Built-in Time Machines
We all have things that evoke strong memories. Sights, smells, songs… other words that begin with s… um… well you get the point, we all have triggers that act as time travel devices. Once you experience one of these triggers you are instantly transported back in time.
For me one of those triggers is this picture. No matter where we lived for years this picture hung next to our dining room table. I cannot see this picture and not remember meals shared and time spent with my family.
The official name of this picture is “Grace” as in saying grace, before your meal. But it has another name as well, and it is “Daily Bread.” The themes of thanksgiving and daily bread are tightly interwoven and right fully so, but daily bread means more than just being thankful.
Our book of faith – 40 day Lenten devotions today say that as we pray “give us this day our daily bread” it begs the question, about “our” bread. We do not ask for my bread, but that our daily bread would be 
granted. So what does the our mean for you.
Frankly I think our devotions over play the justice side of this a bit. That doesn’t mean I don’t see injustices in how daily bread is handled they do exist. But when they equate this justice matter to a sacramental level by comparing it to Holy Communion, I am troubled. These lines from the devotions got me thinking: “Everyone regardless of his or her station of life, gets the same small piece of bread, the same small cup of wine. The “haves” do not get the whole loaf while the “have-nots” get the crumbs, as so often happens in the world outside the church.”
Um…I don’t get the cup nor the bread at many houses of worship. God’s justice is bigger than our human understanding of this sacrament, this wonderful gift.
You can argue that our Lord’s intent is that everyone of his baptized children should receive communion, and I believe that to be true, but it doesn’t work that way.
So in comparing the justice of “daily bread” to how humans actually handle this gift from God, may not work so well. I don’t have a complete answer to this… it is a struggle.
But in all these things I trust that God does in fact supply my daily bread, your daily bread, and daily bread for all of creation. I guess my simple prayer is that I might not get in the way of God doing what God does out of Love for all he has made, and if I am lucky, I just might get to be a part of providing others their daily bread.
Spiderman and the will of God
I have been slaving away on my sermon for this weekend. Ok, slaving away is an exaggeration, as my daughter said; “and watching Spiderman 3 helped you write your sermon?” The kid has learned well from her parents 
Our devotions today continued to focus on the will of God particularly focused on the loving kindness part. It seems so simple, but I was reminded after watching Spiderman 3 (gotcha!) how often can we look into the face of ugliness of the world; hate, fear, violence, revenge, hunger, injustice, and pain and not curl in on ourselves in self protection? Loving kindness demands vulnerability, it calls for us to step out into this world to do God’s will not necessarily our will. We do ask in this prayer that God’s will becomes ours even as he strengthens us by his life giving spirit each day.
In doing my prep work for the sermon I came upon this next piece. It didn’t really fit the particular direction I was going but it is too good not to use someplace. It was attributed to a Dr. Ted Loder, from his book, GUERRILLAS OF GRACE. I hope it blesses you.
Extra mustard please
The kingdom of God is like…
Isn’t it funny how time after time, complex concepts, when explained properly aren’t very complex at all. We are STILL looking at the kingdom of God in the Lord’s prayer in our book of faith Lenten journey devotions. In the Gospels Jesus lays out what life is like in the kingdom. Its like: a mustard seed, a bit of yeast, a treasure hidden in a field, a pearl of great price, and a net. Not one of those items I described do we have the least bit of trouble wrapping our heads around.
Really… These are all common items, some are a bit more pricey than others, but there is a commonality among them that we can all identify with.
- While maybe everyone doesn’t know about mustard seeds. But, I don’t know of a kid who at some point in his or her life didn’t plant a bean seed, or a flower seed in a Styrofoam cup and watched it sprout and grow.
- Yeast, well not everyone is into bread baking, but we know it when we taste it. The smell of fresh baked bread that yeasty smell, the taste of bread still warm, with a bit of butter or honey, we know what its like to be fed like this.
- Treasure, especially buried treasure…arrrrrgg… ahoy matey’s! Kids draw maps of buried treasure and go seek it, even if there isn’t anything there, the chase, the adventure, the hope of finding treasure fills our imaginations. Even adults know and love this idea, who do you suppose bought all those tickets to Pirates of the Caribbean I, II and III!
- Pearl of great price, ok not everyone is big into pearls,
of great price or otherwise. But show me a 1957 Gibson Les Gaul Gold top and I will show you a pearl of great price. We all have such pearls in our lives, not all of them are things though!
- Nets, well not much imagination here… you catch things with them, from fish to butterfly’s or at St. John Lutheran, bats! Nets are made to snag everything in their path. They are meant for catching things plain and simple.
The point is that the kingdom of God is not some far off hard to imagine thing, it is reflected in our normal everyday experiences. We can taste, see, feel and experience the kingdom of God in our everyday lives.
Perhaps the kingdom of God is celebrated nowhere else quite like eating together. If are close to Reedsburg, please feel free to stop by St. John for our soup, bread and pie prior to our mid-week services. You can come at noon, or supper starts at 5:30 (I think, I am already there when it starts so I forget!) The meals are a fund raiser for our youth, but if things are tight financially, give me a nudge and I will see to it that there is no cost for you. This is the kingdom of God! If you come on Wednesday evening, there will be a table set aside for us to talk about our devotions if you would like to join us!
One last thing. It may only be pizza rolls and a coke, but a prayer before your meal is an excellent way to celebrate the kingdom of God. In our home it is usually the good ol’ “Come Lord Jesus” (talk about a loaded phrase!) But I would like to share a special family prayer that was used at Grandma and Grandpa Braaten’s home when we would visit. If it works for you great!
“Great God we praise your gracious care, which does our daily bread prepare. O, bless the earthly food we take and feed our souls for Jesus sake. Amen.”
Enough already
Snow… ugg.. yeh, I know it is Wisconsin, but com’on!
