Wedding day

Wedding day
Isn't she beautiful!

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Give us this day our daily bread


I have read the "Lord's Prayer" many times in the Gospel of Matthew but something new has occurred to me as I was thinking about the way Peterson wrote it in The Message. Where the NIV says, "give us this day our daily bread", Peterson writes, "Keep us alive with three square meals." Hmmmm

Now, I have also heard that Jesus was not giving us something to just repeat verbatim every time we pray but rather a guide for praying. That makes sense. And this portion represents the time to make petition of God for things we want and need. But note, in this prayer, this is the only time Jesus tells us to pray for something temporal and earthly. And when he does he says "daily bread". He tells us just to ask for what we need today, not for enough for tomorrow, just our food for today. And he reinforces this later in the sermon on the hillside when he tells us not to worry about tomorrow, for today has enough trouble of it's own.

So Jesus says I should ask for just enough for today for myself. Now we both know that most of us in America have more than we need already. Maybe the extra is for others. What do you think?

The second noble truth of the teachings of Buddha is: The principle cause of suffering is the attachment to "desire" or "craving" (tanha). Both desire to have (wanting) and desire not to have (aversion). Now Christians tend to think any thought that does not come from the bible or a Christian can't be true. That is just stupid. All truth is God's truth. Now I don't think everything Buddha said was right. He also taught that the end of suffering is found when we stop desiring. This is the state of Nirvana. I believe, rather, that I need to to desire after the right things, the things my Father has for me, the things he made me for. Suffering and discontentment come when I desire for things life withholds.

Maybe this is what Jesus was trying to teach us when he taught us to pray. We spend so much time asking for earthly things we don't need. All we need from this world right now is three squares. The abundance is found in Him.

And I also don't believe we can be free from suffering on this earth. I find nothing "good" about a Buddhist sitting Indian style in the state of Nirvana while children starve around him and the weak are oppressed by the evil men. But I do believe there is much suffering we bring on ourselves that Jesus can set us free from.

Now Jesus, you know I can not live out your example, so live your life in me. I love you!

Amen