The question of
how we will eat is not "How do we chew
and digest?" but rather the question survivors ask when
stranded in the desert: "How will we eat?" Scarcity
brings into focus the preciousness of each bite of food as
a gift from our Creator and Sustainer God. Is God my source
of life, or am I trusting in my full but finite earthly storehouse?
Jesus' reference to daily bread recalls an ancient
story for the Israelites (Exodus 16). In the wilderness God
provided manna one day at a time when God's sojourning
people were hungry and homeless. They gathered, they cooked,
and they ate. Leftovers turned into a stinking, wormy mess.
On the seventh day they were assigned rest. They could not
work because God gave nothing to gather on the seventh day.
God provided everything, even their rest, one day at a time.
In Matthew 6:11 Jesus taught his disciples
to ask for one day's bread. Period. Ask not for silos, survival
cellars, investment
portfolios. In verse 26 Jesus taught about birds who neither
sow nor reap nor gather into barns. Yet God gives the birds
their daily food, and you are more precious than the birds.
Finally (verse 33), Jesus delivers the bottom line: Before
you seek anything else, strive for God's rule in your
life, and strive for God's righteousness. Then all those
things, like food and clothing, will be given to you.
Given my privileged place in life, I am so blessed with material
goods that I lose my sense of daily dependence. I am tempted
to think that I am the provider. I can think haughtily: "I
earn my bread; I deserve my bread." That's the
old way of eating.
The new way is the way of radical dependence on God, who promises
daily provision, and who asks for my undivided devotion and
trust. The new way is about seeking God, not bread. As I experience
this new way, what shall I do with my excess? How much more
can I give away? There could be so much more bread to go around
for all of God's children to enjoy if those of us who
have the choice would choose not to store up more than our
daily bread—if we would choose to strive for God rather
than bread. After all, the unused surplus eventually turns
into a stinking, rotting mess anyway.
Jesus taught: "Give us this day, our daily bread." How
shall we eat?
Next month:
A new way of belonging: as children
|
