A Meditation by the Rev. Peter Munson, Interim Rector
Give Us This Day Our Daily… Wait! What Is It?
10And as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the Israelites, they looked toward the wilderness, and the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. 11The Lord spoke to Moses and said, 12“I have heard the complaining of the Israelites; say to them, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread; then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.’”
13In the evening quails came up and covered the camp; and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. 14When the layer of dew lifted, there on the surface of the wilderness was a fine flaky substance, as fine as frost on the ground. 15When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, “It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat. 16This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Gather as much of it as each of you needs, an omer to a person according to the number of persons, all providing for those in their own tents.’” 17The Israelites did so, some gathering more, some less. 18But when they measured it with an omer, those who gathered much had nothing over, and those who gathered little had no shortage; they gathered as much as each of them needed. 19And Moses said to them, “Let no one leave any of it over until morning.” 20But they did not listen to Moses; some left part of it until morning, and it bred worms and became foul. And Moses was angry with them. 21Morning by morning they gathered it, as much as each needed; but when the sun grew hot, it melted.
22On the sixth day they gathered twice as much food, two omers apiece. (Exodus 16:10-22a)
“So he commanded the clouds above and opened the doors of heaven.
He rained down manna upon them to eat and gave them grain from heaven.
So mortals ate the bread of angels; he provided for them food enough.”
(Psalm 78:23-35, The Book of Common Prayer)
Give Us This Day Our Daily… Wait! What Is It?
The Israelites were complaining because after they escaped Pharaoh and his army - thanks to the Lord! - they found themselves in the wilderness and… they were hungry! So hungry that they said, “If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread…” (Exodus 16:3a) They seemed to forget about the fact that they were enslaved when they were in Egypt. (An aside: When have you been so hungry that it clouded your judgment?)
Anyway, the Lord heard their complaining - probably because Moses and Aaron passed on the message. And in the evening he rained down quails on the camp, and in the morning, “a fine flaky substance (verse 14), something “like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.” (Exodus 16:31) But their initial reaction, before they tasted it, was classic. They said to another, “What is it?” (verse 15)
I am reminded of when my children were little and we introduced them to a new food. (Heck, I am reminded of when I was little and my parents introduced me to , oh, let’s say… asparagus. (Or, for me in Charleston, a just cracked-open oyster.) “Uh, Mom… Dad… WHAT IS IT?” Cue the scene of the child picking up the food, smelling it, perhaps making a face, and one of the parents saying, “You’re not going to know if you like or not until you try it. I am asking you to try it.”
It turns out that the Hebrew word “manna” comes from this expression, “What is it?”
The Lord provided enough manna for every person to get enough for one day. Here’s part of the lesson about God providing enough: If they tried to save some of it until the following morning, it spoiled. (verse 20) And here was the part related to the 4th Commandment: On the sixth day, God gave each person twice as much and it didn’t spoil the next day, because God didn’t provide any on the seventh day, so that they could rest. The amount provided on the sixth day was enough for two days. (verse 22a) And… no matter how much all of them gathered, it was enough manna for the group: “they gathered as much as each of them needed.” (verse 18b)
When I was walking across the country in 2019, I spent a lot of time praying both the 23rd Psalm and the Lord’s Prayer. In the Lord’s Prayer - the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples when they asked him, “Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1) - there is that one line: “Give us this day our daily bread.” As I walked and walked, I began to think about the repetition of “day” and “daily”. And It dawned on me that this part of Jesus’ prayer must have been influenced by his remembering the story of God providing the Jews with the manna in the wilderness, on a daily basis - for forty years! “The Israelites ate manna forty years, until they came to a habitable land; they ate manna, until they came to the border of the land of Canaan.” (Exodus 16:35)
They were given enough for each day, every day; and on the sixth day of the week, they were given enough for two days. How is it summarized in Psalm 78? “So mortals ate the bread of angels; he provided for them food enough.” (verse 25)
Jesus says that when it comes to praying for what we need, pray, “Give us this day {April 11, 2024, or whatever day it happens to be] our daily bread.”
Give us this day what is enough… what is sufficient… for this day. It is a prayer designed to build trust in a loving, faithful, generous God.
One of the most powerful truths I learned on my walk was that God provided EVERYTHING that I needed - in food and water, lodging, trail shoes, companionship, financial support, emotional support, in shielding me from dogs and lightning and illness, with regard to spiritual well-being, and in watching over Julia and our children. God provided what I needed each day. The Lord gave me and us - each day - my/our daily bread.
And that faithfulness and gracious provision of God continues now - five years down the road. Even with me being out of work for almost five months after the end of the walk, even with Julia’s illness and death, in the almost two years now since Julia’s death - the Lord continues to provide what I need, on a daily basis. And sometimes the Lord gives me twice as much as I need or deserve! (Just a reminder from the heavenly realm, I suppose.)
I wonder: What will God’s provision for you and for me look like today? What will God’s provision for our families look like? What will God’s provision for St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church look like today, and in all the other days going forward?
We keep praying the Lord’s Prayer. It must be the #1 prayer prayed by Christians of all denominations and nations. Let’s keep praying it, and let’s think about what we are praying. And as we pray again, “Give us this day our daily bread,” perhaps we can also pause for a few moments after we finish praying the Lord’s Prayer, and think about how the Lord has provided for us recently. And then - as the various acts of God’s grace and generosity come to mind - we can say, “THANK YOU, LORD! WOW! YOU ARE REALLY SOMETHING ELSE!”
We can pause long enough to give God the glory that God deserves.
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