Sermon
of September 18, 2005
Presented by Rev. Julia Williamson
Scripture lesson: Exodus 16:2-15
“Give Us This Day”
A few nights ago I couldn’t sleep at all. I think it was that 24-hour allergy pill I took when the sneezing, itchy eyes and runny nose got the best of me. Whatever it was, I tossed and turned all night until about 4:30 when I decided I’d had enough, got out of bed and started my day. Turned on the computer, checked my email, went downstairs, put the kettle on the stove, got out the coffee, then, I had a craving for French toast. Why not make French toast before the sun comes up? I share this with you because something about losing sleep made the hours go by really slowly and I became more aware of time passing. And somehow that became an unexpected gift, at least until later in the day, when I was definitely ready to get some sleep. The early morning that day took on a whole life of its own. It was like a bonus part of the day. And somehow that made that French toast and coffee taste extra good... The title of this sermon is “Give Us This Day”– this day, right now. Not yesterday, not tomorrow, but today. The question is, as a people of faith, how are we going to live today? Are we going to live worrying about tomorrow and regretting things that happened yesterday, or are we going to truly embrace the only time we really have, which is today?
When, after crossing the Red Sea and escaping Pharoah’s army, the Israelites find themselves wandering in the desert, they begin to pray “give us this day our daily bread.” Not quite in those words, but the idea is the same, except that they like to whine. They complain to Moses that they have nothing to eat. And the Lord says to Moses, “I am going to rain bread from heaven for you, and each day the people shall go out and gather enough for that day.” And sure enough, the next morning there is a fine flaky substance, as fine as frost, on the ground. Now whatever the substance was, I consider it a miracle. Whether it was bread from heaven, or whether it was the honeydew secretion of an insect feeding on plant sap. That’s someone’s theory. Either way, in my mind it’s a miracle. It was unexpected, it was a free gift, it was just what the people needed to get them through the day and keep them on their journey through the desert. And that itself is a miracle.
Just as God gave the Israelites the gift of that bread from heaven, just enough to last a day, so God has given us the gift of this new day. The question for us then becomes: How are we going to accept that gift? How are we, as a people of faith, going to live this day? What are we going to do with its promises, and its frustrations, its good things, as well as the not so pleasant things that this day holds for us?
And so I offer a few prayers we can pray together before we go back out into our separate lives and into the day ahead. The first is: O God, give us this day the joy we need to love what we do. You probably have some things to do today that just don’t seem very fun. Maybe they are menial tasks, like cleaning the house, or doing the laundry, or mowing the lawn. And we tend to look at these tasks as something we have to get through in order to get on with the rest of the day. But what if we changed our way of thinking, and said, as a person of faith, I believe every moment of my day is sacred, a gift from God, and so I’m going to treat it as such. I tried this a few weeks ago when I was mowing the lawn. It was only the second time I had ever mowed a lawn, but I was already dreading the task. We have these moles in our lawn that tunnel underground and make a lot of dirt on top of the lawn, and that, as well as all the sticks, tends to make things difficult. And then there’s the hill in the back... Anyways I decided I was going to let go of my dread of lawn mowing and transform the mowing into a prayer. It can be kind of like walking a labyrinth, if you’ve ever tried that. The repetition, the neat rows, well sort of neat rows, that appear as you go back and forth, back and forth. It’s a simple thing.
And that’s what Jesus was getting at when he told his disciples to pray “Give us this day our daily bread.” Just enough. Keep it simple. Like folding the laundry. You can turn that into a prayer too. A family I knew in NY with a couple of young children once told me– we do OK in general, but we just can’t seem to fold the laundry. It just sits there in piles on the sofa. Well, you could decide that laundry folding is just not a priority for you, or you could make it a prayer. Know that while you’re folding those shirts, you’re exactly where you need to be, doing what you need to do. Find joy in the repetition, the simplicity, the chance to daydream while you fold the laundry. Don’t listen to those other tasks screaming for your attention. Just focus on one thing, folding the laundry, and find joy in that one thing. Do that, just for today.
Another prayer: Give us this day the insight and the patience to live with challenging relationships. Who are the people you’re going to spend time with today, and how can you be a person of faith for them? My father was a person of faith for me, and I’ll confess it wasn’t because he loved to go to church. It was because he took me seriously as a person and we spent a lot of time together, especially when I was young. .He shared with me his love for the ocean and the beach and books. He was a book publisher, and he even let me name one of his books. But when I became a teenager and then young adult, things got a little challenging. That’s because he still wanted to tell it to me like it was, and there were some things I didn’t want to hear. He had a way of cornering me where I couldn’t not listen and telling me things I needed, but didn’t necessarily want, to know. Like when I was in my early 20s, and he picked me up at the airport when I was coming back from vacation with a friend. It was late June and I was planning on spending the summer at home working at a day camp. He wanted me to know how really sick my mother was and how she probably only had a few months to live, and how life at home that summer might not be so pleasant. I, of course, wanted to disappear out the window right then and there, but driving down the Mass Pike, that wasn’t possible. My father gave me the gift of insight and patience because he was honest and straightforward with me.
And how about all of us today? Maybe you’re going to visit an elderly parent, maybe the kids have a game this afternoon, maybe you’re meeting some friends for dinner. Whatever the day has in store for you, consider it a gift. Look for opportunities to make a difference in a challenging relationship. What can you do as a person of faith, for your spouse, your children, your parents? Look for the manna. And then find a way that you can be a person of faith for someone else.
One more, third and final prayer. Something a lot of us do on Sundays is read the Sunday paper. And so we can pray: Give us this day either the grace to believe we’re doing all we can for our community and our world, or the strength to do more. One of my teachers in seminary said he’d read the newspaper every day, the paper in one hand, and his prayer list in the other. That in itself can be overwhelming. How could you ever write down all the prayers from one day’s newspaper? How do you know how much is enough? The golf tournament committee decided to give $1200 to the Gulf Coast, and I know there’s the possibility of a work group going down to Back Bay Mission next spring. Both awesome contributions. Yet as far as living today goes, take a look at the quote from Mother Teresa in your bulletin: “I do what I can with what I have where I am.” That’s a pretty good measure to go by. When we see mission as not just writing a check once in a while, but as an ongoing discipline to weave into every aspect of our day, so many possibilities emerge.
I’ve just got one pet peeve to share, and it has to do with the Clothes and Shoes collection box near the A&A food store. It says on the box “clothes and shoes only”, but there’s always a pile of other items sitting on the ground outside the box. Like yesterday, there were a couple of mattresses and a baby chair, outside in the rain, getting ruined, becoming an eyesore, and not doing anyone any good. That’s not helpful. If we’re going to do mission right, we need to follow the directions.
So, there you have it. Let’s pray together: God, Give us this day the joy to love what we do, the insight to live in relationship with others and the strength to do all we can for our community and our world. Amen.