March 29, 2017
“Give us our daily bread” – “God gives us our daily bread in the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ!”
Audio
“Give us our daily bread” – “God gives us our daily bread in the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ!”
Audio
How many of us have heard these words, “I’m hungry”, from
our kids, grandkids or even our friends after a long day of hard work? If you have or had children, that was
probably the two most common words only minutes after you had left the table
and been told, “I’m full”. The hunger
spoken of is a physical hunger. Tonight
as we continue our series on the Lord’s Prayer with “Give us our daily bread” Jesus is speaking of physical food, but
also it can be connected to a spiritual food we receive as well.
This, the Fourth petition “Give us our daily bread”, is for both the physical and the spiritual
gifts we receive from God of ‘daily bread’.
It might not be the choicest cut of meat, the best that money can buy,
but what we receive we have the opportunity to give God thanks and praise for
it, because it is God’s gift to us. At
its bedrock for us, is that we receive from God nourishment, no matter the
amount or value with thanksgiving.
This is the gift of the blessing that God gives unto us
even without our asking for it. In the
explanation of the Lord’s Prayer, Martin Luther wrote, “God gives daily bread indeed without our prayer, also to all the wicked”. So even those who are not following God’s
plan, God’s desire, nor doing God’s Will, receive their ‘daily bread’ from God. In one sense it is like the rain we received
in the last few days, it is blessing everyone and will give everyone, both good
and wicked, their ‘daily bread’. For our
God Who as we pray, “Give us our daily
bread” is loving all mankind and wants to give all of mankind, even the
wicked and those who have not heard the Good News of the Gospel, what is good
for us, our ‘daily bread’.
Not only does God “Give
us our daily bread”, but God like most who give gifts, whether small or
large, would like us to receive it with ‘thanksgiving’. This is both an attitude of gratitude, but
also a posture of thanks not only in our words or actions, but especially in
our hearts. In this way we can properly
give God the greatest thanks and praise for the gift of the food we eat that He
gives unto us. For God’s gifts have one
intent in mind, to satisfy us and for us to give God the greatest thanks and
praise.
Some in our world and even our culture will say, yes, we
pray, “Give us our daily bread”, yet
look no further than what fills our stomachs.
For not only does God give us what feeds and nourishes us from the
fields and harvest, today, but God looks beyond the here and now to the eternal
and the spiritual as well. And the
spiritual is exactly what we receive from the Altar. For “God
gives us our daily bread in the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ!” This is where the earthly comes into clear
contact with the eternal and the mystical, where what we receive from God, not
only our ‘daily bread’, but we also receive from the very altar of God, His
gift given unto us of His Son, Jesus Christ.
We receive not only the sustenance of our bodies, but an eternal food
that prepares our souls for entrance into God’s Holy Kingdom for eternity and
the fulfillment of something that Adam and Eve heard, Abram was told would
occur and even King David prophesied about in Holy Scripture that we are
grafted into through our baptism.
Edward Koehler in his explanation of the Small Catechism
says as we pray this petition, “Give us
our daily bread” the following, we “pray
to God and trust in His promise”.
The fulfillment of the promise is eternal life that we find in the
forgiveness of sins, life and salvation, so that in the Holy Supper, instituted
by Jesus Christ on Maundy Thursday, we receive this clear gift and fulfillment
of this promise from God. The gift of
eternal life and the gifts of grace given out of God’s love for us demonstrated
in what His Son Jesus Christ did for all of mankind on the Cross of
Calvary. We are partakers of this gift
of grace, not only when we believe that “God
gives us our daily bread in the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ!” But especially when we see the gift of His
Son Jesus Christ through the lens of this gift that is offered from the altar
as we pray the fourth petition taught by Jesus Christ, “Give us our daily bread”!
AMEN.
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