Loving God, just as you gave your people manna from heaven, so you provide for us the bread of life.  Nourish our bodies and souls today as we hear your word and gather at your table, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

    The story of the manna in the wilderness is the best biblical illustration we have of daily bread.  It was provided by God.  They went out every day to gather it and gathered just enough for that day.  If they gathered more and tried to keep some, just in case, it went bad on them, producing worms.  If they gathered a little less, they still had enough.  And the only time they gathered twice as much was the day before the Sabbath, for then God provided enough for two days, and it did not go bad.

    In the case of the manna, it was pretty obvious that this food was a gift from God.  It simply showed up on the ground in the morning with the dew.  As Pastor Rolf Jacobson points out, you’re not going to find a recipe for manna anywhere.  It only comes from God.

    However, in our case, it is sometimes easy to forget that all that we have is a gift from God.  You hear people say, “I worked hard for what I have.”  While that may be true, who gave you the ability to work hard, and the breath of life?...  It still all belongs to God and comes from God.

    This is what Martin Luther tries to get at in the Small Catechism when he talks about “Give us each day our daily bread” (Lk. 11:3).  In what becomes a bit of a pattern in his explanation of the Lord’s Prayer, once again Luther says that God gives us our daily bread without us asking for it.  God even gives it to “evil people”!  However, “we ask in this prayer that God cause us to recognize what our daily bread is and to receive it with thanksgiving” (Luther’s Small Catechism).  So it is all about cultivating an attitude of thanksgiving.

    At the same time, daily bread is not just about bread, or even just about food.  It is about the necessities that we need from day to day.  So what are some of the things that you would include in the necessities that we need every day?... [could be food, clothing, shelter, drink, money, etc.] These are some of the things that we might include in a list of necessities.  Luther also provides a list in the Small Catechism that I find very interesting.  When he writes about what “daily bread” means, he says this:

Everything included in the necessities and nourishment for our bodies, such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, farm, fields, livestock, money, property, an upright spouse, upright children, upright members of the household, upright and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, decency, honor, good friends, faithful neighbours, and the like (Luther’s Small Catechism, p. 23).

    That’s quite an amazing list, don’t you think?  It all depends on how you define necessities and nourishment.  The thing to keep in mind, though, when we pray for our daily bread, is that we are simply asking for enough – no more, and no less.  Just like with the manna in the wilderness, daily bread is what is needed for today.  There is no need to fret because God will provide.  There is no need to hoard, because God will provide.  And boy is that hard for us to believe sometimes!

    In our individualistic society, we tend to think that we all need to pile up enough for ourselves, or even more than enough, just in case.  However, we do not pray for my daily bread.  We pray for our daily bread.  And so, included in our prayer is enough for all people, as well as the desire to share when we have more than enough and others have less.  As Dr. Harry Wendt writes, The problem is not with God’s providing.  The problem is with human dividing! (The Divine Drama) Enough is provided for all.

    As we think about necessities and nourishment, it is a good time also to consider nourishment for our souls.  I say this because all week various biblical passages that talk about Jesus as the bread of life have been jumping out at me.  It makes me think of that spiritual that is in our hymnals called “Give Me Jesus.”  “In the morning when I rise, give me Jesus” (EvLW #770), for he is the bread of life. While nourishment for our bodies is of the utmost importance in keeping us alive and healthy, nourishment for our souls is important for mental and spiritual health.  It is also the first thing that we neglect when we get busy or frazzled.

    However, even just to take one minute to breathe deeply and be aware of the presence of Jesus can do wonders for our soul.  And then there are other things that can help nourish and nurture our soul or spirit - like worship, and prayer, and the Scriptures, and sacred music, and creativity through the arts, and meditation, and the sacraments.  Recognizing, of course, that most people don’t have hours to spend every day doing these things, Brother Lawrence wrote about the practice of the presence of God.  What he meant was being aware of God’s presence in everything you do, and doing any work as if it is for God.  And so, he was constantly praying throughout the day, even while he was doing other things, simply by being aware that he was in the presence of God.

    While the same things won’t work for everybody, we all need nourishment for our bodies and souls in order to experience life in all its fulness.  This is the life that God has in mind for us and the life that Jesus came to bring.  And so today may we pray with thankfulness, “Give us each day our daily bread.”  Amen.

Pentecost 15 (NL summer)                        Luke 11:2-4
August 28, 2016
St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church
Pastor Lynne Hutchison

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