Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“Give us each day our daily bread.”
NL Daily Devotion for Sunday, June 16, 2024
by Madison Johnston, Clergy Stuff
Main Idea: When we pray for daily bread, we pray for a deepening of the dependence so central to a life of faith.
The idea of “daily bread,” harkens back to Exodus 16:1-18. God’s people have just made it out of Egypt, and they are tired. Struggling. Hungry. Almost immediately, God springs into action, covering the surface of the desert with flaky manna and offering just one condition: “Gather as much of it as each of you needs.” If people try to gather and hoard more than that, the manna rots and dissolves.
What could be the reason for this rule? Scripture tells us that God devises it as a test. But a test of what? It’s definitely not a deprivation exercise. It’s very important to God that people end up full and satisfied.
Here’s the thing: God is feeding people who have lived for generations as slaves. God is feeding people who have been taught that dependence is suppression. In manna, God is reminding the Israelites that dependence is the very crux of God’s shalom—God’s vision of holistic peace—for the cosmos. In manna, God is asserting that dependence is not supposed to be a weapon.
Dependence is supposed to be an expression of God’s love. Dependence is supposed to be safe for the giver and the receiver. And that’s our good news this morning. We have a God who helps us reframe and redeem the notion of dependence. We have a God who wants us to ask for what we need—and who is already giving it.
