Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread

 Eastern Parkway United Methodist Church

 

 

 

  

A warm welcome to each worshipper today. We celebrate you and offer you our friendship and love. We are a congregation of people who seek to grow spiritually, to become more like Christ in His compassion and acceptance of everyone while growing more aware of what it really means to be Christians today.

As a Reconciling Congregation, EPUMC affirms the sacred worth of persons of all sexual orientations and gender identities and welcomes them into full participation in the fellowship, membership, ministries, and leadership of the congregation.

 

 

 

943 Palmer Avenue, Schenectady, NY 12309 / 518-374-4306 epumc943@gmail.com / www.easternparkway.com

Order of Worship

March 27, 2022

Fourth Sunday in Lent

10:00 a.m.

*You are invited to rise in body or spirit.

 

Prelude

Greeting and Announcements

Mission Statement:

We are a faith community striving to be, to nurture, and to send forth disciples of Jesus Christ.

 

Call to Worship: By Nancy Townley

Come, let us celebrate the forgiving, reconciling love of God.

For once we were lost and felt so far away; now we have been found and welcomed home.

Know that God’s love is lavished upon you forever.

We rejoice at the news of forgiveness and hope!

Come, let us celebrate and praise the God of Love.

AMEN!

 

*Hymn           Morning Has Broken #145              

Prayer of Confession:

Welcome us back to your arms, O gracious God, for you are our steadfast parent and we are prodigal children. We run off, hurt ourselves and one another, and squander the resources of your Creation. Forgive us. Give us a big hug, and bring us home. Amen.

 

Assurance:

Once we were “dead” to all the things that God hoped for us; but in God’s love we are again brought to life. Rejoice, dear ones, you are forgiven! 

Anthem

Scripture Reading         Luke 15: 1-3, 11-32

15 Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

3 So he told them this parable:

The Parable of the Prodigal and His Brother

11 Then Jesus[a] said, “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.’ So he divided his property between them. 13 A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. 14 When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. 16 He would gladly have filled himself with[b] the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. 17 But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! 18 I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.”’ 20 So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. 21 Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’[c] 22 But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly, bring out a robe—the best one—and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; 24 for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate.

25 “Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. 27 He replied, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.’ 28 Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’ 31 Then the father[d] said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.’”

Sermon Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread

Friends, we’ve reached part 4 of this special Lenten sermon series about the Lord’s Prayer. I hope these sermons will be a blessing to us all, and will add depth to our relationship with this beloved, heavily memorized, ancient prayer, as well as to our relationship with God. We’ll reach the conclusion of these by Easter.

This week we’re up to “Give Us This Day our Daily Bread”. Jesus taught this prayer (according to Matthew) to his disciples in the midst of the Sermon in the Mount. Specifically, you’ll find these words  in Matthew 6, and the greater context around this prayer is vital. Throughout Matt 6, Jesus is warning his disciples about inappropriate, selfish ways to practice their faith—praying to show off, fasting to impress others with your piety, hoarding up wealth and material possessions. And he ends this chapter with his famous, comforting words about why people of faith shouldn’t worry. Half way through this broader discussion about faith and humility, Jesus teaches his disciples this incredibly short, no bells or whistles prayer. Today we’re more than half way through our prayer—we’re at week 4/7–and only now are we finally allowed to ask for something: our daily bread.

How often do we ever show such restraint when we pray? So often the reason we started praying in the first place was to ask for something, and for something specific at that. “Give us this day our daily bread” only sounds so relatable because Jesus taught those words to us 2,000 years ago. The prayers bubbling from our hearts and minds rarely sound like that. More like “give us this day a cure for a terrible disease”, or “give us this day an end to the war in the Ukraine”, or “give us this day the test results we’re hoping for.” 

Daily bread is a request on a much smaller scale. We’re not asking God to cure world (or even local) hunger, nor are we asking God to supply a 5 course feast. And surely we know it’s not a matter of Divine incapability–in Psalm 23 we say “you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” (Psalm 23: 5) Nevertheless, we hold back. Jesus teaches us to ask for only what we need, not what we want. Jesus teaches us first to honor the name of God, and then to pray that God makes us builders of the Kingdom, and only after that to mention we need things. And, like the Hebrews in the wilderness with Moses, Jesus has us learn trust. Focus on today. Let tomorrow be God’s. This rolls in perfectly with what Jesus teaches us about worry at the end of this chapter–”Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matt 6: 34)

And, perhaps more than any of these lessons, Jesus teaches us that asking for too much all at once will only lead to peril for us, because there is only so much our mortal souls can handle. Asking for resources only one day at a time turns us into much more responsible stewards of God’s riches.

That note brings us to this morning’s Gospel reading, the well-known parable of the Prodigal Son. There are a thousand different lessons to take from this short story. Like all of his parables, this is a story that could have happened, but didn’t. Jesus made this up on the spot, and came up with a realistic scenario and relatable characters, so we could see ourselves in the story. More than that, Jesus came up with this particular parable–plus one about a lost sheep and one about a lost coin–when he was being trolled, yet again, by the Pharisees. He was having lunch with the people he felt needed his help the most–tax collectors seeking to change their lives–when out in the distance he could hear Pharisees muttering “look at that riff raff at his lunch table.”

The rebellious ‘tude with which Jesus spins out these parables is reason number 1534 why I love him so much. He stands up from the table and calls out the muttering Pharisee: “WHAT’S THAT? Your Lord and Savior is a little hard of hearing. Does someone got a problem? I feel a story coming on!”

Once upon a time there was a dad. He was super rich, and rich in the way that meant something to First Century Palestinians. He was a farmer with a ton of land, a bunch of crops, and a whole lotta livestock. This dude’s practically Bill Gates. Bill had 2 sons–an older son who wanted to be just like him and who never misbehaved, and then a younger son with a wild side. One day the younger brother decided to demand his inheritance immediately, which already sounds brash to us. But in this society, for the younger brother to demand his inheritance from his very much still alive father is tantamount to him declaring his dad is dead to him. The dad liquidated whatever he had to, though, and let his son go.

At first, living with a ton of money and no responsibilities was the sweet life for the younger son. He did the first century equivalent of moving to Vegas, and dropped his money like it was hot on drinking, gambling, and “things that stay in Vegas”. But the consequences of those actions caught up with him fast, and soon he was destitute, and working for a pig farmer, stealing oars out of the pig trough. 

Most pastors focus on the reconciliation at the end of the story between the younger son and his dad. And I certainly believe that’s a very important part of this story. But before we get there, I want to draw your attention to this moment right here. It’s not the happy ending, it’s the lowest point in the story. And it’s a moment of clarity, one that’s rare to see in this world. The younger son is looking in the proverbial mirror–maybe his reflection in the pigs’ water dish–and facing who he has become, through no one’s fault but his own. He had the perfect life, and a family that loved him, and all he had to do was be a respectful, compassionate son, but he abandoned that home in favor of what would feel good, just because he could. All that money did him no good once it was gone, and when you’re rolling in the mud with swine no one cares who your dad is. His family’s shelter, and the simplest of rations, were worth more than his pride, ego, or hedonism. So he went home. This is a story about true repentance.

Have we ever taken such a hard look in the mirror? Have we ever had such a depressing moment of clarity to see how our selfish actions have brought us into the mud? Some of us have equally heart-wrenching personal stories, that we hold for one another with love. I argue the United Methodist Church has existed long enough to reach this moment a few times in its history, the most recent happening after the mess that was the 2019 GC. And our society has certainly had these moments, if we were wise enough to see them. In March of 2020, just over 2 years ago, when we shuttered our schools, businesses, and churches, we began a long, long journey with this pandemic and learned the hard way what happens when humans mess with the environment, destroy the habitats of wild animals, unleash germs into the world that our bodies don’t know how to fight, and then ignore all public health measures in favor of “personal choice”. We crashed our economy, we nearly shut down our health care system, and we killed 6 million people worldwide. When we look in the mirror, what do we see? What have we learned? Are we ready to get out of the mud, go home, apologize, and this time ask for just our daily bread?

When the younger son finally came home, the dad was so overjoyed he didn’t care what he lost. He didn’t care about how much his son hurt him. He never thought his son would come back. He did something grown men of respect never did–he ran. He hugged his boy. He kissed him, and let the world see his love. And he threw a party, because repentance and grace are worth celebrating.

If we haven’t had such a sobering moment of clarity lately, Lent is a good time to check in with our God who misses us. What choices have we been making? Do we honor ourselves, one another, and God with our actions, words, and thoughts? Are we bringing the Kin-dom near? Do we need what we ask God for, and when God provides, do we make good use of Divine riches? While the world burns around us, what resources have we wasted that made the problems even worse? How can God help us use less, waste less, and build a sustainable future for our world?

May God deliver our Daily Bread.

Amen.

*Hymn              Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us     #381, v 1 and 4

Offering

Offertory

*Doxology #95

*Prayer of dedication           

 

Pastoral Prayer and Lord’s Prayer

Holy and Gracious God

You, the one of prodigal grace

We give you thanks for the gift of life

and for the blessings of this life,

for family and friends and

love abundant.

 

Lead us through the trials

the suffering and sorrow

the challenges and struggles

the tired time, despair and bleak places,

back to you, and

love abundant. 

 

Be with those who weep

or cannot sleep

who have no peace

who seek release

and comfort them with

love abundant.

 

Fill us with hope, 

sustained in your mercy,

with patience and stamina

upheld by your Holy Spirit

in your prodigal grace. 

Transform us and all our broken ways 

transforms us that we can be

made whole

 

And in wholeness

may we be

the hands and heart of Christ. Amen.

 

~ written by Terri, and posted on RevGalBlogPals. http://revgalprayerpals.blogspot.ca/

Our Father, Mother, Creator God who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who have trespassed against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory forever. Amen.

*Hymn Lord God, Your Love #579, v 1, 2, 5         

Benediction

Congregational Response UMH 672, v. 1

Postlude

 

Staff

Natalie Bowerman Pastor

Betsy Lehmann Music Director

Joe White Custodian

Cassandra Brown Nursery Attendant