Introduction
Perhaps one of the greatest preachers of the last century, Martin Lloyd-Jones, had this to say about the Lord’s prayer: ”Any man who attempts to preach on the Lord’s prayer must surely find himself in great difficulties”! He goes on to say that perhaps the best approach is not to over-analyse it but to meditate prayerfully on it one phrase at a time.
In today’s section we move from the sublime to the ridiculous, from the heavenly to the mundane. “Our Father……give us this day our daily bread”. Again it has become so familiar to us we fail sometimes to notice the abruptness of the transition, from considering the holiness of God and praying for the coming of his kingdom to simply asking for our daily supplies. It is perhaps not as abrupt as it seems when we consider that God in Jesus entered into our everyday world. The mighty, heavenly, holy God has become one of us and knows what it is to be hungry. He is also a loving Father who cares for the little things like sparrows and the hairs on our heads!
Before looking at the petition in a bit more detail some have asked if God knows us intimately and knows our need for “daily bread” why do we have to ask him for it? I think this all comes down to relationship. The asking for our daily requirements is an expression of our relationship with God. Yes he is our loving heavenly father but we are entirely dependent on him for our daily needs.
I have often wondered how our brothers and sisters in parts of the world stricken by drought and famine pray this prayer. Obviously with earnestness and desperation. How many people across the world must be praying this and wondering why God does not seem to be answering their prayer? Part of the answer lies with this plural pronoun. It is not give me my daily bread, it is give US. We are not simply to pray for ourselves and our little households but for the whole human family. This is where this prayer starts to get dangerous again. One answer to the starving person in Africa or wherever is that God has answered your prayer. God has supplied enough resources for the whole human family to enjoy the daily necessities of life, it’s the distribution that is unfair. Many of you will have heard about the “Make Poverty History” campaign. There are three simple strands to this: Cancellation of debt, fairer trade and better aid. If the political will was there we could see significant transformation of the lives of the poorest members of our human family. How often do you ponder these things when praying “Give us this day our daily bread”
There is some controversy among the scholars as to whether this refers to enough for today or for tomorrow, either way it is daily and not, as the Jews prayed for example, enough for a year. For me this has echoes back to the desert, where God supplied food on a daily basis for the children of Israel. I wonder how many of us have wasted time and energy worrying about the “day after tomorrow”. I find this challenging too. To what extent do we “live by faith” and to what extent do we use the gifts and talents God has given us to provide for ourselves and our families now and in the future? Manna was a particular provision for a particular time, once the Israelites entered the promised land they had to grow crops and mange flocks just like everyone else. However they had learned the lesson of total dependence on God. However careful my planning and provision might be I need to recognise two things: all of this is dependent on God, is what I am doing depriving someone else of their daily bread?
Finally we come to bread. I think everyone is agreed that this refers to more than bread pure and simple. As I have already been suggesting this means the daily necessities of life: food clothing and shelter, clean water, sanitation, health-care and education. These basic necessities are available to all of us here to one degree or another, it is a huge injustice that they are denied to so many.
It is right that we should pray for our daily needs to be supplied and to offer prayers of thanksgiving that they are. In praying for our needs let us be urgent in both prayer and action to see that the resources which are available are more equitably distributed.