Our Daily Bread
Matthew 6:9-11 Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. (NRSV)
One of the most difficult things for any of us to come to grips with, to reconcile in this world in which we live, is the extreme wealth and comfort of some, and, in stark contrast to that, the extreme poverty of others. How can that go on? How can you and I make a difference?
I’m trying to imagine – here in the 21st century, living in a country that by any world-measure is affluent – exactly what people must have heard back when Jesus taught them to pray:
Matthew 6:9-11 Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. (NRSV)
I’m guessing that for those of us who live in so-called developed economies, we probably don’t think all that much about that particular line in the Lord ’s Prayer.
Yeah – give us this day our daily bread. Sure … I guess … whatever.
But there are so many people in this world right now for whom that line has such powerful meaning and relevance – people who are struggling to put bread on the table today, people who are wondering not just how to quell the hunger in their own bellies, but in the bellies of their starving children. The stark truth is that close to a billion people today, here in the 21st century, are either chronically under-nourished or starving.
So the next time those of us who have plenty find ourselves praying that prayer, perhaps we could figure out a way of being part of the answer – a way of taking of our plenty and giving it to those who weep when they pray: Give us this day our daily bread.
Come on … each one of us can find a way of making sure that some of what we have ends up putting food on the table of someone who doesn’t have enough.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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