28 October 2026 - he chose Twelve

 

Today's Readings
(Audio)

 

When day came, he called his disciples to himself,
and from them he chose Twelve, whom he also named Apostles

Today we celebrate the spiritual regathering of tribes Israel and the spiritual renewal of a kingdom that was previously mostly an earthly reality. Jesus summoned twelve people to be the foundations of his Church. We know from the time he spent in prayer preceding the choice that it was not trivial for him. It mattered who was chosen. It was not accidental and could not have been just anyone. This was true even though most of the twelve did not leave behind any Scriptures, and even though in the case of some we know very little about their lives. Yet the reality of their importance is not invisible since the Church of today was founded upon the work they did, and would not have been the same without them. The bishops in our own day trace their heritage through a long line of Apostolic succession that had its beginnings when these twelve laid hands on others. It is the case with Simon and Jude that we know little more than their names. And yet at the same time we do also know them better than that since they are the foundations of the reality of the Church to which we now belong, into which we are meant to grow.

Paul tells us that we are "are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets". We are connected to the promises God made to Abraham through the newly transnational and spiritual Israel that began with the Apostles. If Jesus hadn't summoned these twelve and sent them to make disciples of all nations then the nations may never have known the saving message of the Gospel. What was natural to Israel in virtue of the promises made to Abraham was extended to the world precisely through the Apostles. But what does this mean to us? That we should sit back and smugly relax? Far from it. It bespeaks the great potential that we have, potential that we must not squander.

Through him the whole structure is held together
and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord;
in him you also are being built together
into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

Note the passive voice as Paul describes the construction of the spiritual temple of the Church. It is not primarily a work that is done by us. It is meant to be a natural process of growth, as with a body, since we are together the Body of Christ. Switching metaphors, we are not primarily the ones doing the building. Rather we "are being built together", and not for any purpose whatever, but for the exulted destiny of together being the (one, not many) dwelling place of God in the Spirit. Because of our Apostolic foundations we are a part of God's ongoing project of building his Kingdom in our world. The foregoing explains both why we must not stray from these foundations into error and why unity is such a fundamental aspect of the Church. Seemingly these two ideas would be good areas of focus if we are to honor Simon and Jude. We should be thankful and treasure the deposit of faith handed on to us by the Apostles. And we should desire, invite, and welcome the action of God to help us be built ever more perfectly as parts of his Church. When both of these happen the Apostles are honored, we ourselves thrive, and above all, God is glorified.

Their message goes out through all the earth.

 

 

Vineyard Music - Exodus XV

 

27 October 2026 - secret recipe

 

Today's Readings

(Audio)

 

To what can I compare it?
It is like a mustard seed that a man took and planted in the garden.

It is important for us to realize that the apparent likelihood of success for the Kingdom does not immediately appear to be that of any overwhelming army. Her troops are few, not many. Her members are not necessarily the strongest, or the smartest. or those whom the world would consider the best. She is more like the army of Gideon than any grand Roman legion. She is meek, lowly, and humble. But this is by design. People would see a large army coming and meet force with force. But the Kingdom takes shape behind the scenes before anyone notices, making it hard to contain or stop. By the time the world realizes that it should have told its yard service about the unwanted mustard bush it is already too late and they have a whole ecosystem of birds taking refugee there. 

 

It is not only the world who underestimates the potential of the seeds of the Kingdom to grow. It is also we ourselves. And this can be a problem. If we don't recognize how the Kingdom starts small and works through weakness we won't commit ourselves to her growth. And while our efforts don't make the Church grow in and of themselves it is through them that God himself works. Our efforts, especially since we don't have the resources of the world, might often seem to yield only failures at first. But God makes all things work together for our good. For us to avail ourselves of this grace we must remain steadfast in our commitment even when success seems humanly impossible. Which is not to say that we must commit to every possible battle, when a particular one seems to be doomed. But we must remain in the fight, moving from one assignment to the next, trusting that God will make good however much effort we place in his hands.

When it was fully grown, it became a large bush
and the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches.

The goal of the Kingdom is to become a refuge for the world, a place where all women and men can find shelter in her branches. When we begin, we may wonder how the Church will ever find room for all of the diversity she is expected to contain. But her growth reveals a capacity that is truly universal, enough space for every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. Honestly, even within families we have difficulty managing the diversity of personality and opinion that often exists. When we think about this tree sustaining so many different birds we shouldn't think of it merely in terms of giving each space to not be bothered by the others, as a place where conflict is merely avoided. Rather, as a metaphor for the Church, the tree represents an environment of companionship and close cooperation, with the spiritual resources necessary to sustain such an endeavor. But it does not look this way at first. And it may not feel this way at first when we try to live together within the Church's borders. But together we believe that this is what we will become.

It is like yeast that a woman took
and mixed in with three measures of wheat flour
until the whole batch of dough was leavened.

The hidden growth of the Kingdom has consequences, not only for the members of the Church, but also for the world. In ways that are hidden and hard to see even small numbers of Christians can have a disproportionate leavening effect on the world, making it more loving and more truly human. Much of the compassion that exists even in the secular world actually has roots in our Christian patrimony. We might think that without Christendom this is destined to slip away eventually. But Jesus assures us that if we remain faithful behind the scenes it need not be so. Then we will all become together what Jesus intends for his bride:

that he might present to himself the Church in splendor,
without spot or wrinkle or any such thing,
that she might be holy and without blemish.

 

Newsboys - Secret Kingdom

 

26 October 2026 - wrestling about rest

  

Today's Readings
(Audio)

“There are six days when work should be done.
Come on those days to be cured, not on the sabbath day.”

The leader of the synagogue claimed to be concerned for God's law governing work on the sabbath. Superficially, it might have seemed true to him that the sabbath really did entail only superficial bureaucratic rules about proper scheduling of events. If some otherwise valuable human good needed to wait one more day it seemed to him that God approved of the sacrifice. In the final analysis he seemed to think that the sabbath was made for God. In such a case human concerns stood in potential contradiction to the good that God desired for himself on the sabbath. Yet God did not stand to gain from the sabbath being properly celebrated, but rather his creatures did. Thus the point of the law was never to countenance human suffering. It was to help give his creatures space for relationship with himself, something which they could not fully attain or express when suffering. 

When Jesus saw her, he called to her and said,
“Woman, you are set free of your infirmity.”
He laid his hands on her,
and she at once stood up straight and glorified God.

We can see that because of the healing Jesus performed on the sabbath the woman was able to attain more fully to what the sabbath was meant to be. She "stood up straight and glorified God". We might say that this is something that the leader of the synagogue, metaphorically speaking, could not do. He claimed to be motivated by preserving God's integrity. But his enforcement of his own misunderstanding of rules actually did the opposite of what God intended and what would be for his greater glory. Perhaps he found the woman's presence to be uncomfortable. Or perhaps he got off on aggressively expressing his authority. Or perhaps he was simply hostile to the way Jesus was being intentionally provocative and transgressive by intentionally foregrounding this healing in front of everyone on the sabbath. Maybe it was some combination of the above. But nowhere were God's honor or his law truly in question. 

Does not each one of you on the sabbath
untie his ox or his ass from the manger
and lead it out for watering?

Jesus tried to help those who held a hypocritical view of the sabbath to see the matter more clearly. He pointed out that they themselves did such work as was important to preserve the life of their animals. They would work for animals when it served their interests, but not even for human beings, such as this daughter of Abraham, when they had no personal stake. On the sabbath the hypocrites celebrated bondage and condemnation. But Jesus taught that the true meaning of the day was life and freedom.

This daughter of Abraham,
whom Satan has bound for eighteen years now,
ought she not to have been set free on the sabbath day
from this bondage?

Rather than the hypocrisy of the leader of the synagogue we should do what Paul commends and be imitators of God.

Be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love,
as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us
as a sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant aroma.

Sword Of  The Spirit Worship - A New Spirit

 

25 October 2026 - the second is like it

 

Today's Readings
(Audio)

 

"Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?"

This test was not so much a trap in the sense that there were no obvious expectations for how he would answer incorrectly. It wasn't a setup where it seemed he could say nothing without upsetting someone or other. Instead it was more of an opportunity for him to make a statement about his basic message. If his basic message turned out to be wildly unorthodox then of course this would make everyone aware of that. If he was really focused on a minor rule or an obscure text people would see how that was not consistent with their religion as they understood it. In fact, if he brought forth something entirely novel that would be a sign in itself that he was not in continuity with what he come before in salvation history. And if there was nothing new about him, why all the fuss? But Jesus was like a master of a house "who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old" (see Matthew 13:52). He did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it, to bring forth the fullness of meaning that it always contained, but which was heretofore hidden by sin-darkened human minds.

You shall love the Lord, your God,
with all your heart,
with all your soul,
and with all your mind.

The first commandment, also summarized in the Shema prayer, was the obviously correct answer. It was not particularly surprising in itself. The Pharisees certainly might have easily agreed. But the way the Pharisees lived out the first and greatest commandment was often in stark opposition to love of neighbor. The way they obeyed seemed to suggest that that commandment was not at all like our related to love of neighbor. They often seemed to use love of God as an excuse to shirk on what would otherwise be their duty toward those around them. But this kind of division within the law was never what God intended. All of the commandments issued from the same divine heart which was itself undivided. Thus any insinuation that the commandments contradicted was actually an insult to God's heart, as though he himself had competing priorities.

The second is like it:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Jesus understood the mind of God, since he was himself the word that fully expressed it. He knew that love of God would not be complete without including love for those who were made in the image of God. More to it, one could not actually do anything that was a benefit to God. He was already entirely self-sufficient and perfectly happy from all eternity. He had no need for creation. Rather, he made creation out of love. In order to express our own love and gratitude for such a gift we are meant to share his heart, his desire to see his creation blessed and thriving. This does not exclude or diminish the more religious and God-focused aspects of the law, since his creatures can in fact only thrive when they love God with all their heart, soul, and mind. Love for self and love for neighbor means that we want to be ordered toward the one in whom alone we find lasting joy. So it is really not a separate thing to love neighbor and to love God. They are different aspects of a single expression or activity, of which God remains the center. This was how Paul loved the Thessalonians, and why he was so happy to see them discovering God's purpose for them.

And you became imitators of us and of the Lord,
receiving the word in great affliction, with joy from the Holy Spirit,
so that you became a model for all the believers
in Macedonia and in Achaia.

 

 

Bob Fitts - One God

 

24 October 2026 - greater sinners?

Today's Readings

(Audio)

 

Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way 
they were greater sinners than all other Galileans?

Jesus explained that the tragedy of suffering was not necessarily connected to anyone's particular individual sin. Not every instance of people dying unexpectedly was a repeat of the judgment on Sodom. In most cases the people involved are not any more guilty than anyone else, which is not to say innocent. But every instance of unexpected death can serve as a wake up call for the rest of us, lest we be caught unawares.

But I tell you, if you do not repent,
you will all perish as they did!

Our guilt may not cause God to rain down judgment and smite us. But we nevertheless don't want to perish in our sin, even if we are no more guilty than everyone else. We are doubtlessly included among the "all" who have "sinned and fallen short of the glory of God" (see Romans 3:32) about whom Paul speaks. If we perish in this condition what might have otherwise been a momentary unexpected tragic event can potentially have eternal consequences. What Jesus was saying was not so much that we're mostly innocent as that we are all guilty to some degree and need to repent. 

‘For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree 
but have found none.
So cut it down.
Why should it exhaust the soil?’

The gardener is watching, waiting, and working, to see the fig tree bear fruit. But the fact of the matter is that we must respond to his care, and there is a finite amount of time in which we may do so. We do not know precisely when our own tree will but cut down. But if we never grow up from a parasitic existence of exhausting the soil it will be cut down eventually. If we do begin to bear fruit, regularly and reliable, relying on the grace we receive from Jesus and the power of his Spirit, we can hope for something that is more like a transplant at the end of our earthly journey.

What does bearing fruit look like? It looks like receiving the grace "given to each of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift" and using it to grow together in love "for building up the Body of Christ". We are warned by Paul against the potential obstacle of false doctrine that stems from "human trickery". This doctrine is tempting because it causes us to focus on ourselves rather than on our unity in Christ. But it is antithetical to bearing fruit as Christians. False doctrine prevents the possibility of "living the truth in love", since we can't do that without truth. But, grounded in solid doctrine, understanding it in a "mature" way allows us to "grow in every way into him who is the head, Christ". Then, at the end of our journey we may hope to fully express what the psalmist foresaw.

I rejoiced because they said to me,
“We will go up to the house of the LORD.”
And now we have set foot
within your gates, O Jerusalem.

 

 

Trevor Thomson - Rejoiced

 

23 October 2026 - now is the time

Today's Readings
(Audio)

 

You hypocrites!
You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky;
why do you not know how to interpret the present time?

We are good at noticing the subtle signs regarding things that we find interesting or useful. But we have an impressive ability to willfully ignore that which should be more obvious to us: the coming presence of the messiah into our midst. The sign of the messiah is not meant to merely suggest a minor change in the global climate. Rather, his coming indicates that history has moved into its final stage and that the end is near. It is now both possible and necessary to repent, and to bear fruit worthy of repentance. We must not, as many in Jerusalem did, miss the time of our visitation. We must not treat Jesus as though he merely came to hang out. He came to unleash his fiery love among us, about which he read yesterday. He came to do something inside of our hearts which motivated him enough to endure the pain of the cross. His presence was not a sign of immediate judgment on the world, but rather of impending judgment. He was the mercy that provided the time of grace when people were meant to repent and turn fully back to the Lord with all of their hearts. The fig tree was not immediately cut down for bearing no fruit. But if it continued to exhaust the soil without improvement it would be cut down eventually. We can summarize the foregoing by saying that the sign of the messiah means that the time is now. As Paul wrote:

Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation (see Second Corinthians 6:2).

Why now? Because it is preferable to pay our debt to God freely than to have it extracted from us forcibly, which in itself is far better than to leave matters eternally unsettled.

If you are to go with your opponent before a magistrate,
make an effort to settle the matter on the way;
otherwise your opponent will turn you over to the judge,
and the judge hand you over to the constable,
and the constable throw you into prison.

But wait. We know that the debt we owed our master is something that is fundamentally unrepayable. How are we supposed to resolve matters in time to avoid the punishment described? There is a sense in which we must repay the temporary consequences that are the results of our sin. If we have stolen something, we ought to return it, for instance. But what God is really looking to see from us is that we bear fruit. We do this, not from our own resources, but from his own abundance. In this way we can to some degree repay the love that he has shown us with love, love that is itself his gift.

I, a prisoner for the Lord,
urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received,
with all humility and gentleness, with patience,
bearing with one another through love,
striving to preserve the unity of the spirit
through the bond of peace;  

 

Chris Tomlin - Give Us Clean Hands 

22 October 2026 - to set the earth on fire

 

Today's Readings
(Audio)

 

Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth?
No, I tell you, but rather division.

It seems safe to say that Jesus has desires that, at least on the surface, we don't share. When we think about a world that is rooted and grounded in love we place the importance of family near the top. Obviously, the unity among members of families would seem to be a key indicator as to whether or not families were thriving. A world of divided families would seem to be a world heading in precisely the wrong direction. But what we should recognize from all of this is not that Jesus is not loving, but that his love is different than ours, more like a fire, containing elements of transformation and purification. That love requires transformation we also garner from the much more amenable text we have today from Paul.

that he may grant you in accord with the riches of his glory
to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner self,
and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith

He did already dwell in the hearts of the Ephesians, but they needed to grow more if they wanted to become all they were meant to be as Christians, to have the strength to fully comprehend the all surpassing love of Christ. Why did it take strength? Well, for one thing, it was likely to sometimes go against their base instincts or assumptions about things, just as Jesus does for us in today's Gospel. But getting on the same page was Jesus was a vital prerequisite to living in a way that could lead to union with him, to being "filled with all the fullness of God".

It is not that Jesus desires disunity among families for its own sake. What he desires is that our unity be reestablished with him as the cornerstone. People and families contain both light and darkness. In ourselves we must recognize our divided nature so as to choose the light. In families too we need to understand where people stand, with Jesus and the light, or against him, not to reject those among us who choose to stand against him, but rather to know the specific loving response that is appropriate in their case. We stand apart, yes, but in order to help, in order to minister the love of Christ to them. What we must not do is treat family as such an absolute good that we wouldn't dare upset it even for the sake of the eternal souls of some of its members. Ultimately, all of us together being filled with the fullness of Christ is of infinitely more value than some momentary hurt feelings, if those happen to be a byproduct of honesty and faithfulness to the Lord.

There is a baptism with which I must be baptized

We all need more of the baptism of the Holy Spirit in our lives, so that we can have the dynamic motivating power of God guiding us, helping us to become more like him. For his own part Jesus looked forward, somehow, to the baptism of the cross which would allow this fire to be unleashed on the world. There is a close connection here since the Holy Spirit connects us to the paschal mystery of Jesus and makes the purifying power of his death present in our lives. It doesn't always feel like crucifixion when he helps us to conform ourselves to Christ. But neither does it always feel only and entirely pleasant. But just as Jesus desired the baptism of the cross for himself so too must we desire his cleansing fire to fill our own hearts. There may be difficult moments along the way. But it is leading to "more than all we ask or imagine".

 

Paul Wilbur - Let Your Fire Fall