A couple of years into my time at Glen Ayr United, I stopped using the Prayer of Jesus on a regular basis. There were the usual mutterings about the Lord’s Prayer being taken out of schools, and now being taken out of churches too. So I challenged them to tell me why the Lord's Prayer was so important that it had to be in every service. I didn’t want answers right there, but wanted them to take some time to think about it. The only rule was they could not give as a reason “That’s the way we’ve always done it."
Well, no one took up the challenge. So right when they thought I’d forgotten about it, I did a series of sermons. It is vitally important, I think, in this day and age, to stimulate our congregations to think about the words we say, so that each time we say it from now on, we see it differently.
Jesus was a devout Jew; everything he said and did was rooted in his traditions. He would have learned about prayer from Mary. The first prayer a Hebrew mother teaches her children is 'Into your hands, O God, I commend my spirit'. It is said by the child for the rest of his or her life before falling asleep, and before death. Jesus used these words on the cross before death. He would have heard Mary at sunset on the Sabbath eve, blessing the lamps; 'Blessed are you, O Lord, King of the Universe, who has given us your commandments and bids us light the Sabbath lights'. He would have heard Joseph say 'Blessed are you, O Lord, King of the Universe, who has given us this bread to eat, this wine to drink, fruit of the earth, of the vine, and the work of human hands'.
Instead of the Jesus Prayer, Mark 12 gives us the Jewish Prayer of the Good Name, the Sh'ma: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One."Then Mark speaks of God's name as blessed, and the kingdom as enduring for ever; then adds the prayer of loving God with all one's heart, mind, soul, and strength, from the blessed Tau Prayer (which is on the threshold of Jewish homes since the Exodus), and one's neighbour as oneself, phrases taken directly from Deuteronomy and Leviticus.
In the book “The Greatest Prayer”, John Dominic Crossan devotes an entire chapter to the phrase “Give us this day our daily bread.” and includes considerable cultural history. So let’s go on a mini-excursion into the history of Palestine. In 1985, remains of a small boat were discovered in Lake Kinneret. It was a very dry year, and the water levels in Lake Kinneret (also known as the Sea of Galilee, or Gennesaret in Jesus’ time) had dropped considerably, making the remains of a boat visible - a fishing boat from about the time Jesus would have lived. The discovery of that boat leads Crossan into an examination of the need for food, and the oppression of the Romans.
Herod the Great died in 4 BCE. Herod had been given the title “King of the Jews” by the Romans. When he died, Emperor Augustus divided Herod's kingdom into three parts, and gave them to his sons Archelaus, Antipas, and Philip. Antipas received Galilee and Perea. Everything was quiet under Antipas for 25 years, until the year 20 in the common era - when there was outright revolt. But why the preoccupation of the Biblical writers with fishing and fish, when Jesus came from an inland town. Lots of references we can name, including the fact that virtually all the disciples were fishermen by trade. Yet Jesus prays about bread. Why?
Herod Antipas tried three times to acquire the title “King of the Jews”, like his father. Between 14 and 37 CE he tried for the second time. His success depended on two things: for his Roman masters, he had to increase the productivity of the Galilee; for his Jewish subjects, he had to increase his popularity. He decided to follow his father’s model. So first, he had the great city of Sepphoris built - a “city built on a hill”, looking out over fields of grapes, olives and grains. He used Sepphoris as a centre for wringing all he could out of the land, for Rome.
Then, he decided to build another capital city - Tiberias - on the shores of the Galilee, and named after his father. He intended to commercialise fishing on the sea of Galilee, exporting dried and salted fish to Rome. He divorced his own wife, and persuaded Herodias to divorce her husband - and then he married her. Popularity with the Jewish subjects had been abandoned. Both John and Jesus were critical of this action - John was beheaded for his criticism. Jesus speaks about these actions openly - in his discourse on divorce - knowing it will get back to Herod.
Imagine what Herod’s plan would have done to the small fishing villages. There were already taxes on everything - nets, boats, and probably even a tax for fishing from the shore. More often than not, the catch had to be sold to the Romans. Is it any surprise that the two most prominent disciples - Mary and Peter - as well as the others - were from these villages. Magdala, where Mary came from, had been the most important fishing centre on the lake before Herod began building Tiberias. His plan would destroy Magdala’s economy.
Jesus’ message, underlying the simplicity of the words, was really about who owns the earth, the land and the lake - God or Rome. Remember, in Jewish belief “The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it.” So the question for the oppressed people around the lake becomes “Who owns the lake and all the fish in it.” Who controls the daily bread - the food needed for each day?
The story of the feeding of the five thousand sets up an interesting study. After the teaching is finished, it’s getting late, and the disciples realise all these people need to eat. Their solution is to send the people away, to find food on their own. Jesus replies “You give them something to eat.” The contrast is stark - Jesus reminds his disciples that it is *their* responsibility for the distribution of God’s food to God’s people. So then there is the matter of finding some food, which Jesus blesses and breaks; it is distributed to the people. Jesus gets his disciples to see that if the kingdom of God is here and now, they are responsible for the adequate distribution of food. For the disciples, the collaborative element of their theology centred on the teaching but not feeding; for Jesus the teaching is *about* feeding.
Four verbs become important in the Gospel narratives: Take-bless-break-give. Mark says “He took the loaves, and after giving thanks he broke them, and gave them to his disciples to distribute; and they distributed them to the crowd.”
So what is so important about that? Perhaps this - the story is indeed a miracle within a parable - to say that “there is more than enough food already present on our earth when it passes through the hands of divine justice; when it is taken, blessed, broken and given out; when food is seen as God’s consecrated gift.” Jesus *enacts* that parable of God as Householder of the World - the earth and everything in it belongs to God.
Throughout the Scriptures we see stories about bread, fish and the lake. The kingdom movement of Jesus, and his teaching, brought into question ownership of the lake. The lake becomes the microcosm for the whole of creation, and then the question of ownership of creation.
So it becomes clear that saying “Give us this day our daily bread.” is both about literal bread, and a statement about God’s world, God’s intention, and what we do. It is a question of ownership and a statement of discipleship.
Give us the bread we need for today....The word for bread is >lachma=, but the word also means >understanding=. We could say “give us the food for all forms of growth and for elementary life in general”. The root of the word demonstrates growing vigour, greenness, possibility, and generative power. It became the word >hochma= which translates as >Holy Wisdom=, the breath, the embodiment of the feminine principle in everything. This reminds us that as well as the grand picture of unity in creation, we also need just food or understanding for the moment. It stands within the context of Messianic expectation, and is quite radical. It is reminiscent of Solomon praying Agive us our apportioned bread@, or give us what we need for today. It makes a strong comment about having more than we need, over against those who have less.
The story of “daily bread” which begins back in Mark this time leads us to Luke. Two grief-stricken disciples walk along a road. How many times they must have walked that road from Emmaus to Jerusalem and back again. A stranger takes up with them, and begins to talk - and they pour out their hearts and end up in tears. They reach Emmaus, and persuade him to stay rather than walk a dangerous road after dark. A simple meal is set out: the stranger picks up the bread and says the words - “Baruch atah adonai, eloheinu melech ha olam, hamotzi lechem min haaretz.........", and then he breaks and shares it with them.
Suddenly they recognise him. The word “recognise” is rooted in the word “cognition”, and means “know again”. In the meeting on the road, and the meal around the table, their needs are met. They are fed with spiritual bread, and then they sit down and feed their bodies.
This simple sentence “Give us this day our daily bread” is a condensed symbol of the realm of God, in the here and now - on the everyday road of life, the road we travel so often and sometimes without even thinking. How often do we pick up bread and just stuff it in, without thinking. Or without realising that the faces around the table are Jesus? How often do we trust that we have enough? That we have been fed?
The story of the Road to Emmaus is a parable about community worship. The Scriptures are read first, but Jesus is truly known when food and household are shared - often with the unknown stranger. Only then can we say Jesus has been made known in the “breaking of the bread.” Now, each of the people around the table might have had their own bread, but the emphasis in the story is about the *sharing of communal food*.
It isn't enough, for me, to put the prayer in every week just because that’s the way it’s always been. On the surface this is a simple and ordinary prayer, which would have been understood well by its original hearers. It was also an incredibly radical prayer meant to change lives. If you look at the parables and sayings Jesus used, they always appeared incredibly simple, but never were. Jesus always, always pushed his followers not to be complacent - and his criticism of the religious leaders’ hypocrisy made him extremely unpopular. In some ways that’s the role of preachers - to push you sitting in the pews not to be complacent, even if it makes us unpopular. We is not enough just to rattle off the words from memory without thinking. The whole intent of the prayer and the actions we take is to make us new people, in the realm of God, in the here and now. Thanks be to God.
Sources:
1. www.jewishencyclopedia.com
2. Religion and Ethics: The Lord=s Prayer www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/prayer (Archbishop Rowan Williams)
3. Prayers of the Cosmos - Neil Douglas-Klotz
4. The Greatest Prayer:Rediscovering the Revolutionary Message of the Lord’s Prayer. John Dominic Crossan, HarperOne (HarperCollins). New York, NY. 2010.
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