceive ourselves into thinking God is only about the spiritual realm and not the material.
Jesus says I am the bread of life. He also says, do this in remembrance of me. Eat this. Drink this. We are made from dust and we have needs for this dust made bodies. We are looking for answers and meaning and when we truly find the bread of life, we don’t have to look any more. But we still have to pray for our daily bread. That need doesn’t stop. Jesus teaches his disciples to rely on God for everything. That is impractical. It only makes sense if Jesus really rose from the dead.
To pray for our daily bread is to pray that our vision of the world changes so that we see food as a gift and spiritual food as the greatest of gifts. A changed vision that doesn’t seek tomorrow’s bread but todays bread. Tomorrow has worries of its own. Today, let us seek the bread of life.
In this season of lent, may you fast even for one single meal to feel that hunger. In hunger, your desires become consuming. By faith, you realize those desires need not control you. By faith, you also realize that your hunger can be directed towards God. Long for God as you long to eat and you will be satisfied so that you will never be hungry again.
Seek the bread of life. Seek the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
Let us pray, Heavenly Father, Give us this day our daily bread. Give us what we need. Satisfy us with what we need. Humble us with your mercy so we can better under stand your true gifts. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.