The BreadCast

Dt.10:12-22;   Ps.147:12-15,19-20;   Mt.17:22-27)   “In His love for your fathers the Lord was so attached to them as to choose you, their descendants, in preference to all other peoples.”   The Israelites are the chosen race, and Jesus the Chosen One of that race.  Upon them the blessing rests, and in the Son it is fulfilled. Our first reading tells us that the Lord is a great God, “who has no favorites, accepts no bribes; who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and befriends the alien, feeding and clothing him.”  And the Israelites are called to be made in the image of their Father, showing His might in this way of compassion and truth.  “And now, Israel, what does the Lord, your God, ask of you but to fear the Lord, your God, and follow His ways exactly,” declares Moses.  And so he enjoins upon the people the Lord’s word, “His statutes and ordinances,” which “He has not made known” to other nations, and which serve as their guide to maintaining His light in their lives.  “He has strengthened the bars of your gates…  He has granted peace in your borders,” our psalm confirms: by the grace of God’s law their children are blessed and become “numerous as the stars of the sky.” And in our gospel we see again the fulfillment of the Father’s blessing and of His law in the Person of Jesus and the sacrifice He, and we, are called to make.  First Jesus makes clear that He is the Son of God exempt from the temple tax – how can the temple pay tax unto itself, or, better yet, how can the temple be paid tax by Him who made it?  Jesus is the Chosen One, the chosen of the chosen sons.  And His new Law, His new way – which again is but the fulfillment of the law laid out by Moses – is the cross.  Moses tells us of the compassion and justice of the Father, who cares for widows and orphans and aliens, and Jesus embodies that love and truth by being “delivered into the hands of men who will put Him to death” for our sin and to show the love God has for us in such utter sacrifice. Brothers and sisters, allow me to note here that there is no distinction between the love and the justice of God: they are inseparable, the one ever complementing the other.  It is out of both love and a sense of justice that the Lord defends the widows and orphans, saving them from their oppressors and gathering them into His arms.  His love breeds justice and His justice love.  This is the way of God; and this must be our way as His children.  Yes, God loves the world and so He sends His Son to make atonement for our sin.  We have sinned and atonement must be made; it cannot be otherwise.  And it cannot be otherwise but that God makes that atonement by His love.  Let us join to Him as sons in His holy sacrifice.  This is our special, blessed call.  ******* O LORD, though in His love He made Himself an outcast for our sakes, for our lack of love,   Jesus is your only Son. YHWH, you are the great God, mighty and awesome, your glory far above us and our ways.  Yet you bless us with your presence, you proclaim your Word to our hearts – you send your Son into our midst as the Temple in which we may worship you and so join ourselves to your surpassing glory.  For this grace let us never cease to praise you; let us never fail to follow in your way. Your Son shows to us the way we must walk; the way of love He marks out for us in perfectly fulfilling your will, in freely going to the Cross.  Here your surpassing love for your poor creatures you reveal to us.  And this same love you call us to – this same glory is ours, O LORD, by the mercy He bears. To this Temple let us come.  In your Son let us make our home.  He who humbles Himself for our sakes, who joins Himself to us for our salvation, let us follow unto glory.  Your Word be fulfilled in our midst.

(Dt.6:4-13;   Ps.18:2-4,47,51;   Mt.17:14-20) “Praised be the Lord, I exclaim, and I am safe from my enemies.”       In our first reading we hear the Shema, the great Commandment of the Mosaic Law – the Lord is God and we must love Him with all our being.  Moses exhorts the people “not to forget to the Lord,” who brought them out of slavery in the land of Egypt and is about to bless them abundantly in the Promised Land.  Quite graphic is he, and are their practices, in encouraging remembrance of the Lord’s command.  His words are to be drilled into the children, bound at wrists and on foreheads, and written “on the doorposts of… houses and on… gates.”  And David’s psalm mightily extols the love we should have for our Lord: “My God, my rock of refuge, my shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold!” the great king of the Israelites exclaims in his overflowing praise for his saving Lord, in whom he finds his strength.  Indeed, the Lord is great and greatly to be praised; He is our life and our salvation. And it is the faith at the heart of our praise of God which saves us from our enemies, which redeems us from our sins.  Jesus demonstrates this clearly in our gospel today.  “What an unbelieving and perverse lot you are!” the Lord declares in chastisement of His disciples and all those who would seek His graces, His healing, for they have not the faith to rescue the possessed boy from the grip of the devil.  Where is their praise of the Lord’s Name?  Where is their surpassing love of Him?  How is it their belief in the Lord’s power to deliver from the bonds of slavery has been so easily shaken?  Is it not “the Lord alone” who is God?  “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you would be able to say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move.  Nothing would be impossible for you.”  Let these words be inscribed upon our hearts, that we will never forget the abundant glory of God which we possess by our faith in Him.  Glorious are you, O Lord, beyond all creatures, beyond all existence!  Far above us do you sit, and yet how close to our hearts do you remain.  There is none who compares with you; there is nothing in the heavens or on earth greater than you, for you have created all that is.  Strengthen our failing love, let it match the glory of your presence, that we might be delivered from all sin and conquer all evil in your divine Name.  Give us faith and trust in you, and we will praise you forever.  Safe from our enemies, we will glory always in your everlasting love. ******* O LORD, let us praise your NAME and so find safety from all our enemies. YHWH, give us the grace to love you with all our heart, mind, soul and strength, you who alone are God, you who alone are good.  It is you alone who care for us, who provide for our every need.  May your blessing remain upon us as we praise your holy NAME. Where shall we find faith, O LORD, even the size of a mustard seed, we who are such a perverse and unbelieving lot?  How can we learn to trust in you and in your power to do all – and to do all through us weak vessels.  It is you alone who have all power; by your Word the entire universe came to be and is sustained….  Help us to take refuge in that Word and not in the world of passing things. We love you, LORD, our Rock, our shield, the sword of our salvation!  But we are indeed weak and forgetful souls in need of healing.  Increase our faith in you and in your Son, that we might serve you alone.

(Dt.4:32-40;   Ps.77:12-16,21;   Mt.16:24-28)   “The Son of Man will come with His Father’s glory accompanied by His angels.”   The Lord God came to “take a nation for Himself from the midst of another, by testings, by signs and wonders, by war, with His strong hand and outstretched arm, and by great terrors.”  As He came with power to rescue the Israelites from the bonds of Egypt, so He will come at the end of time, and is come now, to save us from this world of sin.  Indeed, the Son of Man shall come fully into His Kingship on the last day and “repay each man according to his conduct.” How shall we secure a place in His kingdom?  Moses tells the Israelites, in his final address to them before they enter the Promised Land, “You must now know, and fix in your heart, that the Lord is God in the heavens above and on earth below,” and that they “must keep His statutes and commandments.”  Then they will be blessed and prosper.  Jesus tells us in our gospel, “If a man wishes to come after me, he must deny his very self, take up his cross, and begin to follow in my footsteps.”  As it was then, it is now, only the road is more straitened for the goal is more blessed: now it is even unto death we must be obedient to His ways; but now we find not only life on the land, but glory everlasting. “Among the people you have made known your power,” proclaims our psalm today, and indeed our first reading recounts the “wonders of old” the Lord wrought in the midst of His people: with their eyes they saw His “great fire,” and with their ears they “heard Him speaking out of the fire.”  It is, of course, the presence of Jesus we see before us now and hear speaking in our hearts by the fire of the Holy Spirit.  He makes His power known to us now in a far surpassing way.  And if we wish to know the glory of God burning in our midst and leading us to the eternal kingdom of light, we must be made holy by its power.  “O God, your way is holy,” our psalm states, and if we wish to follow in His way, we must be holy as He. The Lord is coming with His holy angels.  He shall soon be here in all His glory.  Now He has left us a blessed cross to place upon our shoulders; it is this most wonderful of signs by whose testings we are led in power to the eternal reign of our Savior.  As intimately as you know His humble cross, as closely as you follow His sacrificial path, so well will you know His Father’s glory.   ******* O LORD, your greatness is revealed to all; let us dwell in your light. YHWH, how great were your deeds in bringing your chosen people out of Egypt!  What wonders you worked among them.  To them you showed that you are LORD and there is no other. But how much greater is the presence of your Son among us this day and the deeds He has wrought for our salvation.  How much more clearly you speak to us now, LORD, through the wonders He works – and how perfectly your glory will be known when He returns accompanied by His angels!  There will be no greater deeds to be worked when that Day comes. But until that Day let us walk with you here; let us take up our cross and follow in the way of Jesus, keeping your Word that we may prosper in good deeds ourselves and come finally to the Land you promise, to eternal life, our eyes looking upon your surpassing glory.

(Nm.20:1-13;   Ps.95:1-2,6-9;   Mt.16:13-23)   “‘You are the Messiah,’ Simon Peter answered, ‘the Son of the Living God!’”   With this response, because of this faith come from the “heavenly Father,” Jesus declares to Peter, “You are ‘Rock’, and on this rock I will build my Church.”  He entrusts to him the keys of the kingdom of heaven, with power to bind and loose.  As from the rock Moses struck, “water gushed out in abundance for the community… to drink,” so through Peter and the Church Christ has founded we are nourished by the sacraments and true teaching.  So the Son of the Living God is with us. “Let us acclaim the Rock of our Salvation…  Come, let us bow down in worship; let us kneel before the Lord who made us.  For He is our God, and we are the people He shepherds, the flock He guides.”  By the hand of Peter the Lord guides the Church born of His blood.  Indeed, as Moses led the Israelites through the desert, so Peter leads us now to the gates of heaven.  Let us declare our faith with him; let us echo his words to the Lord, giving Him due praise and “joyfully sing[ing] psalms to Him.”  He is our God, He is our Savior, and in this Rock we take refuge.  But let us remember, too, not to judge “by man’s standards but by God’s.”  His ways are not our ways, as both great leaders had to learn.  It seems to our human minds unfair that Moses should be deemed unfit to lead the Israelites to the Promised Land; it is they, after all, who continually tempted him with their grumbling, plotting even to take his life.  And why is the Lord so harsh toward Peter, even calling him “Satan”?  He is only concerned for Jesus’ life, is he not?  The Lord does not judge as we judge.  He wishes to teach Moses to deepen his love and concern for the people, that anger is never justified in the care of those in one’s charge – the Lord does not act in the rashness of anger and anxiety, and neither should we.  And to Peter He must show the necessity of the sacrifice of this life, that we must be “put to death” to be “raised up on the third day” – it is the laying down of this life which brings glory. Really, in both cases the Lord is calling His leaders to lay down their lives for the people, to do as He does and take the people’s sins upon themselves.  And this is, of course, the call of us all – to be like Him, to join with our Savior, the Son of the Living God, in His sacrifice.  What is more against the standards of man than the cross of Christ, as Paul has told us elsewhere, “a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles” (1Cor.1:23) – and yet the source of our salvation.  For to come to the Living God we proclaim as our own, this world and its passions must be left behind.  The Father dwells in highest heaven and His ways must become our own.  Take refuge now in the Rock of Christ and in His Church; this shall lead you to His presence. ******* O LORD, your ways are so far above our own,  and how shall we attain to them, except by faith and the grace that comes to us  through your holy Church? YHWH, how could we even begin to put you to the test?  How could we be so foolish as to ask you any question, as to doubt your goodness toward us, your presence among us?  What of this world should lead us to such blindness to your love?  Should we not be ready even to die for you? It is you who have the power and grace to put us to the test, and so your Son asks, “Who do you say that I AM?”  Do we really believe He is the Messiah?  Do we really believe you have sent Him to us to die for our sins that we might be raised up with Him?  Or do we indeed doubt the greatness of your love?  O LORD, help us to judge as you judge, to see as you see, and so to know your glory. It is not in this desert we shall find our home; it is not the food of this world that is our fare.  It is to Heaven we must come, and in your Church we shall find a way there.  Help us, O LORD, to show forth your sanctity, to join in the sacrifice of your Son and worship Him alone.

(Nm.12:1-13;   Ps.51:3-7,12-13;   Mt.14:22-36) “The presence of the Lord he beholds.” Throughout the history of salvation, the Lord chooses one man to lead His people.  In the Old Testament times, this was Moses; in the New Testament times, it is Peter.  Though it is always the Lord Himself who guides and teaches, He ever puts His Spirit upon one particular man to act in His stead.  Those who do not follow the Lord and the way He sets forth, who act in presumption against His will and His chosen, are cast from His presence, are stricken by His hand as is Miriam. “Throughout my house he bears my trust,” the Lord says of Moses His servant, “the meekest man on the face of the earth.”  “Face to face I speak to him,” the Lord assures us; and is it not so with Peter as well?  It is Peter alone who steps forward to walk upon the storm-tossed sea to the Lord; it is Peter that Jesus will instruct to “feed [His] sheep.”  He is given the keys to the kingdom.  He is the peg set firmly in place.  And is it not dissension against the place given this first of the apostles that causes so much disturbance in the Church?  Is it not the presumption of Aaron and Miriam, gifted in themselves but not as Moses, which remains with us today and creates the division which ails the people of God?  We should cry out for mercy from the Lord for our sins against Him, for it is against Him we sin when we do not follow His appointed ones.  We should beg with David, “Cast me not out from your presence, and your Holy Spirit take not from me.”  I beg you to notice, my brothers and sisters, especially those separated from the Church and its hierarchy, to whom Aaron, the first of priests, makes his plea for forgiveness and healing.  Hear his words: “Ah my lord!” he said to Moses, “please do not charge us with the sin that we have foolishly committed!”  And Moses intercedes with the Lord, and Miriam finds healing.  And yet do you deny that God gives man authority on earth to intercede with Him for the forgiveness of sins?  And yet do you doubt that the Lord places His Spirit on a man and calls him to serve as Moses?  All may be priests but not all are chosen to lead; the Lord’s is a church of order and not presumption.  One there is who beholds His presence, and through Him we know the Lord. May the Lord catch us and lead us into His boat, for we do falter in our faith and find great difficulty fighting the winds which beset the barque of Peter…  O Lord, be with us!  Hold not our sins against us!  “A steadfast spirit renew within me,” may we all cry, and so find forgiveness for our offenses against you, Lord, and against your holy ones.  May we all enter your presence and serve you. ******* O LORD, only as a child will we enter Heaven, for only as a child can we stand in your presence.        YHWH, make us humble and innocent as little children that you might lead us by your mighty hand into the land you promise all your lowly ones.  How shall we behold your face if we are not obedient to you, if we do not seek your glory by humbly doing your will?  Bless your people with your presence.     Send us leaders, LORD, to guide us to your kingdom, to shepherd us to your holy mountain.  Your power be upon those you send to stand in the place of your only Son, that all might find salvation.  Help us to have faith in you, to know that as you have been with us until this day, so forever you will remain, destroying our enemies before us, setting us free from all sin.     Let none of your children be lost, dear LORD, but come quickly to their heritage in you.  O let us be brave and steadfast! remembering ever it is you who go before us.

(Nm.11:4-15;   Ps.81:2,12-17;   Mt.14:13-21)  “Israel I would feed with the best of wheat.” But the best of wheat they despise, and seek to satiate their appetite with meat.  The blessed food from heaven, come from the hand of God, the Israelites soon grow tired of as they travel through the desert.  Their stomachs cry out for earthly flesh.  As our psalm tells us, the people “heard not” the voice of God but preferred “their own counsels,” so He “gave them up to the hardness of their hearts.”  He will give them the meat they desire, and it will bring plague upon them for their lusts against God. Yet the Lord ever continues to call His people, and in the presence of Jesus that call is fulfilled.  In our gospel we see Jesus taking it upon Himself to feed the hungry masses, caring for their needs, and though some will seek to follow Him just to feed their bellies, others will recognize in His feeding of the five thousand the blessing of God’s providence and His loving care for His children; and their hearts will be open to partake of the spiritual food, the Body and Blood of Christ, which shall be offered forth at the table of the Lord after His death and resurrection.  The sacrificial love of Jesus Christ will thus become their own as they unite with Him in flesh and blood, in word and deed – in partaking of the best of wheat.  He is the food that sustains us. The fragments left us in the twelve baskets come down to us this day through His twelve apostles and the Church founded by them in His Name.  The fragments we find upon our altar today as our priest prays the blessing over them.  And we are fed.  And we have life.  And we are kept from grumbling against the Lord for all that is not ours in this world, and all the vain things our hearts would otherwise desire… and we endure any suffering that comes to us on our pilgrimage to His Promised Land by the grace of the food offered forth through His holy sacrifice.  And we thus become like Him. If there were no food upon our table, if this sacrifice upon our altars were not the Body and Blood of Christ – if His presence were not real in this best of wheat, this holy manna – we would faint in the desert of this world and be consumed by our own lusts.  But as it is the Lord provides the nourishment we need, and body and soul are kept alive even unto paradise. Eat His Body and drink His Blood, brothers and sisters, and you shall live in His paradise. ******* O LORD, let us not complain against your providence; may we never harden our hearts but come to your table and eat. YHWH, how can we complain against you and your providence?  Do we not see the food you give us to eat and the blessing it is for our lives?  Why do we so easily harden our hearts? And what does such rebelliousness do but cause us to be separated from you?  What does it bring but our own death?  To us you give even the flesh of your Son to eat, and yet we turn away from this finest of wheat.  O LORD, what hope is there for souls as blind as we? Your Son takes pity on our plight.  He looks on us with healing grace.  No need of ours would He leave unmet; yet will we come to His table to eat?  O LORD, in His hands let us find our home!  Let us trust in His blessing of our lives.  Let us not be a burden to Him or His apostles, but join them in carrying your Bread to the world.

(Lv.25:1,8-17;   Ps.67:2-5,7-8;   Mt.14:1-12)   “It is really the number of crops he sells you.”   The earth is the Lord’s; it is not our own.  And it is only by His grace that we share the fruits of the land.  “The earth has yielded its fruits; God, our God, has blessed us,” our psalm declares.  These fruits may be bought and sold, but the land is God’s own. “In this year of jubilee, then, every one of you shall return to his own property.”  “This fiftieth year you shall make sacred by proclaiming liberty in the land for all its inhabitants.”  The jubilee year delineated in our first reading makes clear that we are God’s and not our own or anyone else’s.  While we tread this earth, in the forty-nine years leading to the jubilee, land is bought and sold, even slaves are made and taken.  But come the jubilee the trumpet is blown and all return whence they came: in this moment we go back to our homes and find the truth – that we are God’s alone.  All that is bought and sold is only temporary; these crops are consumed and pass away.  The land from which they come is in God’s hands and does not pass away.  To it we must return.  For He is our portion and cup. “May all the ends of the earth fear Him!”  Indeed, we should fear Him who holds the earth and all its peoples in His creating hand.  We should not presume upon God’s mercy and “deal unfairly” as we buy and sell in this world with all that He provides.  In our gospel Herod is gripped by fear because he knows he abuses the power given him; he is struck to the heart by John’s preaching because his sin is exposed to the light.  But instead of proclaiming liberty, instead of returning to the Lord, he hardens his heart against Truth, presumes license and not liberty, and has “John arrested, put in chains, and imprisoned.”  But, of course, the Word of God cannot be chained; and Herod is not entirely wrong when he claims John has been “raised from the dead” in the person of Jesus, for the same Spirit which worked in this most fruitful of men comes forth fully in the Son of God.  Good reason has Herod to fear. And it must be noted that the beheading of John does not bring his end, but his beginning.  It returns him to the land whence he has come.  It is as his jubilee, his time to “return to his own property” – to enter the kingdom of God.  For his body buried by his disciples is but as the crops bought and sold (and a more fair and abundant dealer in the fruits of this earth the world has not known); it is, of course, his eternal soul which finds liberty now in the land of the Lord. This world cannot hinder the fruits that are of the Lord.  In faith let us remain in Him, producing an abundant yield in His Name, that the way of the Lord “be known upon earth,” and that we may come to His salvation at the time of Jubilee.  (We shall hear the trumpets resound through the halls of heaven.)   ******* O LORD, there is a land to which you call us to return, and this heavenly homeland is all that matters. YHWH, the earth is yours and all that it holds, and you call us ever back to you.  Let us not be possessive of the gifts you give us but remember that the yield of the land is in your hands. O LORD, you proclaim liberty to all the inhabitants of the land; you call all back to yourself, from whom we come and in whom we find our freedom.  Your call to our hearts to glorify you we must heed, if we are to find your blessing. But if like Herod we harden our hearts against your truth, LORD, if like him we seek to chain your Word with our corrupted hands… if to death we put your call, what shall be left within us?  Then in what fear we shall tremble! Your Prophet comes and walks amongst us; your power is upon Him for good.  The trumpet resounds throughout the earth, calling all men to their ancestral homes.  To you let us come with nothing but exultant joy at your presence.

(Lv.23:1,4-11,15-16,27,34-37;   Ps.81:2-6,10-11;   Mt.13:54-58)   “Offer as an oblation to the Lord holocausts and cereal offerings, sacrifices and libations, as prescribed for each day.”   Our first reading and our psalm speak and sing of the honor due our God.  The Lord outlines for Moses “the festivals of the Lord” which must be celebrated “at the proper time with a sacred assembly,” and our psalmist exhorts us to “blow the trumpet at the new moon, at the full moon, on our solemn feast” in honor of the one true God.  We should worship no god but Him and “hold a sacred assembly and do no sort of work” on His sabbaths and on the days He sets aside for celebrating His Name.  Due honor and praise must be given our God. But when Jesus comes into the midst of His people, due honor is withheld.  Though they cannot deny His teaching, the wisdom and grace He imparts, yet they are blind to His presence before them.  They do not know whence He comes.  They cannot see that He is of God.  And so because of their limited vision, their “lack of faith,” He cannot touch them or heal them as He passes by.  Here He stands in their synagogues, but the shout of joy does not go up from their midst because their hearts are shut tight to the divine presence of the Lord.  The due praise they are moved to is thus denied, and they break the Law of God. It is sad when justice is not done to our God.  We are the ones who would benefit most from offering due sacrifice and oblation – He has no need of our holocausts – yet we commit this kind of suicide by reserving the honor due Him, resisting thus truly entering His marvelous presence and becoming one with the One who created us and saved us.  He invites us to the feast, to the glorious celebration, but we turn down His invitation to join Him at the table of His Body and His Blood.  Each day it is prescribed for us to give our souls to Him; in every place the cup of salvation is raised unto the glory of God: here the festival of the Lord is fulfilled in our midst.  But how many say they see but bread and wine, they hear but empty phrases.  Their hearts are not set on His coming. We are Jesus’ brothers and sisters; we are His mother.  We are those who recognize His presence and give glory to His Name.  The world cannot see Him; the world does not know Him.  But we know Him.  Let us “take up a melody, and sound the timbrel, the pleasant harp and the lyre,” and with all the music our lives can produce give Him glory in our celebration… with all the work we do and all the rest we take each day in Him.  Now is the acceptable time.  Today is the day of salvation.  Here the feast begins.  Let us come into His presence singing for joy.   ******* O LORD, let us believe in you and worship you, and we shall be blessed. YHWH, let us worship you as is due; let us give praise to your NAME and each day celebrate your glory in our midst.  Every day a sacred assembly we may now hold, now that Jesus has walked among us, now that He is present to us upon your holy altar; and so, let us welcome Him into our house and sing praise for the blessing He is to this place. To the teaching of your Son let us listen, LORD; He has come in the flesh with your wisdom and power.  Let us not question His origin but know He is from you, as He shows with all He says and does.  Why do our corrupted souls condemn the Man who comes only to save?  Why do we not see that God is here with us? Remove our weakness, LORD, the blindness of our human eyes, that we might with all our hearts keep your festival at the proper time, for the day of atonement is upon us.

(Ex.40:16-21,34-38;   Ps.84:2-6,8,11;   Mt.13:47-53)   “The cloud covered the meeting tent, and the glory of the Lord filled the Dwelling.”   The Dwelling is the Tabernacle of God, the place in which the ark of the covenant holding the Ten Commandments was housed; and so it was God’s dwelling-place.  And when this cloud lifted from the Tabernacle, the Israelites would set forth; and when the cloud stopped, so would they.  In this we see clearly that the Israelites were led by God and by His Law.  “In the daytime the cloud of the Lord was seen over the Dwelling; whereas at night, fire was seen in the cloud by the whole house of Israel in all stages of their journey.” Our psalm extols the glory of God and His place of dwelling.  It is for Him and to be in His house we yearn.  “Happy they who dwell in your house!” the psalmist exclaims.  So far surpassing is the glory of the Lord that “I had rather lie at the threshold of the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.”  For “even the sparrow finds a home” at the altar of God, and so, how blessed shall we be in His presence. And in our gospel Jesus completes His parables on “the reign of God,” the kingdom of heaven – the House in which we long to dwell eternally.  And, of course, here before us stands the new ark of the covenant in the Person of Jesus.  Here the new and fulfilling Law of love is housed, by which we are now led.  The Spirit descended upon Him as a dove, thus anointing Him with God’s glory, and it is this “cloud,” this Spirit of Truth, which descends upon us now and by which we walk with God.  The Old Covenant and Law are certainly not to be discarded, for “every scribe who is learned in the reign of God is like the head of the household who can bring from his storeroom both the new and the old”; but the Old is indeed subsumed by the New, for the Person of God – Word made flesh, God made man – far exceeds and truly completes the first dwelling, which was but made by human hands.  Now the Law has found a new and lasting home. It is well we understand all that the Lord would teach us.  It is necessary that that teaching be complete, or we shall fall short of what our “heart” and “flesh cry out for.”  “The living God” awaits us; His glory He would give us.  Let us be covered by His cloud and be led forth in His Word of Truth to His eternal reign.  From “strength to strength” let us go, until we dwell with Him forever, His Word written on our hearts.  Amen.    ******* O LORD, we pray we shall not be cast out but be gathered into your dwelling, and in your presence make our home. YHWH, in your Dwelling let us make our home, your cloud ever upon us; in the flesh of your Son we must live, led by the Holy Spirit.  What is old and what is new help us understand, that we might be good stewards of your love and all souls may enter your kingdom. At the end of the age your angels shall separate what is good from what is evil, for the evil have no place with the good.  Only what is good may come into your House; what is evil will be burned in the furnace.  And so our souls cry out for you, dear God, that you might make a place for us in Heaven. To your threshold let us come, by the teaching of your only Son; His Spirit upon us to lead us to you, let us be obedient to His words.  Let us do all you command, O LORD, for only then shall we be blessed.  As your servant Moses let us be – in the new Moses let us make our home.

(Ex.34:29-35;   Ps.99:5-7,9;   Mt.13:44-46)   “The skin of his face had become radiant while he conversed with the Lord.”   His face shining like the pearl of great price, with whom he speaks, Moses comes down from the mountain carrying the Ten Commandments.  Here is a great treasure in His hands, which he has given up all to find.  But, of course, the greater treasure is the Word of God from which it takes its meaning and of which Moses converses with the Lord; and the greatest treasure is certainly God Himself, who makes us shine as stars in the night that is this world.  “Holy is the Lord, our God.” And so, of course, the greatest treasure we can find here on earth, hidden in this ground from which our bodies are formed, is our Lord Jesus Christ, for He is the very image of God, God Himself, the WORD made flesh in our presence.  And thus as the Israelites had the Ten Commandments as the heart of their covenant, so we have a surpassing covenant founded in the Body and Blood of our Lord, in which His presence truly abides.  Still we have His words of Truth, still they illumine our faces.  But now they are spoken by the incarnate mouth of God; now the veil has been removed from the face of the One who inspires all souls, and our hearts burn with the pure light of His wisdom – and now we have that flesh and blood which make the words so real at our fingertips and upon our lips… and so, one we become with His holiness. Radiant is the splendor of God.  He alone is worthy of our praise.  It is He alone we should strive to possess in this life.  He is buried here in our hearts; He is waiting deep within our souls for us to uncover our faces, to uncover our minds from the veil which conceals His light.  Indeed, He is waiting for us to shine as the pearl of great price, to give light to the world as He does, that all might come to converse with Him with unveiled faces.  But we must give up all else to find such grace: this pearl must remain unmixed with baser matter.  As Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights, neither eating nor drinking, so we must come to Him so utterly, leaving all of this world behind, to find the riches which await us in the heavenly kingdom.  Jesus is the way to that kingdom.  In his Word, His Body and His Blood, we find the pearl of great price.  And so shall our faces shine radiantly white as we converse with the Lord in His presence for all eternity.  Praise Him, brothers and sisters, for His grace at work in your life.   ******* O LORD, holy are you, and holy are those who seek your face. YHWH, holy are you, and we are called to be holy as you are holy, to have our faces shine as radiantly as Moses’ – to come into your presence.  O let us converse with you, dear LORD!  For now we have Jesus who speaks with us, who tells us clearly of the glory of your kingdom and how we are called to give up all to enter there.  How the pearl of great price is made evident in His flesh!  To Him let us come and we shall be one with you, and we shall be holy. Before us on the altar shines the pearl of great price, the Body of Christ given to us that we might see and know your holiness, O LORD, that we might become as His Body in the world.  Let us worship Him in the Sacrament, here on your holy mountain. In the field that is your Church we find hidden in this Bread all we need for the salvation of our souls, for discovering holiness in your presence, LORD.