Giving Bread, Not Stones

from my message from Matthew 7:7-10

(preaching from behind the communion table)  It is really very simple.  If your child asks for bread (hold up the communion bread), would you give him or her a stone (hole up stone) instead?  No, you try to give your children the best.

I got this message from Ray Kiser, the pastor at Lake Travis UMC.  We are in  a prayer/accountability group together.  Every other Monday morning, a group of us pastors meet at La Madeliene for breakfast.  We ask that classic Methodist question, "How is it with your soul?"  We pray for one another.  Ray said that he approaches every conversation, every encounter with this intent, "I want to give bread here, not a stone."

We can't meet every demand, all the world's needs, but we can give bread, not a stone.  This past week I got a phone call from a woman needing rent help.  I am busy.  It is an interruption to my day.  I don't have a pot of money to save all of the housing issues.  But I want to give bread, not a stone.  So I take the time to listen carefully to her situation.  I help her generate alternatives.

Today, we are commissioning 3 new Stephen Ministers, to add to the 10 we already have.  I remind you Stephen Minsters that you can't solve all your care receiver's issues, can't make all illnesses go away, can't heal every hurt.  But you can give bread, not a stone.  You can listen, you can love, you can pray, you can encourage.

We want to give bread, not a stone.  The truth is that we have not always been given bread by our parents.  I remember a time from my childhood, when my dad came home one evening.  He said, "Lynn, I have a present for you out in the station wagon."  Wow, this was exciting.  This hardly ever happened.  "Daddy, thank you.  Whatever it is, I am so grateful." I ran out to the carport to the Ford Galaxy station wagon.  Opened the front door.  There on the floor ...was ...a hoe...to chop weeds in the garden.  I was not an abused child.  We had a home, food, clothes.  I learned the value of work growing up on the farm. I fed chickens, gathered eggs, washed eggs, delivered eggs, learned to drive a tractor, learned to drive a truck and trailer.  We went to worship and Sunday School.  I learned to treat my neighbor right.  I got bread, not just stones.

The point in the scripture is that even parents know how to give good gifts, then how much more will our heavenly Father do for us.  The passage we have today comes from a part of Matthew's gospel we know as the Sermon on the Mount.  It contains Jesus' teaching in  a summary form.  The teaching is very challenging.  Things like not just loving those who love you, but loving your enemy.  We can't possibly do this without practicing the opening words of our passage today.  We need to pray:  to seek, ask, knock.  We need to spend much time in prayer to be shaped by God's grace, so that we may act gracefully towards others.

We feast on our Bible story, how God has given us bread, not a stone all through our history.  There's the bread of Passover.  Remember the bread that Elijah ate, and he went 40 days on that one meal.  We have the ministry of Jesus where he fed the multitudes with a few loaves and fishes.  He ate with tax collectors and sinners.  He had a last supper with his closest friends. But he also revealed himself in a resurrected form by sharing other meals with his disciples.  We met him here today at this table, where we are given bread, not a stone.

How will you practice this concept?  I invite you to think of a situation now, with a family member, or co-worker, or a neighbor, maybe even a conflicted situation, where you need to give bread, not a stone.  You could start praying now, seeking, asking, knocking, so that you might be able to give bread, not a stone.  It will be challenging.  In fact, as I reflected on this message, it came to me that this is one of the great measure of spiritual maturity:  how often we can give bread instead of stones, especially in difficult situations.

As we keep coming to this table here, and are fed bread, the bread of life, the broken body of Jesus, I believe that we can give bread, not stones to others.  That's the good news I have to share today.