The BreadCast

(Eph.4:7-16;   Ps.122:1-5;   Lk.13:1-9)   “Each of us has received God’s favor in the measure in which Christ bestows it.”   Paul reminds us today of Scripture: “When He ascended on high, He took a host of captives and gave gifts to men.”  Christ Himself “descended into the lower regions of the earth,” coming to the place where we lowly humans dwell, and then “ascended into heaven, that He might f...

(Eph.4:1-6;   Ps.24:1-6;   Lk.12:54-59)   “Make every effort to preserve the unity which has the Spirit as its origin and peace as its binding force.”   Is this not what Jesus instructs the crowds in saying, “When you are going with your opponent to appear before a magistrate, try to settle with him on the way”?  Do not both Paul and Jesus speak of the love we must have one for another, even for t...

 (Eph.3:14-21; Ps.33:1-2,4-5,11-12,18-19; Lk.12:49-53)  “Do you think I have come to establish peace on the earth?”   Strong contrast we find in our readings today.  Jesus speaks of the division He has come to bring by the fire of truth He lights on this earth – fire like a sword separating even the closest of family members one from another; whereas Paul speaks of “the breadth and the length and...

(Eph.3:2-12;   Is.12:2-6;   Lk.12:39-48)   “When much has been given a man, much will be required of him.”   Yes, “more will be asked of a man to whom more has been entrusted,” and today we see two of the men to whom the most has been entrusted.  First, of course, is Peter, who queries the Lord and to whom the Lord addresses His question, “Who in your opinion is that faithful, farsighted steward w...

(Eph.2:12-22;   Ps.85:9-14;   Lk.12:35-38)   “You who were once far off have been brought near through the blood of Christ.”   We who “were excluded from the community of Israel,” who were not of His chosen people upon whom His Spirit rested and so were “without hope and without God in the world,” now are “fellow citizens of the saints and members of the household of God” by the great grace of the...

(Eph.2:1-10;   Ps.100:2-5;   Lk.12:13-21)  “It is owing to His favor that salvation is yours through faith. This is not your own doing, it is God’s gift.” Brothers and sisters, salvation is no “reward for anything [we] have accomplished.”  It is nothing we make by our own hands, but comes only by God’s “kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” “God is rich in mercy.”  Here is the great truth; this is our...

(Eph.1:15-23;   Ps.8:2-7;   Lk.12:8-12)   “Whoever acknowledges me before men – the Son of Man will acknowledge him before the angels of God.”   We are only very small, less than a speck of dust in the eyes of God.  Beholding His heavens, “the moon and the stars which [He] set in place,” should we not cry out to God with David in our psalm: “What is man that you should be mindful of him, or the so...

(Eph.1:1-10;   Ps.98:1-6;   Lk.11:47-54)   “It is in Christ and through His blood that we have been redeemed and our sins forgiven.”   Oh, brothers and sisters, “so immeasurably generous is God’s favor to us.”  He “has bestowed on us in Christ every spiritual blessing in the heavens!”  In Christ we are chosen “to be holy and blameless in His sight, to be full of love… to be His adopted sons.”  In...

(Gal.5:18-25;   Ps.1:1-4,6,Jn.8:12;   Lk.11:42-46)   “Since we live by the spirit, let us follow the spirit’s lead.”   “Happy the man who follows not the counsel of the wicked nor walks in the way of sinners, nor sits in the company of the insolent”; these indeed follow not the spirit’s lead but the dictates of the flesh.  And all their “licentiousness” and “drunkenness,” all their “hostilities” a...

(Gal.5:1-6;   Ps.119:41,43-45,47-48;   Lk.11:37-41)   “Any of you who seek your justification in the law have severed yourselves from Christ and fallen from God’s favor!”   Brothers and sisters, “it is in the Spirit that we eagerly await the justification we hope for, and only faith can yield it.”  The works prescribed under the testament of old have had their day and their time is passed.  Circum...

(Gal.4:22-24,26-27,31-5:1;   Ps.113:1-7;   Lk.11:29-32)   “At the judgment, the citizens of Nineveh will rise along with the present generation, and they will condemn it.”   Paul’s words to the Galatians today sound much like a parable: “Abraham had two sons, one by the slave girl, the other by his freeborn wife.”  He himself states pointedly, “All this is clearly an allegory: the two women stand...

(Gal.3:22-29;   Ps.105:2-8;   Lk.11:27-28)   “Each of you is a son of God because of your faith in Christ Jesus.”   Praise God!  “Glory in His holy name; rejoice, O hearts that seek the Lord!”  For He has come among us.  Born of the womb of Israel, the Messiah is in our midst.  And so we should “sing to Him, sing His praise, proclaim all His wondrous deeds.”  For now by faith in Him we live, and a...

(Gal.3:7-14;   Ps.111:1-6;   Lk.11:15-26)   “All who believe are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.”   But those who do not believe cannot be called “sons of Abraham,” in whom “all nations shall be blessed,” for they have not the faith of the father of many nations.  For those who do not proclaim the Lord’s “renown for His wondrous deeds,” but rather say of His “gracious and merciful” a...

(Gal.3:1-5;   Lk.1:69-75;   Lk.11:5-13)   “I can’t get up to look after your needs.”   Does Jesus ever speak these words to us?  Does He ever deny our petitions, failing to bring them to His heavenly Father?  Do we ever find ourselves empty-handed when we come to Him “in the middle of the night”?  Does He ever tire of serving us, of saving us from our sins?  Then neither should we turn our back on...

(Gal.2:1-2,7-14;   Ps.117:1-2,Mk.16:15;   Lk.11:1-4)   “He who worked through Peter as His apostle among the Jews had been at work in me for the Gentiles.”   And that same Spirit, that same God, that same Lord and Creator is at work in all His holy apostles, and is the Father of all who call upon His Name. “Father, hallowed be your name.”  You are great and you are glorious, and you bless all your...

(Gal.1:13-24;   Ps.139:1-3,13-15,24;   Lk.10:38-42)   “The time came when He who set me apart before I was born and called me by His favor chose to reveal His Son to me.”   Paul speaks of his conversion to the faith today.  But before he changed and became the Lord’s great Apostle, he tells us, “I made progress in Jewish observance far beyond most of my contemporaries, in my excess of zeal to live...

(Gal.1:6-12;   Ps.111:1-2,5,7-10;   Lk.10:25-37)   “Teacher, what must I do to inherit everlasting life?”   Do you really want to know?  Do really seek to hear of the Gospel of Christ?  Do you really desire the Word of God, which is “reliable forever and ever, wrought in truth and equity” and which “came by revelation from Jesus Christ?”  If so, listen to what He speaks to you today; do not go on...

(Job 42:1-3,5-6,12-16;   Ps.119:66,71,75,91,125,130,135;   Lk.10:17-24)   “I watched Satan fall from the sky like lightning.”   Oh how our readings conspire together today to bring heavenly light to our eyes.  Truly by them the Lord would say to us what He says to His apostles, what is so evident with Job: “Blest are the eyes that see what you see.”  For what more could we hope to behold than the...

(Job 38:1,12-21,40:3-5;   Ps.139:1-3,7-10,13-14,24;   Lk.10:13-16)   “I put my hand over my mouth.”   When the Lord speaks, what can we be but silent?  When He chastises us for our pride and sin, we can only be ashamed.  No defense have we before Him who holds us and all the world in His mighty hand and who comes to us with His redeeming love.  We can but bow before Him. The Lord has “commanded th...

(Job 19:21-27;   Ps.27:7-9,13-14;   Lk.10:1-12)   “I know that my Vindicator lives, and that He will at last stand forth upon the dust.”   “The hand of God has struck me!” Job exclaims as he begs pity from his friends who “hound [him] as though [they] were divine,” reminding him unendingly of the Lord’s justice and ever accusing him of having sinned against his Maker.  Job defends himself and wish...

(Job 9:1-12,14-16;   Ps.88:3,10-15;   Lk.9:57-62)  “Why, O Lord, do you reject me; why hide from me your face?” The cry of our psalmist certainly reflects that of Job, who in his travails asks, “How can a man be justified before God?” who realizes that the Lord “does great things past finding out” and that “should He come near [us], [we] see Him not.”  But it also reflects Jesus’ treatment of thos...

(Job 3:1-3,11-17,20-23;   Ps.88:2-8;   Lk.9:51-56)   “My soul is surfeited with troubles and my life draws near to the netherworld.”   After sitting in silence seven days, scraping the boils from his skin, finally, “Job opened his mouth and cursed his day.”  Finally he cries out against all his troubles, asking, “Why did I not perish at birth, come forth from the womb and expire?”  Only so much ca...

(Job 1:6-22;   Ps.17:1-3,6-7;   Lk.9:46-50)   “Naked I came forth from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall go back again.”   In the beginning and in the end, we have nothing: and so should be our attitude toward all things we are given – that they are not our own, that we do not possess them… that they shall pass from us unto eternity again.  As shall we all. In our first reading we begin to hear...

(Ec.11:9-12:8;   Ps.90:1,3-6,12-14,17;   Lk.9:43-45)   “The dust returns to the earth as it once was, and the life breath returns to God who gave it.”   “As a watch of the night” is our life, passing unnoticed while souls slumber.  “You make an end of them in their sleep,” Psalm 90 prophesies (as we hear the same verses of this same psalm for the second time in three days); indeed man lies unaware...

(Ec.3:1-11;   Ps.144:1-4;   Lk.9:18-22)   “He has made everything appropriate to its time, and has put the timeless into their hearts.”   Yes, “there is an appointed time for everything, and a time for every affair under the heavens”; and there is a time for time to cease and the timeless to come to the fore – a time for the things above the heavens.  And that fullness of time has come upon the ea...