Message
Matthew 6:25-34
Are we satisfied?
Let me start with a poem.
Young Mother Quak went to the fridge
to get her children some dinner.
But when she got there, the fridge was bare
so the children she loved just got thinner.
We laugh because it is so silly. We also laugh because – really – how often would that actually happen?
Yes there are those days when our teenagers look in the fridge or the cupboard and say, “There is nothing to eat”. Well there is fruit. And there is bread. And there are plenty of vegetables. Actually there is a heap of food just not chocolate and chips.
And I think it is also fair to say that some in our congregation have experienced in the past what it means to have nothing. And to very much rely daily on the provision of God – and sometimes not seeing that provision.
But here, now, we are living in the “lucky country”. Some people might go without dinner, but the provision of food is rarely a real problem for today’s Australian household.
So that raises a question when it comes to the Lord’s Prayer, doesn’t it.
Our Father in heaven
Hallowed be Your Name
Your kingdom come
Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven
Give us today our daily bread
Give us today our daily bread.
Is that a prayer we can really relate to?
Is that a prayer which has real significance for us?
Because our context is so different from the context when Jesus first taught the disciples this prayer.
In Jesus’ day the regular worker lived on a day-by-day basis.
The regular worker would get up and go to their regular workplace. At the end of the day your boss would give you a denarius – a day’s pay for a day’s work – and then you would go home.
If you were sick, and couldn’t go to work, you wouldn’t be paid.
If you had to be at one of the many feasts which the Jews held, you wouldn’t get paid.
If you went on strike you wouldn’t get paid.
The unions would have a field day if this was the way workers were treated … but that is how it was in the days of Jesus.
In Jesus’ day the casual worker lived on a day-by-day basis.
Those who didn’t have a regular job would go and sit in the market and hope someone would hire them for the day.
If you were sick, and couldn’t go to work, you wouldn’t be paid.
If there were too many other workers at the market, you might not get hired and you wouldn’t be paid.
If you were a bit old, or of smaller frame, you might not get hired and you wouldn’t get paid.
Life for many people was full of uncertainties, especially if you were a casual worker.
In Jesus’ day the elderly and invalids lived on a day-by-day basis.
There was no superannuation or government support and because most people lived from one day to the next there was little opportunity to save for the future.
So when you got to a stage in your life when you were too old to work, or when you suffered a serious injury, you would have to rely on the support of your extended family ... if you had any.
If that failed you would leave home early in the morning, find a place near the city gate, or at the entrance to the market, or near the temple if you were in Jerusalem … and you would beg. A most humiliating way to make money.
The life of an older person, or an invalid person, or a socially unwanted person was also full of uncertainties.
When the first century Palestinian Christians prayed Give us today our daily bread they really knew what it was like to live on a day by day basis.
A literal translation of the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:11 says “our bread which is necessary for existence, give us today”.
Not an excess. Not enough for us to become obese. But just enough to exist.
Not a week’s worth, or even a couple of days’ worth. But just what we need for today.
In many ways it was a prayer of faith. As the family sat around the table in the morning the prayer would be offered.
Father, we look to You to provide enough for us to make it physically through the day. Lord, at the moment the shelves are empty, and so are our stomachs … we trust You will resolve this situation for us today. O God, our physical needs are before You, now please answer.
And then off you would go to work. Walking in faith. Trusting God to provide that which was necessary for existence for that particular day.
And here we are now in the year 2018.
Despite the Global Financial Crisis and national financial waste we are part of a wealthy nation and most of us are, at the very least, comfortable.
Many of us have jobs which still pay when we have holidays.
In fact you don’t have to be sick to take a sickie ... and you still get paid.
Our pay comes weekly, or fortnightly.
Then we take these words on our lips … Give us today our daily bread … and we walk to our fridge and our cupboard and them could be a week’s worth of food sitting there. Or, if the cupboard is getting a bit empty, we have money in the budget to go to the shop and come home with bags and bags of groceries. We don’t just have that which is necessary for existence – sometimes we throw out what others exist on.
Even when we get older and we can’t work we know very well that our superannuation will enable us to continue on in retirement with some measure of comfort. If all else fails there are the many safety nets which are provided by the government – sure they may not provide as much but they are still enough to help us get through.
There are far fewer in Australia who live on a day by day basis.
So how do we put this part of the Lord’s Prayer into practise?
How does this petition get real meaning for us ... without us falling into some sort of hypocritical life?
Praying for daily provisions ... yet knowing we have the ability to provide for weeks and months and years?
Let’s read a passage from another part of the Sermon on the Mount. It is very close to the section where Jesus teaches us how to pray.
Matthew 6:25-34
Here Jesus is really helping us to apply the prayer “Give us today our daily bread”.
Give us today our daily bread means ... I’m not going to be anxious.
Anxiety is taking the falsehoods of tomorrow and bringing them into today.
Instead of focussing on what is actually happening now.
Instead of living in the moment and enjoying that moment.
Instead of addressing realities.
Instead of that we spend all this energy focussing on stuff that never actually happens. We want to try and control the uncontrollable. That is anxiety.
Which means we need to see anxiety for what it really is.
Anxiety is an attempt on our part to try and play God.
The only way to control the uncontrollable is to be God. And none of us are.
Half the time we can’t even control our own kids.
Let’s be honest, we can’t even control ourselves.
Yet through all this worry we think to ourselves, “If only I try a little harder – I can make my little contribution – I can make my piece of the world a better place”.
Anxiety is us putting our trust in lies.
An epitaph on a grave stone in Britain says:-
“He had a lot of troubles in his life, most of which never happened”.
Basically he believed all these lies that were happening in his mind and he worried himself to death. How often have we worried about what is going to happen in the future, only to find it never happens. The fears of the future are nothing more than liars.
Anxiety is a sign that we lack trust.
Guys will relate to this. When you go driving and there are two drivers – a male and a female – who usually drives? It’s the man isn’t it! This is despite the fact that men are twice as likely to have an accident than women – and the severity of the accident will be greater. It’s a lack of trust issue isn’t. Anxiety is the same. We just have difficulty letting God have control even though He has proven on numerous occasions that He is more than capable.
The prayer for daily bread is a prayer of faith – through it we are saying, “God I’m not going to be anxious about what this day brings, but I am going to trust that you have it all in hand”.
But there is more.
Give us today our daily bread means ... I accept that I am vulnerable.
Why do we get so anxious about life? It’s because we know that, at some point, the life we have here is going to stop.
You go to the doctor and they say, “I think we need to run some tests. Come back when you have the results”. So you go and get the tests and then you get this big envelope which has a sticker across the back CONFIDENTIAL – TO BE OPENED BY A MEDICAL PRACTITIONER. So what do you do? As soon as you are in the car you open it and find out what the report says. Why? Because you feel so vulnerable.
You’re a uni student and you have had an exam. You don’t know if you have done well or not, but you know the results are going to be available at 6:00am on the uni portal. So even though you can’t get up for anything else you will set your alarm and have the computer on waiting. Wanting to know the result at the first moment. Why? Because you feel so vulnerable.
So many people, when they talk about the future, will often think in terms of 10 years ahead, or 20 years ahead, or 50 years ahead.
We don’t even know what tomorrow is going to bring. All we can do with certainty is focus on today, on this moment.
The prayer for daily bread is a prayer of trust – through it we are saying, “God you know my vulnerability, each day is a blessing from You. I need Your blessing Lord as I move forward in Your strength. Help me to put my trust in You alone.
But there is more.
Give us today our daily bread means ... I am going to adjust my thinking.
Look at birds of the air.
That common magpie that always comes back in breeding season. The one you hate because they swoop you and dig their claws and beak into you. Have a close look. Do they have a storehouse of food somewhere? No. They go through life on a day to day basis, with no though about tomorrow. You hate them and think they are nothing. Yet they are abundantly provided for by God. Aren’t you more important? Hasn’t the Lord given you an even greater ability? Won’t God help you all the more with your needs?
Maybe you need to adjust your thinking.
Look at the lilies.
How beautiful they are. Intricate. Amazing. Natural beauty that can’t be matched by any fashion house in the whole world. God put in all this effort for something that is grass. It’s insignificant. Nobody weeps when lilies die. When it comes to clothes God knows what you need. And He knows that what you wear and who are can be two very different things.
Some people wear beautiful expensive clothes – but they are ugly people who live cheap lives.
Others might not have all the clothes – they might not have much at all – but they are beautiful.
Do you want to be judged on the basis of what you wear? Or judged on who you really are?
Maybe you need to adjust your thinking.
The prayer for daily bread is a prayer to be thinking Christians. Through this prayer we are saying, “God I find it so easy to fall into the “what-if syndrome”. What if I fail? What if I don’t reach my goals? What if I don’t have enough money? Let me remember how important I am to You.
But there is more.
Give us our daily bread means ... refocusing on our relationship with our Father.
We keep coming back to it don’t we. Remembering how the prayer started, “Our Father”. The father comes up again here doesn’t He?
Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? (Matthew 6:26)
For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. (Matthew 6:31)
Don’t go through life forgetting this basic truth ... we have a heavenly Father.
He is not a miserly Father ... He is generous and full of blessing.
He is not a weak Father ... He is Almighty and Powerful.
He is not an abusive Father ... He loves us and wants an eternal relationship with us.
He is not a confused Father ... He has a plan and a purpose for us.
He is the Father that knows what you need. And He will look after all you need on a daily basis.
Sometimes, maybe many times, our parents get it wrong. But God the Father never does. Your heavenly Father knows what you need – after all He is a Dad. A Dad who has a Son. A Son who He loves very much.
But the Father looked at you ... and He looked at me ... with all our filth and guilt and shame.
Then He went to His own Son and said, “You’re going to have to die for these people. I want them in My family”.
This Father poured out His anger about sin onto His Son. He knows what you need ... every one of your needs.
Give us this day our daily bread.
Stop being anxious.
Stop feeling vulnerable.
Adjust your thinking.
Refocus on your relationship with your Father.
Trust Him to look after your daily needs.
Trust Him to look after your relationship needs.
Trust Him to look after your long term concerns.
Trust Him to look after your finances.
Trust Him to look after your employment.
He wants the best for You. Just put Him first.
Prayer
