Our Daily Bread

Imagine a family around the dinner table saying grace like this:

"Dear God... why did I have to go to work today?" 

It's not a joke, and it's not blasphemy.  Not religious blasphemy, anyway, but perhaps economic blasphemy.

If you had to pick any one thing that defines Christianity, it isn't the Bible.  It's the Lord's Prayer. 

If you don't know the story, folks asked Jesus how to pray.  He said to pray like this:

"Our father, who art in heaven..." and there's a good chance you know the rest.  Even if you didn't grow up reciting it, you certainly saw it in movies and TV.

And there's an especially interesting part:  At one point, Jesus tells us to say "Give us this day our daily bread."

He said we should say to God, "Give us". 

Not "let us earn".  Not "let me be worthy".  Not "Please sir, may I have some bread?"  Not "Please help me get a job to pay for my food".

Nope.  We're supposed to say, "Give us..." 

Without anything in exchange.  Sinner or saint.  Prisoner or pope.  We don't even have to say please.

So it seems kinda reasonable to me that saying grace could legitimately consist of closing your eyes, holding hands, and asking God why you had to go to work that day.

No, I don't expect Christians to actually do that.  But there's nothing blasphemous about analyzing, parsing, and evaluating the logic of the bible.

To continue:

"...this day our daily..."

Daily. Meaning you might be a little hungry, but you'll never starve because you should have at least some bread every single day.  Even on the sabbath when you aren't supposed to be baking any. 

And now the really interesting part: 

Why bread? 

Think about that.  Why bread?  Why not fruit?  Why not meat? 

Perhaps because fruit already occurs naturally in the wild.  And you might happen onto a fresh carcass of an animal and take its meat.

But someone actually has to prepare bread. 

The baking of bread requires things like the development of agriculture (cultivating the ingredients), as well as architecture and engineering (building an oven).  It requires obtaining fuel for the heat, and the physical exertion of kneading the dough. 

Bread requires affirmative human actions in order to exist.  Bread does not exist without a human being putting in the work.

So we're supposed to tell God to give us our daily bread.  And yet we know better than to expect the Hand of God to take corporeal form and turn on our ovens or knead our dough for us.  We don't expect our pantries to fill magically when we're not looking.   

So how can we reconcile all these pieces? 

Jesus was literally saying you're entitled to someone else's labor. 

Sit with that for a moment. 

It'll be a hard thing to face.  It goes against everything we're taught in America.  Our most fundamental of fundamental lessons - work makes you free.  Oops, I mean work earns you your right to exist. 

You see, the lone woodsman has to work hard to catch or grow food, or else he starves.  So you... in the urban center of a major metropolitan area with access to railroads, interstate highways, and supermarkets... must do so too.  For some reason we're totally sure must exist even though we can't actually name it. 

So how could you be entitled to someone else's labor, you ask? 

That system would be so lopsided, you add, that it could never work.  An economy like that would either consist of slave labor, or it would fail outright, no?

And yet, are you not Christians?  Are you not obligated to help the person who helped you?  Moreover, are you not commanded to help others even if those others didn't actually help you? 

Perhaps we return the favor by baking bread for the baker.  Or something less mirrored; maybe we give meat to the baker.

Not bartering.  Giving.  Even if we don't each give in equal quantities.

And we are expected to give because we can, not because we have to. 

Before you object, let's acknowledge that this sort of thing is somewhat metaphorical.  We don't need to replace the whole economy with a donor model.  Nor would I expect such a thing to be successful.

And no, Jesus didn't expressly say to live in a moneyless hippie commune (though I suppose you might fulfil the idea that way.)  Either way, please don't read this as some ridiculous peaen to communism. 

To be extra clear:  I do not endorse communism at all, and I'm sure as hell not doing it here.

On that note, let's also clearly acknowledge that no one's saying you can't market your bread.  Jesus was pretty clear that business and government were fine so long as they stayed outside the temple. 

But it should also be clear that such markets must be a tool for the delivery of literal and metaphorical bread, and not an end in themselves.  Profit cannot be the sole, or even the main drive.

Which, ironically, is pretty close to laboratory capitalism.  A constructive, reinvesting capitalism.  Not the kind of predatory capitalism we see in this country. 

The market must serve us, and not the other way around.  Feed the poor first, and whatever profit is left is yours to keep.  But I digress. 

The point is, Jesus thinks we're entitled to some of the labor of others.  And they're entitled to some of our labor, too. 

Let's each give each other our daily bread.

Or not.

Get mad if you want.  It's your bible, not mine.