Give us this day our daily bread

One of the great theologians of the early Church is Cyril of Alexandria. He was the Patriarch of Alexandria in the fifth century, from 412 – 444 AD. He was a major player in the Christological controversies of the late 4^th and 5^th centuries. He became a central figure in the Nestorian Controversy, arguing against Nestorius, who, according to Cyril, promoted doctrines which might lead the faithful to doubt the true divinity of Jesus Christ. The intricacies of that debate need not detain us this morning, but one of the significant issues is that Cyril is often presented as an exemplar of a particular way of doing theology, and more particularly of reading scripture. The Alexandrian school is often associated with a tendency to allegorise scripture, while the school associated with Antioch tends to a more literal view.

At least that’s the theory, but listen to Cyril’s comments on this line from the Lord’s Prayer in Luke’s gospel: Give us each day our daily bread. ‘Now perhaps some think it unfit for saints to seek from God bodily goods, and for this reason assign to these words a spiritual sense. But granting that the chief concern of the saints should be to obtain spiritual gifts, still it becomes them to see that they seek without blame, according to our Lord’s command, their common bread. For from the fact that He bids them ask for bread, that is daily food, it seems that He implies that they should possess nothing, but rather practise an honourable poverty. For it is not the part of those who have bread to seek it, but rather of those who are oppressed with want.’

  Cyril is arguing against a long standing tradition to interpret the Greek word ‘epiousios’, the word we translate as ‘daily’, by suggesting that this has a deeper more spiritual sense. Unlike Origen and many of the Eastern Fathers, Cyril refuses to allegorize. The great exemplar of Alexandrian allegory refuses to allegorise. As far as he is concerned, this is a petition for material bread, for the stuff of life which stems our hunger, and we have no reason to be ashamed of asking. Because if there is such a petition, it is because there is poverty and profound human need.

We pray this prayer each day. The Christians of the Church of the Holy Family in Gaza pray this prayer each day. And yet there is a profound urgency to their prayer and to ours because the people of Gaza are starving. And they are starving because of the wickedness and sinfulness of politicians. And the tragedy is that many of us now feel complicit with the wickedness and sinfulness of our political leaders, who have stood idly by while this tragedy unfolds. 

Like Cyril of Alexandria, I do not allegorize. Time and time again, Anglicans are told that the truth is in the middle, hold your horses, wear navy blue. There is always another side to a complex question. As Chaplains to the establishment, we console them and ourselves by saying that it is all so complicated. But here, there is no ambiguity. Jesus tells us to pray ‘Give us each day our daily bread.’ And if a neighbour refuses to share bread with us, he tells us to be persistent: ‘I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs. So I say to you, Ask and it will be give to you.’

And Luke tells us that Jesus offered this prayer to his disciples not as part of the Sermon on the Mount, as in Matthew’s gospel, but on the way to his death by crucifixion in Jerusalem at the hands of an occupying power. Jesus and his followers knew something of the precariousness of human existence. They knew what it was to be hungry. They knew what it was to cry out for bread.

And if, like Jesus and his followers, we pray this prayer day by day, and we share in this sacrament of the eucharist, where bread is broken to be shared, we cannot rest, we cannot be satisfied to pray this prayer and to stand by idly while people go hungry, while children are starving, and while the most vulnerable are literally dying of hunger. So as you pray this prayer, the prayer which Jesus commanded us to pray, ask God what you can do each day to help to feed the hungry and to defend the vulnerable.