Midweek Lent
February 24, 2021
Grace, Waseca, MN
Matthew 6.7-13
When Pr. Paige suggested we use the theme, “Lent in Plain Sight: A Devotion through Ten Objects,” I was very interested. When I started reading the book, I became enthusiastic, at least enthusiastic as a Scandinavian Lutheran can be. An early theological insight in the early church was that the “finite is capable of bearing the infinite.” This proposition was a logical extension of the conviction that the infinite God was fully present in finite, human form as Jesus Christ. We are concrete, fleshly creatures and God uses tangible ways to communicate God’s presence to us. Most of us have seen significance in the ordinary. Perhaps a cardinal or penny reminds us of the presence of a deceased loved on. Certainly, we place significance in rainbows, water, wine, and bread.
“Give us this day our daily bread,” we pray in the Lord’s Prayer. Bread possibly the most common thing to all peoples and cultures; everyone eats bread in one form or another. “Let them eat cake,” Marie Antoinette’s supposed retort to the assertion that the French peasants had no bread may not have started the French Revolution, but it certainly fed it. Martin Luther’s great insight was that daily bread was shorthand for everything that we need in life: food, clothing, shelter, etc. In his Small Catechism, Luther goes on to say God gives without our prayer, but we ask in this prayer that God help us see what our daily bread is and to receive it with thanksgiving. Like many of you, I grew up reciting the same table prayer at meals: “God is great, God is good, and we thank him for our food. By his hand we all are fed, give us Lord this daily bread. Amen.” It was a bit of a scandal when my older brother came home on leave from the Army with a different one: “Rub-a-dub-dub, thanks for the grub, yay God!” The sentiment is the same.
Practicing gratitude can be hard when you don’t have what you think you need and frankly, when that happens, it’s more likely that we will focus more on what we don’t have than what we do have. There are plenty of instances in the Bible where this happens. In the Old Testament, the Israelites who are wandering in the wilderness complain about the manna (bread from heaven). In the New Testament we hear the story of the rich man who has more than enough but ignores poor Lazarus at his gate, who would settle for crumbs. When I joined the board of Crossroads Lutheran Campus Ministry at MSU-Mankato, I was shocked to learn that the biggest problem college students had, in addition to crushing debt, was food insecurity. They didn’t have enough to eat. Those two problems are not unrelated.
But there are plenty of places in the Bible where God assures us that even in the midst of dire circumstances God provides. This provision is most fully shown in the person of Jesus, the Bread of Life. Indeed, it can be a slogan to “let go and let God,” and that “Jesus is all you need,” but in the midst of saying those things it is also true that God provides in, with, and through you and me. I wish it were otherwise, but in my experience, it is those who don’t have very much who are more willing to give and share than those who do.
It all comes together at The Table of Holy Communion, where Jesus is both host and meal and where we come by faith, for faith. A long time ago and far, far away, before I became a pastor, I was a lay leader in a congregation. One Saturday we had a meeting with LCA folks about a long-awaited building project that didn’t go well. It was often strained and contentious. However, we ended the meeting with worship and Holy Communion. As we gathered around the rail, with saints past, present and future, the whole dynamic changed. Ordinary, finite bread bore the extraordinary, infinite love of God, filling us with gratitude, forgiveness and hope. Indeed, Lord, give us this day or daily bread. Amen.
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