Daily Bread & Bread of life.
My favorite Danish Poet Benny Andersen wrote a beautiful short Danish Poem called Bordbøn – Table Grace.
In Danish:
Giv mig idag mit brød at smøre
Blødt og stengt skal mødes i mine hænder
Og smørrets solkin overvælde brødets mørke.
Lad mig røre ved det vi lever af,
Brunt, brød, gult smør
Kærlighed.
In English:
Give me today my bread to spread.
Soft and strict shall meet in my hands.
And the sunshine of the butter shall overcome the darkness of the bread.
Let me touch what we live by:
Brown bread, yellow butter, love.
How I love this poem and table grace.
How as a Dane I fully understand the darkness of the brown ryebread and the brightness of the yellow butter. We need good bread to live by, be nourished by and be filled by. We touch that bread and yellow, we will our stomach with it – but we also know that we live by more than bread alone. We live by love.
Another wonderful poet, Pablo Neruda, the renowned Chilean poet, once eloquently stated, “I have often maintained that the best poet is he who prepares our daily bread: the nearest baker who does not imagine himself to be a god. He does his majestic and unpretentious work of kneading the dough, consigning it to the oven, baking it in golden colors, and handing us our daily bread as a duty of fellowship.”
Neruda’s words beautifully emphasize the significance of everyday labor and the humble contributions that sustain our lives. His poetry often finds magnificence in celebrating ordinary things like food and drink.
Bread,
you rise from flour, water, and fire.
Dense or light, flattened or round,
How simple you are, bread,
and how profound!
Neruda starts his poem: “Ode to Bread.”
we will make our own bread.
out of sea and soil,
we will plant wheat.
on our earth and the planets,
bread for every mouth,
for every person,
our daily bread.
Because we plant its seed
and grow it.
not for one man, but for all,
there will be enough:
there will be bread.
for all the peoples of the earth.
And we will also share with one another.
whatever has
the shape and the flavor of bread:
the earth itself,
beauty and love--
all
taste like bread.
and have its shape,
the germination of wheat.
Everything
exists to be shared,
to be freely given,
to multiply.
-Pablo Neruda
Bread.
Like Benny Andersen’s prayer for brown bread, yellow butter and love, Pablo Neruda’s words reflect life, love, and humanitarianism all with the simple metaphor of bread.
Everything exists to be shared, to be freely given, to multiply.
In our beloved prayer, Our Lords Prayer, handed to us directly from the mouth of the divine poet and savior Jesus Christ, we also pray for our daily bread – but we combine that prayer for daily bread with a prayer for love, forgiveness, grace and God’s will. For everything we live by. Seen or unseen. Physically or spiritually.
We do not live by bread alone. We sure love our bread and find immense pleasure in finding the right good ryebread or baking the best homemade bread, - but we also know that we live by so much more. We live by sharing that bread. We live by the grace given to us.
Man does not live by bread alone is an idiom that comes from the Bible. It means that humans need more than just sustenance to have a fulfilled life; people have spiritual needs as well as physical needs.
The phrase is quoted from The Old Testament, where God reminds the Israelites that he fed them with manna in the wilderness, and that they should not forget his word and commandments.
Jesus also used this phrase to resist the devil's temptation to turn stones into bread in the Gospel.
These are the two poles of our lives as Christians. These are the two centerpieces for survival, for nourishment, for fulfillment and hope.
These two: The Daily bread on the table, in the fridge, in the freezer, in the shopping bags, on the forks and spoons, in the stomachs and in our bodies.
These two: The Bread of Life as the living bread from heaven, which feeds us, nourishes us, strengthens us spiritually, mentally, religiously. The bread of life that comes to us through words and sacraments – and still our hunger.
These two: Daily Bread and Bread of life. So often they blend in our lives and in our faith, at the tables we sit at, at the altars we worship at; but bread is at the center.
There are so many stories about bread in our bible. From the old testaments story from Exodus with manna from heaven as a miracle and yet daily bread – to the ministry of Jesus where bread is served at the table and even Jesus presents himself as the true bread, yes, the bread of heaven and life.
Often, we might consider bread to be a secondary thing at the table, as a basket of bread at the table before we order the real meal. But in Jesus days, meat was simply a side dish, and bread represented a major part of the meal. So, when Jesus says that he is the bread of life, he is saying that he is the most important part of life / not just a secondary thing.
Bread was also a means of fellowship. In that culture, when you broke bread with someone, you were friends. The breaking of bread became our symbol of us at the table of grace, in our own brokenness given bread to sustain, to fill and satisfy our hunger and needs.
Bread symbolizes Gods presence. The very place that Jesus was born, the small village of Bethlehem, in Hebrew, Beth-lehem consists of two words and means “house” (Beth as in Beth-el, “house of God”) and “bread” (lehem).
So, the bread was a heavenly symbol of God himself; and if a person would see a scrap of bread on the road, he would pick it up and put it on a tree branch for the birds to eat. Bread was never to be trampled under foot in the common dust because it carried an element of mystery and scaredness.
Like Pablo Neruda wrote:
And we will also share with one another.
whatever has
the shape and the flavor of bread:
the earth itself,
beauty
and love--
all
taste like bread.
and have its shape,
the germination of wheat.
Everything
exists to be shared,
to be freely given,
to multiply.
As we are reminded every Sunday when we come to the table: This is my body, take and eat. This is my blood, take and drink. Into your brokenness, I break my body to heal your wounds and scars.
Last Sunday we did not have service here in church. Instead, a group of us drove to the border wall of the American- Mexican Border in Chula Vista, San Diego. At the tall border walls, in the dusty sand under makeshifts tarps, we celebrated communion. With the same words: the same cup: the same bread. Given, broken and shared.
“For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and give life to the world. “Jesus said. “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry. And whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”
After sharing the communion bread at the border wall, we drove to Cesar Shavez Park where a refugee settlement of families from Venezuela were living in tents. Waiting. Hoping. Praying.
We came with bread. We came with diapers. We came with noodle soup. We came with rice and beans. We came with compassion. We came to share.
Everything
exists to be shared,
to be freely given,
to multiply.
The table at the Border Wall.
The Table at the Encampment in Cesar Chavez Park.
The Table at the restaurant in Oceanside.
The Table here in church.
The bread is to be shared. To be given. To be believed in.
To let us be reminded of what we live by and for.
Amen