Dear friends in Christ: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
I intended to talk with you today about the next two petitions of our Lord’s Prayer: daily bread and forgiveness…but the recent experience of death in Carolyn’s family interrupted my train of thought, to say the least…and our grief seemed to push almost everything else aside.
The funeral of our nephew, David, was a terrible…and a good experience—all wrapped up into one. Everyone who has had to walk through Death’s Valley of Shadows knows what I mean. The terrible part:
the finality of death,
the unanswered and unanswerable questions,
the pain of such permanent separation,
the burden of broken hearts,
the way that grief drains us of energy—the list is long and persistent.
And though it never comes close to outweighing the pain, God can also cause good to be found in such terrible experiences:
the incredible blessing of family,
the way that friends surround and support us,
the way that a family of faith covers us with prayer,
the promise of our God that “not even Death can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39).
So in that way, I guess, these words from the Lord’s Prayer do fit after all—just not in the way that I’d intended. Turn to your inserts and let’s take a look at how Martin Luther defines this pregnant phrase: daily bread.
It includes everything that nourishes our body and meets its needs, such as food, drink, clothing, shoes,
house, yard, fields, cattle,
money, possessions,
a devout spouse, devout children,
devout employees, devout and faithful rulers, good government,
good weather, peace,
health, discipline, honor,
good friends, faithful neighbors, and other things like these.
In other words, is there ANY good thing that’s NOT included in this list? The answer is NO! God promises to provide us with everything that we need from day to day. And though most of our days pass by with our needing only the ordinary stuff of life, we all know the feel of
– those extra-ordinary days, those terrible late-night-call kinds of days,
– those pull-the-rug-out-from-underneath-you days,
– those take-every-ounce-of-energy-we-have-just- to-make-it-through-to-tomorrow days.
Even then—and, perhaps, especially then—we are called to trust that God will provide us with our daily bread—a loved one to dry our tears, a friend to hold our hand, a brother or sister of faith to share with us a prayer, a neighbor to provide us with a meal.
What a symbol of love that was for our nephew’s family. They were inundated with daily bread—both spiritually in an outpouring of love and concern from the entire town; and physically. David’s family was literally overwhelmed with food. From sandwiches and snacks to casseroles and cookies—even toilet paper and tissues; they didn’t need to waste much energy on ordinary things.
So what about the second phrase for today: “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”? I've heard lots of people, pastors included, who want to make that forgiveness conditional. And in a way, the sentence does sound like an "if-then" thing: IF we forgive others, THEN we ourselves will be forgiven. But that would make God’s love conditional. It would turn this gift of grace, this bequest of blessing, this freely flowing force of forgiveness into a carrot on a string, only to be given when we finally get our act together.
But that's not how God works. Remember the words of Jesus’ prayer as he’s being nailed to the cross: Father, forgive them for they know not what they do… If God can forgive Jesus’ tormentors for their ignorance and their misguided sense of certainty about right and wrong, surely God will also forgive us for our ignorance, our human frailty, our mistakes and outright rebellions.
I think the key to understanding the role of forgiveness in our lives is to realize how important it is to us. In fact, I don't think it's a coincidence that Daily Bread and Forgiveness appear in the same sentence in the Lord's Prayer. In lots of ways, forgiveness IS daily bread to us. We've all known
– the pain of a broken relationship where one person just can't forgive; or
– the gut-wrenching feeling of waiting to be forgiven. Life isn't right again until that relationship has been mended, until we can start to feel whole.
And for some people, especially those dealing with death, forgiveness either for their departed loved one or for themselves can seem very far away. But Jesus gives us the ultimate Daily Bread when, in the night in which he was betrayed, he took bread, broke it, and:
– including Judas who would betray him
– and Peter who would deny him
he gave it to all for the forgiveness of sins. This is our great promise from God—every time we eat of this daily bread, Jesus is eagerly waiting to forgive our sins—you, me, and all of us in the community of Christ. Amen.
Pastor Scott Fuller