The Fourth Petition: Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread
Sermon
What's That Supposed To Mean?
Using The Catechism In The 21st Century
Object:
The Lord's Prayer -- The Fourth Petition
Give us this day our daily bread. What does this mean? God gives daily bread indeed without our prayer, also to all the wicked; but we pray in this petition that He would lead us to know it, and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving. What is meant by daily bread? Everything that belongs to the support and wants of the body, such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, home, field, cattle, money, goods, a pious spouse, pious children, pious servants, pious and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, discipline, honor, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like.
I believe that most people think they don't get enough money for what work they do. I hear farmers complain about the price of grain and how it is still selling for about the same price it was when their dads were farming. Union workers regularly go on strike to get higher wages and more benefits. Sit around the coffee shop long enough and you will hear complaints that local businessmen and merchants pay unfairly low wages, making a fat profit on the sweat of oppressed workers. Added to that, coffee shop talk complains that not enough paycheck is left at the end of the month, taxes are too high, wages are too low, and expenses are on the rise. Even preachers complain -- a common joke they tell is how churches pray to God to give them poor and humble preachers. "You keep them humble, Lord, and we'll keep them poor." If you are like me, you have probably looked to heaven and said to God, "God, I can't make it on what I have -- I need more."
However, when we pray "give us this day our daily bread," we are challenged to trust God like a wise man named Agur did. In his proverb is a strange prayer: "Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, 'Who is the LORD?' Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God." In short, he prays, "Give me what I need to keep me honest and faithful -- give me daily bread." Jesus taught us nothing new, then, in the Lord's Prayer! People had been praying that way for at least a thousand years.
Jesus Christ answers this prayer for us in two ways. First, He offers us bread that will give us eternal life. "I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever." Jesus contrasted how God had provided miraculous food for Israel in the desert, but that food did not keep them alive forever. On the other hand, Jesus taught that He offered bread that would give eternal life. He taught that He was that bread.
So if a Christian starves to death, did he really? There is always the "last meal" we shall eat. When we eat it, we will then die -- maybe right away, maybe the next day or a few weeks later, but sooner or later, we will die. No food will keep us alive forever. Or, what does a Christian lose if he goes bankrupt, or can't afford to live in a bigger house, or buy nicer clothes? As we use the Word and sacraments of Jesus, He feeds us food that helps us live forever! This is the first way Jesus answers the prayer, "Give us this day our daily bread." He gives us Himself.
Then, as a daily reminder of bread that lasts forever, Jesus sees to it that we have, as Dr. Luther summarizes, "everything that belongs to the support and wants of the body, such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, home, field, cattle, money, goods, a pious spouse, pious children, pious servants, pious and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, discipline, honor, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like." Everything that is good is part of how God answers the prayer, "Give us this day our daily bread." Who gave you that farm, that job, that house? The devil? Your own sweat and blood? There are people who work harder than you do who have less than you have. God sees to it that we have what we have. Only if we go outside God's will -- by stealing -- can we have more than what God gives us. Who puts our leaders in office? Voters? The devil? The two working together? Jesus told Pilate, "All authority comes from heaven." Jesus put our current president in office. He also put Hitler, Stalin and others like them in office -- because they did offer law and order.
Maybe Jesus doesn't give the complete list of good things to everyone. But whatever He gives is enough to keep us going until He is ready to call us home to heaven with Him. Stack up what you have against what others have and you might see a different pile, but you have a pile. If it bothers you that God gives more to others than you, then read the newspaper and compare your pile to the ones God gave to people in Somalia, Ethiopia, and other places like that! Only those in the grave have nothing in this world -- but even that's no problem if they are Christians!
How much daily bread is enough? What about starving Christians in Somalia or Ethiopia or India? What about Christians who live in Palestine, who have had their homes ruined by Israeli military attacks? While some of you might think that three-dollar wheat is bad news, what about those who have to pay twenty, thirty, forty dollars or more to get theirs? How much daily bread is enough? How many of you pay too much in taxes? Maybe you would like to be so poor that you didn't have to pay taxes. Do you think we pay the teachers and school administrators too much? Maybe you would like to live where there are no schools. Do you think that you are living below what you are worth? Maybe you would like to spend more of your time taking care of more property and paying more taxes on it. Would you like to live in a bigger house? Maybe you would like to have more rooms to vacuum, more walls to paint, more yard to mow. I think we often lie to ourselves about how well off we really are. Few of us are so poor we are tempted to steal to stay alive. Few of us are so poor we cannot be generous in offerings of time and money to do the work of God's kingdom. What we have too easily fools us into thinking that we should have more. We can too easily focus on what we don't have and forget what we do have.
If you are alive tomorrow, God answered your prayer for daily bread today. You are alive today as proof that God answered your prayer for daily bread yesterday! If you are dead tomorrow, you are with Jesus where He has stored up eternal treasures for you. Either way, you get your daily bread. Either way, you have something to be thankful for.
Prayer: O Lord Jesus, teach us to be thankful for what we have instead of unhappy about what we don't have. Help us believe that You will see to it we will survive this life and end up wealthy beyond our wildest hopes and dreams. Thank You for pastors and teachers who feed us the bread from heaven You serve us through Your suffering, death and resurrection from the dead. Fill us full with that bread so we will more easily enjoy and be thankful for the daily bread You give us in this life. Amen.
Give us this day our daily bread. What does this mean? God gives daily bread indeed without our prayer, also to all the wicked; but we pray in this petition that He would lead us to know it, and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving. What is meant by daily bread? Everything that belongs to the support and wants of the body, such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, home, field, cattle, money, goods, a pious spouse, pious children, pious servants, pious and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, discipline, honor, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like.
I believe that most people think they don't get enough money for what work they do. I hear farmers complain about the price of grain and how it is still selling for about the same price it was when their dads were farming. Union workers regularly go on strike to get higher wages and more benefits. Sit around the coffee shop long enough and you will hear complaints that local businessmen and merchants pay unfairly low wages, making a fat profit on the sweat of oppressed workers. Added to that, coffee shop talk complains that not enough paycheck is left at the end of the month, taxes are too high, wages are too low, and expenses are on the rise. Even preachers complain -- a common joke they tell is how churches pray to God to give them poor and humble preachers. "You keep them humble, Lord, and we'll keep them poor." If you are like me, you have probably looked to heaven and said to God, "God, I can't make it on what I have -- I need more."
However, when we pray "give us this day our daily bread," we are challenged to trust God like a wise man named Agur did. In his proverb is a strange prayer: "Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, 'Who is the LORD?' Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God." In short, he prays, "Give me what I need to keep me honest and faithful -- give me daily bread." Jesus taught us nothing new, then, in the Lord's Prayer! People had been praying that way for at least a thousand years.
Jesus Christ answers this prayer for us in two ways. First, He offers us bread that will give us eternal life. "I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever." Jesus contrasted how God had provided miraculous food for Israel in the desert, but that food did not keep them alive forever. On the other hand, Jesus taught that He offered bread that would give eternal life. He taught that He was that bread.
So if a Christian starves to death, did he really? There is always the "last meal" we shall eat. When we eat it, we will then die -- maybe right away, maybe the next day or a few weeks later, but sooner or later, we will die. No food will keep us alive forever. Or, what does a Christian lose if he goes bankrupt, or can't afford to live in a bigger house, or buy nicer clothes? As we use the Word and sacraments of Jesus, He feeds us food that helps us live forever! This is the first way Jesus answers the prayer, "Give us this day our daily bread." He gives us Himself.
Then, as a daily reminder of bread that lasts forever, Jesus sees to it that we have, as Dr. Luther summarizes, "everything that belongs to the support and wants of the body, such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, home, field, cattle, money, goods, a pious spouse, pious children, pious servants, pious and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, discipline, honor, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like." Everything that is good is part of how God answers the prayer, "Give us this day our daily bread." Who gave you that farm, that job, that house? The devil? Your own sweat and blood? There are people who work harder than you do who have less than you have. God sees to it that we have what we have. Only if we go outside God's will -- by stealing -- can we have more than what God gives us. Who puts our leaders in office? Voters? The devil? The two working together? Jesus told Pilate, "All authority comes from heaven." Jesus put our current president in office. He also put Hitler, Stalin and others like them in office -- because they did offer law and order.
Maybe Jesus doesn't give the complete list of good things to everyone. But whatever He gives is enough to keep us going until He is ready to call us home to heaven with Him. Stack up what you have against what others have and you might see a different pile, but you have a pile. If it bothers you that God gives more to others than you, then read the newspaper and compare your pile to the ones God gave to people in Somalia, Ethiopia, and other places like that! Only those in the grave have nothing in this world -- but even that's no problem if they are Christians!
How much daily bread is enough? What about starving Christians in Somalia or Ethiopia or India? What about Christians who live in Palestine, who have had their homes ruined by Israeli military attacks? While some of you might think that three-dollar wheat is bad news, what about those who have to pay twenty, thirty, forty dollars or more to get theirs? How much daily bread is enough? How many of you pay too much in taxes? Maybe you would like to be so poor that you didn't have to pay taxes. Do you think we pay the teachers and school administrators too much? Maybe you would like to live where there are no schools. Do you think that you are living below what you are worth? Maybe you would like to spend more of your time taking care of more property and paying more taxes on it. Would you like to live in a bigger house? Maybe you would like to have more rooms to vacuum, more walls to paint, more yard to mow. I think we often lie to ourselves about how well off we really are. Few of us are so poor we are tempted to steal to stay alive. Few of us are so poor we cannot be generous in offerings of time and money to do the work of God's kingdom. What we have too easily fools us into thinking that we should have more. We can too easily focus on what we don't have and forget what we do have.
If you are alive tomorrow, God answered your prayer for daily bread today. You are alive today as proof that God answered your prayer for daily bread yesterday! If you are dead tomorrow, you are with Jesus where He has stored up eternal treasures for you. Either way, you get your daily bread. Either way, you have something to be thankful for.
Prayer: O Lord Jesus, teach us to be thankful for what we have instead of unhappy about what we don't have. Help us believe that You will see to it we will survive this life and end up wealthy beyond our wildest hopes and dreams. Thank You for pastors and teachers who feed us the bread from heaven You serve us through Your suffering, death and resurrection from the dead. Fill us full with that bread so we will more easily enjoy and be thankful for the daily bread You give us in this life. Amen.
