One person gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty. A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed. People curse the one who hoards grain, but they pray God’s blessing on the one who is willing to sell. Whoever seeks good finds favor, but evil comes to one who searches for it. Those who trust in their riches will fall, but the righteous will thrive like a green leaf. (Proverbs 11:24-28)
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When I began my series of sermons on forgiveness last month, I started with a reference to The Lord's Prayer, and today I want to do the same, focusing on a different set of words: “Give us this day our daily bread.” Those are a very interesting few words; seven words that may help explain the old saying “be careful when you pray because you just might get what you pray for!
The words probably had a different meaning for the original followers of Jesus 2000 years ago when compared to how we at Central United Church in the 21st century would understand them if we read them accurately and if we then really went out and sought to actually apply them to our lives – which most of us probably don't (and which I really haven't thought of myself until recently.) In Jesus' day, many of His followers were poor. Jesus had a great attraction for the poor. He treated them with dignity and with love. He treated them as people – when most of society would have treated the poor little better than stray dogs, throwing them a few scraps perhaps every now and then. In that context, when Jesus taught His disciples (most of whom were poor) to pray “give us this day our daily bread,” the words are a plea – they're a request to God to make sure that the person praying has enough to see them through the day. Today, we often think of the words in a similar way. In fact, I've spoken about them in a similar vein to that. The idea being that the prayer teaches us not to be concerned about the day after tomorrow, but just to ask God to make sure we have enough for today. In other words, let's not be selfish in what we ask for.
That's a great principle – and it sounds really good, and it sounds very Christian, doesn't it. And yet, as I was doing some devotional reading and taking some time in prayer recently, working with the Lord's Prayer as a guide, I suddenly realized – that's not what it says at all. I don't know why that came to me as a blinding realization. The words are actually pretty clear when I read them and apply them to myself now, but somehow the Holy Spirit had to remove some blinders from my eyes to let me really grasp what this prayer actually says to most 21st century Christians in most of the Western world.
“Give us this day our daily bread.” If we take those words literally – absolutely literally – we're not simply not pleading with God, we're not simply being unselfish by not asking God for too much. We're actually asking God to take things away from us. Read them again - “Give us this day our daily bread.” The fact is that for virtually everyone here today that's really a silly and meaningless prayer, at least in the way we usually interpret it. Honestly – how many of us have any worries about our daily bread – or tomorrow's bread, or next week's bread for that matter. I'm not saying that we're filthy rich, but daily bread generally isn't our concern. At our house, the usual debate isn't about whether we're going to be able to eat tonight – it's about what we're going to eat tonight. If we worry at all it's because we don't feel we have enough variety. “Well, we could have chicken. Or sausage. Or pasta. Or hamburgers. Or we could go get a pizza. Or we could order Chinese. But it's always the same old thing.” When your concern is over only having 5 or 6 menu items to choose from, pleading for “daily bread” is downright silly – and perhaps even insulting to those who really don't know where their next meal is coming from. So if the prayer is to mean anything – if it's to have any challenge for us – then let's understand, we're asking God to take away some of what we have. Because to have too much – even too much of a good thing – is, in a way, a form of poverty. It's a “poverty of riches.”
I love the Book of Proverbs. It's a marvellous treasure of wisdom and practical advice that in most respects is as relevant today as it was when it was first put together, and we really don't make use of it often enough. Most of Proverbs isn't written in such a way that you can refer to very many “passages” in the same way that we might speak of Jesus' parables, of the various teachings in Paul's letters. They're rapid-fire one after the other gems of wisdom. Often they're not even related from one proverb to the next. But all the verses that we read today have a similar message: worldly riches are no sign of blessing and worldly riches are no guarantee of happiness. They can in fact be quite empty. It depends on how you use what you've been blessed with.
These verses from Proverbs aren't a comparison of the rich and the poor. It's assumed that all the people being spoken of throughout the passage are not necessarily rich, but that they do have enough. In fact, they have enough to share with others. So the issue isn't rich vs. poor. The issue is generous vs. selfish. Too often, having a lot pushes us (sometimes even without us realizing it) onto the selfish side of the equation, because we become consumed not just with what we have and not just with being successful but with gaining more and more – and we sacrifice our souls to do it; we sacrifice our relationships with those around us to do it; we sacrifice our relationship with God to do it. We start to justify our actions, even when those actions are unjust toward others.
Douglas Oberhelman is CEO of Caterpillar. He recently received a 32% wage increase to bring his salary in 2012 to $22.4 million. The raise was a reward for maximizing Caterpillar's profits. How did he do that? In part at least, by imposing a wage freeze on Caterpillar's workers and shifting a lot of jobs to lower paying countries. Things like that aren't uncommon in our economy and society. The push for profits makes real human beings a liability rather than a benefit; things to be cut and cast off in the name of making ever and always more – and more – and more. People don't count; only money counts. Anybody remember John Deere? Now – not that my politics matters – but I'm not a socialist. I understand the benefits of a free market economy and I support a free market economy. But how does that story about Caterpillar fit into the Proverbs passage? What does it say about our world and how it's organized? Do we see any gospel values being lived out there? Is there any sign of God in that? I'm just asking the questions.
Back to “Give us this day our daily bread.” Do we understand what we're asking for? Are we prepared for the answer? Do we realize that having so much actually has the potential to reduce us to spiritual poverty by making us grasping rather than grateful, or selfish rather than giving? Remember the proverb: “Those who trust in their riches will fall, but the righteous will thrive like a green leaf.” If you “trust in your riches,” you cling to them – because what else do you have? “The righteous,” on the other hand, “thrive” because they understand that their riches aren't what counts. It's what they do with them, it's who they bless with them, it's the presence of God in their lives – those are the things that count. How many of us are actually willing to take those words of the Lord's Prayer seriously when we apply them to ourselves and to our own circumstances? Let's face it - I don't want to be “poor.” I don't want to have uncertainty about my “daily bread.” I don't want uncertainty about next week's or next year's. I don't want to have to pray about those things. No one does. I'm not sure we really mean it when we say it. But at least it does challenge us to reflect on what's really important in life. And, fortunately, there was someone who was willing to give up everything. That's Jesus – Who we remember and Whose example we honour today in Holy Communion.
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