For a Day, Forever

What keeps you going? Diet Coke? Chocolate? There’s an ad that used to be on TV. A woman was getting overwhelmed by the “The traffic! The boss! The baby! The dog! That does it!! Calgon, take me away!” Each of us has something that keeps us going when the day gets out of control.

For me, when the pile on the desk is rising and the deadlines are coming fast, it’s coffee.

But sometimes the stakes are higher. It’s not enough just to get through the next deadline or the next meeting. Dealing with death or addiction, divorce or loss, or even the paralyzing nuclear meltdown going on in Japan, coffee won’t keep you going. Nor will a nice bath. It takes something more powerful, more permanent.

When Jesus fed the crowds with five barley loaves, it was for the moment. Having their immediate needs met, John says, the crowds wanted to make Jesus their king. They wanted him to keep them going day-to-day. But Jesus wasn’t interested only in that. He offered another sort of bread—not like daily manna that fed the Israelites in the wilderness—the eternal bread of life.

Bread that satisfies forever is no Willie Wonka daydream, but a metaphor of faith and trust in God’s love revealed in Jesus. Yes, we need our daily bread—and we pray for it. But we also need infinitely more. We need someone in whom to place our trust, someone on whose promise we always can rely. To believe in Christ is to stake a claim in God’s coming kingdom. To receive the bread of life is to taste and see that the Lord is forever good.

My prayer for you is that along the way you will have both bread for the day and bread forever. The future calls. We answer in faith. Amen.

Lent 1 Prayer

Almighty God, whose love reaches every dark and unforgiving corner of the human heart, whose justice will redeem and save the world, we praise your name this day. We come before you in gratitude. Receive our thanks: for a day bright with possibility, for a friend who reaches out across the lonely, deep divide. Receive our thanks for shelter and sustenance. You clothe us like the lilies of the field. We are grateful for each other, and for eyes and ears to hear and see the signs of your presence in one another’s face.

We remember those whose lives touch ours and realize we do not know them fully. Dissolve the veils of estrangement between us. Fill our hearts each minute “with sixty seconds worth of distance run.” Give us strength to respond to the cries of the injured and the dying, and courage to face our fears of the unknown. Inspire our creative minds with new ways to meet the world’s emergencies. Make us generous in service, passionate and persistent, merciful and kind.

With the people of Japan, we cry to you for healing of communities, of ocean, of livelihood, of land. In the prayers of those in southeast Asia, “We remember, O Lord, those who suffer from any kind of discrimination, your children, and our brothers and sisters, who are humiliated and oppressed. We pray for those who are denied fundamental human rights, for those who are imprisoned, and especially those who are tortured. Our thoughts rest a few moments with them … And we pray that your love and compassion may sustain them always.”

We are grateful for Christ’s presence in our midst. Let the power of his love unite us as one people. Teach us in his name to welcome those on the outside looking in. Strengthen the powerless. Save the lost. Bless us with the coming of your new and renewing kingdom—these things we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Direct quotes are from "If" by Rudyard Kipling and the Ecumenical Prayer Cycle resource for this week, with prayers for Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos.