The BreadCast

(Rm.8:12-17;   Ps.68:2,4,6-7,20-21;   Lk.13:10-17)   “All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.”   It is the Spirit of God that led the poor stooped woman in our gospel today to the synagogue to see and hear the teaching of Jesus the Lord, and to find a healing for her infirmity.  “This daughter of Abraham… in the bondage of Satan for eighteen years” was by the Lord “released from her...

(Rm.8:1-11;   Ps.24:1-6;   Lk.13:1-9)   “You will all come to the same end unless you reform.”   We hear again today in our readings of the distinction between those who are of the flesh, and so of sin, and those who are of the spirit and justice.  And since “the tendency of the flesh is toward death but that of the spirit toward life and peace,” rightly does Jesus warn us that we will die in our...

(Rm.7:18-25;   Ps.119:66,68,76-77,93,94;   Lk.12:54-59)   “Why do you not judge for yourselves what is just?”   Do we not have the law of God at work in us now?  Must we yet subject ourselves to the judge of this earth, who cannot but condemn us for our sin?  If we cried out with our psalmist for the Lord to teach us His “commands,” His “statutes,” His “law,” and His “precepts,” His “promise” of “...

(Rm.6:19-23;   Ps.1:1-4,6,40:5;   Lk.12:49-53)   “The Lord watches over the way of the just, but the way of the wicked vanishes.”   The division is clear.  The Lord Himself has stated, “I have come for division.”  Far from establishing “peace on the earth,” His message makes clear the distinction between the evil and the good, the wicked and the just, drawn so well in our psalm today.  He has “com...

(Rm.6:12-18;   Ps.124:1-8;   Lk.12:39-48)   “Offer yourselves to God as men who have come back from the dead to life.”   If we have come back from the dead to life, should we then offer ourselves up to death again?  As Paul questions, “Are we free to sin?”  How absurd a thought!  If we are sinners, let us give ourselves freely to sin, and find the condemnation which comes from this.  But if we are...

(Rm.5:12,15,17-21;   Ps.40:7-10,17;   Lk.12:35-38)  “To do your will, O my God, is my delight, and your law is within my heart!” “May those who love your salvation say ever, ‘The Lord be glorified.’”  May we who love the Lord “exult and be glad” in Him.  May we who take refuge in His grace sing aloud His praise.  What greater gift could we have than Jesus Christ, whose “single righteous act brough...

(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 accor...

(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 alwa...

(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 p...

(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 judg...

(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...

(Rm.1:1-7;   Ps.98:1-4;   Lk.11:29-32)   “You have a greater than Jonah here.”   Greater than any prophet is He.  Wiser than Solomon is the Lord who is the source of all wisdom.  For it is He of whom the prophets speak; it is His promised coming “the Holy Scriptures record.”  The fulfillment of prophets and kings is in our midst.  Our high priest is with us offering the sacrifice of Himself.  Let...

(Jl.4:12-21;   Ps.97:1-2,5-6,11-12;   Lk.11:27-28)   “Near is the day of the Lord in the valley of decision.”   And so, “blest are they who hear the word of God and keep it.”  For though “sun and moon are darkened and the stars withhold their brightness,” though “mountains melt like wax before the Lord,” “light dawns for the just,” and for them “the mountains shall drip new wine, and the hills sha...

(Jl.1:13-15,2:1-2;   Ps.9:2-3,6,8-9,16;   Lk.11:15-26)   “It is near, a day of darkness and of gloom, a day of clouds and somberness!”   And we must be prepared.  We must rend our hearts and not our garments.  We must “spend the night in sackcloth,” repentant of our sins.  We must “proclaim a fast” and “cry to the Lord,” “for near is the day of the Lord.”  The prophet Joel sounds this alarm severa...

(Mal.3:13-20;   Ps.1:1-4,6,40:5;   Lk.11:5-13)   “For you who fear my name, there will arise the sun of justice with its healing rays.”   Both our psalm and first reading make clear the distinction between the blessed and the condemned: “The Lord watches over the way of the just, but the way of the wicked vanishes,” our psalmist declares.  The wicked are “like chaff which the wind drives away,” wh...

(Jon.4:1-11;   Ps.86:3-6,9-10,15;   Lk.11:1-4)   “Your kingdom come.”   “You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, rich in clemency, loathe to punish.”  How beautifully Jonah speaks of God’s blessed compassion on His people.  And how poorly he is able to accept and live that grace.  The Lord’s forgiveness extends now to the ends of the earth; let us not be loathe to offer it unto all. In...

(Jon.3:1-10;   Ps.130:1-4,7-8;   Lk.10:38-42)   “He repented of the evil that He had threatened to do them; He did not carry it out.”   Ninevah is spared.  Because “they proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth,” because they repented of their sin and called “loudly to God,” He did not punish them for their iniquity but forgave them and withheld “His blazing wrath.”  An...

(Jon.1:1-2:1,11;   Jon.2:2-5,7-8;   Lk.10:25-37)   “A Samaritan who was journeying along came on him and was moved to pity at the sight.”   First let me note that the book of Jonah is not a parable, not an imaginary story, as popular scholarship would have us believe.  How do I know this?  I have faith, yes, which those who would explain away any miracle of God so sorely lack; but I know it, too,...

(Bar.4:5-12,27-29;   Ps.69:33-37;   Lk.10:17-24)   “He who has brought disaster upon you will, in saving you, bring you back enduring joy.”   That enduring joy which comes to us after this time of trial is our theme today.  Not only does Baruch come to it in his exhortation for the people to “fear not” anymore but to turn to God and be glad, but it is David’s song as well: “You who seek God, may y...

(Bar.1:15-22;   Ps.79:1-5,8-9;   Lk.10:13-16)   “We have been disobedient to the Lord, our God, and only too ready to disregard His voice.”   Woe is upon us for our sin.  We “have sinned in the Lord’s sight and disobeyed Him,” and so “the evils and the curse which the Lord enjoined upon Moses… cling to us even today.”  And if we do not recognize our sin, as Baruch does so beautifully in our first...

(Neh.8:1-12;   Ps.19:8-11;   Lk.10:1-12)  “They understood the words that had been expounded to them.” What a blessed day we hear of in our first reading.  And what a blessed reception the Word of God finds in the hearing of the people!  For “the whole people gathered as one man” and “listened attentively to the book of the law” of Moses as “Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden platform that had been...

(Neh.2:1-8;   Ps.137:1-6;   Lk.9:57-62)   “How could we sing a song of the Lord in a foreign land?”   Our home is in heaven.  “The foxes have lairs, the birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head,” the Lord tells him who would follow His way in our gospel today.  Our home is in heaven, and only there do we find joy.  And only finding our place there should possess...

(Zec.2:5-9,14-15;   Jer.31:10-13;   Lk.9:43-45)   “They shall come streaming to the Lord’s blessings.”   The Kingdom is being prepared.  And as bleak as things may seem upon this earth, the glory of the Lord awaits us all.  This is the message of Jeremiah in our psalm and the message given Zechariah by the angel in our first reading.  “I will turn their mourning into joy, I will console and gladde...

(Hg.1:15-2:9;   Ps.43:1-5;   Lk.9:18-22)   “Greater will be the future glory of this house than the former, says the Lord of hosts.”   “Take courage… and work!  For I am with you,” the Lord says through the prophet Haggai to the remnant of the people returned from exile as they prepare to rebuild the temple.  “My spirit continues in your midst; do not fear!”  Of course, we know these words of enco...

(Hg.1:1-8;   Ps.149:1-6,9;   Lk.9:7-9)   “He who earned wages earned them for a bag with holes in it.”   “Bring timber, and build the house that I may take pleasure in it and receive my glory.”  Rebuild the house of God, the temple of the Holy Spirit you are.  Shore up the breaches in its walls and solidify its foundation, that you might “sing to the Lord a new song of praise in the assembly of th...