A Devotion for the Harvest

During my seminary days, I always looked forward to July. Even in North Carolina, the days were long and humid, but they also brought with them a harvest. You see, July was when our small garden’s abundance started to roll in. Romaine lettuce, tomatoes, zucchini, beans, squash and peppers lined our kitchen counter. We ate well – big crunchy salads, Mediterranean omelets, zucchini bread for breakfast, and caprese salads after a long day of work.

Our garden in Florida is still yet to be, but many days I find myself dreaming about planting, and reaping the harvest of a summer garden. Luckily, we’ve found a few farmer’s markets and shops that fill in the gaps with local, fresh produce. Eating locally and seasonally is something we’ve tried to commit to over the last few years. We do so in an effort to support farmers, cut down on food travel costs and impact, and to keep us aware of the land, its rhythms and needs in each season.

In our lectionary gospel reading this week, we hear Jesus speaking to a crowd that would be very familiar with these rhythms- an agrarian society attuned to the seasons and harvests of each. In instructing the disciples on how to pray, Jesus teaches them to ask God for daily bread. The disciples would have recognized that, after a harvest, grain would be plentiful. Bread would be easy to make because the ingredients would be in season.

But as every good farmer knows, if the harvest is not plentiful, bread would not be either. A small harvest would mean less bread to go around. The bread that was available would be in demand and more expensive. If the harvest was meager, the poorest of society would likely go without.

That’s why it’s no mistake that Jesus used the specific phrase “our daily bread.” Not “my daily bread” or “your daily bread” or the “rich man’s daily bread.” No, Jesus compels the disciples, and us, to pray for abundance for all people. The way that Jesus teaches us to pray is centered on the notion that all should eat, every day, without exception.

When the harvest is scarce, it can be easy to want to cling to what little we have, to feed ourselves first and only. But the prayer that Jesus calls us to pray also reminds us that we worship a God whose fresh manna falls each day. Praying that everyone would eat, even when the cupboards seem empty and the basket full of only crumbs, is an act of great faith. Our prayer becomes a partnership agreement with God, living into and working for the abundance that God desires for all people.

In recovery ministry, the meager harvest can feel defeating. For our survivors, the daily bread they seek may feel like an impossible dream. For us, it can seem that everything is scare at times: funds, volunteers, time, and trust.

The prayer that Jesus teaches us to pray is not an impossible reality; it is also not a prayer that we can say and then sit back and let God swoop in and fulfill. Rather, this prayer is a powerful promise – between God and us – that God’s Kingdom can be realized here on Earth. That through our faith, our work and God’s partnership, we can all find and eat our daily bread.

Thanks be to God!