The BreadCast

(Rm.4:20-25; Lk.1:68-75; Lk.12:13-21) "We should serve Him devoutly and through all our days be holy in His sight." For "this very night your life shall be required of you." Always and forever our faith is required of us, if we are to draw breath. Always and forever the Lord asks us what fruit we have produced. Always and forever we must be careful not to toil in vain, but to live according to His Word, believing in His promise. Else our lives will indeed be empty vessels. Holiness befits His house. Adherence to His covenant is our call. Faith in the One who is "saving strength for us" is our necessity. We must indeed be as our father Abraham, who was "fully persuaded that God could do whatever He had promised," whose "faith was credited to him as justice." And if we have the same faith as Abraham, we will find the same justice, the same reward as he. "For our faith will be credited to us also if we believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead." Jesus "was handed over to death for our sins and raised up for our justification" and only faith in Him as the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham will give us life. Why do we turn to the things of this world and in them seek our fulfillment, and in them seek our rest, when they are so vain and when all the while Jesus calls to our souls to come to Him? Why is it we think that in the goods of this world we can find refuge, we can find strength? Why are we so blinded to believe that in them we can find our peace? "Relax! Eat heartily, drink well. Enjoy yourself." Here is the fruitless mantra of this materialistic world. Here is the epitome of our blindness to His will. Here is the belly seeking to take the place of the spirit. Can we not see that it is only the spirit that gives life, that the flesh is of no avail, that the riches of this earth serve more as a distraction to finding the life and the peace we seek in the depths of our souls than to bringing a fulfillment of this most human of desires? This desire cannot be satisfied except in Christ. We must not be as "the man who grows rich for himself instead of growing rich in the sight of God," or when these passing riches rot away or are taken from us, we will be left terribly empty. Rather, we should "avoid greed in all its forms" and dedicate ourselves to service of the Lord. Only in Him is life and peace made known, and only by holiness do we come there. At all times the Lord is calling to our soul; let us answer Him in faith. ******* O LORD, Jesus has died and been raised for our salvation – may we believe in Him and grow rich in your sight. YHWH, let us not grow rich to ourselves, setting our hearts on the wealth of this passing world, but rather grow rich in your sight, in your gifts and graces. Let us have faith, first of all; this blessing let us most treasure. You have sent your Son as Savior for us – what more could we ask of you? Here is the fulfillment of all our desires. And if we put our faith in Him who has died for our sins and been raised for our justification, if we serve Him devoutly all our days, it will indeed be credited to us as righteousness and great reward will be ours in Heaven. O LORD, let us know your mercy upon our souls! Only in you our life is found, dearest LORD and God. Our every breath is in your hands and when we come to the end of our days, what hope shall we have but that you breathe into us new life? And so, let us store up wealth for you alone, the wealth of a faithful heart.

O heroic witnesses to the faith, O loyal followers of Jesus who took up the cup of torture and death willingly, with desire only to join your Lord, with delight and joy at the deadly blows… your offering of body and blood is unsurpassed because it was one with Christ's own, done with love for those who killed you – pray we shall so completely embrace our call, embrace the cross provided us by the Lord, that with your same thirst for truth we shall lay down our lives for our brothers.

(Ex.17:8-13; Ps.121:1-8; 2Tm.3:14-4:2; Lk.18:1-8) "Call out to Him day and night." How faithful is the Lord. How true is He. As our psalmist so well states, "He neither slumbers nor sleeps." Indeed, "He is beside [us] at [our] right hand"; always "the Lord will guard [us] from all evil" – "The Lord will guard your coming and your going, both now and forever." But are we so faithful to Him, turning to Him for His eternal help? "Pray always without becoming weary." This is our instruction today. This is the "wisdom for salvation" sacred Scripture brings us. Do we receive the "correction" and "training for righteousness" it would impart? Do as Jesus asks: "Pay attention to what the dishonest judge says." Though he "neither fear[s] God nor respect[s] any human being," yet because of the widow's persistence, he renders a just decision for her. And do you think God will not hear and answer us when we call out to Him? Do you think He is so "slow to answer"? Rather, "He will see to it that justice is done… speedily," for ever He waits for us to turn to Him; always He longs to do justice for us – it is His great joy to answer our prayers. Learn from our reading from the Book of Exodus. It informs us, "As long as Moses kept his hands raised up, Israel had the better of the fight, but when he let his hands rest, Amalek had the better of the fight." And it was not until Aaron and Hur supported him and "his hands remained steady till sunset" that "Joshua mowed down Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword." And so the sword of the Spirit shall not truly be our own, we will not truly be victorious in the battle against sin, until we remain always in the presence of the Lord, until we, like Him, no longer slumber or sleep. Brothers and sisters, "proclaim the Word; be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient," as Paul exhorts us. In sacred Scripture and the power of the Spirit we find our source for right living; by it we become "equipped for every good work." And consistently good works are found by us only if our prayer is consistent and good. Only if we remain steady and persistent in our calling out to Him at all times will He "not suffer [our] foot to slip." Let us "lift up [our] eyes toward the mountains," seeing always whence our help comes. The Lord prays for us always; let us join Him in prayer. Written, read & chanted, and produced by James Kurt. Music: "Over the Stumbling Block" from Cleansing Human Frailty, fourth album of Songs for Children of Light, by James Kurt. ******* O LORD, may you find faith in our hearts, and perseverance in doing your will. YHWH, we must but be persistent, persistent in our prayer and in our work for you, and we shall find your blessing – all our enemies will be conquered and we will dwell forever with you. We look to you, O LORD, for you alone are our strength and our salvation, you alone guard us from all evil and equip us well for battle. In you and in your Word we take our refuge, and so we find the wisdom we need to attain to your glory. Quickly you come to answer our pleas, for your heart is ever set on our salvation. O may your arms be ever raised to bless us! May your love for us remain always steady, and we remain steady with you. Let us not grow weary in the battle of earthly life but continually find our inspiration in you, always ready to do your will. Hear us as we call upon you this day, O LORD, and justice shall be ours.

O bringer of the Good News, the light of the Gospel, to many nations… a thorough account you have given us of all Jesus did and taught and of the Holy Spirit's work among His disciples; and so the Lord's peace may enter our homes, and we embrace Him with Mary – pray, dear physician, that the Word of the Lord may indeed come to our hearts through the words you declare, and we be healed by His grace and illumined by His Spirit; the glory of the kingdom pray we know. Though He has been taken from our sight, let us proclaim His presence with great joy, for He yet speaks to all our souls in the words you have recorded, in the fire of God that guided your hand.

(2Tm.4:9-17; Ps.145:10-13,17-18; Lk.10:1-9) "The Lord stood by my side and gave me strength, so that through me the preaching task might be completed and all the nations might hear the Gospel." As I read of Jesus' instruction to the disciples as He "sent them in pairs before Him to every town and place He intended to visit," and particularly His words to them to "eat what they set before you," I am reminded of the command given Peter in his dream to "take and eat" of the unclean animals (Acts 10:13), this just before the first Gentile converts came to him seeking the Word of God. And, of course, similar terminology is present in Jesus' sending his workers as if into a harvest: in this case, the Lord shall eat of the feast the disciples are sent forth to prepare. We know our work is our food, that the labor the Lord imparts to us serves as our daily bread. And we know that the wheat that becomes His precious Body and the Word that is cultivated by His apostles, by His preachers and prophets, is the food that sustains us, that strengthens us for our daily tasks. All we do must be blessed by Him and be, as it were, a "discourse of the glory of [His] kingdom," and His kingdom, which is "a kingdom for all ages," and His dominion, which "endures through all generations," shall become known in our midst. It is not easy to eat of this food, to drink of this cup. We see how alone Paul finds himself in our first reading. "Everyone abandoned me," he declares in reference to his trial before the courts of this world. He pleads with Timothy to join him soon, for many have left his side: "I have no one with me but Luke." Indeed, he has nothing but the Word of God. And most apparent in the Lord's instruction to His disciples is the utter reliance on God we must find. Impoverished He sends them forth, dependent only on their preaching and healing to feed themselves. Yes, He sends them forth "as lambs in the midst of wolves." Not a happy prospect. But they have the Word of the Lord to make them strong and protect them from all evil of this world, and nothing could be more sure than this. Into so many homes Luke's gospel has come, bringing its peace to all who abide in the Lord. The proclamation by this great evangelist that "the reign of God is at hand" comes to our hearts even this day. Let us make room for this Word within ourselves and it shall feed us on our journey to the kingdom, and by its grace we shall complete our work on this earth. May the word of the Lord go ever forth. Written, read & chanted by James Kurt; produced by Carie Fortney. Music by Carie Fortney; used by permission. ******* O LORD, send forth your laborers to declare the glory of your kingdom to all nations. YHWH, send forth workers into your harvest, that all might hear your Word preached to their souls and find your peace in their hearts. Your reign be upon us this day. O LORD, your kingdom endures through all generations; to your glory there is no end. O let us share in your holiness, let us share in your glory! and let us share your glory with all souls on the face of this earth. Though we must stand alone as has Paul, though we might be rejected by those to whom we come, yet let us be faithful to your Word and with great strength and confidence accomplish your will. You are our strength, O LORD, and you are our peace; send us forth in your Name to preach and to heal. Let your kingdom come into our midst through your blessed disciples, who speak only of your glory, who find refuge in your might. Nothing do we need if we have you, LORD. Please stand at our side.

O wheat of Christ ground by the teeth of wild beasts and so made His bread, His leaven unto Heaven… by such heroic witness you became one with the Lord, joining Him in death and so in eternal life – pray we shall find the strength and faith to follow in your sacrificial footsteps, that it will also be our sole desire to die in Jesus' name, to be remade in His glory. Teach us the way, for it seems so dimmed by the material things the devil presents to our vision; pray for us, blessed victim, that our thirst for life in Him will overcome any obstacle and so our journey to His kingdom be made straight by His grace. His flesh and blood be our own this day.

(Rm.4:1-8; Ps.32:1-2,5,7,11; Lk.12:1-7) "Happy is the man to whom the Lord imputes not guilt, in whose spirit there is no guile." All our sins shall be taken away by the Lord who watches over us and loves us, if we but believe. We must lay bare our souls, brothers and sisters. We cannot hide from the eternal, piercing light of God. His hand is upon us at all times; His heart is open always for our entering in. It cannot be otherwise with the Lord of the universe, in whose sight "even the hairs of [our] head are counted." And He who surrounds us desires but our love, desires but our faith, desires but that we come into His presence confessing our sins, and He will take them away. And we shall not be "cast into Gehenna" but drawn into His kingdom. His kingdom is coming. Jesus sees it as He gazes out at the dense "crowd of thousands" gathering before Him. He sees the kingdom coming as men's hearts turn to Him. And so He warns His disciples, who shall be the laborers to reap His harvest, "Be on guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy," for if they should take pride in their mission, if they should find in their deeds "grounds for boasting" and so forget the favor of God by which all are justified, they shall indeed tempt the fires of Gehenna. "Everything you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight," for the Lord hears "what you have whispered in locked rooms." So, keep your hearts set on Him and His goodness, and the truth of the Gospel will be proclaimed to the world, and you shall save your immortal soul. Jesus knows, too, that the faith of His disciples and their declaration of His Word to the world will bring persecution. He sees in this scene, too, the cross set before Him, and He knows those who follow Him shall share in it as well. And so He reassures His children that the Father is with them, that He treasures them even as He treasures His Son, and so the powers of this age will hold no reign over them, and that they should "not be afraid of those who kill the body and can do no more." Yes, our soul is in His hands. He has power to forgive and to protect, if we but come to Him as children, if we but come to Him in faith. ******* O LORD, all is known to you – let us confess our sins, and we will be saved. YHWH, of what can we boast, we who cannot forgive our own sins? Truly, we are in your hands, and so should fear you. But in your kindness you readily forgive our transgressions; if we turn to you, our sins are wiped away. And so, there is nothing we need fear, LORD, as long as our desire is for you. Help us to confess our faults that you might remove all our guilt. Inspire us to call upon your NAME, O LORD, and we shall rejoice in your blessings. If we but have faith in you, your justice will be upon us. There is nothing of consequence we can accomplish on our own, nothing but sin. All the good that we do comes from you, and so, what cause have we to be proud? Let us not be false in our love for you, LORD, but even in the deep recesses of our hearts proclaim your glory continually. O may all men come to faith and be saved!

(Rm.3:21-30; Ps.130:1-7; Lk.11:47-54) "This generation will have to account for the blood of all the prophets shed since the foundation of the world." And so shall it be with Christ's own blood, the fulfillment of all the martyrs' sacrifice; for these same scribes and Pharisees whom Jesus proclaims guilty of the prophets' murders will indeed devise the murder of the Son of God. And they prove the truth of His words immediately by their manifestation of "fierce hostility to Him" and their thus giving birth to the plot to crucify Him. Perhaps most appropriate for today, with regard to Paul's epistle to the Romans, is the Lord's admonishment of the lawyers: "You have taken away the key of knowledge. You yourselves have not gained access, yet you have stopped those who wish to enter!" It is essentially the same message the Apostle teaches: "The justice of God has been manifested apart from the law… that justice of God which works through faith in Jesus Christ." It is not through "observance of the law" that justification comes; the works of the law – circumcision, animal sacrifice, dietary rules – which address the body, are useless in this regard. God is Spirit and it is spiritual means He uses to redeem us – we must come in faith to Him. And those who would restrict faith by the imposition of these laws serve only to impede the working of the Spirit and His grace. Paul states the question succinctly: "Does God belong to the Jews alone? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles?" If He is God of all nations, it is not meet to impose Jewish religious practice upon those apart from Jewish tradition. But these protectors, or rather "possessors" and defilers of the law – defiling it by their greed in seizing it, their pride in assuming it as their own and not God's – cannot accept that "it is the same God," that the Gentiles are equal in grace with the Jews… and so to them this teaching is blasphemy. At the root of the problem is the fact that these leaders are not as the psalmist in our readings today, who sings: "My soul waits for the Lord more than sentinels wait for the dawn." Nor do they cry "in supplication" "out of the depths" of their iniquity for God's forgiveness. If they had been so disposed, they would have seen who stood before them, they would have recognized His coming, and they would have fallen to their knees and found His grace. Let us not be so hardhearted, for indeed the blood of Jesus is upon the hands of all who sin, just as His salvation is upon all who repent and believe in Him. Water alone will not wash us clean; we must recognize the lack of love we have, and find His Spirit working in us. ******* O LORD, your justice is shown in your mercy, which you offer to every faithful soul. YHWH, we have all sinned and fallen short of your glory, and cannot by our own strength find our way back to you. We cannot justify ourselves but need the grace that comes to us through the blood of your Son to justify our souls, to set us right with you. But what of those who fail to see they need your forgiveness, who fail to recognize that they, too, are sinners, that they have the blood of Jesus upon their hands? O LORD, how can these be justified? How can they come to faith in you if they do not listen to the One you have sent to draw us back to your presence? They shall but continue in the way of sinning, mounting up the blood of the prophets for judgment day. Your Son offers His life for our sakes; freely He sacrifices Himself upon the Cross that we might be saved. Help us to turn to Him, O LORD, to see what we have done, repent, and be redeemed. You are the God of us all, and to all souls Jesus' blood does call.

(Rm.2:1-11; Ps.62:2-3,6-7,9,13; Lk.11:42-46) "Your hard and impenitent heart is storing up retribution for that day of wrath when the just judgment of God will be revealed." "He will repay every man for what he has done… Yes, affliction and anguish will come upon every man who has done evil… But there will be glory, honor, and peace for everyone who has done good." This is the just judgment, and it comes only from God, not from sinful man. And so we are chastised in preparation for that day, that of His wrath we may be spared. We should all wish to be "insult"ed by Jesus as are the Pharisees and lawyers in today's gospel, here, today, while there is still time. We should all desire His difficult words of instruction which would serve, if heeded humbly, to separate us from the sins of the world, the attachments of this life that cling to our soul and prevent our coming into His presence. Under His mighty hand we should all subject ourselves, that He might lighten our "impossible burdens," that He might take from us all that is not holy, all that is not true – that we might be freed from the judgment upon our souls and walk with Him in immortality. We must be ready for His day. But as it is the darkness is with us. "Only in God is my soul at rest." With David we must sing this truth from our hearts. The emptiness of the flesh and its imagination must not possess us; vain pride must take no place in our lives… All our lusts must be set aside and we must know with certainty that only in God do we find our peace: He is our refuge and our strength. "He only is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold," we must cry, and "trust in Him at all times," or wandering from the truth we will find ourselves in the way of destruction. "God's kindness is an invitation to you to repent." In His patience He gives you time to turn from sin and find His grace and mercy. Pray He will convict you of your sin in this time and you will not convict yourself by your judgment of others. Seek His redeeming hand at work in your life and do the good before Him. Then you "shall not be disturbed," when His Word has taken root in your soul, when you have left behind all the vanity of this world. Then the glory of God will be your own, and nothing shall remove it from you. Soften your heart to His blessed chastisement; it shall work for you against the day of judgment. ******* O LORD, we will be judged by what we do, and by what we fail to do – let us set our hearts on you alone. YHWH, let us not fall into judgment of others but treasure rather your Son's chastisement of our souls, that we might find freedom from our sins and take our refuge in you alone. Soon your just judgment will be revealed; let us benefit from your kindness and take this time to repent, lest we be condemned on your day of wrath. Your love, O God, is shown in the call to repentance you make to all your children, the Jew first, then the Gentile. You indeed chastise every son whom you love. And so Jesus proclaims great woe upon the Pharisees, hoping to turn them from their wicked ways; and so St. Paul makes known to us our hard and impenitent hearts, that from the punishment they invite we might be spared. While there is time, O LORD, while your grace and mercy are yet being offered forth, let us place our trust in you alone, and so find rest for our souls in your eternal glory.

(Rm.1:16-25; Ps.19:2-5; Lk.11:37-41) "They stultified themselves through speculating to no purpose, and their senseless hearts were darkened." If these words do not refer to modern man most poignantly, then I imagine nothing can be said of anything. In ancient times, "they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images representing mortal man, birds, beasts, and snakes" and bowed down to statues as if they were gods. The images man worships today are also the creations of his own hands, sometimes as physical as the idols worshiped before the time of Christ – who does not long to see his own image on one of our television sets, and who is held in greater esteem than those movie stars whom we have never met but know only of their image on a screen? – but perhaps most particularly they are the vain ideas, which reveal their utter absurdity to any mind with a modicum of common sense, but which are propounded as sacred by the elite thinkers of our day. Their numbers seem endless, and one wonders if man will rationalize himself out of existence, as perhaps he already has philosophically in the declaration that God is dead, and so often done in reality through movements such as Communism and Nazism. Indeed, how relevant are all Paul's words today: "They certainly had knowledge of God, yet they did not glorify Him as God or give Him thanks"; "they claimed to be wise, but turned into fools instead"; "they engaged in the mutual degradation of their bodies." But "the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against the irreligious and perverse spirit of men who… hinder the truth." "These men who exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator" cannot but come to naught, for "day pours out the word to day, and night to night imparts knowledge" – the Gospel goes forth "to the ends of the world" and Truth overwhelms all lies. As Jesus overturned the Pharisees who "cleanse the outside of cup and dish, but within… are filled with rapaciousness," so shall the mind of modern man be shown for all its absurdity in the clear light of day. Time. There is but time to wait. Time for the Word to go forth and to pray for the conversion of the nations, of all peoples. And there is hope, hope that men shall turn from their absurdity and their perversity to embrace the light of the Gospel and the true teaching of love it brings. We pray the senseless will find faith and be led thereby to salvation. ******* O LORD, openly your Word speaks to all men's hearts, calling them to salvation. YHWH, how shall the senseless mind of man be redeemed? If it turns from you, the Creator of all, to give praise to senseless creatures, will it not be ever as blind as they? Trapped in its own contrivances, it shall never see the light of day or hear the Word of Truth. And so, to these faithless souls the Gospel will be so much foolishness, as in foolishness they die. Your Word goes forth to the ends of the earth and is revealed in all Creation. But men who cannot see beyond the flesh quench the Spirit even as they engage in the destruction of their bodies. For the purity of your Creation they pervert, and so fail to stand in your holy light. O LORD, let us cleanse the inside of our cup that we might come to your glory! Your eternal power and divinity help us to recognize, that filled with knowledge of you, O God, we may keep our hearts from being darkened by the false worship of this corrupted age.