The Crumbs of Empire

This week we’re looking at that prayer from Matthew 6 when Jesus teaches us to pray:

Give us today our daily bread. - Mark 6:10

Brenna Rubio brought out in the message that we need some context to get at what Jesus is saying her. She quoted from one of our favorite authors:

“You can’t understand Jesus if you don’t understand that one of the tactics of war of the Romans was to spread salt all over the land so that it would not grow its own vegetation, so that the people would be dependent on Rome for its food…” Lisa Sharon Harper

Isn’t that shrewd - you ruin people’s lives and then give them a handout to make them dependent on you instead of fighting you?! It’s also brutally effective and downright evil. And yet this is what a politics of scarcity does. We don’t believe there’s enough to go around so we seek to take advantage of others to build up our own stockpile and to guard our own power.

In light of this helpful background, Lisa Sharon Harper translates this line in the Lord’s Prayer this way:

May we reject any crumbs tossed to us from the table of oppression.  May we look to you as our true source of provision.

Try praying that version of the prayer now, and listen for how the Spirit may be bringing to mind the crumbs you’ve been choking on.