Church Sermon - October 13, 2002

GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD

Rev. Mark F. Bartels

Epistle Lesson; 2 Corinthians 9:6-15
Old Testament Lesson; Deuteronomy 26:1-11
Sermon Text; Matthew 6:11

Back about 70 years ago, in the 1930’s there used to be an old, little, corner grocery store, just a couple of blocks from here, down on North Street. A young mom served as the grocer in that little, corner grocery store. One day, in through the door walked a tall, thin man, with chiseled features on his face. He went up to that young female grocer and asked for a chicken. She brought him a chicken and told him what it would cost. He looked at that grocer and said to her, "I think that you should just give it to me."

Well, naturally she was taken aback by his boldness. And said, "Why do you think that I should just give you this chicken?"

He explained, "Well, I am a pastor, just a few blocks down from here at that little, white church called Holy Cross Lutheran Church. My name is Erling Ylvisaker."

Those were the days of the Great Depression and the congregation had not been able to pay him for over a year. He explained to her that he had no income and depended upon charity to feed his family and himself, so that he could go about his work, as a pastor, spreading the Word of God. In fact, there were many in that congregation at Holy Cross who were in that same situation, with no job and no money.

In those days, during that Great Depression, when those people got onto their knees and prayed the Lord's Prayer, don't you think that it was with all earnestness that they fervently prayed, "Give us this day our daily bread." Brothers and sisters, should we, with any less earnestness, be on our knees, fervently praying to God, "Give us this day our daily bread."

Do we deserve our daily bread any more than they did, during the Great Depression? Are we a more moral people than they were? Are we a more church-going people than they were? Are we a Godlier people than they were? I dare say, NOT! We certainly could have God withdraw His hand from us. And, so it should be with great earnestness, that you and I fervently pray each day, not only for ourselves, but for others,

I remember when I was a little boy, and we used to go out to our grandpa and grandma Kollmorgen's house, way out in the middle of Nebraska, to a tiny little farm town, surrounded by miles and miles of farm land. It was there, where my grandfather had served as a Christian Day School teacher, (the only teacher) in a one-room school, grades 1 – 8, for fifty years! And, it was there, where he lived on a meager income. And it was there, at Grandpa and Grandma's Kollmorgen’s house, where my aunts, uncles and all my cousins would come. I remember how we would all be making noise and laughing. And, when we would all sit down for the meal, the noise would be so loud. And, then Grandpa, who had a commanding presence would simply say, "Let us pray." And it would grow silent. I remember the words from the Old King James English, that Grandpa would say.

And, there before we sat down to eat, Grandpa wanted us to remember and acknowledge that everything we had on that table was nothing but a gift. Everything was a gift from the gracious hand of God.

Consider how greatly God provides for us. I recently read facts about a farmer who wants to raise chicks and then sell them, when they are ten weeks old. During those first ten weeks, if he raises 30,000 chicks, do you know how much grain those chicks will go through? They will go through 450,000 pounds of grain, in ten weeks! That is just one chicken farm. What about all of the chicken farms, the duck farms, the geese farms and the turkey farms? What about all of the wild birds, like the sparrows and the black birds? What about all of the cows, pigs, deer, and horses? And, what about all of the other animals?

What about all of the people in the world? The encyclopedia says that the average person in a day eats four pounds of food. If there are 6 billion people in our world, that means, every single day, God provides 24 billion pounds of food! And, God provides that food day after day, after day, after day, all by His goodness and His grace.

And, this is something that He gives to us, free! Is there anyone who ever paid God for even one drop of rain, to grow the crops? Is there anyone who ever paid God for one ray of sunshine, to grow those crops? Is there anyone who ever paid God for one seed, or for one bountiful harvest? Oh, we may say that we pay for those things. But, no it is not God, who we pay. God gives us all of those things completely free. We pay the farmer for his time. We pay the baker for his time. We pay the grocer for his time. But God provides all of this free of charge, day after day, after day, after day.

When Jesus teaches us to pray, "Give us this day our daily bread," He wants us to acknowledge, that even though we don’t deserve it, God satisfies our needs. Scripture says that God causes His sun to shine on the just and the unjust and the rain to fall on the good and the evil. Even though we don’t deserve it, God opens His hand and satisfies our needs day, after day, after day.

And, we should receive it with great thanksgiving! Do we acknowledge that? Do we thank God for what He gives to us, day, after day? When we sit down to say our before and after meal prayers, are we thinking about something else, hardly even recognizing that this is a bountiful gift from God?

Secondly, Jesus teaches us to pray, "Give us this day our daily bread." We are not people, here in the United States, who are used to only eating bread. Bread is one of the necessities and the needs of life. But, we are used to the luxuries of life. We are used to pizza, hamburgers, cheeseburgers, tacos, bacon and eggs, with sausage, and Lucky Charms! I don’t know how many of us would be satisfied and content, if we sat down to meal with only a glass of water and a slice of bread. Yet scripture tells us,

"Having food and clothing,

let us there with be content."

We should be content with the necessities of life. And yet, how often, when God gives us far beyond the necessities that we need, giving us all the luxuries of life, are we unhappy when we didn’t get "Lucky Charms". We are not happy with all of the blessings that God has given to us. And, instead of being thankful, we have greedy hearts that want more and more.

Finally, in this prayer Jesus teaches us to pray, "Give us this day our daily bread," We pray for daily bread, for each one of us, not just me, but all of us. We are living in a day and age, when we have worries about our economy. We are living in a day and age where many of us have seen our life savings dwindle down, far, far down. Particularly our retired people depend upon those life savings, to put daily bread upon the table. They may wonder and worry if there will be enough money to put food on the table in the days and weeks and years to come. There may be people who are losing their jobs, and are worried if they will be able to find a way to feed their families. And so, we worry.

And that causes us to pray that God provides for not just my needs, but provide for the retired people who may be concerned about their daily bread, the hungry, the needy, and the poor who may be concerned about their daily bread.

I’ll admit to you, as a pastor, that I have fallen into the sin of worry. It is true that when the economy slumps, generally offerings slump. And, I’ll admit to you that I have sat in my office, with the door closed, looking at the budget, looking at the salaries of the workers that you have called here, (such as our dear teachers) and I have wondered, "Next month will we be able to pay them their salaries, so that they can have their daily bread?" But that worry is a sin. It is a lack of trust in God. Doesn’t Jesus tell us,

"Don’t worry about tomorrow.

Tomorrow has enough worries of its own."

Doesn’t Jesus also say,

"Don’t worry about what you are going to eat or

what you are going to drink or

what you are going to wear.

The pagans chase after all of those things.

Your Father in Heaven

knows that you need all of those things."

And, then He gives us a promise,

"But seek first the Kingdom of God and

all of His righteousness and

all of these things

will be added to you as well."

Doesn’t He promise us, there, that when we put Him first in our lives, He will provide for our needs? And, yet how often we worry, which is lack of trust. We worry that maybe God won’t provide for my needs.

And, why is it that God gives us our daily bread? Why does He do that? I love the prayer that I know so many of you pray at the beginning of your meal,

"Come Lord Jesus,

be our guest and let these gifts to us be blessed.

Amen"

What are we praying for there? We are praying that the gifts that are on our table, (that come from the hand of God) would bless us. We are praying that they would be a blessing to us, that they would nourish us and give us strength, so that we would have life. We are praying that they would bless us, so that our eyes can see, our ears can hear, our mouth can speak the Word of God, and we have strength to our body so that our hands can serve. That is why God gives us our daily bread, so that we can serve Him, and have the strength to serve Him.

And, yet how often, Brothers and Sisters, has God given us our daily bread, nourished our bodies, and yet we have used our eyes, our ears, our hands, and our mouth not to serve Him, but to serve the wrong things? When we look at all of the blessings that God has given to us, we acknowledge that we have not always been thankful the way we should. I am not always content with what God gives to me. I am greedy and I want more. I know that I worry, which means I have a lack of trust that God is going to take care of me today. And, I know that I have misused the gifts God has given to me, to give strength to my body.

We all have to admit, as one of our confessions of sins says, "We deserve not only God’s eternal punishment, but His temporal punishment, which means now in time.

Because of the way we have treated the gifts, the food on the table, we really deserve to have God withdraw His hand from us and give us nothing, and satisfy none of our needs. And, if that causes you to repent, then look to the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Look at what our savior did for you. We deserve to have God withdraw His hand from us, and not give us the needs that we have. But what did Jesus do? In this life, Jesus chose to suffer the punishment that we deserve here, even in time. Jesus chose to have His Father withdraw His hand from Him! Where was Jesus born? He was born in the greatest of poverty, in the most humble of circumstances, a feed trough for animals. He did that, because that is all we deserve. When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights, He went without food, and was hungry, because we deserve to have God withdraw His hand from us. And, when our dear savior hung on the cross and His holy lips cried out, "I thirst", He was being deprived of the very nourishment He needed for being alive. Our savior did that all, because that is what we deserve. He wanted to take our sins, and pay for every one of them.

And, because of what Jesus did for us, God’s anger against our unthankfulness, our greed, our poor attitude, our worry was poured out on His Son, Jesus. Now God’s anger is satisfied. He is no longer angry with us. He forgives us! Jesus now tells us that instead of not providing for our needs, He promises us that the day is coming when we will sit with Him at the table in His Father’s mansion in Heaven! There we will eat from the feast with Jesus our Savior! Our needs will be more than abundantly provided for, throughout all eternity. That is the God we have! That is the God we trust in. That is the God who says in Romans 8,

"If God spared not His own Son,

but freely gave Him up for us all,

will He not also along with freely give us all things?"

And there, God’s people are comforted. If God didn’t even spare His own Son, for my sake, won’t He day, by day, by day, take care of all of my needs and give me my daily bread?

May we fervently,

in thanksgiving and gratitude to God,

knowing that

all good gifts come from Him,

and in full

dependence on Him,

trusting in His grace because of

Jesus our Savior,

pray,

Amen.

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