The BreadCast

(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...

(Phil.3:17-4:1;   Ps.122:1-5;   Lk.16:1-8)   “We have our citizenship in heaven.”   Brothers and sisters, we are not among “those who are set upon the things of this world.”  Always we must remember this.  Though surrounded by worldly things, our hearts are not set upon them; rather, “we eagerly await the coming of our savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”  Our hearts are set upon heaven.  Then what are...

(Phil.3:3-8;   Ps.105:2-7;   Lk.15:1-10)   “I have come to rate all as loss in the light of the surpassing knowledge of my Lord Jesus Christ.”   Paul tells us, “Those things I used to consider gain I have now reappraised as loss in the light of Christ.”  The “legal observance” he grasped so tightly – having been “circumcised on the eighth day,” “a Hebrew of Hebrew origins,” himself a Pharisee – he...

(Phil.2:12-18;   Ps.27:1,4,13-14;   Lk.14:25-33)   “Work with anxious concern to achieve your salvation.”   Strive we must always to attain the kingdom of God, setting our hearts on salvation alone, and trusting in the Lord all the while. “If one of you decides to build a tower, will he not first sit down and calculate the outlay?”  And do you think the outlay for being a follower of Christ is any...

(Phil.2:5-11;   Ps.22:26-32;   Lk.14:15-24)  “The lowly shall eat their fill.” Yes, “happy is he who eats bread in the kingdom of God.”  Indeed, he shall have his fill.  But who shall partake of such grace?  Who shall come to the feast when the Master calls? Brothers and sisters, our “attitude must be as Christ’s: though He was in the form of God, He did not deem equality with God something to be...

(Phil.2:1-4;   Ps.131:1-3;   Lk.14:12-14)  “Let all parties think humbly of others as superior to themselves, each of you looking to others’ interests rather than his own.” The key to Christianity is to see others, even the blind and the lame and the crippled beggar, as superior to ourselves, and place ourselves at their service in love.  As Christians we can never look down upon another individua...

(Eph.6:10-20;   Ps.144:1-2,9-10;   Lk.13:31-35) “Today and tomorrow I cast out devils and perform cures, and on the third day my purpose is accomplished.” “Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for battle, my fingers for war,” King David sings, for the Lord is the “shield… who subdues peoples under [him]”; He is the “stronghold” by whom “victory” is his. The same image of battle is use...

(Eph.6:1-9;   Ps.145:10-14;   Lk.13:22-30)   “Do God’s will with your whole heart as slaves of Christ.”   These words Paul addresses to the slaves of his time, instructing them to “obey [their] human masters with the reverence, the awe, and the sincerity [they] owe to Christ,” but they apply well to us all, who are in all things to serve the Lord.  Always we should “give [our] service willingly, d...

(Eph.5:21-33;   Ps.128:1-5;   Lk.13:18-21)   “To what shall I compare the reign of God?”   Jesus Himself compares it to a mustard seed which grows so steadily into a “large shrub,” and to yeast which makes “the whole mass of dough” rise.  And Paul tells us of the marriage union that it “refers to Christ and the Church.”  These images should lead you, brother, to understand the glorious kingdom tha...