Give us day by day our daily bread

 Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples."  So He said to them, "When you pray, say:

Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us day by day our daily bread.
And forgive us our sins,
For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one."

And He said to them, "Which of you shall have a friend, and go to him at midnight and say to him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him'; and he will answer from within and say, 'Do not trouble me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give to you'?  I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needs.  So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.  If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone?  Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a  serpent instead of a fish?  Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?  If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!"

- Luke 11:1-13

Yesterday, we read that as Jesus and the disciples went toward Jerusalem, He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house.  And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus' feet and heard His word.  But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone?  Therefore tell her to help me."  And Jesus answered and said to her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things.  But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her."

 Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples."  So He said to them, "When you pray, say:
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name.  Your kingdom come.  Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."  My study bible says that the Father/Son relationship of Christ and the Father is one that we are invited into.  We become "sons" (male and female, as inheritors of the Kingdom) by the grace of adoption (Galatians 4:4-7), and so we may say Our Father.  This is not because God is Creator, but rather because we truly enter into such a relationship that asks of us the same love, trust, and service as we see in Christ's relationship to the Father.  This is a saving and personal relationship that comes by the grace of adoption (see John 1:13; Romans 8:14-16).

"Give us day by day our daily bread."  Daily is a mistranslation of a Greek word (epiousios) which was seemingly coined just for this prayer.  It's not found elsewhere in Greek literature.  It means literally, "above the essence," or "supersubstantial."  The expression daily bread, then, is not about asking for material bread as a daily portion, it's about life lived as member of the Kingdom; it is bread for "the eternal day of the Kingdom of God," as my study bible puts it.  It is clearly Eucharistic in its image; but the living, supersubstantial bread is Christ Himself.  My study bible says, "We are not asking merely for material bread for physical health, but for the spiritual bread of eternal life (John 6:27-58)."

"And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us."  My study bible notes that this request is plural, which means that we are directed to pray always for the forgiveness of others.  Jesus often speaks in ways or metaphors of exchange; here the term debts refers to spiritual debts (see Matthew 18:21-35).  The plural also indicates this is  about community; we are individuals in relationship with community.  Sin and sinning always affects community and is not only a personal affair.

"And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one."  God does not tempt us to sin, says my study bible (see James 1:13).  Temptations are from the evil one (as this word indicates in Greek), the devil.  Temptations are aimed at the soul's giving in to the sinful passions of the flesh (Romans 7:5), and these occur in all kinds of ways and elusive forms.  We pray here that great temptations -- that which tests us beyond what we can bear --  should not come to us (1 Corinthians 10:13).

And He said to them, Which if you shall have a friend, and go to him at midnight and say to him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him'; and he will answer from within and say, 'Do not trouble me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give to you'?  I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needs."  This parable, says my study bible, is a demonstration of God's faithfulness to all those who are in need and who pray with persistence.  A traditional interpretation holds that midnight is both the time of our death and a time of great temptation.  The friend is Christ -- our only source of grace upon whom we rely to provide everything we need.  We note a very human quality that Christ indicates is shared with God:  a response to persistence.  It is an assurance that God hears. 

"So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.  If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone?  Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a  serpent instead of a fish?  Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?  If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!"  In the Greek, the verbs ask, seek, and knock indicate a command for continuing action.  That is, Jesus is saying to us that we must always "keep asking," "keep seeking," and "keep knocking."  It's consistent with the emphasis on the importance of persistence.  There's also an emphasis on what we ask for here:  bread, fish, and an egg are all images of life which symbolize the gift of the Holy Spirit (see John 14:13-14; James 4:3).

There is a consistent emphasis on the spiritual life in Jesus' teaching.  That is, a life lived in the world as part of the Kingdom.  We may think of prayer as asking for all the material things we feel that we are in need of (and of course, Christ says Himself, once again emphasizing our relationship as 'sons' to God, "Your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things" - Matthew 6:32).  But here the emphasis is clearly on the spiritual sustenance and participation in the life of the Kingdom that we as disciples want and need, even as we live our lives in this world.  The term epiousion, or "supersubstantial," gives us a clear indication of the emphasis in this prayer.  It is the life of discipleship, a life lived and nurtured in spiritual sustenance not only for the body but also for the soul.  It is a wholistic life, in which we are not separated from our true natures as children and inheritors of God, as those who may say "Our Father in heaven."  Jesus' teaching on prayer in the latter part of today's reading -- naming the gift of the Holy Spirit -- will in fact take us by surprise if we do not understand the true emphasis here.   The Holy Spirit, according to a prayer that begins every Orthodox service, is God who is the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth.  He is "everywhere present and filling all things," as well as the "Treasury of blessings and Giver of life."  There's an even deeper mystical connection between prayer and the Spirit as it is the Spirit which indeed teaches us how to pray and what to pray for (Romans 8:26-27).  At this point in Christ's ministry, as He is approaching Jerusalem, the Holy Spirit becomes a truly important actor in the life of the disciples.  They do not know yet that they are heading toward Pentecost, but Christ's emphasis on discipleship is clear.  This is all about the continuing journey of those who will be His Church, the Body of Christ, the community of believers.  We as children of God, who also call the Father "Our Father," as does the Son, are knit in the Holy Spirit as children who are members of this community, this Kingdom, inheritors who grow in image and likeness via this relationship of grace.  What Christ sets out then, is a job, a work, a life of continual prayer in this relationship and communion in which we keep asking, we keep seeking, and we keep knocking at the door of this Treasury which is inexhaustible, the true gift of life in the Spirit.  This is how we are to live while we await His return.  We will always have this work to do.  It is to be our way of life that teaches us and gives us the fullness of life (John 10:10).