The BreadCast

(Heb.4:1-5,11;   Ps.78:3-4,6-8;   Mk.2:1-12)   “The promise of entrance into His rest still holds.”   But only those with faith in Him shall be made whole. Paul says of the Israelites in the desert, “The word which they heard did not profit them, for they did not receive it in faith.”  Though they had seen “the glorious deeds of the Lord and His strength and the wonders that He wrought,” they yet...

(Heb.3:7-14;   Ps.95:6-11;   Mk.1:40-45)   “Today, if you should hear His voice, harden not your hearts.”   Today we see Jesus continuing His healing ministry, and we see how it becomes “no longer possible for [Him] to enter a town openly” because of the public proclamation of His wondrous and powerful works.  We see also how, though “He stayed in desert places… people kept coming to Him from all...

(Heb.2:14-18;   Ps.105:1-4,6-9;   Mk.1:29-39)   “Since He Himself was tested through what He suffered, He is able to help those who are tempted.”   And help them He does.  Die for us He must.  Each healing is a move of love which takes His life as sacrifice for our sins.  Jesus died on the cross for us, yes.  He opened His arms and let His healing blood pour forth for all “the children of Abraham,...

(Heb.2:5-12;   Ps.8:2,5-9;   Mk.1:21-28)   “A completely new teaching in a spirit of authority!”   Thus do the people exclaim at the power of the word which issues forth from the mouth of Christ, into whose hands “all things” have been subjected.  The devils see Him and shriek: “I know who you are – the holy one of God!”  They know Him and they fear Him, for He has indeed “come to destroy” them an...

(Heb.1:1-6;   Ps.97:1-2,6-7,9;   Mk.1:14-20)   “This is the time of fulfillment.”   Brothers and sisters, no longer does God speak to us “in fragmentary and varied ways”; this is “the final age,” in which “He has spoken to us through His Son, whom He has made heir of all things and through whom He first created the universe.”  With full voice does He make Himself known now, for “this Son is the re...

(1Jn.3:7-10;   Ps.98:1,3,7-9;   Jn.1:35-42) “When Jesus turned around and noticed them following Him, He asked them, ‘What are you looking for?’”  Brothers and sisters, what Jesus asks the first two disciples He asks each of us who follow in their wake.  What do we seek?  Why are we following Him?  What is it we hope to find at the place where He stays? David makes clear in our psalm that the Son...

(Sgs.2:8-14 or Zep.3:14-18;  Ps.33:1-3,11-12,20-21;   Lk.1:39-45)   “Let me see you, let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet, and you are lovely.”   “Who am I that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” – she who comes bearing the Christ child, she whose very voice magnifies the presence of the Lord.  Listen to the witness of Elizabeth: “The moment your greeting sounded in my ears, the...

(Is.48:17-19;   Ps.1:1-4,6,Jn.8:12;   Mt.11:16-19) “Time will prove where wisdom lies.” No doubt it lies with God.  It lies with the Son of Man, come for our salvation. “I, the Lord, your God, teach you what is for your good, and lead you on the way you should go.”  Is it not our essential call to obey His Word, to listen for His voice and follow in His way?  Are they not happy who hear the Word o...

(Rv.20:1-4,11-21:2;   Ps.84:3-6,8,Rv.21:3;   Lk.21:29-33)   “The heavens and the earth will pass away, but my words will not pass.”   Indeed John tells us of his vision that once “the former heavens and the former earth had passed away, and the sea was no longer,” he saw “new heavens and a new earth,” which are, of course, founded on the Word of God, given life by the breath of His mouth alone. Ye...

(Rv.18:1-2,21-23,19:1-3,9;   Ps.100:2-5;   Lk.21:20-28)   “These indeed will be days of retribution, when all that is written must be fulfilled.”   The destruction of the world and the coming of the kingdom is our clear theme today.  It is what is written.  It is what must be fulfilled. “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great!” that “dwelling place for demons,” cries out an angel by whose authority a...

(Rv.15:1-4;   Ps.98:1-3,7-9,Rv.15:13;   Lk.21:12-19)   “By patient endurance you will save your lives.”   Jesus tells His disciples bluntly: “People will manhandle and persecute you.”  Some will be “put to death” as they are “brought to give witness on account of” His name – “All will hate you because of me.”  Yet in their witness He promises to provide “words and a wisdom” to serve as an impenetr...

(Rv.14:14-19;   Ps.96:10-13;   Lk.21:5-11)   “Use your sickle and cut down the harvest, for now is the time to reap.”   Brothers and sisters, you will “hear of wars and insurrections,” and “there will be great earthquakes, plagues, and famines in various places, and in the sky fearful omens and great signs.”  “These things are bound to happen first, but the end does not follow immediately.”  The e...

(Rv.14:1-5;   Ps.24:1-6;   Lk.21:1-4)  “They are pure and follow the Lamb wherever He goes.” Here is answered most definitively the question David sings: “Who can ascend the mountain of the Lord?  Or who may stand in His holy place?”  In John’s vision, the Lord Jesus, the Lamb of God “was standing on Mount Zion, and with Him were the hundred and forty-four thousand who had His name and the name of...

(Rv.11:4-12;   Ps.144:1,2,9-10;   Lk.20:27-40)   “After three and a half days, the breath of life which comes from God returned to them.”   And these his two witnesses “went up in a cloud as their enemies looked on” “in sheer terror.”  For it seemed they had “conquer[ed] and kill[ed]” the Lord’s prophets.  Their corpses had lain “in the streets of the great city, which has the symbolic name ‘Sodom...

(Rv.10:8-11;   Ps.119:14,24,72,103,111,131;   Lk.19:45-48)   “I gasp with open mouth in my yearning for your commands.”   In our first reading, John is told to “take the open scroll from the hand of the angel” and to “eat it.”  In his mouth “it tasted as sweet as honey.”  And now he who has eaten of the blessed word of God “must prophesy,” must speak the words upon the scroll, despite the sour sto...

(Rv.5:1-10;   Ps.149:1-6,9,Rv.5:10;   Lk.19:41-44)   “Do not weep.  The Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has won the right by His victory to open the scroll with its seven seals.”   “Jesus wept over” Jerusalem “because [she] failed to recognize the time of [her] visitation”; and so she will be destroyed, and so her enemies will “leave not a stone on a stone within” her walls.  And Jo...

(Rv.4:1-11;   Ps.150:1-6,Rv.4:8;   Lk.19:11-28)   “O Lord our God, you are worthy to receive glory and honor and power.”   “A man of noble birth went to a faraway country to become its king.”  And of this faraway country and of its king, whom “everything that has breath” should praise, John has vision today. “Above me there was an open door to heaven”; and a “trumpetlike voice” called the great Ev...

(Rv.3:1-6,14-22;   Ps.15:2-5,Rv.3:21;   Lk.19:1-10)   “Today salvation has come to this house.”   To two of His houses, two of His seven churches, does the Lord speak today, calling them both to repentance, that they might know the salvation Zacchaeus has found. In no uncertain terms does the Lord call the churches in Sardis and Laodicea, chastising both dearly, telling the first: “I know the repu...

(Rv.1:1-4,2:1-5;   Ps.1:1-4,6,Rv.2:7;   Lk.18:35-43)   “Jesus of Nazareth was passing by.”   A blind man sat begging by the side of the road.  “Hearing a crowd go by the man asked, ‘What is that?’”  And he was told that “Jesus drew near,” that all he could possibly ask for was upon him – and so he begged with the greatest sincerity he could muster. And as the end of the Church year approaches, we...

(3Jn.5-8;   Ps.112:1-6;   Lk.18:1-8)   “When the Son of Man comes, will He find any faith on the earth?”   So beset by weakness are we on this earth, brothers and sisters.  So doubtful, so fearful… so seemingly without help, alone.  And so our faith does falter, and so we do fall.  And we wonder, “Where is God?” But the Son asks us today where we are.  He emphasizes “the necessity of praying alway...

(2Jn.4-9;   Ps.119:1-2,10-11,17-18;   Lk.17:26-37)   “Anyone who remains rooted in the teaching possesses both the Father and the Son.”   While “anyone who is so ‘progressive’ that he does not remain rooted in the teaching of Christ does not possess God.”  Rather, he possesses but the emptiness of this earth. And what is this teaching so necessary for our salvation, for knowing and possessing the...

(Philm.7-20;   Ps.146:7-10;   Lk.17:20-25)   “The reign of God is already in your midst.”   Brothers and sisters, Jesus the Christ has come, He has “suffer[ed] much and be[en] rejected by the present age”… and He has risen.  This is all you need to know.  There is no need for “careful watching when the reign of God will come,” for it is not “a matter of reporting that it is ‘here’ or ‘there’” – it...

(Ti.3:1-7; Ps.23:1-6; Lk.17:11-19)   “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”   Such is the cry of the ten lepers standing at a distance from the Lord.  And such is the cry that wells up in all our hearts when we realize we must keep ourselves far from His company for the sin that festers like a disease in our souls.  Desiring no longer to be outcasts from His love, we call out… and He answers. Do you th...

(Ti.2:1-8,11-14;   Ps.37:3-4,18,23,27,29,39;   Lk.17:7-10)  “Live temperately, justly, and devoutly in this age.” Brothers and sisters, be “eager to do what is right” as servants of the Most High God.  “Trust in the Lord and do good, that you may dwell in the land and enjoy security.”  For “the Lord watches over the lives of the wholehearted; their inheritance lasts forever.” Paul gives instructio...

(Ti.1:1-9;   Ps.24:1-6;   Lk.17:1-6)   “Who can ascend the mountain of the Lord? Or who may stand in His holy place?”   “He whose hands are sinless, whose heart is clean, who desires not what is vain.” Of priests and holy men our readings speak, yes, but most especially of bishops, who are most entrusted with the Word of God, with the preaching of the Gospel of eternal life… and how silence in thi...