Sermon for March 18th

This last summer, Kristy, Sophia, Malachi and I went to the Rennaisance Faire with my dad in Kenosha Wisconsin. If you’ve never been to a Rennaisance Faire, they are really pretty cheap to get into, but that’s because they want you to spend money once you are inside the gates. Food costs a lot. There are a lot of really neat things to buy, but everything costs a decent amount for the most part. Even the entertainers, though they don’t charge, have a hat on the ground and it is courtesy to tip them if you like their music. My dad plays the lute and sings love songs to couples. While the faire pays him to perform, he needs the tips he gets to make the Renn. Faire life work out for him.

But for me, I cannot imagine putting my hard earned money into the hat of people even when I LOVE their songs or their music. Even when they make me laugh hysterically. I just can’t part with it! I’ve never understood how my dad ever got tips because as much as I like his music, I couldn’t imagine putting a one, five, ten or twenty dollar bill in his hat. It has always been beyond me how that happens.

But this last summer was different. Now, Kristy and I didn’t suddenly come into a load of money, though it was nice to actually be employed when we went, but last summer when Kristy and I went to the Rennaisance Fair, something changed. My dad gave me fifty of those little gold dollar coins with the Presidents’ faces on them and told me to tip well since so many of the entertainers were hitting hard times with the economy doing so badly. And do you know what? I did tip well. Very well. I loved it! It was fun! I’d throw in several coins when I liked a groups’ songs. I threw a couple in just because I didn’t think there was enough money in one lady’s hat. I was more than generous! And do you know why? Because it wasn’t my money that I was throwing in those hats. It wasn’t my money.

Tonight, as we continue to study the Lord’s Prayer during Lent, we are going to focus on the third petition, “Give us today our daily bread”. So far, we have learned to call on our heavenly Father and ask him to be God for us, to be holy and powerful in our lives. We have learned to ask for faith. Now, we ask for things. “Give us today our daily bread.”

When you pray, ask for things, everything if you’d like. Everything you need, want, desire, think about, worry about or fear. Do you need to tell him? No. But praying isn’t about what you should do. You are free to pray about anything because everything comes from God. If even your bread comes from God, ask for a little butter and jelly on the side to go with it. Ask for anything and everything in your prayers so that you can remember where everything is coming from.

When writing about this petition of the Lord’s Prayer, Martin Luther wrote down a list of things we get from God, our “daily bread” so to speak: “food and clothing, home and property, work and income, a devoted family, an orderly community, good government, favorable weather, peace and health, a good name and true friends and neighbors.” He said that while God gives us all these things, whether we are good or evil, we pray that we might actually realize this and give thanks for all of it.

In tonight’s reading from Matthew, Jesus says, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family you did it to me.” It’s always bothered me that I can never be sure if I’ve ever done anything right according to this verse. The next group, those Jesus says are the accursed, seem to remember doing a few good things, but it doesn’t seem like it was enough. What is the difference between the two groups?

There’s a famous anecdote about a Lutheran pastor who on his death bed said that he couldn’t remember doing a single good work in his life. Some have criticized this statement, but I think that there is something very profound there. After throwing all kinds of golden dollar coins to people at the Rennaisance Faire I can honestly say that I didn’t give any money away at all! Just like the good work that this pastor did in his life wasn’t because of his goodness, but because of God’s, the money I gave away was because my dad gave me his money and I used it. Left to my own devices, I would have hoarded it, but it wasn’t my money so I could be generous. Perhaps the difference between the two groups in the reading tonight was that one group used their own resources—something we would expect that they would remember—while the other group only used what they had been given from God and couldn’t remember having given a single penny, a single moment of their time, a single loaf of bread of their own.

In the Lord’s Prayer and in all of our prayers, we ask God to help us to realize that the daily bread we get is not actually ours. So, when the neighborhood kids come over for the umpteenth time and eat you out of house and home, well, it wasn’t your food really anyway was it. You’ve no doubt known or heard of people who, after a brush with death, because very purposeful in their lives and generous with their time because, as they say, “They might not have had this time to give if it were not for God.” Well, all the time, money, food, good weather and life you have has been given to you from God. It is not your own. You don’t have to wait for a crisis to realize it. Instead, pray that you might be so generous with God’s good gifts that on the last day, when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels are with him, you won’t remember a single possession you gave away, because you never gave away anything that was your own. You received everything from God and shared generously with all of HIS good gifts. Amen.