The Reverend Ronald J. Kolanowski
September 21, 2008
The Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 20, Year A

Give us this day our daily bread.  Amen.

We say this line as part of the Lord’s Prayer.  Do we really stop to think what this means?  Today’s readings go to the heart of that question.  When we say “give us our daily bread” we are asking God to give us what we need for today.  We are not asking to be given what we can store up for tomorrow. 

In the reading from Exodus we hear a familiar theme – the people are complaining again.  They are in the wilderness and murmur about the hardships they are experiencing.  They are complaining that there is no food to eat and that they will surely die.  We hear the people asking, why did you bring us to this empty place?  Where are you, God?  In spite of God showing great signs and bringing the people out of Egypt, they despair.  Rather than turn away, God gives them what they need – daily bread and meat.  God doesn’t given them food that they can store up for tomorrow, but bread that comes daily and gives them enough for today to remind them of their dependence on Him.

The same is true in the gospel.  A daily wage provided enough of what was needed for the worker to survive that day.  The scene in Matthew is becoming more and more familiar.  People are waiting for work, waiting to be hired, waiting to earn a day’s wage – just enough to feed one’s family.  The issue then is one of daily bread.  Just like manna in the Exodus narrative.  Just as in the prayer, “Give us this day our daily bread.”

To be hired late in the day and get less than a day’s wages means belt-tightening for the entire family.  The lesson is one of extraordinary generosity.  Everyone got a day’s wage.  Everyone could go home and feed his or her family.  Just as with manna, everyone got enough, no one got too much, and nothing was left over.

This gospel passage, unique to Matthew, highlights God’s sovereignty and a graciousness not based on what is earned.  The question God poses at the end of the passage… are you envious because I am generous?  Frankly, the workers are envious.  The wage which they agreed to get paid has now diminished in value, because it is given to those who came at the end of the day as well to those who worked all day.  This simply doesn’t seem fair.  It’s downright un-American.  We believe if we work hard we should be compensated more than those who did not work as hard or long.

These passages remind us that it is through God’s generosity that we have been given what we need.  In spite of the myth that we are self-sufficient, we are utterly and totally dependent on God for everything that we have.
In the wake of the devastation of our financial institutions we are reminded of this more than ever.  This week we witnessed some of the bluest of the blue chip companies founder as a result of poor decisions and the greed of some that have threatened to topple not only these companies but quite literally financial systems around the entire world.  Whether you or I had investments in Lehman Brothers, AIG, or Putnam or not, the consequences of their actions affect all of us in one way or another. 

Give us this day our daily bread, is not the prayer of the greedy.  Rather give us what we need today and more and more and more.  There is never enough.

Today’s readings stand in contrast to the wisdom of Wall Street and the world.  God’s generosity is about giving us what we need out of God’s care for us.  The world tells us there is never enough.  God’s kingdom is about giving us what we need day by day.  I learned something about that this summer.  Yet I still find myself like the Israelites, complaining to God about what I don’t have.

On Friday, June 6, I went to bed just like any other night.  About midnight I woke up to use the bathroom, got out of bed and fell to the floor, unable to get up.  Strangely, I didn’t think anything about it and simply got back into bed.  The next morning I woke up and my left arm didn’t work.  I looked in the mirror and my face was distorted on the left side.  We called 911 and I was rushed to the nearest hospital.  Within minutes after I was tested the scan indicated I had had a stroke.  I was then sent to Hartford Hospital’s stroke clinic, where more tests were run and I was hospitalized for about five days.

Fortunately, the location of the stroke was my right frontal lobe, which did not affect my ability to walk, hear, see or generate language.  Had it been on the left side it would have been a completely different situation. 

Since then, I have largely had full physical recovery, although I still tire.  In spite of the fact that I was able to continue my life and my recovery has been rapid, I still find myself complaining about what hasn’t yet recovered – largely my personality, my ability to sing like I used to, or lead worship and preach like I used to.  I get impatient with what I don’t have, rather than focus on the blessings that have come to me through this – blessings like the daily bread of support and love that has come from this congregation, my friends and family.  It is so tempting for me to say to God, this is not enough.  I want my old self back NOW!  I don’t care what you might want to teach me through this, I want things like they were.  I don’t only want my daily bread, I want more.  This is not enough.  And, yet the truth is that what I’ve been given is enough and more than enough.

Give us this day our daily bread.  Why can’t I pray this prayer and really mean what I say?  Why is it that what I have today, often doesn’t seem like enough?

These readings tell us we will get what we need daily.  They remind us that what comes to us is not ours to begin with, but comes as total gift from a God who hears our complaints, and answers us out of generosity, not because we’ve worked harder or longer.  We are given what we need for today.  Help us, dear God, be content with and grateful for our daily bread.  Amen.

© Copyright 2008 by the Reverend Ronald J. Kolanowski