5 October 2026 - who is my neighbor?

 

 

Today's Readings

(Audio)

 

But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus, 
“And who is my neighbor?”

The man knew what needed to be done, what was required of him by the law. He probably hoped to hear a narrow definition of neighbor, one that would allow him to say that he had been discharging his moral obligation toward those included faithfully. But we imagine that even he himself suspected that more was required. He was, to some degree, aware of what his attempts to justify himself had produced in his life thus far. If he looked at the state of his own heart and inquired about whether it was fit to dwell eternally in the presence of the all holy God he could not help but be aware on some level that something was lacking. The scope of his own ability to love and show mercy to his neighbor was limited to situations that were convenient and those to whom he had a naturally predisposed sympathy. This isn't that unusual or horrific. We too often place limits on the mercy we will show. We try to justify ourselves and insist that we are doing our best on a human level. But we can't shake this nagging awareness that we need greater purification if we are to become capable of living and enjoying eternal life with God. So, with this scholar of the law, we can bring our attempts at self-justification before Jesus so that he himself can unravel them and set us right.

A priest happened to be going down that road,
but when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.
Likewise a Levite came to the place,
and when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.

Insofar as we fail to show mercy to others we are the priest and the Levite in this story. But we are also the wounded man, stripped and beaten by sin, spiritually half-dead and unable to rise. People representing the other solutions of religion, philosophy, and ideology, that exist in the world notice our predicament, but go out of their way to avoid us since they have nothing to offer, and risk tarnishing the reputations by even making the attempt. Fortunately Jesus comes to us, like the Samaritan, as an unexpected outsider, and is moved with compassion at the sight. He is not overwhelmed by the intractability of what he sees because his limitless compassion gives him the power to do all he needs to do to heal us. He uses the oil and wine of the sacraments and delivers us to the inn of his Church for ongoing care. His two natures of humanity and divinity are the silver coins that are more than enough to purchase all the grace we need for us to recover and thrive.

Importantly, we are not merely healed to the level of the priest and the Levite and others who believe they have more important things to do than mercy. The mercy Jesus shows us is precisely to rehabilitate and restore our own ability to show mercy. We can begin our encounter trying to justify ourselves like the scholar of the law. But Jesus does not desire to leave us in the rigid confines of a narrow and self-serving definition of mercy. Others, who could not address the diseased nature of the human heart, had no choice but to pass by. Only Jesus is capable of addressing the root of the problem. Only he sees clearly to do it. And does and will do so for all who are willing. Strengthened by the grace we receive we become more free to live in accord with our purpose. This was the secret that allowed Paul to say:

Am I now currying favor with human beings or God?
Or am I seeking to please people?
If I were still trying to please people,
I would not be a slave of Christ.

People pleasers pass by on the other side of the road. But we who have been healed by Christ and not free to do so. And hopefully, we don't want to. The Lord has never and could never forget us. Let us try to learn to love our own neighbors as he himself has demonstrated.

The Lord will remember his covenant for ever.

 

Maranatha! Music - Here I Am To Worship

 

4 October 2026 - vineyard crimes

 

Today's Readings

(Audio)

  

There was a landowner who planted a vineyard,
put a hedge around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a tower.

The landowner showed marvelous care for his vineyard by how he provided for it. Yet he did entrust it to tenants, people who were meant to share his concern for it that he had, but who did not do so. The fact that the landowner himself was not present during the seasons of growth and preparation led the religious leadership, the tenants to begin to treat the vineyard as that it belonged to them rather than to another. It probably also made those normal people who were meant to be under the care of the tenants to feel abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd. One might be tempted to assume that the landowner did not in fact care that much. If he had, could he not have stayed and overseen the vinting himself? Yet we cannot conclude that he did not care, for a landowner that did not care would never have taken the step of sending his only son. He probably wouldn't even have taken the step of sending a second or third round of messengers. But this landowner clearly cared about the tenants themselves and not only the produce. God cared about the people he had put in charge. They were not merely set up to fail. To mix metaphor's, God also valued those shepherds who were failing at their job of being shepherds, and not only the neglected sheep. He desired a world in which religious leadership would be able to be shepherds after his own heart (see Jeremiah 3:15) who truly cared for the sheep. Thus his plan was not to reverse his previous decision and take things over directly in a purely unmediated fashion. His plan was to establish leadership built on the new foundation of Jesus himself, the stone which the builders rejected.

The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
by the Lord has this been done,
and it is wonderful in our eyes?
Therefore, I say to you,
the kingdom of God will be taken away from you
and given to a people that will produce its fruit.

The tenants who were selected first were imprisoned by their own egocentric desires. They tacitly acknowledged that the vineyard of Israel belonged to the Lord. But they lived as though this were not the case. They chose to cling to God's benefits while forgetting about tho one who gave them. There was a real way that they could not help but do so, since, "Those who are in the flesh cannot please God" (see Romans 8:8). Jesus was offered to them as a new and solid foundation on which they could be built as living stones and thereby becoming pleasing to God. Only on that edifice could they arise as a new temple capable of offerings pleasing to the Lord, the harvest meant for him. But many of them preferred their own self-interest to the benevolent plan of God. 

 

Since it was insufficient to merely keep asking the old entrenched and self-interested leadership to change, God deemed that something more seismic was necessary. He would lease the vineyard to the new tenants of in his Church, herself built on Jesus himself as her one foundation. It would not always and absolutely be the case even in that environment that the tenants would always be found faithful. But it was the case that it was the only foundation were true faithful was even possible. Not only that, but the graces that were available in the age of the Church were actually capable of changing hearts. The Spirit himself was the chief agent who would bear fruit in this new reality. 

Why not simply skip the step of the vineyard that God must have known was ultimately doomed to fail? As a partial answer we may say that he wanted us to see that we can't make it work on our own. It wasn't that the structure was wrong. It wasn't even that the execution was wrong. It was that the foundation had to be something more stable than our flesh, our selfishness, and our sinful tendencies. If we did not see this clearly we would always risk trying to take matters back into our own hands. And even still, we sometimes try to take matters back into our own hands. But at least now there are precautions in place to help us remember to avoid such temptations. For instance, we sometimes try to take God's role upon ourselves because of our anxiety, and our resulting need to feel like we are in control. But built into the fabric of the new foundation we have in Christ Jesus are the Scriptures, including the command of Saint Paul to the Philippians.

Have no anxiety at all, but in everything,
by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,
make your requests known to God.
Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding
will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Insofar as we are tenants, let us remember that the fruit belongs to God. Insofar as we are grapes, let us be turned into the wine of joy in the vineyard of his Church. Insofar as we are stones, let us be built upon Jesus as our one foundation. When we are tempted to take things into our own hands let us remember that we are meant to give everything, not just our fruits, but even our worries, to God. He, in turn, will give us all we need.

 

Shane And Shane - Psalm 23 (Surely Goodness, Surely Mercy)

 

 

 

3 October 2026 - lightning crashes

 

 

Today's Readings

(Audio)

 

“Lord, even the demons are subject to us because of your name.”
Jesus said, “I have observed Satan fall like lightning from the sky.

Jesus could see the end of the war even while the disciples were still fighting the battles. For their part, they rejoiced because of victories in individual skirmishes against the powers of darkness. But Jesus explained that those skirmishes were a part of his larger victory against Satan. So certain was the victory of the Kingdom of Jesus over the kingdom of darkness that he could assure the disciples of the power "'to tread upon serpents' and scorpions and upon the full force of the enemy" and that nothing would harm them. But we have to realize that it wouldn't always look that way. Their would be times when the immediate successes did not seem to outweigh the failures, when their message was rejected more than it was accepted, when those to whom they ministered weren't open to healing and deliverance. It would be natural even for these seventy-two to have second thoughts as they faced martyrdom. Had the power that Jesus had given them over darkness only been imagined? Thus it was important to prioritize the fact that their names were written in the lamb's book of life rather than their resume of success against the demonic spirits. If they only rejoiced when the Gospel seemed to meet with success they would not be able to fully follow in the footsteps of their master. 

I give you praise, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
for although you have hidden these things
from the wise and the learned
you have revealed them to the childlike.

They had come as far as they had with Jesus thus far by being childlike. When they occasionally deviated into the realm of pride and ego Jesus had corrected them, and they received that the correction from him. Childlike trust in God's providence was how they successfully carried out the mission entrusted to them by Jesus, without money bag, sack, or sandals. It was by remaining small, trusting, and dependent, that they would be able to remain faithful to him in the future. It was only being small in that way that allowed them to be open to the full revelation of the identity of Jesus. As long as they were deeply rooted in the truth of that identity than it was a fact that the full force of the enemy could not harm them and their names remained written in the book of life. The risk was that they would try to become mature and independent and lose sight of the truth of who Jesus was. Then they would once again be at risk from Satan's power even to the extent that the promise of having their names in the book of life was no longer guaranteed. The only guarantee they had was their faith, their childlike trust in Jesus himself, the revealer of the Father, and the giver of the Spirit.

Blessed are the eyes that see what you see.

The disciples needed to remember and treasure the memory of how privileged they were, and how great a gift they had been given, to be alive in the time of Jesus, and to be numbered among his followers. This was true even during the dark hour of the cross, because the cross was linked inexorably with the resurrection. It was not invalidated no matter how challenging were the circumstances that they would go on to face. Even if their call included sufferings greater than those of Job so too did the blessings of knowing Jesus outweigh Job's eventual reward.

Thus the LORD blessed the latter days of Job
more than his earlier ones.

 

Graham  Kendrick - For This Purpose

 

2 October 2026 - child protection

Today's Readings

(Audio)

 

Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children,
you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven.

There are many ways in which we are called to become like children. Yet we know that children often seem imperfect to us in our actual experience. It isn't that children aren't occasionally competitive or that they don't want to be seen as the greatest. But even when they have such motivations the reason they want to be greatest is usually different from our own need to be first. We strive for the first place because we want to be seen as superior to others. We want our own worth and value to be unassailable and obvious, so we set it alongside that of others. We benefit when others are seen as weak or inferior. We don't always say it out loud or celebrate it but we take pleasure that we at least appear to be better than they. Children are competitive primarily to because they desire the attention and appreciation of the adults and friends in their lives. For us, competition to see who can please our heavenly Father the most is a slightly less degenerate form of competition. But it is far better when our efforts don't stem from a place of insecurity, better when we are motivated to please God, not because we think we have to in order to earn his favor, but in order to delight him. It is in this way that well adjusted children may still sometimes seek to win. They don't do so because it puts other people down, but because they assume that everyone will be thrilled and rejoice together with them. When they sometimes discover that they have hurt others along the way who didn't do as well they often go to great lengths to try to assuage their sadness. Greatness is the Kingdom is the truest version of success, one that does not require trampling over others to obtain. We can seek to be the best, not because of the anxious need to prove ourselves stemming from our self-doubt, but because we are confident in who we are as sons and daughters of the Father, confident that he delights to see us win. After all, victory in this game is his gift to us.

In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world. (see John 16:33).

But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (see First Corinthians 15:57).

And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith (see First John 5:4).

As spiritual children we are meant to let go of our doubts and uncertainties and embrace are identity of children of the Most High. We can safely assume that because the Father loves us our success in the truest sense is all but assured. But since we are children and prone to make mistakes, even dangerous ones, he does not merely unleash us on the world without any help. He has sent angels to keep charge over each one of us, to help us to know his will and follow his way. They help to keep us safe when our good-natured confidence gets us in trouble or even when blameworthy choices or omissions put us at risk. They do this whether or not we thank them or acknowledge them. But they can do more for us if we pay attention. Rather than saving us from a near death accident on the highway imagine that they help us to avoid it in the first place. The closer we seek to be to our guardian angels the further we will be from harm. Let us celebrate these guides, these gifts of God's providential care.

For to his angels he has given command about you,
that they guard you in all your ways. 

 

 

David W Morris - Let Us Exult His Name

1 October 2026 - i know my redeemer lives

Today's Readings

(Audio)

 

Jesus appointed seventy-two other disciples
whom he sent ahead of him in pairs
to every town and place he intended to visit.

When Jesus sends us out on mission the purpose of our work is to prepare the way for him to visit himself. It is not as though we look to ourselves to bring about the conversion and transformation of anyone. Rather we are sent out so that we can be used as agents of grace in the lives of people who might one day believe. This should lessen the pressure we face somewhat, but not entirely. The stakes are still high, and the possibility of ultimate refusal and rejection still exists. So what we hope to find in others is definitely not rejection, but not necessarily immediate success either. We hope to find open hearts that we can encourage to remain open.

Once we receive the call of the master of the harvest we might assume that our path would go from one success to another, and from strength to strength. But this is to ignore the warnings Jesus gave about the wolves that surround all efforts at spreading the Gospel message of light and life. It also ignores the fact that we are basically guaranteed that some towns will not receive us, that some amount of rejection is inevitable. In order to carry out our mission in a world that is hostile to our message our strategy should not be reliance on worldly resources or excessive preparation. One might think that if wolves are going to pursue us that is all the more reason we need to bring, not only money bag, sack, and sandals, but swords and shields as well. But rather than a strategy of self-reliance we are meant to learn to depend on providence, on the master of the harvest who has ordered our steps and arranged our paths. We look, not to our own stores of resources that we leave behind at home, but ahead, to the good works prepared and arranged for us in advance, that we find as we proceed in faith and obedience. 

‘Peace to this household.’
If a peaceful person lives there,
your peace will rest on him;
but if not, it will return to you.

As Christians we should not regard the gift of faith we have been given as trivial. The peace of Christ that surpasses all understanding is meant to guard our own hearts and minds (see Philippians 4:6-7). But it need not remain with us alone. It can transform that situations and circumstances into which we enter as disciples. Have we ever had the experience where we enter into a situation fraught with tension, but manage to remain peaceful and discover that, eventually, the atmosphere changes? This is the sort of thing people notice. This is what makes others ask what about us is different. It prepares the way for the one who is himself the giver of our peace, our Lord Jesus Christ. So let us remain in peace, not just for ourselves, but for the world, which is already thoroughly saturated with anxiety, anger, and outrage. Those are modern wolves that are indeed hostile to our message.  But they only have power over our peace if we let them. So let us treasure and protect this gift of peace, rooted in the reality described by Job, the message we want of which we want to convince the world:

But as for me, I know that my Vindicator lives,
and that he will at last stand forth upon the dust;
Whom I myself shall see:
my own eyes, not another’s, shall behold him

 

Little flower, pray for us! 

 

Vineyard Worship - My Redeemer Lives

 

30 September 2026 - wherever?

 

Today's Readings

(Audio)

 

 

I will follow you wherever you go.

We sometimes overestimate our own commitment to follow Jesus. We sing all of these songs about how we will follow him with our whole minds and hearts. But then we discover that the accommodations and other aspects of our lives as disciples are not always as pleasing as is the case for those who remain in the world. We might otherwise choose to pursue wealth and power and thus dwell in palaces. Or at lest we might have a stable resting place like the den of a fox or the nest of a bird. But as disciples of Jesus we must realize that even the comforts of home are not absolute. Following Jesus must take precedence. We tend to tell Jesus we will follow him anywhere. But we actually seem to mean anywhere within a narrow range of distance from our driveways, during specific hours of our day. He isn't always calling us to take drastic action like moving or going on mission. But he is asking to be the criterion we use to decide where and when we will stay or go. This, rightly, makes our flesh nervous. However, following Jesus always proves out to be better in the end than insisting on our own path.

And to another he said, "Follow me."
But he replied, "Lord, let me go first and bury my father."
But he answered him, "Let the dead bury their dead.
But you, go and proclaim the Kingdom of God."

It is possible that this individual was using his obligation to his father as an excuse. He may have heard the response of Jesus to the first individual and had second thoughts about whether he really wanted to accept the invitation. This initial hesitation might have eventually become an outright refusal as he recognized all the good he could do for his family by remaining at home. Even if he were sincere, and meant to do his duty quickly, and then follow immediately, he didn't understand how the Gospel was meant to be a still more urgent priority for the followers of Jesus. Burial of the dead was a corporal work of mercy. But giving life to those who were spiritually dead was the work of the Kingdom. Respect for the body of the dead had meaning only if there was hope for the spirit. A world in which burial was truly the last and most necessary thing would be a sad world indeed. Hence the urgent importance of the call of Jesus was greater even than one's duty to bury the dead.

And another said, "I will follow you, Lord,
but first let me say farewell to my family at home."

How many times have we said, "I will follow you Lord, but first"? What are the other priorities we put first before following him? Do we realize how easy it is to multiply such reasons endlessly and never actually move? They may all individually be good and noble goals, but if they keep us from the Kingdom they have become harmful distractions and ultimately mere excuses. They can become snares just as surely as those few good aspects of life in Egypt were distractions for those journeying toward the promised land. Looking back to our life before Jesus can be as destructive as looking back to Sodom was for the wife of Lot. Instead, the example we want to follow is that of Paul.

But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (see Philippians 3:13-14).

What about the good aspects of the excuses these potential disciples made? If they decided to cling to them as absolutes they would learn that they couldn't cling to them forever, whether homes or families. But if they put the Kingdom first they would eventually find that they also received all else besides. They could, so to speak, have them back again, but in a new way, with Jesus now at the center on the throne. It was better to be tended in his green pastures than any den, nest, or even mansion. Burying the dead was a different experience when there was the hope of the resurrection. Saying a farewell to the family was less dire and overwhelming when there was the promise of an eventual reunion at the resurrection. Jesus was a game changer for every potential excuse, but only if they decided to put him first in their lives. So too with us. Is there an invitation from Jesus we have been recently doing our best to ignore? What excuses do we use to do so? How might we turn those things over to him, until his is truly the Lord of our lives?

Kutless - King Of My Heart

 

29 September 2026 - in the presence of the angels

Today's Readings
(Audio)

 

"Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree."
Nathanael answered him,
"Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel."

To account for Nathanael's response we must say more than that Jesus simply happened to observe him in a human way, and thought that he seemed like a sincere individual based on appearance. Rather, his assertion, that there was in Nathanael no duplicity, was neither flattery nor assumption. Jesus could see both the surface and the depths of Nathanael's spirit. The fact that he observed him under the fig tree was not simply meant to describe the scene. Rather, Nathanael desired to be part of the messianic age in which "every man under his vine and under his fig tree" (see Micah 4:4). Jesus was not merely saying he happened to see Nathanael under any fig whatever. He was saying he saw Nathanael in the scene of that messianic age, in which Nathanael would have a place. This appears to have been the deepest desire of Nathanael's heart. There was no duplicity between his external action and his internal desire. But by saying he saw it in the way Jesus did, he meant in a way that was a divine and omniscient observation of the future. He went beyond the mere acknowledge of the desire to the confirmation that it would come to pass. It was this combination of insight and assurance that led Nathanael to confess that Jesus was not only a teacher but the Son of God and the King of Israel. Who else but the person described by those words could know what Jesus knew or promise what he had promised?

And he said to him, "Amen, amen, I say to you,
you will see heaven opened
and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man."

Jesus promised Nathanael more than he dared to hope or ask. The messianic age was going to be something far greater than he imagined, ushered in by a messiah who was more than he had dared to desire. The messiah would not merely restore the kingdom and restore the offering of right praise to Israel. He would do those things. But he would do so, not merely at a human scale, but by bridging the gap between heaven and earth, just as the ladder Jacob saw in a dream foreshadowed. Jesus himself would unleash the full blessings of heaven, which would be ministered to us by angels, doing so by removing the obstacles to those barriers, and uniting the heavenly and the earthly realms in his very person. Through Jesus the angels would bring the blessings of heaven, that had heretofore only been partial and unexpected exceptions, down to earth in a regular and reliable way. Through Jesus the angels would aid his people as they sought to lift up their lives to become worthy of life in that realm of the Spirit that was at the other end of the ladder of the incarnation.

We can see from the first option for our first reading how the same myriad of heavenly hosts that surround the throne of the Father are also servants of the great Son of Man. For our purposes this morning this includes especially Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, archangels with particularly important roles in God's plans for our salvation. Why should we bother with them, or why care about them? Why not just focus all of our limited mental resources on Jesus himself? We should pay attention to them because God himself clearly did by the prominent role he gave them in accomplishing our salvation, a project with which he clearly didn't actually need any help. 

 

It is not the case that the victory accomplished through Michael over the Devil and his angels is merely a past event. Rather, as God chose Michael to conquer the Devil, so too does he use each of the archangels in accomplishing his will in our own lives and in our world. Saint Michael can help us achieve our own victories over the evil one. Gabriel can help connect us to God's will and teach us how to make Jesus present in our own lives. Raphael can lead us to healing and restoration of bodily ailments, relationships, and even spiritual afflictions. It is not only the psalmist, but ourselves too, especially in the mass, where heaven meets earth, who are meant to sing our praises in "the sight of the angels".

Chris Tomlin - Whom Shall I Fear (God Of Angel Armies)