1. Intro
   1. I know what all you regular attenders are thinking
      1. i. ...that’s the wrong Waybright.

2. Arts Weekend

1. It’s an honor to be here on this Arts Weekend.

1. Who am I
   1. I am the Pastor’s son.
   2. I studied Studio Art at Westmont College
   3. an MFA in Design from Otis College of Art & Design
   4. I am now the Co-chair of the art & design department at George Fox University in Newberg, OR.
   5. I’ve worked in museum curation, exhibition, branding, multi-sensory experiences, and marketing.
   6. There are things that I am fully qualified to talk about.
   7. I just want you to understand that when I say that today, I am here to talk to you about bread.

1. As we broach this controversial subject matter.
   1. Unfortunately for this message…there is no gluten-free option.

1. But really, opening up the bible is dangerous business.

1. In a political age where we decide what we believe and then shoot down anything that contradicts it.

1. It’s hard for us to be willing to be challenged.

1. Today, I ask you all for a little grace….and a little willingness to be challenged by Christ’s words.

5. Context: How do we read this prayer?
   1. This passage has the character of some of my favorite verses in the bible: It’s Strange

1. The prayer is so grand in nature.
   1. i. Our father.
   2. ii. In heaven

• iii. Your kingdom come

1. iv. your will be done
2. v. and then bread.
   1. Give us bread
   2. Father, heaven, kingdom, bread.

1. After this lofty praise….when our eyes lower to look to see the earth...we come down to a basic human need.
   1. A request for bread.
   2. It’s practical. Its’ needed for survival.

1. Historically, it’s been difficult for us to think about this passage as including something so humble and practical as bread.

1. i. We instead read it as a call for spiritual nourishment, or time spent with the bible.

1. ii. [daily breads] We see daily bread as feasting on the word of God.

1. I have an easy time assenting to theology. If daily bread is just about spending time with the bible...then I don’t have to trust God to provide for me because I know the bible is there.

2. But when God get’s practical...when the requests become measurable...when God is the one i’m meant to rely on for my physical nourishment.

1. i. I have a much harder time trusting.

• iii. Alternatively, we might see this prayer (as we often do) as an opportunity to ask God for things.

1. It’s tempting to take our desires and interpret them as needs.
2. come to God saying look God you’re supposed to supply my needs….well here’s my list. Deliver please.
3. It doesn’t sit right with me.

6. But Daily bread isn’t a luxury. It’s the stuff of survival.
   1. When you think about it…daily bread is the kind of thing served at a prison so that people can survive. It’s the kind of thing handed out to take care of basic needs.

2. It’s a ration. a provision.

1. ii. Daily bread is not about luxury…it’s about sustenance.

1. This is not a verse for us to ask God for everything we want and a pony.

2. If we look at it correctly...its about sustenance.

3. When we pray give us this day our daily bread, we’re not looking for gifts…we’re looking to be sustained.

4. This prayer is a reminder that we rely on God for daily sustenance..

• iii. Daily bread is physical and spiritual.
  1. I do not want to discount the picture of daily bread as spiritual.
     1. God absolutely is providing spiritual food for us.
  2. But I am convinced that this passage is more a metaphor.
  3. It’s about how he takes care of his creation.
  4. The sustenance that God has to offer us is physical as well as spiritual.

1. iv. God’s kingdom is not just a place where we are spiritually cared for.
   1. It’s where his people...all his people...are provided with their needs for survival.

1. Let me tell you a story….
   1. i. Students Visit with Spiritual Crises.
      1. “Why am I here?”
      2. I don’t know what I should be doing? Spiritually dead?

3. I used to spin into a craze...of have you been praying?
   1. Have you been going to church?
   2. Do you have a spiritual mentor?

4. After a few years of teaching I started to realize that the most important question I might ask them first
   1. i. When was the last time you actually slept?

1. ii. What have you been eating for the past week.

5. If the last time you slept was 36 hours ago.

6. If all you ate for the last week was ramen.

1. We may have just found the root of your spiritual crises.

7. God made us as physical creatures. Body and spirit are not separate. Food matters.

8. We cannot be provided for spiritually. If we are not provided for physically.

9. Anyone who has been hungry knows…
   1. Your intellect and spirit aren’t detached to from your physical existence.
   2. You can’t think straight when you haven’t eaten

1. We need to be provided for as the holistic beings that we are.

1. We need physical daily bread in order to be nourished by spiritual daily bread.

1. I don’t think it’s an accident that you see Christ so often offering food as he enters people’s lives. That so much of his change in people’s lives revolves around feeding and being fed, drinking and offering drink.

1. ii. As we look to see God’s will be done on earth

• iii. We ask….
  1. Physically, Spiritually, Mentally

2. Give us today our daily bread that we might be sustained in the mission of God.

1. When we ask Give us this day our daily bread.

1. We’re looking to God as the one who sustains and guides creation.

7. The Bread that helps us Understand the Gospel
   1. bread has a great deal to teach us about the Gospel.

1. It is physical, shared, grown, and for today.

1. Physical
   1. i. Even if we read bread as a metaphor…we can’t understand the metaphor without understanding the physical existence.

1. ii. By which I mean you cannot understand bread without experiencing it physically.
   1. Let me show you what I mean…
      1. Bread is a staple food prepared from a dough of flour and water, usually by baking. Throughout recorded history it has been popular around the world and is one of the oldest artificial foods, having been of importance since the dawn of agriculture.
      2. Proportions of types of flour and other ingredients vary widely, as do modes of preparation. As a result, types, shapes, sizes, and textures of breads differ around the world, though most bread is produced through a combination of yeast, water, flour, a rigorous kneading process and the application of heat.
   2. Wasn’t that was some good bread?
      1. No
   3. You can read every recipe.
   4. Follow every breadmaker on instagram.
   5. You can watch every last hour of the great british bake-off.
   6. No matter how much you do those things. You won’t really know bread.

• iii. To understand bread, you need to smell it. You need to get your hands on
  1. Hear the crunch of it and taste it on your tongue.

1. iv. As with bread, so it is also true of the Gospel.
   1. The Gospel is not merely to be read.
   2. It is not a philosophy alone.
   3. It is not simply theology or right thinking.
   4. It is a way of living.
   5. We must engage it physically to understand it.

1. v. Just like the bread, the gospel is relatively easy to read. It’s a whole other thing to roll up your sleeves, knead some dough and get to the business of seeing it become a reality.

1. vi. As Christ shares the gospel, this physicality is something that Christ appeals to again.

1. Have you ever noticed how physically nourishing Christ’s ministry is?
   1. How often he uses food in his missions?
      1. i. His first miracle is the creation of wine.
      2. ii. He feeds the five thousand.

2. Wherever he goes
   1. Perfumes
   2. Fish
   3. Sand
   4. Mud
3. Christ speaks a physical language.

• vii. The very kingdom of God is presented to us not just as an idea but as a feast.

• viii. The ways he gives us a foretaste of heaven are
  1. Milk and Honey
  2. Manna
  3. Isaiah’s picture of God’s kingdom is Christ preparing a rich feast with well-aged grape juice (wine).

1. ix. When he tells his disciples to do something in remembrance of him—its not while he is on the cross. It’s not when he walked on water. There are a lot of really cool things he could of asked them to do in remembrance.
2. x. He asked that they have a meal.

1. xi. When he teaches us how we should pray...he tells us part of that prayer is to ask for bread. Perhaps the very bread needed to have that meal in remembrance of him.

• xii. If we long to understand the gospel, we must engage it with our physical selves. Ministering by offering physical and spiritual sustenance.

1. If we want to understand Christ, we need to not just mentally assent, but physically engage his words.

1. It seems particularly appropriate to make this point on arts weekend.
   1. i. Mark Terry—How ceramics help you understand God’s Kingdom.
      1. —people use metaphors about being formed from the clay.
      2. —they don’t really know what that means until they sit down at the wheel and try to form a pot.
      3. —how terribly unruly clay is…how prone to collapse. How steady of a hand and how true of a centered position the clay must have on the wheel in order to.

4. —If people would take the time to work with clay…to get their hands dirty…they would understand a great deal more about our relationship to Christ.

1. something that art and art does so very well…is help us understand and engage our physical senses.
   1. i. When we hear a great singer…we gain a greater appreciation for the way
   2. ii. Our senses…which I might add…were designed by God for our edification and survival.
2. Logic and reason and sermonizing….these aren’t bad things…but we cannot think our way into the gospel. We cannot understand God or live for him if we only do so verbally.
   1. i. We need to experience God and the gospel through our many senses. We need to hear it. We need to taste it. We need to see it. We need to smell it on the streets. We need
   2. ii. If nothing else, I hope you will hear these words:

• iii. God’s call to us is not to simply think that the Lord is Good.
  1. It is “taste and see that the lord is good.”

1. iv. The Gospel is physical as well as spiritual and must be lived out physically as well as spiritually. Therefore we should care for physical existence.

1. Shared
   1. i. There are two words that are easy to miss when reading this part of the lords prayer.

1. ii. Give us today our daily bread.
   1. Give me today my daily bread.
   2. Give him today his daily bread.

• iii. This request is a shared request.

1. This stuff that sustains us…physically and spiritually.

2. It is not for me. It’s given to us. Therefore it is not something to be horded away or stockpiled.

3. We need to remember, as we take our daily bread...that there are millions who did not have bread yesterday.  That the bread we have is a gift from God...not our own...and perhaps in that light...we should make some room at our table to share.

5. The picture this prayer gives to us is of a gathering around the family table.

6. Brothers at the Table.
   1. Imagine if you will

1. A father walks out to a table of four sons with a basketful of bread.

1. Quickly, ravenously, like teenage boys who recently finished football practice, three members of the table dive onto it and devour it.

1. Meanwhile...one poor child in the corner...who hasn’t had bread...nearly faints from lack of food.

1. One brother, with crumbs falling out of his mouth says

1. “If he wanted food he should have moved faster”

1. What would a good father say about that?

1. If the bread the God provides is meant to provide US with nourishment and sustenance rather than luxury or overindulgence, than we need to carefully consider
   1. That the things that sustain us are meant to be shared.
   2. That from our abundance, rather than taking a few extra rolls because they are so good...we should give...that all may be sustained.

7. Van Gogh
   1. Was a Missionary and he was not rich.
   2. Famously, he essentially never sold a single painting in his life. He was completely dependent on others to provide for him.

1. He got into trouble for a variety of reasons. As a short, redhaired man with an apparently high pitched voice. Some questioned whether he could really preach.

1. But even more so...he often got into trouble with his local preisthood for his habit of living a meager life and giving away his best possessions to others.

1. When he was given money to buy a bed, chairs, for himself.
   1. He didn’t buy a nice bed for himself...he bought a bed made of cheap wood to sleep in so that he could buy a sturdy bed made of walnut that he would never sleep in but would be available for those he invited over and were in need of rest.
   2. Instead of a nice chair for him to rest. He bought a cheap chair, so that he could buy a nicer chair that he would never sit in so that he could offer it to others.

1. Van Gogh did not receive a great deal of daily bread in his life, but with what he received…he looked to see how he might serve or provide for others.
   1. Rather than horde his abundance...he took what was needed for him to be sustained.
   2. And offered the rest to others .

1. I think we can learn from this.

8. .let me put it this way. If we wish to act like christ...when we have abundance...we must use that as an opportunity to make space at the table for those who do not.

1. Like Van Gogh, we don’t just make a space, we pull out the good chair.

9. isn’t that what Christ was saying when he said to the man with two tunics should give to the man who has one.

10. If we are in this church family…we see a brother who is hungry…rather than take a second helping…we need to make a space at the table.

11. Because daily bread is about sustenance and sustenance is not gluttony—its about providing for God’s family.

12. Transition: But this doesn’t necessarily…mean that the right way to live is to just offer a handout. Because for God to give bread to us…we really need to be at the table together.

1. iv. The way we share the gospel should be the way Christ shared.

1. [ Last Supper da Leonardo Vinci ]

2. It’s not about throwing scraps someone’s way. It’s about welcoming people to the table.

3. [ Mean Girls ]

4. Anyone who has been to high school or watched mean girls knows…the people you sit a table with says a great deal about you. In fact, the people who share a table with you tend to define you.

5. So then clearly…if we wish to be identified with Christ, we should share our table with the people he did.

6. Who are those people?

7. As you read the bible, it’s pretty clear.

8. If you want to share at a table like Christ, you need to share your table with all the wrong people.

9. Your friends, family, yes they might be there…but more often than that…you share the table that sinner, that adulterer, that corrupt city official, that tax collector, those fishermen.

1. v. At the heart of Christ’s work...central to his mission...recorded through history...his depiction of the kingdom was a banquet table where people who were willing to follow him were welcome to join. WIthout other conditions. They didn’t need money...they didn’t need to have their act together. They didn’t have to understand everything—that particularly is true when you look at the disciples....they were welcome because he made them welcome.

1. Are the people you share a table with the people Jesus shared a table with?

2. We can and should pray for the hungry...but better yet...and far more like Christ...we should pray with the hungry

1. vi. To not do business as usual...offering lip service to the suffering of others...but to place ourselves physically alongside them. Inviting them to join us. To be identified with them and have them identified with us and to share in what has been offered to us.

1. Grown
   1. i. I’m no saying there are bread trees.
      1. I’m saying bread is a product of the ecosystem of God’s Creation
      2. For us to be sustained, we must sustain His creation.

1. ii. To receive our daily bread we must live in a world capable of producing the seeds to grow the plants...supported by hands skilled at harvesting...

• iii. The creation of bread requires many hands and quality ingredients.
  1. Newberg Bakery
  2. In my new hometown in Oregon, there is a small bakery. Because I’ve developed a good bit of hometown pride, I’ll have no qualms about saying it’s just about the best bakery you could ever visit.
  3. It’s not particularly fancy, but the minute you bite into something they’ve made...you realize...these people know bread.
     1. I once bought a scone from them left it in my backpack for three days only to find it later
     2. When i bit into it, it was still the best scone I ever had.
        1. i. I asked them what on earth they’re putting into their bread.

“The farms we get our ingredients from are run by our friends. Our  come in every morning from less than 15 miles away. We live here. We know the weather and how it affects the crops. We know when the marionberries are going to be ripe and when we need to move on to something else.

We have our own recipes but we’re not using anything unusual, we just start with the best ingredients we can and then do our best to make sure those ingredients aren’t ruined in the process.”

1. Bread is part of an ecosystem
   1. The making of great bread requires a environment to cultivate ingredients, a wide variety of people who can provide the ingredients, and even more people to convert those ingredients into bread.

4. As with bread, so it is with the Gospel.

1. iv. Living the gospel well requires many hands and many different ingredients.
   1. As bread is made...its not just a baker that we need. There’s a farmer who maintains land to grow the ingredients. There are harvesters.
      1. The ingredients you supply are not likely the same ingredients that I supply.
   2. v.
      1. I wonder what life would look like if we thought of providing sustenance as a collective goal… If we saw that we are part of an ecosystem of God’s creation.
         1. And in that system, we commited to making bread together.

1. By that I mean if we each took our unique giftings and considered them the ingredients God has provided us.

1. In order that we might offer daily bread to and sustain one another.

2. An Example
   1. I am a person who makes things. When I see my sister struggling to build something…I don’t ignore her or throw a few dollars at her.. I take the ingredients God gave me and I see how I might work.
   2. My sister writes things. When I have an important text to work on and I’m struggling with it…she doesn’t ignore me….she doesn’t throw me a few dollars to pay for an editor. She welcomes me and offers the ingredients that she brings.

1. vi. Our ingredients are not the same…but in their proper season, they are incredibly significant.
   1. We need the broad range of artists.
   2. The ground we walk on is part of God’s creation too. Without that ground. We cannot care for God’s human creations...without concern for the vast ecosystem that he has crafted.

1. Today
   1. i. There is a desire to read the request for daily bread as a metaphor for the future—as looking forward to a day when God’s kingdom...but when you read it only as that...your missing a rather important word...today….daily. Daily bread isn’t once and gone.

1. ii. Give us Today

• iii. This is not something that is meant to wait.

1. iv. Nor is it to put off for some future time.
2. v. It is not distant or far.
3. vi. It is for now.

• vii. So our challenge is to live today in light of this prayer.

• viii. When we pray give us this day our daily bread.
  1. We’re asking God to physically and spiritually provide for our community—today.
     1. That happens through God’s providence and through what he has offered to us.

2. We’re asking for the wisdom and hospitality to share our bread. TO not horde it or greedily stock up, but to see the bread we have as from God and given to his family.

3. We’re asking for help in welcoming those in need to being brazen in our invitation to come and share bread at the table.
4. We’re asking for the environment we live in to be capable of producing life-sustaining bread.

5. And we’re asking for the God of the universe to intervene today.

1. ix. It turns out this unassuming, humble phrase, may have a great deal of meaning.

8. Quaker Reflection
   1. Write or draw…don’t just think about it. You need to move this thinking from your brain into the muscles God crafted for you. From mind to fingertips…from fingertips to your body.
   2. In your life, how has God sustained you or offered you daily bread?
   3. What has he given you an abundance of that might be shared?
   4. This week—In what ways might you be used as daily bread in your community?

1. Think very tangibly..practically.
2. I want you to challenge yourselves to think on earth as it is in heaven...what are a few practical ways that you can

1. Family...have you been faithful.

9. Prayer
   1. The gospel is Spiritual and physical. It is not meant to be merely thought about. It is meant to be lived.

1. “We are still far from being what we long to be, but with Your help, and your providence, we will succeed.”

1. Help us remain faithful…to go and do what we have considered.

10. Communion

Of all the Christ did and said...this is the place he requested that we do this in remembrance of him.

This was his favorite place to gather.

Today, I want to welcome you to the family table.

Know that as you come forward, you are admitting to being part of this family. Neither more nor less significant than any other part.

Here is bread...Physical, born from his creation, present today, to be shared with all who are willing to come to the table.

This moment embodies Christ’s mission, to provide for his people, spiritually, physically, psychologically, emotionally.

We are here to receive from His abundance….and encouraged by it to share our abundance with others.

Here at the table...we continue the feast he started. A feast full of all the wrong people...including us…

As we take communion, we echo Christ at the table with his disciples.

He sits at a table...with fisherman, accountants, a man who he knows full well will bring him harm.

Whether fisherman or accountant...whether you wish to praise him or are plotting his undoing….you are welcome here at a table full of all the wrong people for all the right reasons.

I challenge you to consider....who might you invite to your table this week. How might you reflect christ...and open up a place at your table for someone else.

As you take this cup today...might you take with a challenge….that when you see someone in need of daily bread or a drink to quench their thirst….that you would simply offer them a handout...but that like Christ, you might also invite them to share a table with you.

In remembrance of Him and the table he kept. Take. drink.

Christ, your life offers us life. Your resurrection is a testament to the futility of death. You work as an artist, rendering our whole selves, flesh and spirit, into instruments of your praise. May we learn to glorify you and provide for others as you have provided for us.

Amen