Matthew 6:11

Give us this day our daily bread.

                                                                                                                                  Isaiah 43:18-19

Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.

                                                                                                                                     Matthew 6:34

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Give Us This Day

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts be pleasing unto you, oh God.

Today’s message will primarily focus on the words, “Give us this day our daily bread.”  I have also included the words of Isaiah 43, verses 18 and 19 which caution us not to dwell on the past and I have included Matthew 6, verses 33 and 34 which remind us not to worry about the future.  The words of Scripture place a frame around our conversation with God, not to limit it in any way but to keep our focus and our concerns and our requests always in perspective.

Our primary text, Matthew 6, verse 11, embodies the essence of prayer, Jesus-style.  The Lord’s Prayer, as we refer to it, includes the words Jesus taught the ancient people when they were attempting to speak to and be in connection with God, words that would eventually be spoken in Jesus’ absence.  It is a prayer which has been spoken for centuries, in one form or another, in schools, religious institutions and other gatherings.  It references a God known as Father who lives in a place named heaven; it instructs us how to be in relationship to God and with one another here on earth.  Over the years it has come to be known to many as a beloved prayer and to others not so much.

Prayer was important to Jesus.  In the verses leading up to this instruction on prayer he was calling out people who were praying just to hear the sound of their own voices, people who were praying just to be seen by people in their midst.  The Scriptures actually tell us that he was asking them to prayer in private.  I don’t really believe for one moment that Jesus expects us to go into a closet or into a private place and to be in conversation with our God.  But I do believe that Jesus is asking us to not be distracted when we pray: to pause, to ask for silence and then to be in conversation with the one we know as God.  In our worship service here at the First Congregational Church of Bellevue, we pray with words, we pray as we light candles, we pray through song and we even pray through our actions.

You may have noticed the title of a recent eCall:  “Praying With My Feet.”  These were the words spoken by Rev. Bianca Davis-Lovelace as she spoke about her experience of marching in the streets at a Black Lives Matter march and as she prepares for the Poor Peoples Campaign here in the state of Washington.  For me, a prayer warrior, prayer forms the bond which connects our hearts to one another and to God.  It is in this connection that we realize our non-aloneness.  Perhaps these are a few of Jesus’ reasons for teaching followers like us how to pray.

Last week in her sermon, Lisa pointed out the ominous words that Jesus prayed on the eve of his crucifixion.  He said, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done,” knowing full well what lay in store for him the next day.  In the same way, I want you and I to be cognizant of our words when we pray these words, “Give us this day our daily bread.”  The first word in today’s Scripture is “give.”  It is worth noting that whe