July 2017 Pastor's Letter

 11Give us this day our daily bread. - Matthew 6:11

I was pulling into the Corbin Wal Mart when I saw a man in slashed jeans, a t-shirt and ragged sneakers standing at the edge of the lot holding a sign. It read

God cares about "that".

Let's pray about it right now.

It took me a moment to get his meaning. He was tapping into the fact people spend a good part of their day worrying about something. This sign-wielding prophet was inviting people to insert their own cares into the sentence and give God a chance to help. No one was lining up to pray with him, but I bet more than a few mentally paused to consider his invitation. 

Prophets are notorious for making people think by taking the simple issues of life and infusing  them with spiritual "spin". Jesus did that a lot. He took our everyday experiences and processes of life and pulled back the veneer to give glimpses of the presence of heaven.

In The Lord's Prayer, Jesus begins with "Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven". The words place us in heaven's throne room surrounded by the glittering glory of God's presence and the mighty angelic host.  If  this prayer were written by a poet, we might expect to hear those opening words followed by verses dripping with praise and adorned with pageantry. Instead, we read "Give us this day, our daily bread." What? Wait a minute. We're in the presence of the God of the universe, Creator of everything and Jesus said, "Ask for bread".  Why? Why is it seemingly more important than "forgive us our debts" or "lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil"?

I think the answer may be found in the background of Israel's Exodus journey to The Promised Land. In Exodus 16 the Israelites had traveled about six weeks into the wilderness. They were hungry, perhaps having run through the supplies they had carried out of  Egypt, thinking that the journey would be short. So every night was a celebration of freedom until they began to run out of food. In their hunger they despaired and complained that Moses - and by extension, God - had brought them into the desert to die. God's response was to give them manna on a daily basis. Each morning they went out and found the manna and gathered enough to feed themselves for the day. It was an object lesson that God cared because God knew how hard it was to focus on His future promises when your personal problems were so up close and personal. They had to learn to trust God for the "small stuff" of life before they could really appreciate and anticipate the wonder of the "big stuff" like The Promised Land.

I think Jesus put the request for daily bread where he did in the prayer as an encouragement to His disciples to put the pressing issues of life into God's hands as soon as possible. In fact the relief of knowing God cared might also cut down on the "trespasses" which can occur when the stress is high and the need seems overwhelming. It might also build a hedge around our weakness when temptation visits. 

"God cares about that." might be a good phrase to post on your mirror or refrigerator or in your checkbook. It's simple. It's true. It fits every need.

Dr. Phil