"Bread Enough for All"
Rev. Dr. Bruce Epperly, Westmoreland UCC
March 23, 2025
Everyone here knows the Lord’s Prayer. We’ve said it hundreds of times. And yet… sometimes when we read a book or scripture, we hear it again as if for the first time. Let us listen to the words of Jesus from the New Revised Standard Version of scripture with new ears and insights, reflecting the deepest desires of our hearts for ourselves and the world:
Our Father in heaven,
may your name be revered as holy.
May your kingdom come.
May your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And do not bring us to the time of trial
but rescue us from the evil one.
We know this prayer so well, too well, that we can recite it in less than 30 seconds without thinking. There is something important about familiarity, about this prayer that gets into our cells as well as well as our souls. Still, we need to pause and notice what we are saying, especially when those claiming to be the true Christians in governance and business, act as if they own this prayer, even as they supporting shutting down programs for the vulnerable, struggling, and hungry in Washington DC, Africa, and across the globe, and approve of practicing psychological terrorism on government employees.
In Jesus’ prayer, we find Bread for the Journey, and nutrition to feed our spirits and the world. St. Francis of Assisi’s first biographer, Thomas of Celano, said that Francis’ life became a prayer. Perhaps, as we live the words of our Savior Jesus’ prayer, our lives will also become prayerful, even in our professional and political responsibilities. While the Lord’s Prayer doesn’t claim to answer all your theological questions, living out this prayer at home, church, the soccer field and basketball game, and in the scrum of politics and work will change your life and quite possibly the world. Perhaps, your life will become a prayer.
It all begins with God, our Creator, our Father, our Mother, in heaven. The grandeur and holiness of God. It’s not about God living in heaven, for God is everywhere. It’s about the all-encompassing, cosmos creating, spiritually uplifting, diversity delighting, creatively loving and energizing power of God.
God is God and we aren’t. That’s good news. God can be trusted even when we are unsure of ourselves and are certain our leaders are going the wrong way and worshipping gods of their own making.
To repeat, God is God and we aren’t. God is God and Caesar isn’t. God is God and Hitler isn’t. God is God and Trump and Musk aren’t. God loves Bernie Sanders and Greta Thunberg, Kamala Harris, and AOC, and Donald Trump and Elon Musk, too, but deep down they will only find their peace, not in spaceships to Mars or dominating their opponents, but in turning to the Love that Created the Universe, Stars and this Good Earth, and is still creating the moral and spiritual arcs of history in their aim toward justice.
“May your will be done.” The “will of God” is one of the most misunderstood theological concepts. As he prayed in the Garden, Jesus said “not my will but thine be done.” Jesus isn’t talking about bowing down to all-powerful distant and unempathetic Providence, a God who wields thunderbolts, conjures up cancer cells, or strikes down airplanes from the sky. Nor is Jesus talking about a divine will that decides all the details of our lives in advance, giving health and happiness to some and depression and cancer to others.
The Lord’s Prayer is talking about God’s moral will. God’s vision of the universe. God’s call for us to be agents of bringing God’s vision of Shalom, healing, peace, justice, to life in the here and now.
In the Garden, Jesus knew that wasn’t compelled to die; he could have taken another route and become a local rabbi, inspirational but not global in outreach. Jesus didn’t die to placate an angry god; he chose to live out his destiny to show us that the way of the cross is the way of healing and abundant life, and bread for all. He chose to follow God’s way of mercy – not my will but thine – rather than his own self-interest.
Nineteen hundred years later, Martin Luther King goes to Memphis and gives his last will and testament. He doesn’t know the future. He is choosing to be in Memphis to fulfill his vocation. It’s not foreordained for him to be there and yet he knows that his destiny is faithfulness to God’s dream of the Beloved Community despite the risk. On April 3, the day before he was assassinated, King proclaims:
Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. And I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.
“Thy Kingdom come; thy Will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” We pray that earth comes to resemble heaven. That love abounds in every household and the halls of Congress, the fields of Ukraine, the villages of the West Bank. We pray that laughter fills the streets of Gaza and Bethesda. That everyone belongs. Everyone is loved. No more hatred or fighting. No more division based on race, gender, sexuality, nation of origin, or religious tradition, but delight in diversity that includes, elevates, and affirms everyone. That our world comes to look like heaven, and not a place of conflict and pain. That we become agents of healing and not fomenters of division and destruction. For we are the ones God needs, and we are ones that we have been waiting for.
“Give us this day our daily bread.” First-century peasants lived from day to day: not getting a job or catching a net of fish meant that your family might go without a meal. In such a precarious world, Jesus imagines bread enough for all – the bread that satisfies our stomachs, and the bread that satisfies our deepest emotional and spiritual longings.
Many people have too much bread – too much property, money, resource, and food – and are still seeking the bread of life that fills the spirit with joy. In their limos or presidential planes, they think that power and privilege will satisfy their hunger, and yet – to Jesus – they are people to be pitied because they fill themselves with food that does not satisfy the spirit. In their fixation on power, privilege, and possession, retribution and revenge, they have lost their souls and are dooming others to soulless poverty, powerlessness, and dooming their supporters to the prison house of bad religion. Just think of the unquenchable urge for more power and money that dominates a celebrity billionaire or the need to be on center stage and the object of everyone’s fear or worship that drives a political leader. Thirsty and hungry souls that can only be satisfied by the bread of life and the cup of salvation, but they choose unsatisfying substitutes and want us to choose that false salvation too.
Yes, we need bread, bread that is healthy, nutritious, and soul satisfying. And, so we pray, “Give us bread, bread of community, bread of forgiveness, bread of mercy, bread of companionship with God and one another”
Give us the bread of life that satisfies our cells and souls and challenges us to be bread bakers for others. We yearn for that bread and that is our prayer: that we have bread for the journey, the bread I sung about as a little boy each communion Sunday:
Break Thou the bread of life, dear Lord, to me,
As Thou didst break the loaves beside the sea;
Beyond the sacred page I seek Thee, Lord;
My spirit pants for Thee, O Living Word!
Bless Thou the truth, dear Lord, to me, to me,
As Thou didst bless the bread by Galilee;
Then shall all bondage cease, all fetters fall;
And I shall find my peace, my all in all.
This day, God is supplying our deepest needs if only we open our hands to receive God’s gifts and share them with others. We have everything we need to flourish and prosper on this Good Earth. We have bread enough to share. And love enough to care.
Thank you, God, for the chance to feast on the bread of life, to follow your vision and do your will, and bring heaven to this place and the Good Earth.
Amen.
