Word of Salvation – Vol. 24 No. 16 – January 1978

 

Lord, Let Us Live

 

Sermon by Rev. J. Goris, Th. Grad. on Matthew 6:11

Heidelberg Catechism: Lord’s Day 50

Scripture reading: Psalm 30; John 6:1-14, 22-27

Psalter Hymnal: 120; 25:1, 2, 3 (after Creed); 408; 310; 431:1,5,9

 

Even if the modern welfare state gives us unemployment benefits, it does not wipe out the truth “that if anyone does not work, neither shall he eat” (2Thess.3:10). And of course, if you don’t eat, you won’t live – and by all means, we want to live!

When, therefore, we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread”, we may well say that it amounts to praying,

LORD, LET US LIVE!

And we see that we are taught to LIVE,

1. Not egotistically (“Give US…”)

2. Not materialistically (“GIVE us…”)

1. This is a most practical prayer and it covers far more than just a slice of bread. It is praying for our work, our health, our car, our home.

It’s a prayer for our holidays, for the spending of our money, whether that new dress is so necessary, that business suit, that bedroom suite, that wall-papering job.

And it’s also for our farm, the crops we grow, the cattle we breed, the price of milk.

That prayer is further closely linked to the worries that fill our minds about the very down-to-earth things of our family life, our married life and the future of our children.

Yes, it’s a big and necessary prayer about life and life-style!

And then we have not said anything yet about ‘third world’ countries and other related questions:

— the Ethiopian famine,

— Ugandan violence,

— Bangladesh poverty,

— Philippino flood-victims,

— Polynesian overstayers in New Zealand,

— Palestinian refugees.

When we pray this prayer we can’t simply close our eyes to what we know is there all around us in this world. Indeed we are prompted by the awareness of our own need, but it does not stop there. We must realise that just as we are dependent on God for those daily supplies, so are others, even if they do not know that themselves.

And so when the Lord teaches us to pray, “Give US this day OUR daily bread”, He doesn’t only show us that He is the source of all good. He also shows that He provides us with those goods in order that we may be able to help those who are in need. Doesn’t He have that in mind when He says,

“For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat, I was thirsty, and you gave me drink, I was a stranger, and you invited me in, I was naked, and you clothed me… (Matt.25)?

So as to feel the thrust of this even more, let us put it in the form of three questions:

— DO I CARE?

— DO I SHARE?

— DO I DARE?

DO I CARE?

You know we are inclined to turn that around and say, “Does God care? Look at all those starving millions!” But how do I dare to say that and criticise God when I am plentifully supplied in every way: My table is full, my cupboards are, I have a good job, I have a home with all ‘mod cons’.

When the Lord was confronted with 5,000 hungry people on one occasion He said first to his disciples, “You give them to eat!”

Nowadays, with the rapidly increasing world population many people are limiting the size of their families. However, in many cases it is rather for personal convenience than out of genuine concern for under-nourished or starving people. How many other mouths have been fed because of the smaller number at home?

When I pray, “Give us this day our daily bread,” do I CARE to take note of some of those needy situations? And if I care enough, am I prepared to share?

DO I SHARE?

That is not: what do I do with my surplus, what I have to spare? Rather, how do I use and spend all that I have? Has my house, my car, my savings, been given to me just for my own use?

What a happy surprise it would be for someone in distress to find a Christian home open to him or to her! Without having to approve of her past, how welcome it would be for a solo-mother or mother-to-be to find a refuge under your roof!

So often we think we do quite something by making a $5 donation towards a relief fund, or by sponsoring a child through World Vision. Yet, in the meantime we may be able to live just as comfortably, eat just as much, have just as costly a holiday.

When I pray, “Give us this day our daily bread”, are only the crumbs underneath the table to be shared among those in need?

We can also put it this way, How shall I pray for my business? That I may profit? “Give US this day….” also implies that my employee may have a reasonable slice of bread too, as well as the customer, who, if he has paid through the nose, can hardly afford to buy himself a proper meal.

Do I share so much that I am left with very little for myself? Or perhaps to the extent that I have no ‘privacy’ left because some homeless person or persons have come into my house? Do I care to share like that?

DO I DARE?

“Give us this day our daily bread?” That is, do I dare to leave that very vital matter in God’s hands, trusting Him for all my necessities and also the luxuries?

The new translation of the Catechism puts it like this: Lord, “Do take care of all our physical needs so that we come to know that You are the only source of everything good, and that neither our work and worry nor Your gifts can do us any good without Your blessing. And so help us to give up our trust in creatures and to put our trust in You alone.

We are so well off in our part of the world that without any difficulty we slip into thinking that we can perfectly trust the economy, our social security, our business wisdom, our strong body, to guarantee a carefree life.

But what if the SEC (Victoria) goes on strike for nine weeks? And what if we look realistically at how the other half of the world lives?

Our Lord teaches us to pray this prayer so that we shall know that behind our daily provisions is the caring hand of my loving heavenly Father, and not the uncertainty of my own achievements or that of others.

In that same sixth chapter of Matthew where we find the Lord’s Prayer, we hear our Lord’s reminder: “do not worry what you shall eat, what you shall drink or what you shall wear”… and you know, that word WORRY is an awfully big reality, even in our affluent society!

Do I dare to trust God for those every day things of life? That is how we are led to the spiritual side of this prayer: “Lord, let us live … not materialistically.”

2. Here then is the plea of the child of God, “Lord, let me live”, and don’t let me concentrate just on food and drink, houses and cars, as if they are the only things I have to live by. I can have all that and much more to keep me alive, and yet not live. That is frightfully possible. And that is why the Lord teaches us to pray as He does here.

You see, food and drink, clothing, health, yes, life itself are GIFTS: “GIVE us this day…! The Lord points us to the GIVER in the Sermon on the Mount. This prayer is directed to Him, Whose Kingdom we have come to belong to. And so the bread we pray for is Kingdom bread. That’s why we should first first seek His Kingdom and His righteousness, and the heavenly Father will see to it that the bread will come as well.

It is exactly this spiritual element that is lacking in materialism and in communism. There is perhaps a desire to share, by force, but it goes altogether wrong when God is left out of the picture. It is sheer hard work, whether that of myself or of another. God has nothing to do with it. Well, that is materialism to the core. It detaches the material things in life from God. There is nothing wrong with desiring material things. The Lord gave us bodies, they need looking after. Why, He teaches us to pray for these needs. The thing that is wrong is to only consider these things and detach them from God.

It would be fatal to do that.

The Lord Jesus Himself shows us how the physical and the spiritual belong together. We read that together in John 6. He was concerned for that hungry multitude of 5000 and gave them to eat. But He does not leave it at that. He offers more.

This is what He says:

“Work not for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man shall give you, for on Him the Father, even God has set His seal.” (vs.27).

You see, He had come to give HIMSELF. And if we would have received every material gift from Him, but missed out on HIMSELF, we would really have missed out on ALL.

The Lord never wants us to live for the sake of living. But if God is left out of the picture, it will become that.

Then life becomes the end, not the means. Then we work to eat, and we eat to stuff ourselves, and we stuff ourselves to enjoy ourselves, and for that we live.

But the Bible puts it differently, as we saw in Psalm 30:

Lord, let me live that I may praise YOU!

And so we work to eat, and we eat to live, and we live to praise OUR GOD!

And when God is in His rightful place, then also those human needs will be met. Indeed, when the true God is worshipped and adored, then holy cows and holy rats will no longer be allowed to eat the food that is necessary to feed starving Indians.

When in Lord’s Day 49 we looked at those words, “Thy will be done”, we remarked how hard a prayer that was. However, this is harder still. This goes a step further. For unless I pray “Thy will be done”, I can’t pray “Give us this day our daily bread”. For then I leave God out of the picture, and I see my daily bread in terms of my hard work. But the Lord has shown us (in John 6) how important “Thy will be done” is in connection with our daily bread. You know He demonstrated that? When He Himself came into this world, leaving all His riches and glory behind, to live a simple life-style, even in poverty, and the Son of God HUNGERED!

Remember how, after having fasted 40 days, He was hungry, and how the tempter came: “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread”. And do you think He did it? Well, of course not! Because He had first prayed “Thy will be done” before thinking of praying of His daily bread!

You see, there is the answer. Also to this prayer: it must bring us to the Son of God.

It reaches its significance in Him.

All these petitions of the Lord’s Prayer are linked up. Before we prayed “Thy will be done”, we said “Thy Kingdom come”. And of that the Lord said “Seek first the Kingdom.” And before the Kingdom we prayed for His Name: – not me in the centre, but You. Your Name be hallowed. And whose Name is it? “Our Father”!

And if our Father in heaven did not spare His only begotten Son (Rom.8:32) but offered Him up for us all, even in this dire world, with its dire need, with its hunger, with its sickness, with its death; if He did not spare His Son but had Him nailed to the cross, will He not give us OUR DAILY BREAD?

Amen!