(Hg.1:1-8;   Ps.149:1-6,9;   Lk.9:7-9)   “He who earned wages earned them for a bag with holes in it.”   “Bring timber, and build the house that I may take pleasure in it and receive my glory.”  Rebuild the house of God, the temple of the Holy Spirit you are.  Shore up the breaches in its walls and solidify its foundation, that you might “sing to the Lord a new song of praise in the assembly of the faithful,” that you might be as those who are “glad in their maker…  For the Lord loves His people, and He adorns the lowly with victory.”  Humble yourself before […]

(Ezra 9:5-9;   Tb.13:1-4,6-8;   Lk.9:1-6)  “Turn back, you sinners! do the right before Him: perhaps He may look with favor upon you, and show you mercy.” As the Word of the Lord comes to our villages and enters our houses, we must treasure it and heed its warning to turn from our sins.  If we harden our hearts against its grace and mercy, if we fail to recognize our sin in the blessed light it brings, the Word shall leave, shaking the dust from its feet, and we shall be left alone in despair.  But if we turn toward the light it brings and turn from our sins, we shall be saved […]

(Ezra 6:7-8,12,14-20;   Ps.122:1-5;   Lk.8:19-21)   “The elders of the Jews continued to make progress in the building, supported by the message of the prophets.”   And so, returning from exile and with the permission and indeed the financial support of the Gentile king, Darius, the Jews completed the rebuilding of the temple at Jerusalem.  And so, the prophecy of the return to the Lord from their sins is in a measure fulfilled here in this act and in the worship which once again transpires in “that house of God.”  But we know that this is not the fulfillment of the new […]

(Ezra 1:1-6;   Ps.126:1-6;   Lk.8:16-18)   “Those that sow in tears shall reap rejoicing.”   The Israelites toiled in tears for four hundred years under the yoke of the Egyptians, then rejoiced to finally enter the Promised Land (after wandering forty years in the desert).  For seventy years Judah had been exiled to Babylon, but rejoiced when, remarkably, the king of Persia called them to return to Jerusalem and, with his blessing, to rebuild the temple of the Lord.  And now we wait in exile for our Lord to return.  But sadness should not overwhelm us in this land of exile.  […]

(1Tm.1:15-17;   Ps.113:1-7;   Lk.6:43-49) “Any man who desires to come to me will hear my words and put them into practice.” Our psalm today declares that God is “enthroned on high” – “High above all the nations is the Lord; above the heavens is His glory.”  And why is the Lord so glorious, so worthy of our praise…?  Because “He raises the lowly from the dust; from the dunghill He lifts up the poor.”  And Paul tells us the same: he glorifies God as “King of the ages, the immortal, the invisible, the only God” – and why?  Because though he is “the worst” […]