The BreadCast

(Heb.8:6-13; Ps.85:8,10-14; Mk.3:13-19) "I will be their God and they shall be my people." "Near indeed is His salvation to those who fear Him, glory dwelling in our land"; for absolute oneness do we find with our Lord and God through the ministry of His only Son. For the Lord has said of His new covenant, "All shall know me, from least to greatest," promising: "I will place my laws in their minds and I will write them upon their hearts." There shall be no separation from His presence for those who believe; His "kindness and truth shall meet" in us as they have in Jesus. Alleluia! But yet does the time move toward perfection. Though the new covenant be fulfilled in Jesus, it is still being fulfilled in the world and among those who dwell in the world. We know this because the Lord says of the covenant to come, through His prophet Jeremiah: "They shall not teach their fellow citizens or their brothers, saying, 'Know the Lord'" – there being no need any longer to teach the perfected – and also, "Their sins I will remember no more," meaning that sin will no longer exist. But Jesus upon commissioning the twelve apostles sends them out "to preach the good news" and "to have authority to expel demons," and to this day there is need, and great need, for instruction in the Word of God and healing by the expulsion of sin in Holy Confession. This ministry still in place, we know we have yet to reach perfection; we know we have yet to find absolute oneness with Christ and His sacrifice… and so, perfect union with the Father yet awaits us. "He appointed the twelve as follows: Simon to whom He gave the name Peter; James, son of Zebedee; and John, the brother of James (He gave these two the name Boanerges, or 'sons of thunder'); Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus; Thaddeus, Simon of the Zealot party, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Him." Upon these the new covenant is founded. By their ministry it shall grow, taking root in the world and bearing much fruit. And though Matthias must take the place of the traitorous Judas, there is no breaking the line that comes from these foundation stones: all of the coming kingdom is traced to them and from them, for they are anointed by the Son and by them God will make all His children. Brothers and sisters, "the Lord Himself will give His benefits; our land shall yield its increase." In His Church as in His arms make your home, for His blessings are upon us and shall be fulfilled. ******* O LORD, let us be companions of your Son that we might be made one with you. YHWH, as your Son is joined to you and the apostles to Him, so let us be joined to them that we might be joined to Jesus and you, and your promise might be fulfilled and your NAME be written on our hearts. O let it be so, that all shall know you, that we shall be your people. O LORD, let truth spring out of the earth as your justice looks down from Heaven. Let the union of Heaven and earth accomplished in your Son be accomplished in us as we join ourselves to Him. O let us walk in the way of His steps that we might find salvation! LORD, forgive us our sins, remember them no more – cast all evil from us. May the priests who stand in your Son's place absolve us of all wrongdoing as we come on our knees before them. Your power be upon us for good; by your Word let us be taught, till we are entirely one with you, living in your New Covenant, living in the flesh of Christ, as His holy Body.

(Heb.7:25-8:6; Ps.40:7-10,17; Mk.3:7-12) "Jesus is always able to save those who approach God through Him, since He forever lives to make intercession for them." Oh how the people approach Him today, seeking healing, seeking grace: "a great crowd followed Him from Galilee, and an equally great multitude came to Him from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, Transjordan, and the neighborhood of Tyre and Sidon" – from all around they came to press upon Him, to press upon Him… "All who had afflictions kept pushing toward Him to touch Him. Unclean spirits would catch sight of Him, fling themselves down at His feet, and shout, "You are the Son of God!" So great were their numbers He needed to take refuge in a fishing boat. Oh "the press of the crowd against Him," the press of the crowd. They could not resist drawing toward Him who stood at the center of the universe, Him who stood in the place of God, Him who was God. Greater than the pull of gravity was the pull of their hearts toward salvation. And do you think He has left you, brother? Do you say, "Where is He now that I need healing, that I may press upon Him myself?" He has not left you alone; He has multiplied His presence and increased His grace through the ministry of His apostles. They now go out to those who would press upon Him, and through these priests they find the high priest, He who is "holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, higher than the heavens." Indeed, He is not on earth anymore and His ministry is not earthly – yet He is ever present to all who stretch forth their hands to Him. Do you not know the immense mercy available to you in the Sacrament of Confession? Do you not realize the heavenly food you eat in Holy Communion? Press upon Him this day; approach the priests who, despite their imperfections, hold the power He has left in our midst, and to your loving God you will come. "Jesus has obtained a more excellent ministry now," and "He is mediator of a better covenant," an eternal covenant. Brothers and sisters, "we have such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of Majesty in heaven, minister of the sanctuary and of that true tabernacle set up not by man but by the Lord." What greater gift could we ask for? How much more exalted could we be called to be than to receive mercy from Him who dwells in the heart of the Father, than to take food from the hands of Him who holds the hand of God? O Lord, "may all who seek you exult and be glad in you, And may those who love your salvation say ever, 'The Lord be glorified.'" ******* O LORD, your Son has taken on our flesh that He might draw us into the sanctuary of your presence O let us join ourselves to Him! YHWH, your Son is able to save all those who approach Him, for He sits with you in the heavenly sanctuary having offered Himself for our sakes. And so the crowds press upon Him, and so the devils cannot but recognize His power over them… and so we are saved from our sin by our faith in Him and offering ourselves to you through His hands. O LORD, may we be an acceptable sacrifice to you, joined well to the sacrifice of Jesus. May we say with Him, "I come to do your will," and think of nothing but obedience to your call. Write your law within our hearts that we might transcend the darkness of this place as we align our lives with your Son's and die to all that keeps us from you. He is made perfect forever in your presence and intercedes for us to be made perfect with Him. O let us press upon Him this day that we might ever glorify your NAME.

(Heb.7:1-3,15-17; Ps.110:1-4; Mk.3:1-6) "Without father, mother, or ancestry, without beginning of days or end of life, like the Son of God he remains a priest forever." We hear today more specifically about "Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of the Most High God," whose name means "king of justice" and also "king of peace," who is therefore so like our King Jesus; it is in his line the Lord takes His place. "Yours is princely power in the day of your birth, in holy splendor," King David declares of his Lord and our Lord. Indeed before the dawn of light upon earth, Jesus is King: He is the only-begotten Son of God whose rule is from everlasting to everlasting; and His priesthood, like that of Melchizedek, is "in virtue of the power of a life which cannot be destroyed" – not by physical descent but by spiritual ascension. From God Himself He receives His kingship and His priestly anointing. In contrast to the eternal priesthood and princely headship of our Lord and Savior, we see in our gospel those whose power comes only by "virtue of a law expressed in a commandment concerning physical descent," and which is, therefore, passing away. Indeed, before their eyes it passes this day as Jesus stands before the Pharisees at the front of the synagogue and calls them to acceptance of the greater glory now in their midst. But they "closed their minds against Him" as they refused to realize the limitations of their own calling as leaders of the people, choosing to cling to a dying law and a power which is being taken from them even as a greater is offered, rather than stretching forth their hands to the Lord, in whom the law takes life and finds fulfillment, through whom all power comes… Yes, the Lord "stretch[es] forth" "the scepter of [His] power" even as the man stretches forth his "shriveled hand" here at the front of the synagogue, before all the people and their teachers on a sabbath day, and finds it "perfectly restored." The same He would do for each of them and for all of us, if we but recognized His transcendent power and glory, if we but realized He is the Son of God. ******* O LORD, your Son is of the Spirit but we are of the flesh; help us to offer this poor flesh through His eternal priesthood. YHWH, in the line of Melchizadek your Son comes to us, without beginning of days or end of life, for by you He is begotten before the world was brought forth. And so His power is like your own, and so in Him we shall not die but be healed of all evil upon us. We praise you, LORD, for your justice toward us, for the presence of your Son. For in Him we take our refuge; in Him we find our salvation. O let us freely reach out our hands to the grace He offers that He might stretch forth His scepter toward us and we be made whole in your sight! The Day you make is one of peace, O LORD, and so the Son you send brings to us that peace. Let us give to Him our possessions, even our very body and soul; for all He touches He sanctifies, and so we will thus be blessed by Him. No hardened heart could ever destroy Him or His love. Let us sacrifice ourselves with Him, LORD, that we might join Him at your right hand.

(Heb.6:10-20; Ps.111:1-2,4-5,9-10; Mk.2:23-28) "I will indeed bless you, and multiply you." God promised to bless Abraham, to make his descendants numerous as the stars; and "He swore by Himself," "by oath," to carry out His promise, thus giving an unshakable, "unchangeable" "firmness to [the] promise." God does not go back on His word. And so, "after patient waiting, Abraham obtained what God had promised"; He became the father of many nations, of all those of faith. Now if God is so faithful, should we who are "heirs of His promise," who are children of Abraham in the faith and so the sharers of the same blessings promised to him, should not "we who have taken refuge in [God]… be strongly encouraged to seize the hope which is placed before us"? For we, "through faith and patience, are inheriting the promises"; and greater promises than Abraham do we receive at the hand of our Lord now, for our "hope extends beyond the veil through which Jesus, our forerunner, has entered on our behalf." As David "entered God's house… and ate the holy bread which only the priests were permitted to eat," and "even gave it to his men," so Jesus enters His Father's house, passing through the gates of heaven into the sanctuary, into the holy of holies, and there partakes of bread at His Father's hand… and indeed shares it with us, His brothers. Oh brothers and sisters, each day we partake of the bread of the angels from the hand of the Lord; it surrounds us like the "standing grain" around the disciples. And does it not prove to us that "great are the works of the Lord, exquisite in all their delights"? Doesn't it reveal to our souls that our hope in Him is "a sure and firm anchor," that His love for us is strong and all His promises are fulfilled in our midst, before our eyes? "God is not unjust." No, "gracious and merciful is the Lord." "Holy and awesome is His name," and He shares the glory of His presence with all His children: "He has given food to those who fear Him." So, let us "not grow lazy" in faith but take strength in this food He supplies. "He will not forget [our] work and the love [we] have shown Him by [our] service." But let us continue to serve Him in our brothers; let us "show the same zeal till the end," that all His promises we may taste. Indeed, the more we eat His bread, the more we accomplish His work, the more His blessings are multiplied, in us and in the world! "The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath." The gift of God's rest is ours, releasing us from slavery. Freedom we find in His name, blessing we find in His promise – His rest is upon us as we remain in Him. And "He will forever be mindful of His covenant": His blessings shall ever increase in our souls. ******* O LORD, your Son has entered into your presence that we might be fed with the Bread of Life – let us hope always in Him. YHWH, if Abraham's cause for hope was great, how much greater is our own, we for whom Jesus has passed through the veil of death that we might enter your presence? Now that your Word has been made flesh and been given to us as food for our journey, how much stronger should our faith be, and so, how much surer our work? We should not bend in the wind like standing heads of grain but know the glory to which we are called as we reach up to you through the grace that is with us by the sacrifice of your Son. O LORD, you are indeed gracious and merciful; you look upon our needs and answer them. You promise to be with us always and increase and multiply our works, so long as we remain faithful to you. Let us trust in your Word to us and find hope always that you are near. In Jesus your Son, you have walked among us – your great love for man let us never forget. Give us the food we need even this day, O LORD, the Bread that is our very life.

(Heb.5:1-10; Ps.110:1-4; Mk.2:18-22) "You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek." Without beginning or end is the holy priesthood of our Lord; high above all sacrifices reigns His own. "Taken from among men" is Jesus our high priest "and made [our] representative before God." Like others He is in this respect; yet the "gifts and sacrifices" He offers are infinitely greater than any that have ever been, for it is Himself He lifts up for our sins. "He is Himself beset by weakness," though not His own; He is Himself pierced for transgression, though not of His making – and in the cross of our condition He bears "in the flesh," in the crucifixion He suffers at our hands, does the high priest become the victim whose blood covers the earth with redemption. Yes, "Son though He was, He learned obedience from what He suffered; and when perfected, He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him." What other high priest can boast as much? And yet the people would limit the grace that pours forth in the blood of His sacrifice, in the sweet-smelling flesh He offers, to a dying law which has been corrupted by the hands of man. They fail to see that the old is subsumed by the new… and so the Lord seeks to teach them to receive the "new wine" He would pour into their hearts with minds open to the light of God. They do not yet know the joy His disciples experience just being in the presence of the Messiah, the bridegroom of all faithful souls; as yet their hearts have not been circumcised by the nails of the sacrifice He makes in their name. But soon their time will come, we pray. When He is lifted up, perhaps they shall see. And in our psalm we have David's verse of Jesus: "The Lord said to my Lord: 'Sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool.'" Jesus is David's Lord even then, for Jesus our Savior has always been. Beautifully does David speak of this as well, in the voice of God: "Before the daystar, like the dew, I have begotten you." As the dew covers the earth unseen before the sun rises, so before the Father pronounced the words "Let there be light" – first bringing the universe into being by the power of His Word – Jesus was eternally present, even as the water the Spirit moved upon. And so He has "princely power," seated at the right hand of God. And so He "rule[s] in the midst of His enemies," His sacrifice destroying the death which seemed to take hold of Him. And so, like the order of Melchizedek, which came well before the institution of the Israelite's priestly line, from all eternity His salvific priesthood is – and shall last until the end of time. ******* O LORD, you sent your Son to offer Himself in our stead; may we be clothed anew in His grace. YHWH, the priesthood of your Son is from all eternity and will last until the end of time for the expiation of our sins. And the sacrifice He offers is Himself in the suffering and death He endures in our midst. Though He rules forever at your right hand, He humbles Himself to suffer at our hands that the evil in our hearts might be washed clean by the blood He freely sheds. O let us be made as new wineskins able to receive the grace He pours forth. Jesus is our Prince who fights our battles and puts all our enemies under His feet. He crushes the head of the devil and destroys all the weakness by which we are beset, and He does this by the weakness He endures and the death He suffers for our sakes. O LORD, let us know the glory He would bring to our poor souls, the salvation wrought by His holy sacrifice, and let us join ourselves to that sacrifice by fasting and doing penance in His stead as long as He is apart from us, until the Day He returns.

(Is.62:1-5; Ps.96:1-3,7-10; 1Cor.12:4-11; Jn.2:1-11) "As a bridegroom rejoices in his bride so shall your God rejoice in you." "There was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and His disciples were also invited to the wedding." And it is here Jesus "revealed His glory"; here the beginning of His signs would take place in His changing water into wine. But why? Why here at a wedding? And why this transformation as His first miracle? He would have begun His ministry some twenty years prior, in the temple at Jerusalem at the age of twelve. Would this not have been a more appropriate place, and a more marvelous age? But His Blessed Mother drew Him from there then, and He was obedient to the wisdom she offered by gift from her Spouse, the Spirit. She would teach Him of our human condition, and lead Him to bear His own patiently, that our high priest might be able to sympathize with our nature. Indeed, to all He seemed an ordinary man. And now it is she who leads Him to accept His station as the Son of Man. Here at that most blessed, most cherished of human events – one which St. Paul tells us mirrors Christ's own union with the Church, one spoken of repeatedly by the prophets of old (as does Isaiah today) to demonstrate the Lord's great love for His people, and one which at the end of time (a time so marvelously depicted by John in his Book of Revelation) will be fulfilled in our midst in the descent of the New Jerusalem, the Bride, the Holy Church, from Heaven to earth… here at this feast so human and yet so divine, He simply changes water into wine. As Eve the wife of Adam once offered her husband the apple he would consume to produce our fall, so here the "Woman," Mary, the Mother of the Lord and Spouse of the Spirit, offers Jesus His ministry, which will lead to the death that redeems us all. And the water becoming wine indicates the transformation we all undergo, baptized in the Spirit of the Lord, wed unto heaven. And this transformation produces in the Church the "spiritual gifts," the outpouring of knowledge and prophecy and healing St. Paul speaks of today: our marriage to God cannot help but produce blessed fruit in us, even as God's espousal of Mary has produced the only Son. And, of course, each day we drink the spiritual wine, the wine become blood, poured forth upon our table, upon the altar of the Church. And this primarily feeds our spirits, sustains us human beings with food from heaven, not of earth. One with the Lord do we become by the consumption of this sacred fruit; in this Sacrament our Bridegroom rejoices in us His Bride and calls us to rejoice in Him, to "sing to the Lord a new song" of the purest love as we "worship [Him] in holy attire," in the finest, the purest of wedding garments – in His flesh and blood. Sing alleluia to our God! Written, read & chanted, and produced by James Kurt. Music: "Miracle" from Listening to the Lamp, ninth album of Songs for Children of Light, by James Kurt. ******* O LORD, no longer forsaken, we rejoice and sing praise at the revelation of your Son. YHWH, we should sing as at weddings for your Son has revealed your glory to us here on this earth. You rejoice in us as a bridegroom in his bride, and should we not rejoice all the more at this great grace you bestow upon us? You make us as your own and place your Spirit within us. O make your Spouse fruitful in your sight! In holy attire let us worship you, O LORD, clothed by the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Pure and spotless let us be that we shall be desolate no more but know the blessing of your presence among us and partake of your surpassing wine. The hour has come to join ourselves to you by uniting ourselves to the flesh of your Son, and to proclaim such a wonder to all peoples. Give us wisdom, O LORD, the wisdom to know that we are your own and to do your will in all things. Let us forever praise your NAME by the power of the Spirit upon us.

(Heb.4:12-16; Ps.19:8-10,15,Jn.6:63; Mk.2:13-17) "Nothing is concealed from Him." In God's eyes all men are sinners; this is what His penetrating vision cannot help but see. Yet it is just such sinners as we He has come to call, to call away from our sin. The Pharisees cannot bear this sword of truth to pierce their soul, and so they take up the sword of anger against those who are being redeemed, and He who is redeeming them. Let us not be as these hardened hearts, brothers and sisters, but expose our sin to the Lord's sharp gaze, that He might heal us by His grace. That Jesus Himself sees all that is in a man is indicated by His "overhearing the remark" of the complaining Pharisees today, and more clearly elsewhere in His reading their and His disciples' thoughts without a word being spoken (e.g. Mt.17:25). As nothing is concealed from the Father, so nothing is concealed from the Son: "The reflections and thoughts of the heart" are open to Him. And He knows the troubles that affect each of us. And these, even of the Pharisees, He would heal, even as a wise physician – but we indeed must come with our souls exposed and prepared for surgery. And though this process can be painful, and though we might say to ourselves, "We are not deserving" – though the questions of the Pharisees might be our own – yet we must witness Jesus' attitude toward Levi and his fellow tax collectors/sinners. Yet we must see how He defends these from attack, not bringing their shame before them as the Pharisees would, but with a heart set only on forgiveness. For indeed "we have a great high priest," one who takes our sins upon Himself, one who suffers with us our weakness in order to save us from its consequences. And so with Levi and his friends we should "confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and favor," both in the confessional and at the Eucharistic table, for our need He has come to fill with His love. "The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul"; Jesus is this law made flesh. "The command of the Lord is clear, enlightening the eye"; to remove the darkness of our vision, the all-seeing God has come. "The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever," and as long as we come before Him, trembling for our sin, we shall live on in His love. Shine your light upon our souls, O Lord, and remove all darkness from them. In your grace you make us whole; with you let us be holy. ******* O LORD, your Son has come to save us from our sins; may the light of His Word dispel all darkness from our souls. YHWH, let the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart find favor in your sight, my Rock and my Redeemer. For you see into the depths of our hearts; you know well the sin that is within us – yet you are merciful in judging us, desiring only to heal us of our sickness. O let us always come humbly before you to find your blessing upon our souls, that we might ever serve you well with our poor lives! O mighty God, O all-seeing and all-knowing LORD, let us treasure your Word, your Law, which is as balm for our troubled spirits. Let us welcome your Son to our table that He might feed us with your truth, that we might find wisdom and learn by your grace to live forever in joy in your presence. How we need your Son, our high priest, as our physician, He who gives Himself to take away our sin. O LORD, may we indeed find your favor through Him, obediently answering His call to salvation.

(Heb.4:1-5,11; Ps.78:3-4,6-8; Mk.2:1-12) "The promise of entrance into His rest still holds." But only those with faith in Him shall be made whole. Paul says of the Israelites in the desert, "The word which they heard did not profit them, for they did not receive it in faith." Though they had seen "the glorious deeds of the Lord and His strength and the wonders that He wrought," they yet became "wayward and rebellious, a generation that kept not its heart steadfast nor its spirit faithful to God." Yet they disobeyed and disbelieved. And so they entered not into His rest; they received not the grace of union with the Lord in His peaceful kingdom, but rather died in the desert in their sin. Thus does Paul warn us not to "fall in imitation of Israel's unbelief," but ever to "strive to enter into that rest" God holds for all His faithful. And the faith necessary to enter God's rest is illustrated clearly in our gospel today, as is the woe of unbelief. It is "when Jesus saw [the] faith" of those who lowered the paralytic through the ceiling to Him that He said to this poor soul, "My son, your sins are forgiven"; and it is upon hearing these grace-filled words from the Savior's mouth that some of the scribes, those faithless souls so much the descendants of their faithless fathers, grumbled against Him and accused Him of "blasphemy." And as the Lord here makes clear the equation of forgiveness and healing ("Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk again'?"), commanding indeed the paralyzed man: "Stand up! Pick up your mat and go home," so does this healed soul, washed clean of all his sin, with his companions and all those of faith who stand "awestruck" as they look on… so do these enter God's rest – even as the scribes gnash their teeth. Brothers and sisters, "God rested from all His work on the seventh day," and that rest awaits all at their completion of the Lord's work in this world. This truth Jesus reveals in our midst even this day. And so we "should put [our] hope in God, and not forget the deeds of God but keep His commands"; for "it is we, who have believed, who enter into that rest," so long as we keep faith in Him. ******* O LORD, let us enter into your rest, that we might rise and carry souls to you. YHWH, how shall we have our sins forgiven if we have not faith in you and in your Son; how shall we enter into your rest if we turn away from you? We must come to you and to your Son, believing in the salvation wrought by you and letting nothing stand in our way… and you will bless us and gather us into your arms. O Lord Jesus, forgive us all our sin this day. Cast far from us all that keeps us paralyzed, all that prevents us from rising and following you. Take away our rebellious souls, our unfaithfulness before you – O may we hear your gracious words calling us to stand and walk with you! O may we know the peace of your forgiveness! O LORD, you are our God, and in you alone we find our rest, we find healing from all our sickness and sin. Help us to be strong in faith ourselves and serve to bring others to you as well. You await our coming to you; let nothing else matter to us at all.

(Heb.3:7-14; Ps.95:6-11; Mk.1:40-45) "Today, if you should hear His voice, harden not your hearts." Today we see Jesus continuing His healing ministry, and we see how it becomes "no longer possible for [Him] to enter a town openly" because of the public proclamation of His wondrous and powerful works. We see also how, though "He stayed in desert places… people kept coming to Him from all sides," for His work must be accomplished. But we see most particularly the way we must come to Him to find our own healing. "Come, let us bow down in worship; let us kneel before the Lord who made us," David sings, calling all to their proper place before God. And this the leper in our gospel does today, indicating indeed to all the attitude we must have toward Jesus, the place we must find at His feet. With soft hearts we must come before our Lord in tears for the sin upon our souls. Not like those in the Egyptian desert can we be, those who "saw [His] works for forty years" yet "tested and tried" Him constantly. This generation indeed He "loathed" in His anger, calling them "a people of erring heart" who "know not [His] ways." On the contrary, our hearts must burn with a tender love of God and one another as we approach the Lord in the desert where He waits to save us from our sin. He will match any tenderness of our own. "Moved with pity" we shall find Him, ready to gather our broken spirits into His arms. "Take care, my brothers, lest any of you have an evil and unfaithful spirit and fall away from the living God." See that your hearts are never "hardened by the deceit of sin." It is always "today" and the Lord is always calling to your soul, always requiring your life from you – always offering His love to you. Offer your own in return, that you shall not be cast from His presence, that you shall not be ostracized like this leper from the community, but remain ever in His holy fold as "the flock He guides" with His gentle hand… and finally that you might "enter into His rest." He calls you to healing at His hand; hear and answer on your knees. ******* O LORD, make our hearts soft and our spirits loving, as your Son; let us bow down to Him. YHWH, let us not be of erring and unfaithful heart but let our love match your own and that of your Son, for He looks on our poor condition with pity and reaches out His hand to heal us of our sin, of our weakness before you. Why should we harden our hearts against Him when all He wishes is to save us? Let us accept and treasure such blessing which comes only from you. So blind we can easily become, O LORD, so blind to your presence among us and your works done for us. So easily we are led astray; so easily we become deaf to your Word speaking to our hearts. O let our hearts not be hardened! but let us come humbly before you to worship you and call on your holy NAME. This is what brings life to our souls. In this worship alone do we find our rest. O LORD, set us free from all pride, from all failure to remember your presence before us…. Be not angry with your wayward children but gather us into your loving arms.

(Heb.2:14-18; Ps.105:1-4,6-9; Mk.1:29-39) "Since He Himself was tested through what He suffered, He is able to help those who are tempted." And help them He does. Die for us He must. Each healing is a move of love which takes His life as sacrifice for our sins. Jesus died on the cross for us, yes. He opened His arms and let His healing blood pour forth for all "the children of Abraham," all those of faith. But His whole life, and especially His ministry of preaching and healing, is a dying, is a robbing of "the devil, the prince of death, of his power." We see clearly in our gospel today how Jesus "free[s] those who through fear of death had been slaves their whole life long," how He lays down His life for "the whole town [which] was gathered outside the door" of "the house of Simon and Andrew." After healing Simon Peter's mother-in-law of a debilitating fever, He cures all who press upon Him, all "who were variously afflicted"; from them "the demons He expelled." And in these cures, in these expulsions of demons, do we not see our "merciful and faithful high priest" who has come "to expiate the sins of the people" at work in "blood and flesh," dying for the nation's salvation? Has the Lord not equated such healing with salvation, declaring there is no difference between forgiving sins and saying "be well" to the troubled soul (Mk.2:9)? And do not these demons desire to cry out that He is the Christ even as He gouges the life from them as He Himself dies? Does their rule not escape them now with every word of the Spirit He speaks? But He does "not permit the demons to speak," for they would reveal who He is only that He might be tempted to become ruler on earth of these people who would certainly seek to crown Him king. But the salvation He brings rises beyond this dying life, and the Son of God has no relations with the prince of darkness and his lying rule. And so our Lord "went into [the] synagogues preaching the good news and expelling demons throughout the whole of Galilee." So He went forth robbing the devil of His reign, suffering and dying all the while, all the way to the cross, where His ministry is accomplished. And we, brothers and sisters, do we not continue His ministry to this day? Has the Lord not left the dying to us now – a cross upon each of His disciples' backs to fill up what is yet lacking in His sacrifice? Is this not the great gift He gives us? And in His steps, by the apostles' instruction, in union with His Church, do you walk through the suffering and darkness of this world to the Lord's eternal light? For your sake has He died. So "seek to serve Him constantly" as He does you. ******* O LORD, in flesh and blood your Son has come to drive all demons away from us and save us from the power of death. YHWH, your Son has come to heal us, to cast all our sin far from us, releasing us from all power of the devil. Death itself He conquers for our sakes, suffering all the weakness of our human condition that He might free us from its bonds. He has made Himself captive to flesh and blood that we might fly unto the kingdom with Him. And so, let us glorify His Name! O LORD, how your Son lays down His life as He walks among us, taking our sickness upon Himself. How much He suffers as we come to Him to find our healing – how brokenhearted He is to witness our travail. But He does not turn from His mission or rest in His accomplishments; on He goes from place to place, redeeming all who come to Him. And this path leads inevitably to the Cross, to His death and our freedom from all sin. Let us praise Him for the sacrifice He makes, for His offering His life for our sakes.