The BreadCast

(Is.45:6-8,18,21-25;   Ps.85:9-14,Is.45:8;   Lk.7:18-23)   “There is no just and saving God but me.”   Jesus is “He who is to come”; His deeds speak for themselves.  “There is no other!” “Justice shall walk before Him, and salvation, along the way of His steps.”  How evident this is in Jesus’ life, for wherever He goes He teaches wisdom; whomever He touches He heals.  God created the world “not to be a waste” but “to be lived in,” and so Jesus sets free all captives – the blind, the lame, the deaf… He releases all from sin.  Yes, “the Lord Himself will give His benefits; our land shall yield its increase.”  The justice which descends from the heavens, which falls from His lips “like dew from above,” will cause “salvation [to] bud forth.” “Near indeed is His salvation to those who fear Him.”  We see Him.  We hear Him.   If our hearts are open to Him, we witness His working every moment of our lives.  For He is “the creator of the heavens… the designer and maker of the earth,” and His Hand is at work in all things – He cannot be separated from His creation.  The light and the darkness are made by Him, and for us who love Him “truth shall spring out of the earth, and justice shall look down from heaven.”  “For He proclaims peace to His people.”  For those who love Him, there is only light. And we know that Light is Jesus.  It is to witness to Him the Baptist came; and now he hears of the fulfillment of the way he has prepared.  We must find “no stumbling block” in the Lord.  We must join in proclaiming His good news, in walking in His way – in letting our deeds speak for themselves as wrought by the Hand of the loving Creator and His redeeming Son. Be of light, brothers and sisters, of justice, of peace.  Let kindness and truth meet in all your words and deeds and you will be sons and daughters of the one “just and saving God” – and you will be blessed forever.   ******* O LORD, may every knee bend before you who created us and redeemed us. YHWH, in your goodness you have made the earth and all who dwell in it, and by your grace your Son has served to redeem Creation.  From the beginning you designed this world to be lived in, you desired that all your creatures should flourish, and though woe has come upon us because of our disobedience, now Jesus has come among us to make the deaf hear and the blind see, to raise us from the death of sin.  O let us walk before you in justice! You are the only just and saving God; beside you there is no other.  And should we not rejoice in your presence, O LORD?  Your justice rains down upon us from Heaven now, and should we not spring up from the earth declaring your truth and your glory?  Should we not be one with your Son who is our salvation and so find your blessings, and so yield an increase of holy fruit?  O let us be healed of all our afflictions! that we might know your glory dwelling in our land.

(Rv.22:1-7;   Ps.95:1-7,Rv.21:20;   Lk.21:34-36)   “Remember, I am coming soon!”   And when He comes what blessings there shall be for those who have been faithful to Him.  They shall eat of “the trees of life which produce fruit twelve times a year,” which grow either side of “the river of life-giving water, clear as crystal” flowing from “the throne of God and of the Lamb.”  Healed entirely shall they be by the medicine of their leaves. Then, brothers and sisters, if we wish to eat of this blessed, holy fruit, let us not now “become bloated with indulgence and drunkenness and worldly cares.”  For the bitter fruit of this earth will only poison our souls with sin and so prevent our tasting the food of the heavenly kingdom.  “Nothing deserving a curse shall be found there,” so let us remove all of this world’s bitterness from our tongues. Oh my dear brethren, the promise is great for those who “serve Him faithfully,” who “acclaim the Rock of our salvation,” the Lord, the “great God,” and Jesus Christ His Son.  Listen to what our blessed brother John imparts to us today, for “these words are trustworthy and true,” and oh so beautiful: “They shall see Him face to face and bear His name on their foreheads.  The night shall be no more.  They will need no light from lamps or the sun, for the Lord God shall give them light, and they shall reign forever.”  Do you hear these words?  Does the promise take root in your hearts?  Oh let your heart be upon His light!  Let the glory of His face be all you aspire to, for it is not far from you. “Come, let us bow down in worship; let us kneel before the Lord who made us.”  For “the Lord, the God of prophetic spirits, has sent His angel to show His servants what must happen very soon.”  Let us listen to His words.  “Happy the man who heeds the prophetic message of this book!” who eats the Bread God provides.  His dawn is on the horizon.   ******* O LORD, come; send your Son a second time   and let us enter your kingdom. YHWH, that we might be able to stand secure before your Son on His coming Day, that great and terrible day that leads to the eternal kingdom!  O that we might eat the fruit of the crystal river that flows from your throne and that of the Lamb, that heals us of all our illness and enables us to live forever!  O that we might stand in your holy light, that we might look upon your face, your NAME written on our foreheads!  O that we might forever reign with you! O LORD, let us sing your praise even this day that we might come to sing your praise always in your kingdom.  Let us bow down in our worship and kneel before you who have made us.  You are our God, you alone; let our hearts not be set on any of the things of this world but on you who have made them all, that we might transcend this earth and all its emptiness and come quickly into your presence.  O let us heed your Word this day and ever serve you faithfully.  Glory to you, O LORD our God!

(Jas.2:14-24,26;   Ps.112:1-6;   Mk.8:34-9:1)  “Faith without works is as dead as a body without breath.” How dead indeed is a body without breath; how short a time we can go without breathing before dying.  And so how much is our faith dependent on works to remain alive. Brothers and sisters, we are human, we have bodies – of the earth, of flesh and bone, we are.  We are not angels.  And having bodies we must use what God gave us, what we are: it is in such action we prove the worth of our salt.  We cannot sit by idly while another suffers and call ourselves Christian; we cannot prove our faith other than by actions.  We must work out our call.  We must “take up [our] cross and follow in [Christ’s] steps.”  Sitting by the side of the road will get us nowhere.  Just as Abraham showed His belief in God by taking his son to be sacrificed, so must we move as the Lord calls. And He calls us to service, He calls us to love.  He calls us to lay down our lives for the sake of others.  And this not just in thoughts or words, but in deeds.  We must be as He who “dawns through the darkness, a light for the upright” and conduct our “affairs with justice.”  If we are ashamed of Jesus and the doctrine of the cross He preaches, if we hide our light under a bushel basket afraid to speak or act in His name, He makes quite clear that He will be “ashamed of [us] when He comes with the holy angels in the Father’s glory.”  Profession of faith alone is not sufficient to enter “the reign of God established in power”; we must practice what is preached. Was not Jesus of flesh and bone?  Did He not perform great works in our midst?  And does He not still perform great works through us His Church; or are we now angels flying at heaven’s gate?  Flesh of His flesh and bone of His bone we must be, or we are nothing worth.  We eat His body and drink His blood and shoulder His cross to find “the wealth and riches [that] shall be in His house,” that will live eternally. (It occurs to me that the quote could be reversed to be phrased more literally: “Faith without works is dead as breath without a body,” wandering aimlessly; but it would not get across the dire need for works quite so forcefully.) ******* O LORD, man and woman are one and are brought together in your will; in our covenants let us reflect your mercy and faithfulness. YHWH, give us your patience in enduring all things.  You are kind and merciful; let us be like you.  Help us to practice your compassion in our marriages and in all our relationships – let us be ready as you to forgive.  Yes, let all our sins be put far from us. If we endure with you, O LORD, shall we not be blessed?  If with you we practice patience and kindness when put to the test, will we not share in your reward?  Let us be so joined to you, LORD, that we may indeed be called your Body in this world. O my LORD, let us never be divorced from love of one another or love of you.  Let our covenants be sure as your own; for you have promised to be with us even till the end of the age, and so, should we abandon one another?  Would this not be an abandonment of you? Let our ‘yes’ be ‘yes’, O LORD, and let us therefore live forever in your eternal Word, in the truth and love only you hold.

(Jas.2:1-9;   Ps.34:2-7;   Mk.8:27-33)  “You are not judging by God’s standards but by man’s!” This is a most important statement Jesus makes; it really cuts to the heart of His teaching, and to His sacrifice for our sins. He has just finished asking His apostles, “Who do you say that I am?” and for perhaps the first time heard their belief that He is the Messiah.  This is a critical moment.  But there is no time to sit back and enjoy it, for “He then began to teach them that the Son of Man had to suffer much, be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, be put to death, and rise three days later.”  He knows they will not understand.  He knows they will not hear “rise three days later” but “suffer” and “death” and be appalled that the Son of God should be treated so.  The sacrifice is here beyond their comprehension.  And He knows, too, that Peter does not only speak for all when he declares Jesus the Messiah, but also when he “remonstrates with Him.”  And so the Lord turns around from where Peter had led Him privately, and makes a point of “eyeing the disciples”; for in His reprimand of Peter as “Satan”, He reprimands them all.  Their minds must be utterly changed; they must see things as God – they must look upon heaven and not earth. James, of course, speaks of the same matter in his discourse condemning favoritism or the judging of others by appearance.  For if we favor the rich man with the gold rings, we are showing our preference for the mark of the beast “who blaspheme[s] that noble name which has made us God’s own.”  If we judge against the faith of the poor in favor of the wealth of the rich and powerful, what are we saying?  That we desire the riches and power of this world and not the treasure God holds in store for us in heaven.  We are indeed “as judges who hand down corrupt decisions,” for we are nothing but false to the faith we profess. Again we must ask ourselves what our hearts are set upon.  The Lord’s challenge to our souls is severe.  Is it Satan’s realm we prefer, or are we as “the lowly” of whom David sings, who find salvation in glorifying the Lord.  It is a clear choice with which we are presented: to judge as God or to judge with the limited and ultimately deadly vision of man fallen under the sway of Satan.  It is from just such judgment the Lord has come to release the apostles, and all His Church, in His Name. ******* O LORD, let us not be plunged in the sea or herded into the nether world, but let us set our hearts and minds on you and so find life everlasting. YHWH, let us be poor, poor in spirit, poor to this world and its deadly passions.  Let us put no hope in the riches that rot, or we shall rot with them.  Let us seek, rather, the riches of your kingdom by giving our poor cup of water for the upbuilding of your Church. Take from us, LORD, all that keeps us from you.  Let us not steal or walk in the paths of the unrighteous or look with lust upon anything or anyone.  Take hand or foot or eye from us instead; keep us from all sin.  Let our salt not rot, our lives not be worthless, but let us bear fruit in your NAME. LORD, our God, take especially from us our foolish pride, our belief that we can do anything of ourselves.  O let us not trust in ourselves or in the things of this world but only in you and help rather than hurt the just man you bless in your holy will.  Let all souls be led to your kingdom.

(Jas.1:19-27;   Ps.15:1-5;   Mk.8:22-26)  “Jesus laid hands on his eyes, and he saw perfectly.” What is it to see perfectly but to be as “the man who peers into freedom’s ideal law and abides by it”?  For to see perfectly is to see as God sees, not looking upon the surface of things – that which is reflected in a mirror – but to see the light of God reflected off the souls of His children.  And not merely to speak of such things, but, as James states so forthrightly, to “act on this word,” to let the Lord’s light take “root in you”… to “humbly welcome the Word,” and then to “put it into practice.” Does Jesus not put the word of God into practice in our gospel today?  James says we should be  “looking after orphans and widows in their distress,” and Jesus shows this concern for the poor and needy by taking “the blind man’s hand and [leading] him outside the village,” there to anoint his eyes and grant him vision to “see everything clearly.”  With all His life Jesus gives example of how we must put flesh to the word of God, for He Himself is the Word made flesh.  If we have not flesh to the laws we hold, to the teaching we receive, we have not Christ, and our faith is worthless.  “He who walks blamelessly and does justice,” he it is that is acceptable in God’s sight. “Can you see anything?” Jesus whispers to all of us as He works to illumine our vision.  “Do you know my touch upon your eyes?”  If we see people “like walking trees,” He will touch us again, for He does not tire of serving our needs.  And must we not be the same?  Must we not never harm but always help our “fellow man”?  Must we not be men as Jesus?  He is the mirror in which we see ourselves. And oh to gaze into His face when we awake!  Oh to even now know His flesh in our bones and His blood flowing through our veins!  Oh to be a Christian!  A Christian!  A man living as Christ…  What joy is ours as He gives light to our eyes and we see ourselves walking with Him!  Let it be so for all eternity. ******* O LORD, let us be for you, living perfectly in your will. YHWH, let us be with you; let us give our lives to you, doing your work in accord with your will and not following the vain path our own desires mark out for us.  Let us be your own; let us be your own, your disciples in this world. How can we do anything if you do not bless it, LORD?  Where shall we end if apart from you?  For we indeed are as vapor that quickly vanishes, and empty are all our plans.  But with you and in your NAME, miracles we can perform.  Great works we may accomplish if in humility we follow your way; for you are great and all powerful, and we become as you are when we walk with you. O LORD, we do not know what tomorrow may bring.  Even this day is a mystery to us.  Let us but place this day into your hands, and tomorrow will care for itself in your will.  Let us not die seeking the vain riches of this earth but come to life by your saving grace.

(Sir.36:1,5-6,10-17;   Ps.79:8-9,11,13;   Mk.10:32-35)   “Take pity on your holy city, Jerusalem, your dwelling place.”   The prayer of the wise man is good, but I see that the same answer the Lord gave James and John when they asked to sit “one at [His] right hand and the other at [His] left” in His glory, could be given to Sirach: “You do not know what you are asking.”  For neither knows the implication of their request – neither can see that it will only be fulfilled in a painful death. In our gospel Jesus is leading the disciples “on the road going up to Jerusalem,” a crowd following behind.  There He will “fulfill the prophecies spoken in [His] name.”  There He will “fill Zion with His majesty, [His] temple with [His] glory.”  But the keepers of the keys of the temple “will condemn Him to death”; they will thereby destroy the Temple itself.  In this way only will the “prophets be proved true.”  In this way only He will “deliver us and pardon our sins.”  In this way only will He “with [His] great power free those doomed to death.”  For the prophets have said that the Servant must suffer.  The prophets have said that the Son must die.  There is no other way that “three days later He will rise.”  There is no other way for Him to redeem those condemned to die. This must sink into our hearts; this we must understand, we who run so freely from the cross, who think it is a facile thing to “inherit the land.”  The Lord will indeed have pity on our souls; He will indeed answer “the prisoners’ sighing” and forget “the iniquities of the past.”  But Heaven is attained only by those who drink from His cup; the glory of God is known only by those who share in Jesus’ “bath of pain.”  No other way will we be cleansed of our sins.  No other way will we be made ready.  The cross is the path to the New Jerusalem, and we must walk it with our Lord. And so, be not lazy about the work He has set before you; fail not to “serve the needs of all.”  If you think of yourself and some vain reward, you will never find the blessing which awaits “those for whom it has been reserved.”  His “compassion come[s] quickly to us” if we but share in His blood. ******* O LORD, your Son has come to die that we might be freed from the death of sin; on this path of sacrifice let us join Him. YHWH, you are the eternal God.  We are but sinful men.  And so, how shall we come into your kingdom?  Only by the bath of pain, only by drinking from the chalice of your Son – only by His death on the Cross. He will be condemned to death.  He will be spit upon and mocked.  He will indeed be crucified.  It is we who lead Him there, we who by our sin and selfishness push Him along the road to Calvary.  O LORD, have mercy on our souls! Hear our sighing in this dark prison; let us live in exile no more.  Bring us back to your holy dwelling place… your glory may we somehow know.  We call out to you from the ends of the earth, LORD; have compassion on our cries. Your prophets will be proved true: your Servant will suffer a terrible death.  Give us the courage to walk with Him, LORD, to share in the sacrifice He makes.

(Ex.14:21-15:1;   Ex.15:1,8-10,12,17;   Mt.12:46-50)   “Thus the Lord saved Israel on that day from the power of the Egyptians.”   The Lord fought for the Israelites, His people.  Working great wonders, He brought them forth from the land of Egypt.  Indeed, “the Israelites marched into the midst of the sea on dry land, with the water like a wall to their right and to their left.”  So great was His love for His chosen ones that He saved them in this miraculous fashion, casting their enemies into the sea.  Them “the earth swallowed,” but His people crossed unharmed. Here is the prefigurement of the Lord’s saving us from sin by His death and resurrection; through the waters of Baptism we now come to “the mountain of [the Lord’s] inheritance,” our enemies dying in that same water which saves us.  In the dark of night, in the death of Christ, we enter the realm of the sea; at dawn we see our enemies lying dead on the shore.  But it is no longer those who are related to the Lord by flesh and blood who are brought through the waters to His sanctuary.  The chosen ones are no longer of a particular race.  “Whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is brother and sister and mother to me.”  It is a spiritual kingdom to which we are now called, and it is in the Spirit His children are now born. Shocking this word must have been to the ears of those so used to judging the blessings of the Lord by bloodline.  Here is the beginning of Christ’s teaching that any and all are called to the table of the Lord.  How shocked even Peter was when directed to go to the Gentile people, when instructed to eat, as it were, of the unclean food (Acts 10:13-14).  But the Lord makes all clean by His blood.  His death and resurrection open the gates of heaven to all who would enter there.  To anyone who would follow in His footsteps, the Lord leads on dry land to the promised glory.  But do not think, as I so often hear, that there are no casualties in this new exodus.  Do not hold so foolishly to the idea that the God of the Old Testament was harsh in His destruction of the Egyptian army but the God of the New effects no such punishment.  See that the casualties in this battle suffer a fate worse than drowning in the sea: eternal condemnation awaits those who now harden their hearts against the word of Christ.  The warfare is now spiritual rather than physical, and the judgment Jesus passes on the evil generation is now far worse than any before His time had come.  As He Himself has said elsewhere, “It would be better for him if a millstone were put around his neck and he be thrown into the sea, than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin” (Lk.17:2). We are brothers and sisters of the Lord, my friends, and so He saves us from the day of judgment.  As long as we do His will, His blessing shall be ours.  Let us rejoice this day in the justice of God, that He cares for all those who love Him, even as He casts their enemies into the sea.   ***** O LORD, let us live according to your will that we might be saved, that we might be one with Jesus in Heaven even as all our enemies perish. YHWH, your servant Moses did your will; through Him you revealed your glory to the people, and they triumphed over their enemies.  May we serve you as has Moses and so become brother and sister and mother to Jesus, and so become as your children. May your Son extend His hands toward us and bless us with His sanctifying Word, that all sin may flee from our midst and we become as your chosen.  Through the sea let us pass on dry ground, LORD, the water like a wall to our right and to our left.  Through Baptism we are redeemed by the power of your hand; to Jesus let us be configured. Horse and chariot you cast into the sea – it is not by our own strength we are saved.  It is by the grace and blessing that come from you, LORD, and by our joining ourselves to your will. In fear shall our enemies retreat from your glance, O LORD, for you fight for your lowly ones.

(Nm.11:4-15;   Ps.81:2,12-17;   Mt.14:22-36)   “How little faith you have!”   It is the Lord’s exclamation to His holy apostles, to the foundation of His Church – to His Rock.  And certainly it applies to all of us as it does, too, to the Israelites in the desert.  All need greater faith to come upon the new shore of paradise and find healing for all our ills. As the Israelites tramp through the desert, they grow tired of heavenly food and desire something earthen.  Their faith in God is shaken by the lusts of their belly, and their outcry against the Lord grieves His servant Moses.  He finds himself unable to carry this stiff-necked people “like a foster father carrying an infant.”  He breaks under the burden of “all the people” even as Peter – who shall have to carry the whole Church upon his shoulders – trembles at the wind upon the sea.  Moses asks for death to find relief, and Peter cries as he begins to sink… and the Lord will “at once stretch out His hand” and catch them both, His ears ever open to the prayers of His holy ones.  But greater faith will they both need to have to lead God’s people forward.  Peter will find it after Pentecost (though not before denying Him three times), and the stubbornness of the Israelites, “the hardness of their hearts,” will keep Moses from the earthly Promised Land; only in the next world will he discover paradise. The faith we need to make it through the desert that is this world and come into the heavenly kingdom of our Lord and God is spoken by those trembling in the storm-tossed boat: “Undoubtedly you are the Son of God,” and exhibited by the men of Gennesaret.  For they “brought Him all the afflicted, with the plea that He let them do no more than touch the tassel of His cloak.”  Thus, the same faith the woman in the crowd with the open wound for years had shown Jesus on His way to raise the little child is shown here by these poor sinners, for “as many as touched it were fully restored to health.” A word from His mouth.  A drop of His blood.  The touch of His hand.  The hem of His garment.  A crust of bread from His table…  This is all we need.  If we have faith, in a moment we will be restored to life; we will be redeemed from all our ills, from all our sins – from all the temptations of our bellies and this desert.  The sea may rage and contend with the wind, but we will remain calm and patient in His presence: we will walk on water, we will find “honey from the rock,” if we have but faith.  It is not far away, and that the size of a mustard seed is all we need.  Find relief from all your distress by calling upon the Savior. ******* O LORD, what little faith we have! – how quickly we forget you are our loving God.      YHWH, how can we face the distress of this world, the wind and the waves that threaten to overcome us, the disobedience of those in our care? It is a weight too heavy for us to bear! How could Moses carry your people through the desert; how does Peter hold up your Church? Indeed, it is only by faith we have any strength at all – indeed, it is you who bear all our burdens.      Under the weight of the Cross Jesus has sweated and died. All He has taken upon Himself. And we need but say: “Undoubtedly you are the Son of God!” to the One you have sent to save us, and all our burdens will be lifted from us, and we will be preserved from death. But what little faith we have, O LORD! and how much we need your help.      But you are faithful when we call out to you, dear God. You desire to feed us with finest wheat. You would heal all our ills and bring us to the farther shore, if we but believed in your loving Son.

"Let us destroy the tree in its vigor; let us cut him off from the land of the living, so that his name will be spoken no more."