Podcasts about mercifully

In the Name of the Messiah Acts 3 by William Klock So what happens after Pentecost?  In the church's calendar we spend the first half of the year walking through the life of Jesus—maybe we think of that as the “gospel story”—and that closes with Pentecost.  And in the second half of the year we focus on the life of the church as it lives out Pentecost.  But the way the lectionary does that tends to present the life of the church in the abstract.  That's not necessarily bad.  But the book of Acts gives us an opportunity to see it in real life, in history.  And Acts is important because it makes sure we understand that the life of the church isn't some application of abstract theological principles.  Acts shows us the life of the church as very much the continuation of the story of Jesus, of that gospel narrative.  It doesn't end with the Ascension.  It doesn't end with Pentecost.  Pentecost simply begins a new chapter.  As Luke said at the beginning, in the gospel he wrote he laid out what Jesus began to do and to teach.  In Acts we see Jesus continuing to do and to teach, but now it's through his church, through his people. So last week we saw this amazing move of the Spirit.  That's how I think we mostly think of it: a move of the Spirit.  But if we've been following the story through Easter and the ascension it ought to be clear that Pentecost is, first and foremost, a move of Jesus the Messiah.  Having taken his heavenly throne to reign as king until he has put all his enemies under his feet, Jesus has sent the Spirit to enact, to make real the truth of his reign through the church.  The spirit enables the apostles, the rest of the disciples, enables us to put off the old, lie-based, rebellious way of being human and to put on the new humanity brought by Jesus' resurrection from the dead.  The Spirit makes us the working model of God's new creation in the midst of the old.  The Spirit, living within us, make us God's new temple: full of his presence, his wisdom, his gospel.  And as we fulfil his original command to are fruitful and multiply, we grow and spread that temple until God's glory fills the earth. So Pentecost doesn't stand alone.  It's not just a stage in our personal spiritual growth.  It's not even for our own benefit.  It's to carry the reign of Jesus as Lord to the world.  So, again, what happens after Pentecost?  Look at Acts, Chapter 3. [Page 1082 in the pew Bibles.]  Luke tells us, “Peter and John were going up to the temple at three o'clock in the afternoon, the time for prayer.” I think it's worth a pause there.  Peter and John and the rest of the church had become the new temple.  The very thing that was missing from old, bricks-and-mortar temple, the presence of God, had come to dwell in them.  But they still went to the old bricks-and-mortar temple.  It highlights the fact that they didn't think of Jesus, the Spirit, the new covenant, being the new Israel as being some kind of new religion.  This new thing was simply how to be a faithful Jew in light of God's promises to Israel being fulfilled in Jesus.  And so these first Christians continued to observe torah, they worshipped with their fellow Jews in the synagogues, and they went with their fellow Jews to pray in the temple.  They didn't leave Judaism for something called Christianity.  But here's the thing: You and I don't do any of those things.  We don't live according to torah, we're not circumcised, we don't observe the Jewish feasts, we don't go the temple—we can't, because God judged and destroyed it long ago—but we are part of that same family of Jesus people, that same new Israel, that same church.  Because the new Israel isn't about torah, or circumcision, or diet, or Sabbath, or biological descent from Abraham.  It's about faith in, allegiance to Jesus, Israel's Messiah, and his kingdom, and the law of love written in our hearts by his Spirit.  What marks us out is our baptism into Jesus and the law of the Spirit that overflows from within us. Now, Luke goes on: “There was a man being carried in who had been lame from his mother's womb.  People used to bring him every day to the temple gate called “Beautiful”, so that he could ask for alms from those entering the temple.  When he saw Peter and John going into the temple, he asked them to give him some money. So every day, probably for many years, this man's friends would carry him to the gate of the main temple court and leave him there to beg.  He was a fixture of the temple.  Few people probably “knew” him, but everyone was familiar with him.  Peter and John weren't from Jerusalem, but they'd probably seen the man when they visited the temple.  Maybe they'd given him money before.  But this time they have no money.  They'd left their jobs as fisherman in Galilee.  The church in Jerusalem has been surviving by living as family, pooling their resources.  Luke goes on: “Peter, with John, looked hard at him.  ‘Look at us,' he said.  The man stared at them, expecting to get something from them.  ‘I haven't got any silver or gold,' Peter said, ‘but I'll give you what I have got.  In the name of the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, get up and walk!'  He grabbed the man by his right hand and lifted him up.  At once his feet and ankles became strong, and he leaped to his feet and began to walk.  He went in with them into the temple, walking and jumping up and down and praising God.  All the people saw him walking and praising God, and they recognised him as the man who had been sitting begging for alms by the Beautiful Gate of the temple.  They were filled with amazement and astonishment at what had happened to him.” He got more than he bargained for and what Peter and John give this man is right in keeping with what we read at the end of Chapter 2.  Money had ceased to have any importance for the disciples.  Something far better had come along.  Money is one of those things you need to get along in the old age where things are scarce and people are greedy.  The kingdom of God is about his new creation generosity and abundance.  This is why they lived like a family and shared what God gave with each other.  It was a practical way to live out new creation in way that confronted the scarcity and greed of the old age.  They knew there was something more important, a new power, a new kind of life—something far more important than silver and gold and so they gave it to this man.  The man didn't even ask to be healed.  He'd probably given up on that idea years and years ago.  But Peter gave this man new creation in the name of Jesus. Maybe this is why Peter insisted that the man look at them.  Picture Peter looking hard into the lame man's eyes and the lame man staring back.  Maybe Peter had seen Jesus do that: looking intently into the eyes of hurting people, seeing desperation, seeing hopelessness in some and faith in others.  Making a connection.  Sharing the compassion of God for the victims of the corrupt principalities and powers of the present age.  It seems like Peter saw something there.  Maybe hope.  Maybe faith.  Maybe the man knew who Peter was.  Maybe he'd heard about what happened at Pentecost.  Peter saw something.  And he didn't just tell the man to get up and walk.  That's what Jesus would have done and Peter wasn't Jesus.  Peter had no power of his own to do anything.  Instead, Peter made it clear where the power lies: “In the name of the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, get up and walk.” The name is as good as the person.  Peter and John were acting as Jesus' representatives and in that capacity—so long as they were faithful to Jesus' will, his desire, his agenda, his rule and kingdom—they could act with power and authority and faith on his behalf—in his name.  And so can we.  Sometimes we forget that.  On the one hand, we pray and we add something like “through Jesus our Lord” or “in the name of Jesus” at the end of our prayers without even thinking about what it means or, on the other hand, we use Jesus' name as if it were a talisman to give our prayers legitimacy or as if just mentioning the name of Jesus will bring our will into reality.  I once prayed and when I was done, a guy came up to me afterward and said, “You didn't say ‘in Jesus' name' so your prayer won't come true.”  No.  Brothers and Sisters, saying a prayer isn't like making a wish and adding Jesus' name doesn't validate our prayers.  Whether we mention him or not, every true Christian prayer is offered to the Father through the mediation of Jesus the son.  It is through him that we have access to God.  And God answers our prayer not because we add a name, but because our whole prayer is a cry for his new creation to become reality, for it to be on earth as it is heaven.  Too often our prayers are veiled appeals to our old idols, appeals to the principalities and powers, appeals still subject to the fears and anxieties of the present evil age, outgrowths of the flesh rather than the Spirit.  And to those prayers, God answers “No”.  Brothers and Sisters, to pray in Jesus' name is to submit ourselves to the goodness and faithfulness of God; it is to pray with faithfulness and single-hearted loyalty to him as Lord, and to ask not for our will to be done, but his; to ask not for the fulfilment of our vision of the good, but his; to ask not for our kingdom to be made real, but his kingdom.  It is to understand that heaven is the storehouse of the goodness of God's kingdom, like the turkey in the refrigerator and the presents stored up under Mom and Dad's bed, all to be brought out when Christmas comes.  God's kingdom will come in all its fulness when the church, when we have made God's gospel known throughout the earth and when the knowledge of his glory covers creation as the sea.  Prayer is to ask God to give us glimpse of that final day when the presents are under the tree, ready to be opened, and the turkey is on the table and the great feast is ready.  Prayer is, to quote Karl Barth, “the beginning of an uprising against the disorder the world.”  It is to ask in hope for God's justice, God's righteousness, God's goodness, God's faithfulness, God's future to be known—even if only in a small way—right here and right now. And that's what Peter did.  And suddenly the man was jumping and dancing his way into the temple full of heaven on earth.  And everyone noticed.  Verse 11: “All the people ran together in astonishment towards Peter and John and the man was clinging to them.  They were in the part of the temple known as ‘Solomon's Porch'.  Peter saw them all and began to speak. ‘Men of Israel,' he said, ‘why are you amazed at this?  Why are you staring at us as though it was our own power or piety that made this man walk?  “The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob—the God of our fathers”—he has glorified his servant Jesus, the one you handed over and denied in the presence of Pilate, although he had decided to let him go.'” Let's pause there.  When Peter says “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob—the God of our fathers” he's taking a line from Exodus 3.  This is how the God of Israel introduced himself to Moses at the burning bush before sending him back to Egypt to demand that Pharoah let the Israelites go.  Jesus had just done this in his dispute with the Sadducees and now Peter does the same and his point is to highlight that just as with Moses and the Exodus from Egypt, the God of Israel is at work here and not just as work, but at work to bring his promises to Israel to pass.  Peter's announcing that it's happening again.  In Jesus and the Spirit; in Good Friday and Easter and Ascension and Pentecost, the God of Israel was acting once again to deliver his people from bondage, to lead them in a new exodus, to renew his covenant. We'll see this throughout Acts.  Confronted by Jesus and his mighty deeds, those early believers would go back to Exodus.  That was when God fulfilled his promises to deliver his people.  That was when they sacrificed the Passover lambs.  That was when he led them through the sea and gave them his law.  That was when he led them into the promised land and gave them an inheritance.  And when those first Christians saw Jesus and the Spirit at work it was like Moses at the burning bush seeing something amazing that he couldn't explain, and with that scene in mind, we ought to be expecting that God is still keeping his promises and is doing something extraordinary again. Peter goes on: “You denied the holy one, the just one, and requested instead to have a murderer given to you; and so you killed the Prince of Life.  But God raised him from the dead, and we are witnesses to the fact.  And it is his name, working through faith in his name, that has given strength to this man, whom you see and know.  It is faith which comes through him that has given him this new complete wholeness in front of all of you.” So Peter starts explaining Jesus by pulling images from the Jewish scriptures.  We might miss it because we don't know the Bible as well as we should; the people there that day definitely would not have.  First, Peter calls Jesus the servant of God.  Second, he stresses the innocence of Jesus.  He wasn't deserving of death, but the people of Jerusalem handed him over to Pilate.  Even Pilate, Peter says, knew Jesus was innocent.  But they demanded Pilate release Barabbas and that Jesus be crucified.  These images together draw on Isaiah's prophecy, especially Isaiah 53, the passage about the suffering servant, an innocent, who would one day, go to the slaughter like a lamb for the sins of the people.  When Peter calls him the holy one, this too brings up images of the suffering servant and of the spotless lamb.  If the people want to understand what's happened to the lame man, how he's been healed, Peter is saying that they need to think about the Exodus and they need to be thinking about Isaiah's suffering servant and understand that Jesus is standing at the centre of both of these images from Israel's story and God's promises. And this is why he calls Jesus the “Prince of Life”.  The archegos, not just prince, but also the author, the origin, the source of life.  Jesus is the sovereign one, the Lord, who brings life.  It fits with John's image of the word, who was in the beginning and through whom, as God spoke him out, was the source of everything.  Through him all things were created and now, through the word, God speaks life into the world again.  He came into the midst of corruption and sickness and death and has brought life.  And wherever he goes be brings life and in that life he announces his lordship, his sovereignty, his kingdom.  Wherever he brings life he announces his victory over sin and death, over the present evil age.  Wherever he brings life, he announces the hope of God's promises fulfilled and a world set to rights: no more death, no more sorrow, no more tears.  Ironically, his own people rejected and killed him, but God raised him from the dead to prove that Jesus is the life of the world and because of that we know, we have confidence that his life will continue to go out into the world. Peter does here what he did at Pentecost.  God did something mighty and amazing, and Peter—steeped in scripture and full of the Spirit—explains what's going on in light of the story of Israel and her God and, most importantly, showing how what's now happening is the fulfilment of what God had promised to his people.  That's the biggest thing here.  This is no faith healer, doing theatrics and putting the spotlight on himself.  Peter has absolutely no interest in that.  He makes it clear: this is all about Jesus.  The prophets had said that the world would be set to rights when the knowledge of the glory of God has covered it as the sea.  Not the knowledge of Peter.  Not the knowledge of celebrity apostles. The knowledge of the glory of God.  And so Peter's Spirit-filled purpose is to proclaim the glory of God—to make sure everyone knows not just that God is mighty and powerful, but that God is above all faithful to his promises and worthy of our trust, worthy of our allegiance, worthy of our faith.  And that's the next thing.  After announcing how this is healing is evidence of God's faithfulness, Peter issues a call to faith.  Look at verse 17: “Now, Brothers,” Peter continued, “I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your rulers did.  But this is how God has fulfilled what he promised through the mouth of all the prophets, that his Messiah would suffer.  So now repent, and turn back, so that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshment may come from the presence of the Lord, and so that he will send you Jesus, the one he chose and appointed to be his Messiah.  He must be received in heaven, you see, until the time which God spoke about through the mouth of the holy prophets from ancient days, the time when God will restore all things.  Moses said, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me, one from among your own brothers; whatever he says to you, you must pay attention to him.  And everyone who does not listen to that prophet will be cut off from the people.'  All the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and his successors, spoke about these days too.  You are the children of the prophets, the children of the covenant which God established with your ancestors when he said to Abraham, ‘In your seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.'  When God raised up his servant he sent him to you first, to bless you by turning each of you away from your wicked deeds.” Over and over Peter stresses that what the people are seeing is the fulfilment of God's promises going all the way back to Abraham: His promise to renew fallen Israel, his promise to reach out to the nations with this glory through this renewed people.  Peter points forward to this hope of creation set to rights that we see from this point on throughout Acts and the New Testament, said in various ways.  God will “sum up all things in the Messiah,” as we heard Paul say in Ephesians 1:10.  Through the Messiah he will “reconcile all things to himself, making peace by his blood, shed on the cross” (Colossians 1:20).  He will make “new heavens and new earth, in which justice will dwell” (Revelation 21:1).  He will overcome every power which destroys and corrupts his good creation, so that eventually God will be “all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:28).  The whole creation will be “set free from its slavery to decay, to share the liberty of the glory of God's children” (Romans 8:21).  Brothers and Sisters, it began at the cross and the empty tomb, the ascension was a sign it was all true, and Pentecost show us that we're not only a part of how these promises will be fulfilled, but we can watch as heaven invades earth with the glory of God.  We don't have to wait for some distant day to see God revealed.  We see his glory at work each day: in ourselves as his word and Spirt renew us and in the world as we live and proclaim the good news about Jesus and see faith born in others and their hearts and minds renewed by Jesus and the Spirit.  We see God's glory revealed as the weight of sin and guilt is lifted.  Notice that's part of Peter's message.  It's not just a call to repent.  It's also assurance of forgiveness.  God, through the blood of Jesus, was ready to forgive even the rejection, the hardness of heart, the rebellion of Israel when they crucified Jesus.  That's the whole point of all of this: God's great final restoration of all things is for us, for sinners, for rebels, for God-haters, right here and right now.  The gospel brings God's future into the present, because God longs to show his mercy and his grace to sinners.  As God longs for his good world that we've corrupted with our sin to be set to rights, even more he longs to set us to rights that we might once again be the stewards, the priests of his temple that he created us to be. God will, as Peter says echoing Isaiah 43:25, God will blot out the sins of those who repent.  And if his grace was big enough and Jesus' blood strong enough to blot out the sins of those who crucified him, and his Spirit powerful enough to renew their hearts and to fill them with love, Brothers and Sisters, the blood of Jesus and the renewing power of his Spirit is enough to bring God's new creation to us.  Repent and believe in the name of Jesus.  Be forgiven.  Be made whole.  Be made new.  Be refreshed.  Be God's future here and now.  Be made a witness to your family, to your friends, to everyone around you of the saving power of Jesus the Messiah. Let's pray: O God, the strength of all who put their trust in you: Mercifully accept our prayers; and because in our weakness we can do nothing good without you, give us the help of your grace, that in keeping your commandments we may please you both in will and deed; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

Mercifully, our audio issues have been resolved! Not just that, but we sound BETTER THAN EVER*! And just in time for some seriously interesting NFL teams!... also the AFC South. Jokes, they are ALL fascinating to us here at 4AF HQ, enjoy the Offseason Recap Finale - AFC South and West! (*well, we think so anyway)

A long, long time ago, in a remote, wild and mystical land called Minnesota, a bunch of nerds with polyhedral dice decided to play-act Lord of the Rings using the rules and miniatures from a medieval war game. That game became a product, that product became a brand, and that brand became popular with women, so they made a pretty decent movie out of it. We watched that movie, and had a nice chat about what sets it a step above its IP franchise film peers. An extra special thanks to our $10 Executive Producers: JetChiclete, Isaac, squishward, Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Tropical Doves, jprestonpoole, Lohik, bernventers, and Owen2. If you can, please lend some support to these organizations: Gaza Funds PCRF (Palestinian Children's Relief Fund) MAP (Medical Aid for Palestinians) National Networks of Abortion Funds Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota If you enjoy the show please consider: Subscribing to our Patreon, where you can enjoy exclusive subscriber only episodes.

Genesis 19:12-25 - God Mercifully Rescues Lot Before He Destroys Sodom And Gomorrah - Sermon Notes

The season is finally over for the New Jersey Devils.By Sam Woo and Nick Villanohttps://pucksandpitchforks.comhttps://www.LetsGoDevils.comRATE, REVIEW, AND SUBSCRIBE: Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lets-go-devils-podcast/id1371371669 #NJDevils #NHL #LetsGoDevils #LGD #Devils #NewJersey #NCAA #AHLBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/let-s-go-devils-podcast--2862943/support.

Nick Alberga & Jay Rosehill tee up Game 82 as the Toronto Maple Leafs close out a brutal, disappointing season with a visit to Ottawa. With plenty of uncertainty surrounding the organization, the guys dive into what could potentially be Craig Berube's final game behind the bench—and possibly Morgan Rielly's last game in blue and white as well. It's also the end of an era in the broadcast booth, as legendary voice Joe Bowen is set to call the final game of his iconic career.Plus, Nick & Jay catch up with Bo Groulx to discuss his brief NHL call-up, the emotion of returning to the league, and the upcoming Calder Cup Playoffs.

The Liturgy of the Palms The Gospel Matthew 21:1-11 When Jesus and his disciples had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, "Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, just say this, `The Lord needs them.' And he will send them immediately." This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet, saying, "Tell the daughter of Zion, Look, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey." The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting, "Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven! " When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, "Who is this?" The crowds were saying, "This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee." The Psalm Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29 Confitemini Domino 1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; * his mercy endures for ever. 2 Let Israel now proclaim, * "His mercy endures for ever." 19 Open for me the gates of righteousness; * I will enter them; I will offer thanks to the Lord. 20 "This is the gate of the Lord; * he who is righteous may enter." 21 I will give thanks to you, for you answered me * and have become my salvation. 22 The same stone which the builders rejected * has become the chief cornerstone. 23 This is the Lord's doing, * and it is marvelous in our eyes. 24 On this day the Lord has acted; * we will rejoice and be glad in it. 25 Hosannah, Lord, hosannah! * Lord, send us now success. 26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; * we bless you from the house of the Lord. 27 God is the Lord; he has shined upon us; * form a procession with branches up to the horns of the altar. 28 "You are my God, and I will thank you; * you are my God, and I will exalt you." 29 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; * his mercy endures for ever. at The Liturgy of the Word The Collect Almighty and everliving God, in your tender love for the human race you sent your Son our Savior Jesus Christ to take upon him our nature, and to suffer death upon the cross, giving us the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of his suffering, and also share in his resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. Old Testament Isaiah 50:4-9a The Lord God has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word. Morning by morning he wakens-- wakens my ear  to listen as those who are taught. The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious,  I did not turn backward. I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I did not hide my face from insult and spitting. The Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame;  he who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who are my adversaries? Let them confront me. It is the Lord God who helps me; who will declare me guilty? The Psalm Psalm 31:9-16 In te, Domine, speravi 9 Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am in trouble; * my eye is consumed with sorrow, and also my throat and my belly. 10 For my life is wasted with grief, and my years with sighing; * my strength fails me because of affliction, and my bones are consumed. 11 I have become a reproach to all my enemies and even to my neighbors, a dismay to those of my acquaintance; * when they see me in the street they avoid me. 12 I am forgotten like a dead man, out of mind; * I am as useless as a broken pot. 13 For I have heard the whispering of the crowd; fear is all around; * they put their heads together against me; they plot to take my life. 14 But as for me, I have trusted in you, O Lord. * I have said, "You are my God. 15 My times are in your hand; * rescue me from the hand of my enemies, and from those who persecute me. 16 Make your face to shine upon your servant, * and in your loving-kindness save me." The Epistle Philippians 2:5-11 Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God  as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave,  being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself  and became obedient to the point of death--  even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name  that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend,  in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,  to the glory of God the Father. The Gospel Matthew 26:14- 27:66 One of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, "What will you give me if I betray him to you?" They paid him thirty pieces of silver. And from that moment he began to look for an opportunity to betray him. On the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying, "Where do you want us to make the preparations for you to eat the Passover?" He said, "Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, 'The Teacher says, My time is near; I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.'" So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they prepared the Passover meal. When it was evening, he took his place with the twelve; and while they were eating, he said, "Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me." And they became greatly distressed and began to say to him one after another, "Surely not I, Lord?" He answered, "The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me. The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that one by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that one not to have been born." Judas, who betrayed him, said, "Surely not I, Rabbi?" He replied, "You have said so." While they were eating, Jesus took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, "Take, eat; this is my body." Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will never again drink of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom." When they had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. Then Jesus said to them, "You will all become deserters because of me this night; for it is written, 'I will strike the shepherd,  the sheep of the flock will be scattered.' But after I am raised up, I will go ahead of you to Galilee." Peter said to him, "Though all become deserters because of you, I will never desert you." Jesus said to him, "Truly I tell you, this very night, before the cock crows, you will deny me three times." Peter said to him, "Even though I must die with you, I will not deny you." And so said all the disciples. Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane; and he said to his disciples, "Sit here while I go over there and pray." He took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and agitated. Then he said to them, "I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and stay awake with me." And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want." Then he came to the disciples and found them sleeping; and he said to Peter, "So, could you not stay awake with me one hour? Stay awake and pray that you may not come into the time of trial; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." Again he went away for the second time and prayed, "My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done." Again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. So leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words. Then he came to the disciples and said to them, "Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up, let us be going. See, my betrayer is at hand." While he was still speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, arrived; with him was a large crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the elders of the people. Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, "The one I will kiss is the man; arrest him." At once he came up to Jesus and said, "Greetings, Rabbi!" and kissed him. Jesus said to him, "Friend, do what you are here to do." Then they came and laid hands on Jesus and arrested him. Suddenly, one of those with Jesus put his hand on his sword, drew it, and struck the slave of the high priest, cutting off his ear. Then Jesus said to him, "Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the scriptures be fulfilled, which say it must happen in this way?" At that hour Jesus said to the crowds, "Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest me as though I were a bandit? Day after day I sat in the temple teaching, and you did not arrest me. But all this has taken place, so that the scriptures of the prophets may be fulfilled." Then all the disciples deserted him and fled. Those who had arrested Jesus took him to Caiaphas the high priest, in whose house the scribes and the elders had gathered. But Peter was following him at a distance, as far as the courtyard of the high priest; and going inside, he sat with the guards in order to see how this would end. Now the chief priests and the whole council were looking for false testimony against Jesus so that they might put him to death, but they found none, though many false witnesses came forward. At last two came forward and said, "This fellow said, 'I am able to destroy the temple of God and to build it in three days.'" The high priest stood up and said, "Have you no answer? What is it that they testify against you?" But Jesus was silent. Then the high priest said to him, "I put you under oath before the living God, tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God." Jesus said to him, "You have said so. But I tell you, From now on you will see the Son of Man  seated at the right hand of Power  and coming on the clouds of heaven." Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, "He has blasphemed! Why do we still need witnesses? You have now heard his blasphemy. What is your verdict?" They answered, "He deserves death." Then they spat in his face and struck him; and some slapped him, saying, "Prophesy to us, you Messiah! Who is it that struck you?" Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard. A servant-girl came to him and said, "You also were with Jesus the Galilean." But he denied it before all of them, saying, "I do not know what you are talking about." When he went out to the porch, another servant-girl saw him, and she said to the bystanders, "This man was with Jesus of Nazareth." Again he denied it with an oath, "I do not know the man." After a little while the bystanders came up and said to Peter, "Certainly you are also one of them, for your accent betrays you." Then he began to curse, and he swore an oath, "I do not know the man!" At that moment the cock crowed. Then Peter remembered what Jesus had said: "Before the cock crows, you will deny me three times." And he went out and wept bitterly. When morning came, all the chief priests and the elders of the people conferred together against Jesus in order to bring about his death. They bound him, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate the governor. When Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he repented and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders. He said, "I have sinned by betraying innocent blood." But they said, "What is that to us? See to it yourself." Throwing down the pieces of silver in the temple, he departed; and he went and hanged himself. But the chief priests, taking the pieces of silver, said, "It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, since they are blood money." After conferring together, they used them to buy the potter's field as a place to bury foreigners. For this reason that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day. Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah, "And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of the one on whom a price had been set, on whom some of the people of Israel had set a price, and they gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord commanded me." Now Jesus stood before the governor; and the governor asked him, "Are you the King of the Jews?" Jesus said, "You say so." But when he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he did not answer. Then Pilate said to him, "Do you not hear how many accusations they make against you?" But he gave him no answer, not even to a single charge, so that the governor was greatly amazed. Now at the festival the governor was accustomed to release a prisoner for the crowd, anyone whom they wanted. At that time they had a notorious prisoner, called Jesus Barabbas. So after they had gathered, Pilate said to them, "Whom do you want me to release for you, Jesus Barabbas or Jesus who is called the Messiah?" For he realized that it was out of jealousy that they had handed him over. While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent word to him, "Have nothing to do with that innocent man, for today I have suffered a great deal because of a dream about him." Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus killed. The governor again said to them, "Which of the two do you want me to release for you?" And they said, "Barabbas." Pilate said to them, "Then what should I do with Jesus who is called the Messiah?" All of them said, "Let him be crucified!" Then he asked, "Why, what evil has he done?" But they shouted all the more, "Let him be crucified!" So when Pilate saw that he could do nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took some water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, "I am innocent of this man's blood; see to it yourselves." Then the people as a whole answered, "His blood be on us and on our children!" So he released Barabbas for them; and after flogging Jesus, he handed him over to be crucified. Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor's headquarters, and they gathered the whole cohort around him. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and after twisting some thorns into a crown, they put it on his head. They put a reed in his right hand and knelt before him and mocked him, saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!" They spat on him, and took the reed and struck him on the head. After mocking him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him. As they went out, they came upon a man from Cyrene named Simon; they compelled this man to carry his cross. And when they came to a place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull), they offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall; but when he tasted it, he would not drink it. And when they had crucified him, they divided his clothes among themselves by casting lots; then they sat down there and kept watch over him. Over his head they put the charge against him, which read, "This is Jesus, the King of the Jews." Then two bandits were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left. Those who passed by derided him, shaking their heads and saying, "You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross." In the same way the chief priests also, along with the scribes and elders, were mocking him, saying, "He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he wants to; for he said, 'I am God's Son.'" The bandits who were crucified with him also taunted him in the same way. From noon on, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And about three o'clock Jesus cried with a loud voice, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" that is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" When some of the bystanders heard it, they said, "This man is calling for Elijah." At once one of them ran and got a sponge, filled it with sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink. But the others said, "Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him." Then Jesus cried again with a loud voice and breathed his last. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. After his resurrection they came out of the tombs and entered the holy city and appeared to many. Now when the centurion and those with him, who were keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were terrified and said, "Truly this man was God's Son!" Many women were also there, looking on from a distance; they had followed Jesus from Galilee and had provided for him. Among them were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee. When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who was also a disciple of Jesus. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus; then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. So Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn in the rock. He then rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb and went away. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb. The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said, "Sir, we remember what that impostor said while he was still alive, 'After three days I will rise again.' Therefore command the tomb to be made secure until the third day; otherwise his disciples may go and steal him away, and tell the people, 'He has been raised from the dead,' and the last deception would be worse than the first." Pilate said to them, "You have a guard of soldiers; go, make it as secure as you can." So they went with the guard and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone.

A Sermon for Palm Sunday Philippians 2:1-11, St. Matthew 21:1-17, and St. Matthew 27:1-54 by William Klock One of the buildings that intrigued me the most when I studied architectural history is the Pantheon in Rome.  It's absolutely massive.  If you're not familiar with it: it's a magnificent round building covered by the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome.  It's so impressive, that until I studied the Pantheon in architectural history, I'd always assumed it had been built during the Renaissance.  But no.  It was built by the Romans in the early Second Century, a testament to their engineering capabilities.  That's what the Pantheon is known for. What doesn't get nearly as much attention is the function of that massive building.  It was a temple for all the gods of Rome, hence the name “Pantheon”, meaning “all the gods”.  It was a temple, full of altars and statues of the gods to which they were dedicated.  And, in this, it came to represent the imperial power of Caesar and his empire, backed and supported by the power and authority gods.  When I read Paul writing about the “principalities and powers” of the present wicked age, I can't help but think of the Pantheon. But in the Year of Our Lord Six-hundred-and-nine, the Christian Emperor Phocas and Boniface IV, the Bishop of Rome, ordered the by then disused Pantheon stripped of its pagan idols and pagan altars.  Twenty-eight cartloads containing the bones Christian martyrs were exhumed from the catacombs and reburied there.  A Christian altar was erected.  And the building was dedicated as a church in honour of those martyrs whom the pagan Romans had murdered in the names of their gods.  To this day, over fourteen-hundred years later, the Church of St. Mary and the Martyrs remains there, a faithful witness to the conquest of Rome by the gospel and of the lordship of Jesus the Messiah.  A testimony to the power of the cross and the blood of Jesus, not only to purify us from our sins and to make us a dwelling place fit for God's Spirit, but to wash creation itself clean from our sins as well.  There is nothing in creation—whether sinful humans or the most pagan of pagan temples—that Jesus cannot purify and redeem and set right for the glory of the living God.  But the Pantheon is also a testimony of how, of the power of gospel virtue—humility, love, grace, mercy—over the raw power and violence of empire and human endeavour. Think back to the beginning of Lent.  We listened as St. Matthew told us the story of Jesus' temptation in the wilderness.  The devil took him off to a very high mountain and showed him all the magnificent kingdoms of the world.  Off on the horizon was Rome.  “I'll give the whole lot to you,” the devil said, “if you will fall down and worship me.” To rule creation was, after all what Jesus had come for.  He was creation's true Lord.  Caesar and all the other kings were pretenders, shams, parodies of who and what Jesus really is.  All of it, from Jerusalem to Rome and beyond belongs to him.  “There is not one square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!” to quote Abraham Kuyper.  But this was not the way.  Jesus will not reclaim his creation without also setting it to rights, without dealing with the problems of sin and death.  Without purifying it from idolatry.  without dealing with the very problems that gave us kings in the first place.  To do that requires more than raw power. And so today we hear Matthew again as he tells us of Jesus' triumphal procession into Jerusalem.  When they came near to Jerusalem, and arrived at Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of the disciples on ahead.  Go into the village over there and at once you'll find a donkey tied and a foal beside it.  Untie them and bring them to me and if anyone says anything to you, say, “The Lord needs them and he'll send them back right away.”  He sent them off at once.   Jesus was about to act out another one of his prophecies.  This time it was to show and to remind the people what sort of king the Messiah was to be.  They did want a king who would set all to rights, but in their heads, to their way of thinking, that meant leading a revolt against the Romans.  He would be like David, who defeated the Jebusites to take their city Jerusalem as his capital.  He would be like Judas Maccabeus, who defeated the Greeks and established an independent Jewish kingdom under the high priest.  The Messiah would be like that, only better, greater, more powerful, and his kingdom would last forever.  He would raise up Israel and put the gentile kings under their feet.  The day before or maybe even that same day, as Jesus came to Jerusalem from Bethphage, Caesar's governor, Pontius Pilate, was marching into the city from the opposite direction, from his base in Caesarea, at the front of a column of Roman soldiers.  They were there to represent Caesar's might and to keep the peace with threat of violence during Passover.  If Jesus was the Messiah, now was his time—or so a lot of people thought—now was Jesus' time to finally and really be the Messiah, raise up his army, and cast down Pilate and the Romans and take his throne. But violence wasn't the way to the throne any more than bowing down to the devil was.  Matthew says that Jesus did it his way to remind the people of what the Lord had said about the Messiah through the Prophet Zechariah: Tell this to Zion's daughter: Look now! Here comes your King.  He's humble, mounted on a donkey, yes, on a foal, it's young. The king they expected was going to ride into Jerusalem in a chariot or at least on a great warhorse.  But God's king is different.  A great warrior might take care of the Romans and even take his throne.  He could set things to rights in the way of earthly kings like Caesar, but the world would still be subject to sin and death.  So Jesus acted out the prophecy.  The disciples brought the donkey and Jesus humbly rode it into the city.  And the people cheered all along the way.  They spread their cloaks on the road.  Others cut branches form the trees and scattered them on the road.  The crowds who went ahead of him, and those who were following behind shouted, “Hosanna to the son of David!  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!  Hosanna in the highest!”  And the whole city was gripped with excitement when they came into Jerusalem.  “Who is this!” they were saying.  And the crowds replied, “This is the prophet, Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee.   The humble king, fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah.  But Jesus wasn't done with his acted-out prophecy.  Matthew says that on entering Jerusalem, Jesus went straight to the temple and when he got there he threw out the people who were buying and selling in the temple.  He upturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of the dove-sellers.  It is written, he said to them, “My house will be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a brigand's lair!”  The blind and lame came to him in the temple and he healed them.  But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the remarkable things he was doing, and the children shouting, “Hosanna to the son of David!” they were very angry.   The king was fulfilling the words of the prophets.  He came in humility.  And he came announcing that he really was going to set the world to rights.  He was going to set the world to rights in a way that would make the temple obsolete.  Jesus himself would bridge the gulf between God and sinful humans.  Jesus would offer himself as the once-for-all and perfect sacrifice for sin, a sacrifice that would finally purify his people so that in the Spirit, the living God could dwell within them and make them his temple.  So that he could finally give them new hearts full of love for him and love for each other.  They didn't want to hear that.  It was his preaching about the temple that got him arrested. Our long Palm Sunday Gospel today—Matthew 27—vividly depicts the Messiah's humble way to his throne.  Betrayed by his friends, rejected by his people.  Standing humbly before the Roman governor so many people expected him to slay.  Facing trumped up charges made by lying men.  Left condemned to death as the people chose instead that Pilate should free a brutal, violent revolutionary—a man truly guilty of the trumped up charges against Jesus.  Standing humbly as the very people he came to save cried out to Pilate, “Crucify him!”  Standing humbly as he, the king, was rejected by his own people who cried out the unthinkable, “We have no king but Caesar!”  Standing humbly as Roman soldiers mocked him, beat him senseless and scourged him, ripping the skin from his body.  Humbly dragging the very cross on which he would be crucified through the city.  The king, nailed to a cross and hoisted to die between two violent thieves as his own people shouted blasphemies at him, as the chief priests and scribes mocked him shouting, “He rescued others, but he cannot rescue himself.  If he's the king of Israel, let him come down from the cross!  He trusts in God; let God deliver him now if he's really God's son!” For hours Jesus suffered: pulling on those nails driven through his wrists, pushing on the nails driven through his feet, lifting himself to gasp for breath through the pain, while the people gathered around: Jews, Romans, even the spiritual shepherds of his people who claimed to speak for God mocked him and shouted blasphemies.  And despite all that, Luke writes that Jesus prayed for them: Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.  And eventually his body could take no more and Jesus breathed his last breath.  Matthew says, the earth shook.  The great veil that guarded the holy of holies in the temple was torn in two.  And the Roman centurions standing guard, scared out of their wits, announced the very thing Jesus' own people would not: He really was the son of God!   Brothers and Sisters, there can be no Easter without Good Friday.  To set the world to rights—to really set it to rights—not just to take a throne, not just to defeat the Romans—but to defeat sin and death and to reconcile sinful men and women to God required a king willing to let evil rise up to its full height, to let evil concentrate itself all in one place, and to let it do its worst, crashing down on him all at once.  It required a king willing to throw himself into the gears of this fallen, broken, and sinful world to bring them to a stop.  It required a king willing to give his life for his own people even as they mocked and blasphemed him, so that he could rise from that humiliating death to overturn the verdict against him, rise victorious over sin and death and the absolute worst that they could do.  Only that humble king could defeat death and bring life—real and true life—back to God's creation and gather a people forgiven, cleansed by his blood, and filled with his Spirit to become a new temple, a new holy of holies where the nations would—where the nations now—enter the presence of God. It was in that humble king that those Roman centurions saw something they had never seen before.  Their Caesar called himself the son of God, but in Jesus they saw the God of Israel at work in all his glory, in all his love, in all his mercy, in all his faithfulness—like no god they'd ever known—completely unlike any god or goddess honoured in the Pantheon.  Whether they knew it or not, those centurions that first Good Friday announced the defeat of Jupiter and Mars, of Hera and Diana, of Neptune and Vesta and all the others.  And they announced the defeat of Caesar, too.  In less than three centuries, the Emperor of Rome himself would be captivated by the good news about Jesus, the son of God, the great King who was setting the world to rights. But Brothers and Sisters, the good news about Jesus, crucified and risen, didn't go out through the empire and to the nations all on its own.  It was carried, it was stewarded by a people—by a church—that, itself, took on the humility of the Saviour.  The bones of those martyrs buried in the Pantheon are a testimony to the faithful, humble, sacrificial witness of Jesus' people in those early centuries.  They didn't just proclaim a message.  They lived it out as a community—as the vanguard of God's new creation born that first Easter morning.  A people welling over with the humility of Jesus and the love of the Spirit.  In the midst of a world of darkness, of false gods and idolatry, of brutality and immorality hard for us to imagine today, they gave the pagans a glimpse of God's future.  By the way they lived, they lifted the veil and showed the world God's new creation.  It was not only the proclamation of the church, but the very life of the church that showed the world a better way, a way no one before had ever known. Here's the truth of it: The people of the humble king must be humble too or it's all for nought.  This is why Paul, writing to the Philippians, says to them, If our shared life in the king brings any comfort; if love still has the power to make you cheerful; if we really do have a partnership in the Spirit; if your hearts are at all moved with affection and sympathy—then make my joy complete!  Bring your thinking into line with one another.  In other words, if you're going to be a gospel community for all the world to see: Have this mind amongst yourselves!  Here's how to do it.  Hold on to the same love; bring your innermost lives into harmony; fix your minds on the same object.  Never act out of selfish ambition or vanity; instead, regard everyone else as your superior.  Look after each other's best interests, not your own.   And I can hear them asking Pau, “But how?  It seems impossible to be that kind of people.”  And Paul knew that, too.  And so he takes them back to the cross.  Brothers and Sisters, everything goes back to Jesus and the cross!  The cross is the only way a gospel people can be a gospel people.  He writes: This is how you should think amongst yourselves, with the mind that you have because you belong to Jesus the Messiah.  And what does that look like?  Paul quotes what looks like song lyrics—maybe a hymn they sang regularly in their churches—a hymn full of gospel truth that maybe they'd got just a little too used to over the years, truth they needed to be reminded of, to think through, to incorporate into their own lives.  Paul writes: Who, though in God's form, did not regard his equality with God as something he ought to exploit.  Instead, he emptied himself, and received the form of a slave, being born in the likeness of men.  And then, having human appearance, he humbled himself, and became obedient even to death, yes, even death on a cross.  And so God has greatly exalted him, and to him in his favour has given the name which is over all names.  That now at the name of Jesus every knee within heaven shall bow—on earth, too, and under the earth.  And every tongue shall confess that Messiah Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.   Paul reminds them of the humble king, the son of God who not only took on our flesh, but who gave his life in the most painful and humiliating way possible so that on his way to his throne he might take us with him. Brothers and Sisters, the only way we will ever be faithful in being the people Jesus has called us to be, the only way we will ever be faithful in being the new creation people the Spirit has made us, the only way will ever be faithful stewards of the gospel is to keep the cross of Jesus always before us.  There's a reason why we confess our sins before we come to the Lord's Table.  There is a reason that we repeatedly recall our unworthiness to enter the presence of God on our own merit.  There is a reason why, as we rise in the morning and as we go to bed at night, we confess our sins.  It's so that as we hear the absolution and as we come to the Table, we will remember just how gracious and merciful and loving God has been to us.  It's why we sing songs like “Amazing Grace”.  Amazing grace is such a sweet, sweet sounds, because apart from grace we are such sinful wretches.  And it is inevitable that when we forget this, when we start to think of ourselves as deserving of the gifts God has poured out on us, when we forget the sinfulness of our sin, when we forget that we are the ones who have broken his beloved creation, dear Friends, that's when we forget the true power of the gospel and the true mercy of the cross and the great depth of the love of God for sinners.  When we forget the sinfulness of our sin, we lose sight of the amazingness of God's grace.  Eventually we lose the mind of Jesus the Messiah and we cease to be the community of humble servants that he has made us.  We turn, instead, to self-righteousness, to pride, to violence, to politics, to money, to power to further the kingdom of God.  And our light grows dim.  Our witness fails. We see it happening all around us in the West.  We've stopped talking about sin and we've thought more highly of ourselves than we ought.  We preach a doctrine of cheap grace.  And our light has gone dim.  Our churches have emptied and the culture has claimed them for its own.  In some they preach false gospels of prosperity or the divinity of man or the goodness of sexual immorality.  We setup idols to politics and earthly power in them.  Some are literally gutted, becoming theatres or bars.  Others are little more than tourist attractions: testimonies to the power of the gospel in the days we proclaimed it, but now empty, dead shells.  The culture removes the cross and sets up altars to its idols.  Brothers and Sisters, before it is too late, let us kneel before the cross of Jesus and look up.  Let it fill our vision.  Let us remember that he—the sinless son of God—died the death we deserve.  And let us meditate on the depth and power of his grace that we might share the humble mind of our humble king, that we might be the people he has called us to be, the people he has given his Spirit to make us, the people who will steward his gospel of grace until every knee bows and every tongues confesses that Jesus the Messiah is Lord and gives glory to God the Father. Let's pray: Almighty and everliving God, in your tender love for mankind you sent your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ to take upon him our nature, and to suffer death upon the cross, giving us the example of his great humility:  Mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of his suffering, and also share in his resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

Today's Reading: Matthew 26:1-27 or Matthew 27:11-54Daily Lectionary: Exodus 8:1-32; Psalm 118; Hebrews 1:1-14“Then Jesus said to him, ‘Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?'” (Matthew 26:52-53)In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.It's a response that makes sense to all of us. Of course, we would defend Jesus when evil men, armed with false charges, come to arrest the only One who could be called truly good. Matthew doesn't tell us who draws the sword, but John spills the beans and names Peter. Poor Peter is so often caught between his devotion to his Lord, his impulsiveness, and his all too human fear. A lot of people feel like they can relate to Peter wanting to do the right thing, but falling flat on their faces. Here, Peter reacts out of love but also fear. Jesus' rebuke to Peter is not simply about some pacifistic ideals, though we would do well to consider our willingness to live and die by our modern swords; it is also a fierce reckoning with who Jesus is. It is not simply that Jesus will go meekly to his arrest and eventual death in submission to His Father's will, but also that Jesus does not need Peter to defend Him. At a word, Jesus can call down twelve legions of angels. How much help is that? A legion is a unit of soldiers in the Roman army, consisting of approximately 6,000 soldiers. Therefore, twelve legions would be around 72,000 soldiers, or roughly half of the entire Roman army, composed of fierce heavenly warriors, not just men. The point is clear: if Jesus needed to be saved from arrest at that moment, he could have handled it himself. Peter was failing to submit his own plan to the will of God.I think most of us can understand Peter in this moment. We want to defend Jesus; we don't want to see him mishandled by evil men. We revile their intentions and can use this worthy impulse to justify all manner of lawlessness, hatred, violence, and even denial of the very nature of Jesus himself. It is hard for us to understand what Jesus is doing as we're left in anguish in our various Gardens of Gethsemane, but our call is to follow a crucified God who has already told us how the story will end. In that story, there is no room for fear.In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.Almighty and everlasting God, You sent Your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, to take upon Himself our flesh and to suffer death upon the cross. Mercifully grant that we may follow the example of His great humility and patience and be made partakers of His resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. 

When you're little, your parents seem immortal. They're not. Sooner or later, most of us get the kind of call that I got, and maybe you've gotten - a parent is gone. In my case, the hospital called to say my Mom had been admitted due to a medical emergency, but her body gave out and she was gone. No matter what the circumstances, the death of someone you love is always a shock, even if you knew maybe it was coming. When you're the only living child and your other parent is already gone, there's this numbing list of arrangements that you suddenly have to make. Thankfully, that wasn't the case with my Mom. Mercifully, funeral arrangements had been made and paid for years in advance. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Most Important Arrangements You Will Ever Make." It was a real blessing to have funeral arrangements made in advance, believe me. But my mother had made much more important pre-arrangements for the day she died, and those arrangements were the greatest blessing of all. Years ago, my Mom had made a choice that guaranteed she would be in heaven for all eternity. These are the most important arrangements you will ever make - or fail to make. God knows we're so busy living that we don't give much thought to dying. In fact, we generally try to avoid thinking about death as much as possible. Until we're looking in the casket at someone we've just lost. It's hard to look face-to-face at death like that and not think, "Where will I be when it's me there?" This isn't about being morbid. It's about being ready. If I know I'm prepared for something that's coming up, I don't have to keep thinking about it. It's settled. There's nothing more critical for you to settle than your eternal destination. Avoiding those arrangements carries a price too high to pay. That's why the Bible says in Amos 4:12-13, our word for today from the Word of God, "Prepare to meet your God...He who forms the mountains, creates the wind...and treads the high places of the earth - the Lord God Almighty is His name." It is this awesome God who will decide when you and I will take our last breath; when eternity will begin for each and every one of us. The Bible says that you and I actually have an appointment with our Creator - the time when the old-timers used to say you "meet your Maker." God's Book says, "Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment" (Hebrews 9:27). A divine appointment, the nearness of which we cannot know, and judgment for every wrong thing we have ever done. When you face God, it's too late then to make your arrangements. That's got to be done here and now. So many people think they'll get to heaven by being good. They're wrong - they're eternally wrong. The Bible clearly explains: "It is by grace (that's undeserved love) that you have been saved, through faith - and this...is the gift of God - not by works" (Ephesians 2:8-9). All our good can't possibly cancel our sin because sin has this eternal death penalty, and a death penalty cannot be paid by somebody doing good. Somebody's got to die, and someone did. Jesus did - so you don't have to. Your only hope is grabbing Him like a drowning person would grab a rescuer. If you've never done that, you are not (in the Bible's words) "prepared to meet your God." But you can be, beginning today. You can actually know from this moment on that you are going to heaven when you die, because the sin that would keep you out of heaven has been forever forgiven by the One who died for that sin. Your spiritual rescue begins the moment you say, "Jesus, I'm putting my total trust in You and what You did on the cross for me. I'm Yours." Our website is basically there to help you be sure you belong to Jesus. Let me give you that web address. It's ANewStory.com. There is no greater peace, there's no greater security, than to know your arrangements for eternity have all been made. This very day you can prepare to meet your God.

When you're little, your parents seem immortal. They're not. Sooner or later, most of us get the kind of call that I got, and maybe you've gotten - a parent is gone. In my case, the hospital called to say my Mom had been admitted due to a medical emergency, but her body gave out and she was gone. No matter what the circumstances, the death of someone you love is always a shock, even if you knew maybe it was coming. When you're the only living child and your other parent is already gone, there's this numbing list of arrangements that you suddenly have to make. Thankfully, that wasn't the case with my Mom. Mercifully, funeral arrangements had been made and paid for years in advance. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Most Important Arrangements You Will Ever Make." It was a real blessing to have funeral arrangements made in advance, believe me. But my mother had made much more important pre-arrangements for the day she died, and those arrangements were the greatest blessing of all. Years ago, my Mom had made a choice that guaranteed she would be in heaven for all eternity. These are the most important arrangements you will ever make - or fail to make. God knows we're so busy living that we don't give much thought to dying. In fact, we generally try to avoid thinking about death as much as possible. Until we're looking in the casket at someone we've just lost. It's hard to look face-to-face at death like that and not think, "Where will I be when it's me there?" This isn't about being morbid. It's about being ready. If I know I'm prepared for something that's coming up, I don't have to keep thinking about it. It's settled. There's nothing more critical for you to settle than your eternal destination. Avoiding those arrangements carries a price too high to pay. That's why the Bible says in Amos 4:12-13, our word for today from the Word of God, "Prepare to meet your God...He who forms the mountains, creates the wind...and treads the high places of the earth - the Lord God Almighty is His name." It is this awesome God who will decide when you and I will take our last breath; when eternity will begin for each and every one of us. The Bible says that you and I actually have an appointment with our Creator - the time when the old-timers used to say you "meet your Maker." God's Book says, "Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment" (Hebrews 9:27). A divine appointment, the nearness of which we cannot know, and judgment for every wrong thing we have ever done. When you face God, it's too late then to make your arrangements. That's got to be done here and now. So many people think they'll get to heaven by being good. They're wrong - they're eternally wrong. The Bible clearly explains: "It is by grace (that's undeserved love) that you have been saved, through faith - and this...is the gift of God - not by works" (Ephesians 2:8-9). All our good can't possibly cancel our sin because sin has this eternal death penalty, and a death penalty cannot be paid by somebody doing good. Somebody's got to die, and someone did. Jesus did - so you don't have to. Your only hope is grabbing Him like a drowning person would grab a rescuer. If you've never done that, you are not (in the Bible's words) "prepared to meet your God." But you can be, beginning today. You can actually know from this moment on that you are going to heaven when you die, because the sin that would keep you out of heaven has been forever forgiven by the One who died for that sin. Your spiritual rescue begins the moment you say, "Jesus, I'm putting my total trust in You and what You did on the cross for me. I'm Yours." Our website is basically there to help you be sure you belong to Jesus. Let me give you that web address. It's ANewStory.com. There is no greater peace, there's no greater security, than to know your arrangements for eternity have all been made. This very day you can prepare to meet your God.

This week, the girls push through their rewatch of Charmed S5E5, "Witches in Tights," aka "Too Much Drawing, Not Enough Action"—an episode with major second-son vibes. From an underwhelming villain to bloated plots, the episode has the girls wishing the "Powers That Be" hadn't reheated Spider-Man's nachos. Making matters worse, the writers refuse to give Phoebe Halliwell a storyline that makes sense. Mercifully,  Paige and Piper's blossoming sistership brings laughter and light to the episode. During the pop culture, R.E.P.O.R.T Nelle gushes about Pokémon Pokopia. Rae catches up on Married to Medicine and cackles through The Rise and Fall of Reggie Dinkins. Rae even includes a playlist with scores from Sinners, Steven Universe, and Alias to help creatives and students power through a cram session.Tune into "Black Girl Charmed," where two unmedicated Black weirdos discuss Halliwell hijinks.

This week, the girls push through their rewatch of Charmed S5E5, "Witches in Tights," aka "Too Much Drawing, Not Enough Action"—an episode with major second-son vibes. From an underwhelming villain to bloated plots, the episode has the girls wishing the "Powers That Be" hadn't reheated Spider-Man's nachos. Making matters worse, the writers refuse to give Phoebe Halliwell a storyline that makes sense. Mercifully,  Paige and Piper's blossoming sistership brings laughter and light to the episode. During the pop culture, R.E.P.O.R.T Nelle gushes about Pokémon Pokopia. Rae catches up on Married to Medicine and cackles through The Rise and Fall of Reggie Dinkins. Rae even includes a playlist with scores from Sinners, Steven Universe, and Alias to help creatives and students power through a cram session.Tune into "Black Girl Charmed," where two unmedicated Black weirdos discuss Halliwell hijinks.

Happy 2026, Vintage Sand fans! Thank you for taking time away from looking for real estate opportunities in Greenland to join us for Episodes 65 and 66, our first of 2026. Herein, Team Vintage Sand returns one last time to the source of some of our most popular episodes: Danny Peary's hard-to-find 1993 classic "Alternate Oscars". In the past, we have used Peary's model to approach the Best Picture Academy Awards from every decade going back to the 1930's. Collect them all! For this episode, we wrap up this series with the most recent complete decade, the 2010's. First, a caveat: we began this podcast eight years ago, in the spring of 2018, which means that we have already discussed many of today's films in a number of different contexts already. We did our Best of the Teens in early 2020, and recently did our Top 10 of the Century so far, wherein many of the films we're talking about today are contained. Add in that we did episodes on the best of 2018 and 2019, respectively, in those years, and you get the sense that we have already covered this ground several times. But like all good film fans, we're completists, so we conclude this series of episodes with these two, which will focus on 2010 to 2014 and 2015 to 2019 respectively. Mercifully, perhaps, these episodes are shorter than most others we've done, simply because, as mentioned, this is terrain we have covered several times already. The teens were clearly a transitional time for film, especially in Hollywood. The foreign market came to dominate, as did the teen market, which led to a kind of lowest common denominator for American film in these years. Throw in the uncertainties created by the rise of streaming and the changes in where and how people watch film, and you have…well, it's still a little too early to tell what the 2010's will look like to film historians, if there are indeed any film historians left. That being said, it's clear that the decade featured some of the greatest films ever made, ones that will stand the test of time and will continue to be watched long into the future. In many ways, the Mexican New Wavers dominated the decade, winning half of the Best Director Oscars for the whole decade: Del Toro for "Shape of Water", Cuarón for "Gravity" and "Roma", and Iñárritu for "Birdman" and "The Revenant". And of course, the stunning triumph of "Parasite" ended a decade in film that many were ready to write off (and got rid of the bad taste left behind by "Green Book" the previous year). It was also a decade that saw the arrival of some wildly innovative and talented filmmakers, among them Chloe Zhao, Ryan Coogler, Ava Duvernay, Jordan Peele, Greta Gerwig, Steve McQueen, and Damien Chazelle, plus amazing directors who transcended often marginalized genres like Ari Aster, Alex Garland, Robert Eggers and Denis Villeneuve. We also saw some great works from directors who came of age in the 90's and early 00's like David Fincher, the Coens, Spike Lee, Christopher Nolan, Todd Haynes and the Andersons, both Wes and PTA divisions. And for the icing on the cake, we got some brilliant work from the old guard Hollywood New Wavers like Martin Scorsese (who just seemed to pick up steam as the decade went on), Steven Spielberg, (at least with "Lincoln"), Terrence Malick and, most surprisingly, Paul Schrader. So make yourselves comfortable, have yourselves one of those lovely pastries from Mendl's, and join us for our final foray into the world of Best Picture Alternate Oscars!

ENTRANCE HYMN #569 God the Omnipotent!SEQUENCE HYMN #656 Blest Are The Pure In HeartOFFERTORY ANTHEM Be Thou My Vision (arr. Behnke)COMMUNION ANTHEM Beatitudes (Avery & Walsh, arr. Wilson)POST-COMMUNION HYMN #556 Rejoice, Ye Pure In Heart, vss. 1-5THE COLLECT OF THE DAYAlmighty and everlasting God, you govern all things both in heaven and on earth: Mercifully hear the supplications of your people, and in our time grant us your peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.FIRST READING Micah 6:1-8Reader A reading from the Prophet Micah.Hear what the Lord says: Rise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. Hear, you mountains, the controversy of the Lord, and you enduring foundations of the earth; for the Lord has a controversy with his people, and he will contend with Israel.“O my people, what have I done to you? In what have I wearied you? Answer me! For I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and redeemed you from the house of slavery; and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. O my people, remember now what King Balak of Moab devised, what Balaam son of Beor answered him, and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the saving acts of the Lord.”“With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with tens of thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?ReaderThe Word of the Lord.PeopleThanks be to God.PSALM Psalm 15 Domine, quis habitabit?1 Lord, who may dwell in your tabernacle? *who may abide upon your holy hill?2 Whoever leads a blameless life and does what is right, *who speaks the truth from his heart.3 There is no guile upon his tongue;he does no evil to his friend; *he does not heap contempt upon his neighbor.4 In his sight the wicked is rejected, *but he honors those who fear the Lord.5 He has sworn to do no wrong *and does not take back his word.6 He does not give his money in hope of gain, *nor does he take a bribe against the innocent.7 Whoever does these things *shall never be overthrown.SECOND READING 1 Corinthians 1:18-31Reader A Reading from Paul's first letter to the Corinthians.The message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written,“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the...

Episode #285! This time we will be talking about Digimon Beatbreak episode 16, Digimon Story: Time Stranger DLC pack 2 is out, card news, apparel, V-Jump details, & more! Plus we answer your questions! Show notes can be found at http://podcast.withthewill.net/post/285/ News and Discussion can be found at https://www.withthewill.net The WtW Patreon can be found at https://www.patreon.com/withthewill Join us on Discord at https://discord.gg/VvWUfHq Questions for future episodes can be sent to podcast@withthewill.net

Happy 2026, Vintage Sand fans! Thank you for taking time away from looking for real estate opportunities in Greenland to join us for Episodes 65 and 66, our first of 2026. Herein, Team Vintage Sand returns one last time to the source of some of our most popular episodes: Danny Peary's hard-to-find 1993 classic "Alternate Oscars". In the past, we have used Peary's model to approach the Best Picture Academy Awards from every decade going back to the 1930's. Collect them all! For this episode, we wrap up this series with the most recent complete decade, the 2010's. First, a caveat: we began this podcast eight years ago, in the spring of 2018, which means that we have already discussed many of today's films in a number of different contexts already. We did our Best of the Teens in early 2020, and recently did our Top 10 of the Century so far, wherein many of the films we're talking about today are contained. Add in that we did episodes on the best of 2018 and 2019, respectively, in those years, and you get the sense that we have already covered this ground several times. But like all good film fans, we're completists, so we conclude this series of episodes with these two, which will focus on 2010 to 2014 and 2015 to 2019 respectively. Mercifully, perhaps, these episodes are shorter than most others we've done, simply because, as mentioned, this is terrain we have already covered several times. The teens were clearly a transitional time for film, especially in Hollywood. The foreign market came to dominate, as did the teen market, which led to a kind of lowest common denominator for American film in these years. Throw in the uncertainties created by the rise of streaming and the changes in where and how people watch film, and you have…well, it's still a little too early to tell what the 2010's will look like to film historians, if there are indeed any film historians left. That being said, it's clear that the decade featured some of the greatest films ever made, ones that will stand the test of time and will continue to be watched long into the future. In many ways, the Mexican New Wavers dominated the decade, winning half of the Best Director Oscars for the whole decade: Del Toro for "Shape of Water", Cuarón for "Gravity" and "Roma", and Iñárritu for "Birdman" and "The Revenant". And of course, the stunning triumph of "Parasite" ended a decade in film that many were ready to write off (and got rid of the bad taste left behind by "Green Book" the previous year). It was also a decade that saw the arrival of some wildly innovative and talented filmmakers, among them Chloe Zhao, Ryan Coogler, Ava Duvernay, Jordan Peele, Greta Gerwig, Steve McQueen, and Damien Chazelle, plus amazing directors who transcended often marginalized genres like Ari Aster, Alex Garland, Robert Eggers and Denis Villeneuve. We also saw some great works from directors who came of age in the 90's and early 00's like David Fincher, the Coens, Spike Lee, Christopher Nolan, Todd Haynes and the Andersons, both Wes and PTA divisions. And for the icing on the cake, we got some brilliant work from the old guard Hollywood New Wavers like Martin Scorsese (who just seemed to pick up steam as the decade went on), Steven Spielberg, (at least with" Lincoln"), Terrence Malick and, most surprisingly, Paul Schrader. So make yourselves comfortable, have yourselves one of those lovely pastries from Mendl's, and join us for our final foray into the world of Best Picture Alternate Oscars!

Yesterday, in what was essentially a meaningless Week 18 matchup for both clubs, the Cincinnati Bengals fell to the Cleveland Browns 20–18 at Paycor Stadium to close out a disappointing 2025 campaign. Both teams entered the game already eliminated from playoff contention, but Cincinnati still hoped to end on a high note against an AFC North rival. Early on, Cincinnati struggled to put together consistent offense and committed costly errors, including missing two extra-point attempts — mistakes that would loom large in the final score. Meanwhile, Cleveland's defense made a huge early impact, even scoring on a 97-yard interception return to set the tone. The defining moment of the game came in the fourth quarter, when Browns defensive end **Myles Garrett not only pressured Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow but set the NFL's single-season sack record with his 23rd sack. The celebration around that milestone was controversial — Bengals head coach **Zac Taylor angrily protested after officials paused play to honor Garrett's achievement in a critical late-game moment. Cincinnati mounted a late comeback, with Joe Burrow leading a quick scoring drive that gave the Bengals an 18–17 lead with under two minutes left. But Cleveland responded, and Shedeur Sanders engineered a clutch drive that set up Andre Szmyt's 49-yard field goal as time expired to win it for the Browns. For the Bengals, this loss capped a 6–11 season filled with inconsistency, turnovers, and missed opportunities. With Sunday's defeat now in the books, Cincinnati will turn its focus to the offseason and making changes to get back into playoff contention in 2026. Music from #InAudio: https://inaudio.org/ Track Name Holy (Trap). Music from #InAudio: https://inaudio.org/ Track Name Exercise (Rock). #Bengals #NFL #OffTheBench

Powered by BTA Sports https://download.btasports.io/atoz Promo Codes: • ATOZ14 – Extends the weekly trial from 3 days to 14 days • ATOZSPORTS – Extends the yearly trial from 7 days to 14 days For More Titans coverage follow us here: https://www.atozsports.com/nashville  Podcasts: https://www.atozsports.com/podcasts  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/atozsportsnashville  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/atozsports/  Twitter: https://twitter.com/AtoZSports  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@atozsportsnashville #AtoZSports #TennesseeTitans #NFLFootball Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fantasy Baseball Live – January 4, 2026 – 3:00pmMicrosoft TeamsSegment 1 – Introduction and News and Notes – It was Asian Week1.The Astros sign to a three-year, $54 million contract with an opt-out after each season.a.Please tell us about him and give us a stat line for 2026 – GS, wins, ERA, Ks2.The Blue Jays sign Kazuma Okamato to a four-year, $60 contract – no opt outs.a.I can't remember, was this the player you liked better than Murakami?b.Let us about him.3.The Angels sign Kirby Yates.a.Who is the closer in Los Angeles and does Yates have a chance for some saves?4.Mercifully, Anthony Rendon retired from baseball. a.He was paid $245 million and had 224 hits in 257 games for the Angels. Just wow!Segment 2 – Let's review my first few rounds of my NFBC Draft and Hold Draft.Segment 3 – Second Base Ranking for 2026 Season1.How are you approaching this position for your upcoming drafts?2.We will break down the top 15 to 20 in detail. Then, go through 20 to 30 in less detail. We will end by jumping around the remaining ranked players.3.Which player not in the Top 10 has a chance to emerge there next season?4.Which Top 10 player will not be there next season?5.Give me a couple of sleepers6.Give me one, maybe two guys you are just going to avoid drafting?Close

Elf on a Shelf: Part 1 Her stalker wasn't who she thought he was; Based on a post by LingeringAfterthought, in 3 parts. Listen to the Podcast at Steamy Stories. Honey smiled at the long line of children waiting to see Santa, flipping her phone from Google Translate back to see the information of the next little girl in line, who was looking up at her somberly with large liquid brown eyes. In her small face was a familiar mixture of fear and hope. Wonder; it was wonder in her eyes, Honey thought. Unlike the tired and jaded adults, dutifully shifting their weight from foot to foot, holding overstuffed shopping bags and all the coats of their kids as they distracted themselves on their phones, the children got more and more excited as they drew near the man in the furry red suit with white trim. Honey loved working with the children; because like them, she sometimes could still see the magic. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Norman shift uncomfortably in the painted plywood throne made for him to sit with the children and discuss their good behavior and of the wishes that they hoped would come true. Even at age 62, Norman still saw the magic with his merry bright blue eyes, but it faded when his prostate pained him. When the photographer got the shot the parent wanted, Honey walked to where most of the long line could see her as Norman flashed her a look of worshipful gratitude. The adults' faces immediately fell, knowing what was coming. "I'm afraid Santa needs to take a quick break because apparently the reindeer have begun arguing again!" Norman put his gloved hands up to his real beard, pulled a comically dismayed face, jumped up from his throne, and ran off toward the restrooms. Honey shook her head mournfully and continued, "The reindeer were all practicing their Christmas carols when Comet and Cupid couldn't decide how many times Santa checks his list in Santa Claus is Coming to Town! Does anyone here remember how it goes?" she asked, scanning the line for people game enough to help. Honey scampered back and forth along the line trying to choose among the eager volunteers, her white-trimmed, pink fur skirt flaring out around her thighs, her long legs clad in sparkly curly-toed ruby slippers and candy cane swirl stockings catching the eyes of several fathers. Suddenly, she gasped listening carefully to her headset, "Nina?" she called out. "Comet and Cupid say they will only stop arguing if 'Nina' gives the answer. Is there a 'Nina' here today? Nina?" Honey looked around at the crowd carefully until the little girl with the big brown eyes, who had been quietly waiting 57 minutes in line, gathered the courage to raise her hand. "Oh! Are you Nina?" she asked, running over and crouching down near the girl. "We just adopted her; she only speaks Portuguese," the weary woman holding her hand said quietly. Honey gasped and smiled widely, "Voc fala portugu s Nina? Maravilhosa!" she said, watching the little girl's eyes brighten excitedly. "Voc pode me dizer quantas vezes o Papai Noel verifica sua lista?" she asked, holding her microphone out to the little girl. "Duas vezes!" Nina said confidently into the mic. Honey listened carefully to her headset, concentrating, "'Duas vezes' it is! They've stopped arguing!" she announced. "But now, they want us all to sing the song in Portuguese! Nina, voc vai me ajudar a ensin -los a m sica?" she asked. Nina nodded and slowly she and Honey taught the familiar song to the crowd in a new language. As always, a hush came on the crowd when Honey began to sing. Heads raised up from forgotten phones. Vague smiles drifted onto the turning heads of passers-by in the mall as they paused in their frenetic search for gifts. It wasn't so much that Honey's voice was beautiful, though it certainly was. It was more that when Honey sang, it seemed to make the things that didn't really matter melt away. To those that believed in such things, Honey's voice was magic. When she sang, people held their breath and didn't even miss the air. Honey closed her eyes as she sang next to Nina. It was a newly acquired habit. Though she had been taught to let her eyes slowly drift over the audience, letting them make a connection with each person as she sang, she didn't do that anymore. She knew he was out there. She felt his presence frequently as she worked, but it was only when she sang that he came out into the open. She couldn't hold her voice steady when she saw him watching her, so she closed her eyes and let the magic continue for the crowd. When the song ended, Honey opened her eyes as the crowd cheered, finding his powerful form immediately as if she had been commanded to look at him. Zach. He had changed a lot in the year since he brought his sister's children through the long Santa line, drawing her almost too-large dark blue eyes to him then, as easily as he did now. After bringing his nieces and nephews through the line, he'd gone home and brought all his neighbors' kids to see Santa in five more trips, watching her the entire time. He looked at her as if he'd never seen anything like her in the world, like he couldn't believe she was real. She had loved feeling his eyes on her then, hearing his voice. She had wanted to climb up in his lap, feel his large arms curled around her, whisper to him about how good she had been that year, and of how much she hoped he would make her wishes come true. Of course, all that was before he'd told her he wanted to kill her. Zach's face looked leaner now, though his body seemed even larger, if such a thing was possible. His brooding, deep-set eyes were not merry, as they had been when children climbed his tree-like body in her line last year. They weren't nervously soft and adoring of every part of her, as they had been at their candle-lit dinner. His eyes weren't rageful or insane as you might expect from someone visiting their object of murderous hate, but rather; they were tortured, trapped. Pain and quiet desperation had taken up restless residence in the windows to his soul. Honey knew she shouldn't look at him so much, but she just wished she could understand what she had done wrong. Once the line of children and parents had cleared, it was long past the official closing time. Honey cleaned up the display and prepared it for the next day while Norman took one last lingering trip to the restroom. Her phone showed numerous messages from work friends from her other job asking where she was. The firm had planned a Christmas party at Gatsby's, a gorgeous club worthy of F. Scott Fitzgerald's glamorous hero. It was also the place where Zach had taken her on their first and last date. The Gatsby's waiter had looked stunned and confused when she shakily ordered herself an "angel shot," the code-phrase used to quietly ask bartenders or wait staff for help when you felt threatened, but after his initial shock, the waiter immediately escorted her secretly to a taxi waiting outside before Zach returned to the table. Gatsby's had saved her life; but she didn't want to go back there. After avoiding call after call from Zach, she finally answered and politely asked him never to call her again. To her surprise, he didn't. He never spoke to her again. Unless she sang, she never even saw him, but she felt his presence almost everywhere. It felt like she was haunted by him; haunted by something wonderful and magical that, inexplicably, went horribly wrong. Her phone buzzed again, the display showing that the firm's senior partner wanted to FaceTime her. Steeling herself, she answered. "Honey Lane where in the hell; oh my god lookit you!" Aaron Timberman held the phone high above his head with his long ex-basketball-player arms and Honey saw a crowd of her co-workers crowd into the picture behind him. "Um, hi sir. Sorry I'm late to;" "You're an elf!" "Um, yeah. It's a volunteer thing;" "Wait, wait, wait; you have the shoes? You know, with the; toes?" he slurred, motioning his finger in a spiral motion. Honey bit her lips and tilted the camera down her body, showing her entire costume, tilting her foot to show off the curled toe. "I'm sorry it got late tonight, but I'll be there as soon as I can get home and get changed;" Timberman looked around at the crowd surrounding him, "Guys, do we wanna see Honey Lane here at the party in some boring old Anne Klein shit, or do we want the elf?" he yelled, pointing at the screen. Behind him, almost a dozen of her co-workers began chanting "Elf, Elf, Elf, Elf!" "Get yer ass over here, Elf," Timberman ordered, poking at his screen several times before effectively ending the call. A few minutes later, Norman finally came back from the restroom and gave Honey a ride over to Gatsby's in his red SUV bedecked with a bumper sticker that read, "My other car's a SLEIGH!" Honey hopped out after getting bits of advice from Norman that would have been appropriate several decades ago. With flaming cheeks, she brushed the furry white pompom from her hat out of her face and told the smirking ma tre d which party she wanted, sighing when he grinned widely and escorted her through the middle of the main dining area, much to her horror. When the doors to the party room opened and she was greeted by another round of "Elf, Elf, Elf, Elf," she didn't feel much better. She was starving, so she headed over to the buffet and began loading up a plate with delicious-looking things on ice in shot glasses, impaled on sticks, or immersed in flames. She just spied a quiet table in a dark corner and was winding her way toward it to it to scarf down her only food since breakfast before she could be drawn into a drunken debate. That was the plan, anyway. "Hunnybaby! Lookit you! C'mon we gotta dance!" Lee James slurred to her fur-trimmed tits. With a sigh, she smiled and laid her plate down on a nearby table, promising to herself that she would eat right after enduring a dance with the favored junior partner. Unfortunately, after Lee angled her awkwardly around the dance floor, they'd drawn so much attention that everyone wanted to get pics of themselves toasting and dancing with the Christmas elf. At some point, she found herself in Timberman's arms with a glass of champagne in her hand. "Um; what?" she said, almost asking herself how she had gotten there. "I said you look lovely, tonight, Honey. Much better than in a shawl and sheath dress," he said, quickly twirling her around as they reached the edge of the dance floor. "Twirling makes my skirt go up; I'm dizzy," she murmured. A familiar dark figure flashed in the background and disappeared as Timberman turned her again. She looked around, trying to find the figure again, but she couldn't see him anywhere. Why was he there? Had she been singing again? "Well, I'll make sure nobody twirls you, my dear," he said, twirling her and smiling as her skirt flew up her long candy-cane striped legs. "The wives wouldn't like it." "I like your wife's dress Mr. Timberman; looks warm. It covers her ass when she sits, too," she slurred, frowning in confusion at the dark red drink in her hand now. Zach was frowning, and then he just looked blurry again as she swirled around. Maybe swirling made it harder for him to kill her. Why did he want to kill her? It just wasn't fair. Timberman leaned down and dipped her, "I'll make sure to give her your compliments. You know, if you like what wives wear, you should consider getting married. Lee is quite taken with you, you know," he said, stroking his hand against the soft pink velvet of her dress. Honey found herself drifting away and wandering inside her head again, thinking about Lee; he was handsome in an overly-polished way, said funny things, but they always sounded a little mean, like he wanted to be the only one laughing; and he also took her away from the food plate that just floated by on a table. It was still full. She should have eaten that food. What time was it? "He likes my boobs; and he doesn't want to kill me," she agreed eventually, surprised to find that Timberman was gone and she was dancing with Lee James again. "Well, I can't blame him for that; they're fucking perfect; just like everything else. I'm gonna come on them after you suck me off; he murmured, pulling her closer against him. "Let me take you home, Honey; penthouse view of the city; "Umm; no, that's not home; I live in the; railroad place; with the trains?" Honey explained, pointing in what she thought was the direction of the Lowertown Commons. Why did every guy think she lived with them tonight? "Sounds charming, Eliza Doolittle; you should trade up. You don't know how much I'd love twist your arms back and fuck this ass wide open over my balcony tonight," he said, reaching his hand under her skirt and greedily squeezing her bottom. "You'd like that, wouldn't you Honey? I can tell; Lee whispered, his cologne invading her head and making her queasy. "I feel sick; Honey whimpered and staggered away, trying to find the quiet table where the food was that would make her less drunk. The dance floor was confusing, though, always turning around and thumping and flashing. She leaned against a pillar until she got a better sense of where she was. She liked the pillar. It was big and strong; and it stroked her hair. "Honey; wake up, Honey. Open your mouth. You need to take these," the vaguely familiar voice said, cutting through the sleep that had been blocking out some of the pain she felt everywhere. She obediently opened her mouth and the hand put two caplets on her tongue. A water bottle squirted a little cool liquid into her mouth until she moaned and sucked harder, desperate for more. "Not too much. Wait until you can hold that down. I'll give you more in a bit. You don't want that IV back, do you?" "Nuh" Honey groaned. She hated needles. Sure, just about every part of her body hurt more than a needle did, right now, but somehow needle pain felt personal. Like with Zach. He didn't seem like someone who went around wanting to choke everybody; just her. She was nobody special; just a simple girl who kept lawyers organized and tried to be nice. Then, someone wonderful like Zach thought she needed to die. That hurt. Something about her made him go from being tender and intensely loving to someone who; it just didn't make sense. What did she do? Mercifully, sleep faded the pain and clouded her thoughts. Voices below her intruded into a wonderful dream where she was bouncing on clouds. Though not in the same room, the voices seemed strangely clear. "I can't; Terry, she cries when I do that," the pills voice said, making her eyes fly open. She knew that voice. She hadn't heard it for a year, but she would never forget it. Her body reacted with a confused mix of emotions, her cheeks flushing and adrenaline searing a path all through her at the same time. "That's because it hurts her. You know what hurts more? Bedsores. Man up. Use the pillows to prop her weight against the parts that aren't hurt on whichever side. It's either this, or she goes back to the hospital, and I have it on good authority you won't be allowed to visit after what happened." "She was screaming; Zach gritted. "Yeah, well they were putting her shoulder back in. People scream. That still doesn't excuse what you did. Since when did you become such a pussy about pain?" Terry asked. "since her." "oh my god." "Shut up," Zach grunted. "Oh my god; "Yeah, that's not shutting up." "The great Z-dog has been taken down;" "Shut up, maggot, it's not like that. I'm just taking care of h;" "By a little bitty pink Christmas elf; Terry laughed. There was a scuffling sound and then a loud whoomp and a forceful exhalation of air. "So, I turn her every few hours until she can do it for herself?" Zach asked, casually. "Yes, sir," Terry choked. "Anything else?" "Clear liquids until she can hold stuff down. Talk to her. Ask her questions. If she seems disoriented or part of her face goes slack, she goes back to the hospital. Don't fuck around." "Got it. Are you squared away, or do we need to discuss this further?" "Squared away, sir," Terry choked, then gasped in relief, panting faintly. "Jesus Christ, you haven't lost your touch. We on for the hump tomorrow at 0 500?" "No. I'm gonna stick close here until she's;" "Got it. Hey, maybe they have those Baby Bjorn things in elf-size. Then, you could just strap her onto your ba; ow! ow! ow, ow, ow!" "You weren't particularly attached to the rest of that sentence, were you, maggot?" Zach growled. "Sir, no sir; Terry squeaked. "I didn't think so. You'll be back here Wednesday," Zach stated, more as an order than a question. "Yeah, if you want me to. Honestly, right now she just needs rest and TLC more than a medic. That stands for 'tender loving care' by the way, not;" "You were just going," Zach said, as the voices moved to another end of the room below her. "Hey, you wanna know what makes an elf's toes curl up like tha;" Terry asked, his question cut off by the slamming of the door. Honey listened, trembling and terrified as Zach paced the floor below her. Though his voice hadn't changed, he sounded nothing like the man that had wooed her so tenderly a year ago. He sounded dangerous, brutal even. He definitely sounded like the kind of person that went around wanting to choke everyone, she thought, strangely relieved that her heartbreak felt a little less personal. How could she have been so wrong in her impression of him? She looked around the room, understanding now how the voices had reached her so easily. She was in an open industrial loft bedroom that opened onto the main floor below. Looking around, she realized she must be in Zach's huge bed, though if the crisply made side next to her was any indication, he hadn't been sleeping in it with her. Looking down her body, she gasped quietly. Her left arm was in a sling strapped to her chest, her legs were covered in bruises, and the right leg that was being stabbed with an invisible knife right now, was wrapped up in an air cast boot. What had happened to her? The last thing she remembered was feeling sick as she tried to get away from Lee's groping hands on the dance floor. After that; nothing. How did she get here? A beeping noise sounded below and Zach walked across the room to what sounded like a kitchen. The sound of water being poured into a cup, the ringing of a spoon stirring it, a pill bottle being opened. Honey shivered, realizing he was probably coming up to her, soon. She closed her eyes and tried to slow her breathing, feigning sleep. Steps ascending to the loft bedroom. Ankle stabbing, stab, stab, stab, stab with every panicked heartbeat. A tray went down on the nightstand next to her. A chair across the room was lifted and set down by the bed. Honey told herself to breathe slowly, willing the tears welling behind her lids not to leak out of her eyes. He would leave her alone if she was sleeping, wouldn't he? "You're not sleeping," Zach's voice stated, quietly, and her stomach clenched in fear. "You've been waking up for these pills every four hours like a junkie. I know you don't want to talk to me, Honey, but until you're squared away, you're gonna have to. So, cut the crap, open your eyes, and let's get this done." Honey opened her eyes to see his grim face looking down at her. With one blink, large tears rolled down her pale cheeks, and Zach's jaw set angrily. Sitting down in the chair, he put his elbows on his knees and leaned his massive shoulders forward, looking at her. His hands looked like they could crush rocks as he gripped them together. "Let's get some things straight. I don't know what you think you know about me, but acting like I'm some kind of psycho is pretty shitty. You want nothing of me, that's fine, but you're hurt because you screamed and flung yourself down some stairs rather than let me help you to an Uber. You're staying here until you're well, because some shithead at that party gave you enough roofies to be in a coma for almost 3 days and I'm not dragging my ass to that rat trap of yours in the Commons every day to make sure they don't come back while you're weak. Are we clear?" he asked. Honey swallowed and nodded, wincing at the pain in her neck and head. That just seemed to make Zach angrier. "While you are here, you will do as you're told. You will eat what you get, and you will not complain. You see these, here?" he said, holding up the magic caplets that made everything better. "These are the last ones you're getting. I'm switching you to ibuprofen and Tylenol because, unchecked, this Sackler shit will fuck you up for good and that's not happening on my watch. Do you understand?" he asked. "Yes," Honey whispered. At the sound of her voice, Zach's mouth twitched, but at least he didn't look as angry as when she'd nodded and winced. "You will follow your doctor's orders to the last goddamn word. You will rest. You will do your therapy. You will let me help you and you will ask me for what you need because I am not a fucking mind reader. And so help me, if you do anything stupid like get out of that bed without me here to help you, or push yourself away from me like you did at Gatsby's, or any other drama shit that hurts even one hair on that head again, I will personally make you regret you were ever born." "Yes, Zach," Honey breathed, confused. Two more tears rolled down her cheeks. Without thinking, she leaned over to wipe them off on her shoulder and cried out in pain. Zach squeezed his clenched hands together and several of his knuckles cracked. "You don't use my name. You don't get to use my name. You're not getting under my skin again, you hear me?" Zach growled, using his rough knuckle to wipe her tears. "Orders a fucking angel shot in my own fucking club; fuck you. I don't have a name, you don't have a name. You're nothing to me. Understand?" "Yes, sir," she whispered. Honey leaned forward and took the last spoonful of broth into her mouth and swallowed, looking longingly at the noodles at the bottom of the cup. Zach caught a drop of broth at the bottom of her lower lip with the spoon and returned it to her mouth. "No," he said, seeing where her eyes lingered. "I can do it," she pleaded. "Please; I haven't had anything solid since; how long has it been?" "I said, no. You throw up on another pair of my skivvies and I'll be doing laundry twice a week," Zach said, dabbing her mouth with a paper towel. "Why do I have to wear your boxer briefs anyway? They feel weird. They have this hole-flap thing; and there are some places that aren't supposed to feel a breeze," Honey said, lifting the blanket to look down at his underwear loosely covering her hips. "Are you complaining?" he asked quietly. Honey's eyes darted quickly to his face, "No sir," she murmured, looking down at her lap. "I just thought if I had some of my things here, you wouldn't have to do the laundry so much." "I'll worry about what I have to do, Honey," he said, unthinkingly using her name. Startled, she looked up to see his eyes wandering over her, his massive t-shirt sleeves going down past her elbows. She felt ridiculous and disheveled, but something about the way he looked at her made her hold her breath. Then, without another word, he slurped the noodles out of the cup and took the tray downstairs. After that, the two settled into a quiet routine of him feeding her, giving her medicine, and watching her sleep most of the day. She would sometimes awaken to the soft repetitive sounds of him running on a treadmill, or the clinking of him lifting weights downstairs where she couldn't see him. Then, he would go to the bathroom and shower. After his shower, he came upstairs again in his towel and took some clothes from his dresser before going back downstairs to change. Honey found herself looking forward to those few seconds each day, watching his droplet-covered torso twist as he leaned over his dresser. He frowned as he flipped through his carefully folded underwear. "You wearing the grey ones?" he asked, not looking at her. Honey peeked under the covers, "Um, yes sir," she replied. "I'm supposed to wear the grey ones today," he grumbled to himself. Honey didn't say anything. Zach was the one who picked out which underwear she wore today. He was the one who looked away while he painstakingly slipped the old ones off her hips and pulled the new ones over her boot and up her legs until her bottom was covered again. There was nothing about her life that wasn't chosen and executed by him. If he wasn't happy about the color of his underwear, that was his fault. Still, Zach kept rummaging around in his underwear drawer as if another crisply folded grey pair would somehow magically appear. Finally, rather than offend him by laughing, Honey spoke, "Um; you know, if they're clean, I could wear the pair I had on when I went to the hospital and you could have these. It would get you back on schedule; Zach lifted his head from the drawer and glared at her, as if he thought she was making fun of him. Honey held carefully still and shrugged her uninjured limb. She wasn't making fun, she just wanted to help. The movement caused the huge neckline to gape over to the side, revealing her bare shoulder. She waited as Zach stared impassively at her, the vein at his neck throbbing. After a long moment, he walked over and stood next to her, the tuck of his towel right next to her face. With every breath, she inhaled the scent of his wet body and the bar soap he used. A rivulet of water painstakingly slid from his chest and down his abdomen, until finally disappearing into the tightly twisted white cotton. Honey glanced up to see that he had been reading her face as she watched the droplet's progress. With a shaking breath, she blushed and pulled the covers higher with her good arm. With a twist of his mouth, Zach pulled the neckline back over her shoulder again and quickly left the room. That night, after leaving her with a video baby monitor watching her on the nightstand, Zach returned with a bag of her underwear and some of her nightgowns. After watching her excitedly sort through them, Zach pushed them aside and sat on the edge of the bed. "There were a bunch of boxes with tags on them in your living room. What's that about?" he asked. Honey's eyes dropped, "Oh; that's the charity gift thing for kids. You sign up and get them something they wished for and wrap it up so they can have something under the tree, when they wouldn't have something otherwise. It's nice, you know? I signed up for a bunch and I was supposed to wrap them and get them back to the law firm, but I guess; sorry kids," she trailed off. Looking furious, yet carefully impassive at the same time, Zach cursed under his breath and left again, returning with the packages and a huge stack of unused Styrofoam clamshells from Gatsby's, and dumped them on the bed next to her. For the next few hours, they "wrapped" the presents, Zach carefully fitting items into an appropriate-sized takeout box, and Honey trying to make them pretty with ribbons. As she watched him work, occasionally cursing under his breath, she found herself smiling at his frowning face when he was strategizing how to fit a basketball into three disassembled clamshells. "What are you laughing at?" he said, glaring when he caught her at it. "I wasn't laughing. I was smiling." "Why were you smiling, then?" he asked. "I guess; I just like you; sir," she said, glancing over at him. Honey saw a hopeful softness steal into Zach's eyes until he forcibly wrestled it down and a look of hooded sarcasm shaded them. "Yeah, well; fool me once," he sneered. Angry, Honey closed her eyes, blocking him out the only way she could. "You know, that's; that's not fair. Not after what you said; you scared me!" she said, frustrated that, once again, tears were rolling down her cheeks. Zach choked out a mirthless laugh, "I scared you? What did I say, Honey? What did I fucking say? God! I was on eggshells all night trying not to fuck it up with you and then you just; why? Those creeps you were dancing with at that party, those fucking 'nice guys' that drugged you, they were saying shit that made my skin crawl! I didn't even kiss you! I couldn't! I could barely breathe just for looking at you on our date; you looked just like a fucking angel. What did I say, Honey? What did I say?" Honey reached over and grabbed her phone, flipping through her photo album to a screenshot taken shortly before she blocked his number. "You didn't say it; you texted it. I remember watching you leave for the restroom thinking I'd met the love of my life and then you sent me this; she said, handing her phone to him. Zach took the phone, his face going from an angry red to pale horror in a matter of seconds. "This; this; he gasped, "I didn't; send this; to you; he said, shaking his head. "Whoever had your phone did, sir!" she said, emphasizing the last word, making him wince. "I spent the last year thinking you wanted to do that to me; to kill me. Every time I felt you watching me, every crowd I saw you show up in, every dark room I had to go into, that's what I thought about. I thought that a man I was head over heels about; that I could be so wrong about him. So, excuse me for thinking I liked you, sir. I promise it won't ever happen again!" Honey cried herself to sleep that night, refusing to speak to, or even look at Zach again. When she awoke, the bedroom was empty, and a glass of water and a pain pill were waiting on the nightstand. After swallowing the pill, she stared at the ceiling, furious. She didn't want to be there anymore, to be helpless and dependent on him, to obey all his stupid rules. He didn't deserve to take care of her. So, she tightened the straps on her boot and increased the air pressure to hold her broken ankle tightly enough to walk without her crutches. Then, she took off Zach's t-shirt, pulled on her elf dress, and called herself an Uber. It was when she saw the anticipated arrival time of 8 minutes that she realized her mistake. There was no way for her to get down from the loft and out of the apartment quietly in that amount of time. If she used the crutches, she would be able to descend the stairs quickly enough, but they made such a distinctive clicking racket that they would surely wake up her gorilla-like guard. If she hopped down the stairs on her good foot, it might have worked, but her good arm was on the opposite side and she kept losing her balance. Eventually she decided on the most painful course, of going down on her good and bad legs, using her good arm for support. Her boot thunked horribly the first few times, until she got the hang of it and could place it more quietly on the next step and then hop her good foot down to support it before the scream inside her could escape her lips. By the time she reached the bottom, though, she was shaking with pain and exhausted. Curiosity forced her to look around the rest of the apartment as she caught her breath, sitting on the bottom step. It was clean and unmistakably masculine. Exercise equipment took up a lot of the space not already claimed by a leather couch and TV arrangement. Zach lay on the couch, made up with sheets to act as a bed, his feet sticking out over the arm, his hand tucked under the back of his head, his chest rising and falling under the rumpled sheet. If she wasn't so angry, she'd find him handsome; or maybe he still was handsome, she thought grudgingly, closing her eyes miserably and looking away. Why couldn't he be ugly? Life wasn't fair. Uber. Right. Screwing up her courage for what was ahead, she stood and slowly hobbled across the hardwood floor, agonizing over every painful thump and noisy squeak until she finally reached the door. She unlocked the five locks on his large door, each of them being well-oiled and working perfectly. She expected no less of her anal-retentive, grey-skivvies-on-Tuesdays captor. Finally, she tugged open the heavy door to find endless flights of icy steel-mesh stairs leading all the way down to the street where her Uber was waiting. "Oh, you gotta be kidding me; she cried, breaking down into tears. A strong arm slid down around her waist and mercifully shifted her weight off her throbbing foot, "I know. It sucks. You should try it with a rucksack full of bricks," Zach said, leaning his head down and breathing into her hair. "I want to go home," she whispered. "Let me take care of you; please," Zach murmured into the top of her head, "I; it was my fault this happened to you. I scared you, I know that now; but, please believe me that I would never want to hurt or frighten you like that." "It wasn't just that text," she said, pulling her head away and looking up at him angrily. "All year, I never had a moment's peace. Even when I couldn't see you, I could feel you waiting in the quiet or dark places. Even if you weren't there;" "I was there," he confessed. "I was always there. I didn't understand what had gone wrong. You didn't want to talk to me, and the world just didn't make sense to me unless I knew where you were, what you were doing; unless I knew you were safe." "Maybe you knew I was safe, but I didn't! I thought I'd done something; that somehow I deserved to have this beautiful, scary monster hunting me. I couldn't stop thinking about what I'd done to destroy something that was so; wonderful." "You didn't do anything, Honey. Nothing at all. You were perfect. You were so perfect that I couldn't keep; you didn't do anything wrong. I never meant to send you that message; please, please believe me." "Why did you send it?" she asked, finally looking up into his eyes. The dark blue liquid pools of her eyes turned violet in the moonlight, and Zach felt a tightening in his chest. "I; I can't tell you that; but it was never meant for you." "You mean, you meant to send that message to someone else? To hurt them like that?" "Honey, I; Zach said, looking around, unable to meet her eyes, "Please, I can't; you wouldn't understand; my life isn't like that anymore." "I want to go home, Zach; please," she whispered. Zach closed his eyes for a long moment before he swallowed and nodded, looking like he was in more pain than she was. "I'll take you home tomorrow, okay? Or Terry will, if you don't want me to. He'll check the place out, make sure you're set up and safe there. You're tired, you're hurting, and your Uber's gone, now. Let me take you back upstairs and you can go in the morning. Please." At that moment, a throb of pain shot through her entire leg, and as angry as Honey was, she knew she couldn't face her empty apartment without a few more hours of rest. "Okay," she whispered. To be continued in part 2, Based on a post by Lingering Afterthought, in 3 parts, for Literotica.

The Collect and psalms will be read from The Episcopal Church Book of Common Prayer. The Old Testament, Epistle and Gospel will be read from Lexham English Bible The Collect: Almighty and everlasting God, whose will it is to restore all things in your well-beloved Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords: Mercifully … Continue reading → The post Last Sunday after Pentecost: Christ the King, November 23 appeared first on Sunday's Lectionary.

Tuesday 11/11/25

Monday 11/10/25

00:00 Cross talk.21:55 Smacks on the rear after the Broncos mercifully beat the Raiders.40:50 Bo Nix and the offense.

There are many people who would like to walk with God but are convinced that their weaknesses, fears and foolish mistakes make it impossible. They might say something like this: "I know God is powerful, but it isn't God I'm worried about; it's me. I don't seem to have what it takes to live a victorious life. I'm afraid I have already or will in the future mess up His plans for me. I make bad choices, I fear stepping out in faith, I'm weak in the face of temptation. Don't I have to perfectly obey God for Him to be in control of my life?" Mercifully, the answer is no. Abraham and Sarah are examples of God's ability to overrule disobedience, slow obedience and partial obedience. Poor choices delayed God's purpose and created hardships for Abraham and Sarah, but it didn't prevent Him from accomplishing His plan for their lives. The record of their lives ought to give us great hope, because it proves that what God requires of us is not impossibly out of reach because it relies on His power and faithfulness much more than it does ours. To receive a free copy of Dr. Steve Schell's newest book Study Verse by Verse: Revelation, email us at info@lifelessonspublishing.com and ask for your copy at no charge!  Also check out our website at lifelessonspublishing.com for additional resources for pastors and leaders. We have recorded classes and other materials offered at no charge.  

In this episode, Drew and Cody reflect on the disappointing end of Sporting Kansas City's season, discussing the lackluster performance in their recent game against Houston and the implications for coaching and roster decisions moving forward. They highlight the importance of player performances and the need for significant changes in the offseason. The conversation shifts to the upcoming MLS playoffs, where they analyze key matchups and potential surprises, as well as updates on the women's national team and their upcoming games in Kansas City. The episode emphasizes the need for a strong midfield and the impact of injuries on playoff outcomes, while also acknowledging the crucial role of fan support in the team's success.Music by The Spin Wires

Gender identity, the origin of the universe, the sanctity of life, the cry for justice—the debate seems endless. If there ever was a time for Christians to understand and communicate God's truth about controversial and polarizing issues, it is now. Believers must develop convictions based on research, reason, and biblical truth. In this series, Avoiding Confusion, we will discover what the Bible has to say about the challenges we face and how we can communicate our convictions with love and respect.

Well, the 2025-26 season is finally here!While we still have to wait a week before the 1st preseason game starts, we got to see Kings players and coaches speak on media day and there's plenty to dissect from their answers.On the national front, the Kuminga contract situation that has dominated all offseason has finally ended and now we can all rest.Use code SKT15 on checkout to get 15% off from HYVDesigns on Etsy during checkout or use this link: https://www.etsy.com/shop/hyvdesigns/?etsrc=sdt&coupon=SKT15Intro Music by Blue Dot Sessions. https://www.sessions.blueIf you want to email us: kingtherapypod@gmail.com

Gender identity, the origin of the universe, the sanctity of life, the cry for justice—the debate seems endless. If there ever was a time for Christians to understand and communicate God's truth about controversial and polarizing issues, it is now. Believers must develop convictions based on research, reason, and biblical truth. In this series, Avoiding Confusion, we will discover what the Bible has to say about the challenges we face and how we can communicate our convictions with love and respect.

September 29, 2025 Today's Reading: Luke 10:17-20Daily Lectionary: Deuteronomy 1:19-36; Matthew 5:21-48 “The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, ‘Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!' And he said to them, ‘I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.'” (Luke 10:17-20) In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. These seventy-two men, proclaimers of the nearness of the Lord's kingdom, were appointed to go ahead of Him, proclaiming and healing the sick. They were amazed that Jesus' command came with the power to accomplish His work. This is the same Son of God who commands the heavenly host, as St. Michael and His angels expelled Lucifer and his angels. For our position in time and space, all that may seem fanciful. It's not. Jesus has written the names of all of us, His baptized, in the Book of Life. His name, marking us in Holy Baptism, can even come with these words from Martin Luther's Baptismal Rite. “Therefore, depart, you unclean spirit, and make room for the Holy Spirit in the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.” (LSB Agenda, p. 13) That's a little exorcism. The expulsion of Satan isn't little. But it's short enough to escape our attention. Yet, in the baptismal waters, Jesus' command and the water do exactly that. That was when you first received the forgiveness of sins. Even Satan himself has no claim on you. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. Everlasting God, You have ordained and constituted the service of angels and men in a wonderful order. Mercifully grant that, as Your holy angels always serve and worship You in heaven, so by Your appointment they may also help and defend us here on earth; through Your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.Rev. Jason Kaspar, pastor of Mount Calvary Lutheran Church, La Grange, Texas.Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, KY.Join author R. Reed Lessing helps with this chapter-by-chapter exploration of the Book of Numbers in Hope in the Wilderness. With helpful maps, diagrams, and connections to the rest of the Bible, you'll be able to understand the beauty of Numbers.

Adam Hurrey, Charlie Eccleshare and David Walker entertain this month's listener entries for Mesut Haaland Dicks, as the Clichés faithful nominate their niche footballing fascinations and irritations. Among the selections are the universal authority of the "come short" hand gesture, managers who sign their own sons, Jeff Stelling's trademark goal teases and answering basic footballing questions from your own children. Meanwhile, the Adjudication Panel welcome yet another ex-footballer's podcast to the industry and enjoy a commentator sneaking some clever wordplay under the Carabao Cup radar. Sign up for Dreamland, the new members-only Football Clichés experience, to access our exclusive new show and much more: https://dreamland.footballcliches.com Get your ticket for the Football Clichés Live tour this October: https://tickets.footballcliches.com Visit nordvpn.com/cliches to get four extra months on a two-year plan with NordVPN Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mercifully, the transfer window is closed and Leeds United are gearing up for a scrap. Bring it on!

Mercifully, the 2025 Preseason ended on Saturday and ‘real football' is just around the corner for the Bolts (in Brazil!). Today on TDU we share our takeaways from the Chargers 2-2 preseason record. What did and didn't matter? What did we see as important, challenging and interesting? We also look further afield to Tuesday's roster cutdown, discussing Daniel Popper's final 53 man prediction and sharing our own thoughts ahead of a busy few days for Joe Hortiz and Company at Chargers' HQ. Don't miss it!

This week we began with a brief but vital chat about sitting on a d4. Look, we had it, so you need to listen to it. Mercifully, we then moved on to discussing I (the character, not the me) taking control of the narrative. We talked about the Gloam camp - what the players were expecting and how those expectations were confounded by reality. This led to discussion of overthinking and overplanning when it comes to encounters, and how the players can sometimes be their own worst enemies. Still, there was time to revel in a rare instance of a plan going off without a hitch. We ruminated on what was next for Mina Lavigne - widow of Azrel - and whether she would be able to avoid falling into the clutches of a midlife crisis, ending in her getting involved in one of the many multi level marketing schemes that blight Reliquiae. And that's canon now.An extended discussion of bad smells and the fermented foods of Scandinavia led us (somehow) back to Somnium, body horror and the constraints that the three realms of existence place on Harry's use of certain monsters. Our dear DM then went on what we can only describe as a bit of a rant about Reliable Talent being overpowered, and - speaking of overpowered - we discussed the potential destructive capacity of the greatsword Elowen looted from the body of Lilith.We finished by looking ahead to what might be lurking within the caves as the path leads ever downward towards… well, that's for next time. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Celebrating the life and faith of Saint Mary Magdalene in the Church Calendar, July 22, 2025.Our general order and lectionary come from the Book of Common Prayer Daily Office.Psalm 42:1-7John 20:11-18Today's song: This is Amazing Grace (Jeremy Riddle, Josh Farro, Phil Wickham)Playlist of songs from Morning Prayer.If you have a prayer request please ⁠submit it here⁠. Sign up ⁠here⁠ for the email list.Morning Prayer and Worship is a production of Steady Stream Ministries, a 501(c)(3) non profit organization. Thank you for your support. ⁠You can go here to find out more⁠.Get an ad-free feed of the podcast with a monthly contribution of any amount!⁠Join our Facebook group here!⁠Photo by Johannes Plenio.Saint Mary Magdalene, Rite TwoAlmighty God, whose blessed Son restored Mary Magdalene to health of body and of mind, and called her to be a witness of his resurrection: Mercifully grant that by your grace we may be healed from all our infirmities and know you in the power of his unending life; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Mercifully, the PNW has escaped the heat dome blanketing a large portion of the eastern US. The temperature may remind you of Western Washington in June 2021. The oppressive heat set records across the region. A new lawsuit claims the world's largest oil companies are to blame for the blistering temperatures, and for the death of at least one woman who died as a result. We can only make Seattle Now because listeners support us. Tap here to make a gift and keep Seattle Now in your feed. Got questions about local news or story ideas to share? We want to hear from you! Email us at seattlenow@kuow.org, leave us a voicemail at (206) 616-6746 or leave us feedback online.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A Sermon for the First Sunday after Trinity St. Luke 16:19-31 & 1 St. John 4:7-21 by William Klock Jesus stopped in another town along the route of his final trip to Jerusalem.  Or maybe the people in the town stopped him.  They all wanted to see, to touch, to hear, to experience that walking bubble of God's future for themselves.  A chance to encounter the long-promised and long-awaited kingdom.  And as things settled down, Jesus sat down and started to preach.  He told them a story—our Gospel today that begins at Luke 16:19.  He said: “There was once a rich man.  He was dressed in purple and fine linen, and feasted sumptuously every day.”   This man wasn't just rich.  He was filthy, stinking rich.  No one was that rich in this town, but there were some Pharisees standing over there and some eyes wandered that way as Jesus spoke.  They weren't feast-every-day or dressed-in-purple rich.  Almost no one was.  But they did wear fine clothes and you had to be pretty well off to live like the Pharisees did with their scruples and rules about everyday things.  Jesus continued: “A poor man named Lazarus, who was covered with sores, lay outside his gate.  He longed to feed himself with the scraps that fell from the rich man's table.  Even the dogs came and licked his sores.”   Jesus paints a picture of extremes.  First there's the rich man.  Super rich.  Ostentatiously rich.  He lived like a king.  And then there's Lazarus.  He's destitute.  He's covered in sores, which means he's unclean.  He's probably lame.  Jesus describes him as having been deposited at Lazarus' gate.  He couldn't get there on his own.  He watched the rich man and his friends come and go.  He heard the music and laughter from the other side of the wall.  He smelled the meat roasting.  He would have been happy with the bread the rich people used to wipe their hands.  But there was nothing for poor Lazarus.  And to make his life worse, as he lay there helpless, the feral dogs of the town would come to lick his oozing sores and leave him stinging. Jesus puts a new spin on an old story the rabbis told.  There was a story—it's been preserved in the Talmud—that originated in Egypt and was brought back to Judah by Alexandrian Jews.  It was a story about a rich tax collector and a poor torah scholar.  They both died.  Of course, everyone attended the rich man's funeral, but no one could be bothered to show up at the funeral of the poor man.  But then few days later, a friend of the poor man had a dream of paradise, and there in the middle of paradise was the poor torah scholar enjoying everything he'd sacrificed in life for the sake of God's law.  And not far away was the rich man, parched and in torment, struggling to reach the stream, but forever held back.  When the story was told that way, everyone had sympathy for the poor torah scholar and hated the rich tax collector.  But Jesus changes the details—something he liked to do to make a point.  The rich man in Jesus' version is just a rich man—maybe even a Pharisee.  And the poor man's just a poor a man.  And when it's told that way, given the thinking of the day, most people would have had their sympathies reversed.  Riches—so long as they weren't gained from collecting taxes for the Romans—riches were a sign of God's favour.  And the poor man?  Well, think of the disciples' question to Jesus about the blind man.  “Who sinned?  This man or his parents?”  A lot of people would have chalked up the poor man's state to his sins.  He was out of favour with God and deserved his miserable lot in life. But that's not the only change Jesus makes to the story.  In the typical telling, it's the rich man who has a name.  As he tells the story his way, Jesus gives a name to the poor man instead.  He calls him Lazarus, which means “God helps”.  More importantly, Lazarus is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Eliezer.  Jesus would have said “Eliezer”, but remember that Luke is writing in Greek.  So I suspect that Jesus was making a deliberate connection with Abraham's servant, Eliezer of Damascus.  If we go back to Genesis 15 we read how Abraham lamented to the Lord that he was childless and that his only heir was Eliezer of Damascus.  In response, the Lord promised that he and Sarah would have a son.  When Isaac was born he displaced Eliezer, a gentile and an outsider, as Abraham's heir.  In Jesus' parable, the rich man is one of Abraham's sons.  Again, people would have seen his riches as a sign of his election and a sign of God's blessing on him.  Even though Lazarus was a Jew, people treated him like an outsider: he was unclean and destitute, so obviously God was punishing him.  He was an outsider, like Eliezer of Damascus, and undeserving of Abraham's inheritance. And yet look at what happens.  Verse 22: “In due course the poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried.  As he was being tormented in Hades, he looked up and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side.” Both men died.  The rich man was buried.  That was really important in Jewish society.  He had all the funeral rites and a parade of mourners through the streets of the city.  He was honoured in his death.  But Lazarus?  He had no one.  The dogs ate his body and carried away his bones in the night and no one was the wiser.  Except for the Lord.  He saw.  He'd been watching all along.  And he sent his angels to escort Lazarus into paradise—to Abraham's bosom. The Jews described the Messianic age to come as one in which God's people would feast and banquet in the kingdom, but in the meantime the dead would rest in the fellowship of Father Abraham.  Lazarus was probably as surprised as anyone, not only to be carried by the angels into paradise, but to be seated at the table right next to Abraham, in the place of highest honour.  That was the place reserved for someone like the rich man—not the place for a poor, lame, unclean beggar.  And yet there he was. Again, with stark contrast, Jesus describes the situation of the rich man.  Despite his high status in life, he wakes to find himself being tormented in hades.  Where Lazarus finds himself feasting at Abraham's side, the rich man finds himself on the far side of a great gulf that separates him from that banquet and from Abraham and from any hope of knowing God's age to come.  The tables have been turned.  In life the rich man feasted and a great gulf kept Lazarus away and starving. Now, it needs to be emphasised that Jesus' parable is not meant to give us teaching about the afterlife.  A lot of people down through the ages have gone to this parable assuming that Jesus' point was to teach us about the intermediate state or about heaven and hell.  That highlights the danger of pulling portions of Scripture out of context.  Jesus was using a well-known folk tale to make a point.  Think of it this way.  We tell jokes and stories about people being met at the pearly gates by St. Peter with his list, but St. Peter and his list are never the point of those stories.  We don't believe that this is what actually happens when we die—it's a popular folk tale in our culture.  The point is usually what happens to the people in the joke when they get there.  Jesus is telling a story like that here.  He's using the elements of a common folk tale, not to teach about the afterlife, but to rebuke the people for their love of money and for their failure to truly live out the law and the prophets—to truly live as Abraham's heirs.  As the Lord had been generous to Israel with his grace and his provision, the people of Israel should have been generous with their grace and provisions with each other—and especially with people like Lazarus.  That bubble of God's future in the present that they all came to Jesus to encounter?  That's what Israel was supposed to be—for each other and for the nations.  Instead, Israel had been like the rich man in the story. So back to the story.  The rich man and Lazarus have their places reversed when they die.  And yet the rich man still doesn't get it.  He sees Lazarus seated at the table with Abraham and he calls out in verse 24: “‘Father Abraham!  Have mercy on me!  Send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue!  I'm in agony in this fire!'”   The rich man calls out to “Father Abraham”.  His entire life he had deceived himself into thinking that Abraham was his father simply because he was one of Abraham's biological descendants.  Like so many others in Israel, he was convinced that his genetics, his circumcision, his diet, his sabbath observance, his separation from gentiles and from all things unclean, and all his sacrifices and offerings made at the temple guaranteed him a seat at the great banquet.  And yet he feasted away his days while poor Lazarus starved at his gate.  We should be reminded again of the Lord's rebuke through the prophet Hosea: I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice,          the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. (Hosea 6:6) Or as Jesus puts it in Matthew 9:13, “I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.” The rich man doesn't understand Lazarus' position either.  Not only is he still calling out to Abraham as if he has a claim on Abraham, but he calls out to Abraham to send Lazarus to him with some water.  He sees Lazarus at Abraham's side and misreads the situation.  It never occurs to him that Lazarus is there to be honoured.  He thinks that Lazarus is there as Abraham's servant: a waterboy in hades.  Abraham has to explain the situation to him.  Look at verses 25-26: “My child, remember that you in your life received good things, and in the same way Lazarus received bad things.  Now he is comforted here, and you are tormented.  Besides that, there is a great chasm standing between us.  People who want to cross over from here to you can't do so, nor can anyone get across from the far side to us.”   The same thing happens in the folktale as it was usually told.  Abraham puts the rich man in his place.  Lazarus wasn't taken by the angels to be Abraham's servant—or the rich man's for that matter.  And the rich man hasn't landed in a place of torment by mistake.  The rich man, too late, realises that the way he lived his life was wrong—he'd been presumptuous about God's grace and favour.  Again, Jesus' point isn't to teach us the geography of the afterlife.  He's warning his people, he's warning Israel: Judgement is coming and the role reversal that happened in this folk story could very well happen to them.  They'd better watch out.  The kingdom was at hand, judgement was coming soon, and they had little time left to repent. But then, in the last verses of the chapter, Jesus changes the story again.  The way people were used to hearing it, the rich man realised the error of his ways and asked for warnings to be sent to his brothers lest they suffer the same fate—and the Lord or Abraham obliged.  As Jesus tells the story, just the opposite happens.  The warnings have already been sent.  Look at verses 27-31: “‘Please, then, Father,' the rich man said, ‘send Lazarus to my father's house.  I have five brothers.  Let Lazarus warn them, so that they don't come into this place of torment.'  But Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets.  Let them hear them.'  And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone went to them from the dead, they would repent.'  ‘And if they do not hear Moses and the Prophets,' came the reply, ‘neither would they be convinced, even if someone rose from the dead.'”   “If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither would they be convinced, even if someone rose from the dead.”  That's pretty ominous.  With the coming of Jesus, the kingdom of God was breaking into the world.  God sent Jesus to lead his people out of their long exile.  He sent his son to conquer sin and death and to lead his people out of their bondage to both.  And so with every sickness healed, with every demon cast out, with every sin forgiven Jesus was showing that the kingdom had come, that God's new future was beginning.  This is why tax collectors and sinners were celebrating.  Jesus was setting them free.  Imagine the joy of Lazarus as he was carried by the angels to feast at Abraham's side.  This is the reality that Jesus was making known to the poor and the outcast and to sinners. And yet so many grumbled, especially the Pharisees, every time they saw Jesus doing these things.  The men who were sons of Abraham and who spent their lives in devotion to God's law, they couldn't accept what Jesus was doing.  He was inviting all the wrong people to the banquet!  And so Jesus is rebuking them; he's calling them to repentance just as he called the tax collectors and sinners to repent.  And here he warns them: They're like the rich man who refused poor Lazarus even the bread thrown under his table.  They've been entrusted with the light, but they refuse to share it with those living in darkness.  They've been entrusted with the law and the prophets—God's Word and the means of redemption for the nations—but they'd rather keep it to themselves and see the nations, the poor, the unclean tormented in hades.  And at the end of the day, it's just that attitude towards the poor and towards sinners and towards all those on the outside—it's their refusal to celebrate as Jesus heals and forgives and makes new—that reveals that while they have the law and the prophets, they've never truly understood them and they've never truly lived them.  They're supposed to be little bubbles of God's future in the present, but instead they've been little bubbles of darkness.  And because of that, they may be surprised to find themselves, just like the rich man, on the receiving end of God's judgement.  If they don't repent and recognise that in Jesus the kingdom has come, they will have forfeited their inheritance and it will be given to others.  They will have no share in the kingdom. This is where Jesus' choice of the name Lazarus or Eliezer comes back into the story.  When Isaac was born, the gentile Eliezer lost his inheritance.  The Pharisees—and the rest of Israel—are the nation born of Isaac.  They are the inheritors of God's promises to Abraham.  But with those covenant promises come covenant obligations—not just circumcision, avoiding unclean food, and sacrifices at the temple, but a seeking after justice and mercy and truly living out the lovingkindness of God in the world.  If Israel refuses to fulfil those obligations and if she refuses to acknowledge that in Jesus they are being fulfilled, she will lose those covenant promises—she will lose her inheritance and it will be given to others, to outsiders grafted into Jesus who is the true Israel and the one truly faithful son of Abraham.  Eliezer will inherit the promise after all. This is one of the key themes of Luke's gospel—ever since Mary sang out: He hath put down the mighty from their seat,          and hath exalted the humble and meek; He hath filled the hungry with good things,          and the rich he hath sent away empty. (Luke 1:52-53) This was the message that John the Baptist was preaching: “You'd better prove your repentance by bearing the proper fruit!  Don't start saying to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father'; let me tell you, God can raise up children for Abraham from these stones!  The axe is already standing by the roots of the tree—so every tree that doesn't produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” (Luke 3:8-9).  This was the warning that Jesus gave when he told the people to strive to enter through the narrow door before it's shut, before it's too late: “He will say to you, ‘I do not know where you people are from.  Be off with you, you wicked lot.'  That's where you'll find weeping and gnashing of teeth: when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in God's kingdom, and you yourselves will be thrown out.  People will come from east and west, from north and south, and sit down to feast in God's kingdom.” (Luke 13:27-29). The rich man and his brothers, just like the Pharisees and just like unfaithful Israel, all had the law and the prophets.  They didn't need any more witnesses.  Jesus' rebuke that even if someone should be raised from the dead they still wouldn't believe is a prophetic look ahead at Israel's fate.  They refused to listen to the law and the prophets.  Jesus came to renew Israel, and she refused to hear him, she cried out for his crucifixion, and she continued to reject him even when he rose from the dead.  And so others are being grafted in: unclean people, sinners, and gentiles are being grafted in and through Jesus are being given the inheritance that Israel forfeit. Now, what does this mean for us?  Brothers and sisters, we have Moses and the prophets, but more importantly we have Jesus and the Spirit, too.  We've been renewed.  The Spirit has given to us the one thing that the old Israel lacked: he's inscribed God's law on our hearts.  He's made it a part of us.  He's made it such a part of us that St. John can say in our Epistle today: Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God, and all who love are born of God and know God.  The one who does not love has not known God, because God is love….If we love one another, God abides in us and his love is completed in us.  That is how we know that we abide in him, and he in us, because he has given us a portion of his Spirit.” (1 John 4:7-8, 12-13) Maybe this is why the Spirit appeared as tongues of fire on the heads of the disciples at Pentecost.  They became light in the Spirit—very visibly those little walking bubbles of God's light-filled future, God's new creation, pulled into the present for the sake of the world.  That's the day when, through his Spirit, God made his people to truly be what he'd intended them to be all along. Brothers and Sisters, it was easy for those First Century Judeans to take their convent status for granted.  It should not be so for us.  They were the natural sons of Abraham, but we are the dead wood that has been grafted into the living vine—by the Spirit, into Jesus.  We're the ones who have received an inheritance that was not naturally ours.  The Table we come to this morning, the bread we eat and the wine we drink, remind us of our own poverty and the amazing grace and generosity of God towards us.  In so many ways and for so many reasons, we do not deserve his invitation to this table, but he has been gracious and merciful to us.  He's given his own son to die so that we can be a part of this family.  May we never take his grace or our position before him or his table for granted.  May we, redeemed by his blood and filled with his Spirit, embody his love for the sake of the world.  May we always be faithful and living witnesses of God's new creation—light in midst of darkness, love in the midst of hate; hope in the midst of fear. Let's pray: O God, the strength of all who put their trust in you: Mercifully accept our prayers; and because in our weakness we can do nothing good without you, give us the help of your grace, that in keeping your commandments we may please you both in will and deed; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

Elijah sets the terms for a contest with the false prophets. Both sides will prepare a sacrifice, but neither will set fire to it, allowing the true God to show Himself by answering the prayer. Elijah allows the false prophets to go first. Although they spend all morning crying upon Baal according to their pagan rites, nothing happens, a reality mocked by Elijah and the author of Kings. When Elijah takes his turn, he prepares his sacrifices so it will be obvious that the answer has come from the LORD and no one else. The LORD's answer is swift, as not only the bull, but the entire altar is burned. Judgment is executed upon the false prophets of Baal by the people, who have returned to the LORD as the true God. Mercifully, the LORD sends rain upon His people after the three-and-a-half-year drought.  Rev. Jeff Hemmer, pastor at Bethany Lutheran Church in Fairview Heights, IL, joins host Rev. Timothy Appel to study 1 Kings 18:20-46.  To learn more about Bethany Lutheran, visit www.bethanylcms.org. "A Kingdom Divided” is a series on Sharper Iron that goes through 1-2 Kings. The division in the kingdom of Israel in this part of history was greater than a matter of north and south. The biggest division was between the people and their God. Yet even as the people rebelled against the LORD as their King, still He remained faithful to call them back to Himself through His prophets, working through history to send the good and gracious King, Jesus Christ. Sharper Iron, hosted by Rev. Timothy Appel, looks at the text of Holy Scripture both in its broad context and its narrow detail, all for the sake of proclaiming Christ crucified and risen for sinners. Two pastors engage with God's Word to sharpen not only their own faith and knowledge, but the faith and knowledge of all who listen. Submit comments or questions to: listener@kfuo.org

Get access to Daily Prayer: Become a Patron on Patreon----------------------Friday - Easter Week 6Opening Words:“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.”Colossians 3:1 (ESV) Confession:Let us humbly confess our sins unto Almighty God.Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent. For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us; that we may delight in your will, and walk in your ways, to the glory of your Name. Amen.Almighty God have mercy on you, forgive you all your sins through our Lord Jesus Christ, strengthen you in all goodness, and by the power of the Holy Spirit keep you in eternal life. Amen. The InvitatoryLord, open our lips.And our mouth shall proclaim your praise.Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen. Pascha Nostrum (Christ our Passover)Alleluia. The Lord is risen indeed:Come let us adore him. Alleluia.Alleluia. Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us; *therefore let us keep the feast,Not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, *but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Alleluia.Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; *death no longer has dominion over him.The death that he died, he died to sin, once for all; *but the life he lives, he lives to God.So also consider yourselves dead to sin, *and alive to God in Jesus Christ our Lord. Alleluia.Christ has been raised from the dead, *the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.For since by a man came death, *by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.For as in Adam all die, *so also in Christ shall all be made alive. Alleluia.Alleluia. The Lord is risen indeed:Come let us adore him. Alleluia. The PsalterPsalm 85Benedixisti, Domine1You have been gracious to your land, O Lord, *you have restored the good fortune of Jacob.2You have forgiven the iniquity of your people *and blotted out all their sins.3You have withdrawn all your fury *and turned yourself from your wrathful indignation.4Restore us then, O God our Savior; *let your anger depart from us.5Will you be displeased with us for ever? *will you prolong your anger from age to age?6Will you not give us life again, *that your people may rejoice in you?7Show us your mercy, O Lord, *and grant us your salvation.8I will listen to what the Lord God is saying, *for he is speaking peace to his faithful peopleand to those who turn their hearts to him.9Truly, his salvation is very near to those who fear him, *that his glory may dwell in our land.10Mercy and truth have met together; *righteousness and peace have kissed each other.11Truth shall spring up from the earth, *and righteousness shall look down from heaven.12The Lord will indeed grant prosperity, *and our land will yield its increase.13Righteousness shall go before him, *and peace shall be a pathway for his feet. Psalm 86Inclina, Domine1Bow down your ear, O Lord, and answer me, *for I am poor and in misery.2Keep watch over my life, for I am faithful; *save your servant who puts his trust in you.3Be merciful to me, O Lord, for you are my God; *I call upon you all the day long.4Gladden the soul of your servant, *for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.5For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, *and great is your love toward all who call upon you.6Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer, *and attend to the voice of my supplications.7In the time of my trouble I will call upon you, *for you will answer me.8Among the gods there is none like you, O Lord, *nor anything like your works.9All nations you have made will come and worship you, O Lord, *and glorify your Name.10For you are great;you do wondrous things; *and you alone are God.11Teach me your way, O Lord,and I will walk in your truth; *knit my heart to you that I may fear your Name.12I will thank you, O Lord my God, with all my heart, *and glorify your Name for evermore.13For great is your love toward me; *you have delivered me from the nethermost Pit.14The arrogant rise up against me, O God,and a band of violent men seeks my life; *they have not set you before their eyes.15But you, O Lord, are gracious and full of compassion, *slow to anger, and full of kindness and truth.16Turn to me and have mercy upon me; *give your strength to your servant;and save the child of your handmaid.17Show me a sign of your favor,so that those who hate me may see it and be ashamed; *because you, O Lord, have helped me and comforted me. Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: *as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen. LessonsEzekiel 1:28-3:328 Like the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud on the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness all around.Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard the voice of one speaking.2 And he said to me, “Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak with you.” 2 And as he spoke to me, the Spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and I heard him speaking to me. 3 And he said to me, “Son of man, I send you to the people of Israel, to nations of rebels, who have rebelled against me. They and their fathers have transgressed against me to this very day. 4 The descendants also are impudent and stubborn: I send you to them, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God.' 5 And whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house) they will know that a prophet has been among them. 6 And you, son of man, be not afraid of them, nor be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns are with you and you sit on scorpions. Be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house. 7 And you shall speak my words to them, whether they hear or refuse to hear, for they are a rebellious house.8 “But you, son of man, hear what I say to you. Be not rebellious like that rebellious house; open your mouth and eat what I give you.” 9 And when I looked, behold, a hand was stretched out to me, and behold, a scroll of a book was in it. 10 And he spread it before me. And it had writing on the front and on the back, and there were written on it words of lamentation and mourning and woe.3 And he said to me, “Son of man, eat whatever you find here. Eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.” 2 So I opened my mouth, and he gave me this scroll to eat. 3 And he said to me, “Son of man, feed your belly with this scroll that I give you and fill your stomach with it.” Then I ate it, and it was in my mouth as sweet as honey. Hebrews 4:14-5:614 Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.5 For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. 2 He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness. 3 Because of this he is obligated to offer sacrifice for his own sins just as he does for those of the people. 4 And no one takes this honor for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was.5 So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him,“You are my Son,    today I have begotten you”;6 as he says also in another place,“You are a priest forever,    after the order of Melchizedek.” The Word of the Lord.Thanks Be To God. Cantemus Domino (The Song of Moses)I will sing to the Lord, for he is lofty and uplifted; *the horse and its rider has he hurled into the sea.The Lord is my strength and my refuge; *the Lord has become my Savior.This is my God and I will praise him, *the God of my people and I will exalt him.The Lord is a mighty warrior; *Yahweh is his Name.The chariots of Pharaoh and his army has he hurled into the sea; *the finest of those who bear armor have been drowned in the Red Sea.The fathomless deep has overwhelmed them; *they sank into the depths like a stone.Your right hand, O Lord, is glorious in might; *your right hand, O Lord, has overthrown the enemy.Who can be compared with you, O Lord, among the gods? *who is like you, glorious in holiness,awesome in renown, and worker of wonders?You stretched forth your right hand; *the earth swallowed them up.With your constant love you led the people you redeemed; *with your might you brought them in safety to your holy dwelling.You will bring them in and plant them *on the mount of your possession,The resting-place you have made for yourself, O Lord, *the sanctuary, O Lord, that your hand has established.The Lord shall reign *for ever and for ever.Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. The Apostles CreedI believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead.I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen. The PrayersLord, have mercy.Christ, have mercyLord, have mercyOur Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. The SuffragesO Lord, show your mercy upon us;And grant us your salvation.O Lord, guide those who govern usAnd lead us in the way of justice and truth.Clothe your ministers with righteousnessAnd let your people sing with joy.O Lord, save your peopleAnd bless your inheritance.Give peace in our time, O LordAnd defend us by your mighty power.Let not the needy, O Lord, be forgottenNor the hope of the poor be taken away.Create in us clean hearts, O GodAnd take not your Holy Spirit from us. Take a moment of silence at this time to reflect and pray for others. The CollectsAscension DayAlmighty God, whose blessed Son our Savior Jesus Christ ascended far above all heavens that he might fill all things: Mercifully give us faith to perceive that, according to his promise, he abides with his Church on earth, even to the end of the ages; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen. Daily Collects:A Collect for PeaceO God, the author of peace and lover of concord, to know you is eternal life and to serve you is perfect freedom: Defend us, your humble servants, in all assaults of our enemies; that we, surely trusting in your defense, may not fear the power of any adversaries, through the might of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.A Collect for GraceO Lord, our heavenly Father, almighty and everlasting God, you have brought us safely to the beginning of this day: Defend us by your mighty power, that we may not fall into sin nor run into any danger; and that, guided by your Spirit, we may do what is righteous in your sight; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.Prayer for MissionAlmighty and everlasting God, who alone works great marvels: Send down upon our clergy and the congregations committed to their charge the life-giving Spirit of your grace, shower them with the continual dew of your blessing, and ignite in them a zealous love of your Gospel; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. General ThanksgivingAlmighty God, Father of all mercies, we your unworthy servants give you humble thanks for all your goodness and loving-kindness to us and to all whom you have made. We bless you for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all for your immeasurable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ; for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory. And, we pray, give us such an awareness of your mercies, that with truly thankful hearts we may show forth your praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up our selves to your service, and by walking before you in holiness and righteousness all our days; Through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory throughout all ages. Amen. A Prayer of St. John ChrysostomAlmighty God, you have given us grace at this time, with one accord to make our common supplications to you; and you have promised through your well-beloved Son that when two or three are gathered together in his Name you will grant their requests: Fulfill now, O Lord, our desires and petitions as may be best for us; granting us in this world knowledge of your truth, and in the age to come life everlasting. Amen. DismissalLet us bless the LordThanks be to God!Alleluia, Alleluia! BenedictionThe grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us all evermore. Amen

Today we'll squirm as we see a people be entirely devoted to destruction.  This is a surprise to us, as we don't often see immediate and appropriate justice in real time. But you cannot understand the wrath of God, without understanding KINDNESS God.Is God sometimes severe to those of unbelief? Yes Justly so. Is God sometimes kind to those of belief? Yes. Mercifully so. Please subscribe. https://youtu.be/4x3sy6v9dX8

The story of how Hebrew was smuggled into the Western Church is long and complicated; it spans centuries and involves hundreds of men. In this episode, we have narrowed down the story to a handful of key figures who played pivotal roles. At many points in this timeline, Christian men could have stood up and defended the inspired Greek of the Septuagint, but essentially none did so. At any point in this timeline, Christian men could have stood up and repudiated the wicked use of the Hebrew, but only two did so — both former (converted) Jews. Satan does not have the limitation of a lifespan of but eighty or so years, and he does not sleep or grow tired; the story of Hebrew is the story of Satan's long-term plan to undermine and collapse the Western Church, and, with her, Christendom. In this second-half of the historical portion of the Septuagint series, we cover the history of the Western Church (from, roughly, Jerome to the Reformation) with regard to how Hebrew came to be used as the basis for the Old Testament. Notably, this history of the Septuagint is almost devoid of any actual use of the Septuagint by the men whose lives and actions make up the narrative, because we, like the Israelites of the Old Testament, left the Word of God sitting in a basement, abandoned and largely forgotten — and, worse, we accepted a corrupted counterfeit from rabbis and made it the basis of our translations. Mercifully and according to His promises, God preserved the Greek for us, and so we can undo the foolishness of centuries past — a topic we will take up in the last episode in this series. Show Notes See Also Further Reading “Johannes Reuchlin (1455–1522): A Unique Philosemitic Public Intellectual” “Johannes Reuchlin: A Voice of Humanism and Esoteric Wisdom” [This site is full of things we categorically recommend against — it is linked for the sole purpose of this one article on Reuchlin.] Parental Warnings At the end of the episode, Luther is quoted and the quote includes the words “whore” and “slut”.

April 21st, 2025 Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and X Listen to past episodes on The Ticket’s Website And follow The Ticket Top 10 on Apple, Spotify or Amazon MusicSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mercifully, the Bruins season is over. Is Greg's scoop for real? We'll see // Determining whether or not the Lady space flight was faked // Curtis laments the old days before cell phones at sporting events //

Mercifully, the Bruins season is over. Is Greg's scoop for real? We'll see // Determining whether or not the Lady space flight was faked // Curtis laments the old days before cell phones at sporting events // Wiggy and Greg talk about the Reggie Lewis controversy // Wiggy thinks it's time to part ways with Sweeney and/or Neely // Travis Hunter says to teams he's playing both ways or bust // RIP Wink Martindale // Wiggy is happy to celebrate national hamburger day // Wiggy doesn't see any reason Jaylen should play until playoff round 2 // Mego in studio, fired up about the Celtics finally entering the playoffs // Belichick's relationship is getting more bizarre everyday // A shortened version of Hill Notes //

It's Monday in Holy Week in the Church Calendar, April 14, 2025.Our general order and lectionary come from the Book of Common Prayer Daily Office.Today's song: Hosanna (Brooke Ligertwood)Psalm 36:5-11John 12:1-11Playlist of songs from Morning Prayer.If you have a prayer request please ⁠submit it here⁠. Sign up ⁠here⁠ for the email list.Morning Prayer and Worship is a production of Steady Stream Ministries, a 501(c)(3) non profit organization. Thank you for your support. ⁠You can go here to find out more⁠.Get an ad-free feed of the podcast with a monthly contribution of any amount!⁠Join our Facebook group here!⁠Photo by Susanne Jutzeler, suju-foto.Collect of the DayMonday in Holy Week, Rite TwoAlmighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Years ago, an iconic bar named “Another Raw Deal” was a regular hangout for us irreverent, free-spirited, political progressives in Austin, Texas. Even those push-button, hot-air hand dryers in its restrooms were political—printed on the big chrome button was this instruction: “Push here for a message from Sen. Phil Gramm.”Mercifully, Gramm is gone, but political hot air is still gushing from the likes of Rep. Pat Fallon, an Elon-Musk-hugging, plutocratic congress critter from Texas. Lately, however, Pat has been learning the hard way that folks back home don't share his fan-boy crush on the South African billionaire, who is gleefully chainsawing crucial public programs that even Republican families count on. So, Fallon's own constituents are howling at him to do something!He is: This aloof and clueless “public servant” has erupted in a mad dog attack on the locals! At a recent town hall event in his red district, voters were furious that Musk is targeting the Social Security benefits they've earned. Fallon barked that “no one has said they're cutting Social Security.” But one of his voters shot back: “Elon says it every day.” Indeed Musk is trying to kill it with lies, falsely attacking it as “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.”Then, Fallon stumbled into the GOP's briar patch of class bias, curtly proposing “a different deal” to replace Social Security. “If you want to retire,” he instructed, plan when you're young and “work two jobs.” Of course, millions already do—and the pay still doesn't cover basic expenses, much less provide savings for retirement.This is Jim Hightower saying… Now that's a raw deal! Did I mention that Fallon, a multimillionaire congressman, gets a lavish, paid-for-by-you-and-me public pension?Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe

Episode NotesFor Daily Prayers and more become a Member on PatreonVisit our Website for more www.commonprayerdaily.com Opening Words:I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth. Isaiah 49:6b Confession:Let us humbly confess our sins unto Almighty God. Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent. For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us; that we may delight in your will, and walk in your ways, to the glory of your Name. Amen.   Almighty God have mercy on you, forgive you all your sins through our Lord Jesus Christ, strengthen you in all goodness, and by the power of the Holy Spirit keep you in eternal life. Amen.   The InvitatoryLord, open our lips. And our mouth shall proclaim your praise. Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen. Alleluia. Psalm 95:1–7The Lord has shown forth his glory: Come let us adore him.Come, let us sing to the Lord; * let us shout for joy to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving * and raise a loud shout to him with psalms. For the Lord is a great God, * and a great King above all gods.In his hand are the caverns of the earth, * and the heights of the hills are his also. The sea is his, for he made it, * and his hands have molded the dry land.Come, let us bow down, and bend the knee, * and kneel before the Lord our Maker. For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. * Oh, that today you would hearken to his voice!The Lord has shown forth his glory: Come let us adore him.  The PsalterPsalm 891Your love, O Lord, for ever will I sing; *from age to age my mouth will proclaim your faithfulness.2For I am persuaded that your love is established for ever; *you have set your faithfulness firmly in the heavens.3“I have made a covenant with my chosen one; *I have sworn an oath to David my servant:4‘I will establish your line for ever, *and preserve your throne for all generations.' ”5The heavens bear witness to your wonders, O Lord, *and to your faithfulness in the assembly of the holy ones;6For who in the skies can be compared to the Lord? *who is like the Lord among the gods?7God is much to be feared in the council of the holy ones, *great and terrible to all those round about him.8Who is like you, Lord God of hosts? *O mighty Lord, your faithfulness is all around you.9You rule the raging of the sea *and still the surging of its waves.10You have crushed Rahab of the deep with a deadly wound; *you have scattered your enemies with your mighty arm.11Yours are the heavens; the earth also is yours; *you laid the foundations of the world and all that is in it.12You have made the north and the south; *Tabor and Hermon rejoice in your Name.13You have a mighty arm; *strong is your hand and high is your right hand.14Righteousness and justice are the foundations of your throne; *love and truth go before your face.15Happy are the people who know the festal shout! *they walk, O Lord, in the light of your presence.16They rejoice daily in your Name; *they are jubilant in your righteousness.17For you are the glory of their strength, *and by your favor our might is exalted.18Truly, the Lord is our ruler; *the Holy One of Israel is our King.  Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.  LessonsIsa. 63:1-6“Who is this that comes from Edom, from Bozrah in garments stained crimson? Who is this so splendidly robed, marching in his great might?" "It is I, announcing vindication, mighty to save." "Why are your robes red, and your garments like theirs who tread the wine press?" "I have trodden the wine press alone, and from the peoples no one was with me; I trod them in my anger and trampled them in my wrath; their juice spattered on my garments, and stained all my robes. For the day of vengeance was in my heart, and the year for my redeeming work had come. I looked, but there was no helper; I stared, but there was no one to sustain me; so my own arm brought me victory, and my wrath sustained me. I trampled down peoples in my anger, I crushed them in my wrath, and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth."The Word of the Lord. Thanks Be To God.  Te Deum laudamusYou are God: we praise you;You are the Lord; we acclaim you;You are the eternal Father:All creation worships you.To you all angels, all the powers of heaven,Cherubim and Seraphim, sing in endless praise:Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might,heaven and earth are full of your glory. The glorious company of apostles praise you.The noble fellowship of prophets praise you.The white-robed army of martyrs praise you.Throughout the world the holy Church acclaims you;Father, of majesty unbounded,your true and only Son, worthy of all worship,and the Holy Spirit, advocate and guide. You, Christ, are the king of glory,the eternal Son of the Father.When you became man to set us freeyou did not shun the Virgin's womb.You overcame the sting of deathand opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers.You are seated at God's right hand in glory.We believe that you will come and be our judge.Come then, Lord, and help your people,bought with the price of your own blood,and bring us with your saintsto glory everlasting.  1 Tim. 1:1-17Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope, To Timothy, my loyal child in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. I urge you, as I did when I was on my way to Macedonia, to remain in Ephesus so that you may instruct certain people not to teach any different doctrine, and not to occupy themselves with myths and endless genealogies that promote speculations rather than the divine training that is known by faith. But the aim of such instruction is love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and sincere faith. Some people have deviated from these and turned to meaningless talk, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make assertions. Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it legitimately. This means understanding that the law is laid down not for the innocent but for the lawless and disobedient, for the godless and sinful, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their father or mother, for murderers, fornicators, sodomites, slave traders, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to the sound teaching that conforms to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me. I am grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because he judged me faithful and appointed me to his service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners-- of whom I am the foremost. But for that very reason I received mercy, so that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display the utmost patience, making me an example to those who would come to believe in him for eternal life. To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.The Word of the Lord.Thanks Be To God.  Mark 11:1-11When they were approaching Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples and said to them, "Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden; untie it and bring it. If anyone says to you, 'Why are you doing this?' just say this, 'The Lord needs it and will send it back here immediately.'" They went away and found a colt tied near a door, outside in the street. As they were untying it, some of the bystanders said to them, "What are you doing, untying the colt?" They told them what Jesus had said; and they allowed them to take it. Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it; and he sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields. Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting, "Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!" Then he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple; and when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.The Word of the Lord. Thanks Be To God.  Benedictus Dominus DeusBlessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; *he has come to his people and set them free.He has raised up for us a mighty savior, *born of the house of his servant David.Through his holy prophets he promised of old,that he would save us from our enemies, *from the hands of all who hate us.He promised to show mercy to our fathers *and to remember his holy covenant.This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham, *to set us free from the hands of our enemies,Free to worship him without fear, *holy and righteous in his sightall the days of our life.You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High, *for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way,To give his people knowledge of salvation *by the forgiveness of their sins.In the tender compassion of our God *the dawn from on high shall break upon us,To shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, *and to guide our feet into the way of peace.Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: *as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.  The Apostles CreedI believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead.I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.     The PrayersThe Lord be with you.And also with you.Let us pray. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.    Suffrages BV. Save your people, Lord, and bless your inheritance;R. Govern and uphold them, now and always.V. Day by day we bless you; R. We praise your name for ever.V. Lord, keep us from all sin today; R. Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy.V. Lord, show us your love and mercy; R. For we put our trust in you.V. In you, Lord, is our hope; R. And we shall never hope in vain.    The CollectsCollect of the DayO God, the strength of all who put their trust in you: Mercifully accept our prayers; and because in our weakness we can do nothing good without you, give us the help of your grace, that in keeping your commandments we may please you both in will and deed; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.  Daily Collects:A Collect for PeaceO God, the author of peace and lover of concord, to know you is eternal life and to serve you is perfect freedom: Defend us, your humble servants, in all assaults of our enemies; that we, surely trusting in your defense, may not fear the power of any adversaries, through the might of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. A Collect for GraceO Lord, our heavenly Father, almighty and everlasting God, you have brought us safely to the beginning of this day: Defend us by your mighty power, that we may not fall into sin nor run into any danger; and that, guided by your Spirit, we may do what is righteous in your sight; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.  Take a moment of silence at this time to reflect and pray for others.  Collect of Saint BasilO Christ God, Who art worshipped and glorified at every place and time; Who art long-suffering, most merciful and compassionate; Who lovest the righteous and art merciful to sinners; Who callest all to salvation with the promise of good things to come: receive, Lord, the prayers we now offer, and direct our lives in the way of Thy commandments. Sanctify our souls, cleanse our bodies, correct our thoughts, purify our minds and deliver us from all affliction, evil and illness. Surround us with Thy holy angels, that guarded and instructed by their forces, we may reach unity of faith and the understanding of Thine unapproachable glory: for blessed art Thou unto ages of ages. Amen.   A Prayer of St. John ChrysostomAlmighty God, you have given us grace at this time, with one accord to make our common supplications to you; and you have promised through your well-beloved Son that when two or three are gathered together in his Name you will grant their requests: Fulfill now, O Lord, our desires and petitions as may be best for us; granting us in this world knowledge of your truth, and in the age to come life everlasting. Amen.     DismissalLet us bless the LordThanks be to God! The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us all evermore. Amen 

Mercifully, the murders in the Osage Nation paused in 1924 and 1925. J. Edgar Hoover became the director of the Bureau of Investigation and assigned a new man to the case of the Osage murders. Special Agent Tom White succeeded where all others failed. He eliminated suspects; uncovered lies and corruption; and discovered new evidence. In the process, he believed he learned the identities of some of the killers.   Join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join   Apple users join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes, bingeable seasons and bonus episodes. Click the Black Barrel+ banner on Apple to get started with a 3-day free trial.   On YouTube, subscribe to INFAMOUS+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: hit “Join” on the Legends YouTube homepage.   For more details, please visit www.blackbarrelmedia.com. Our social media pages are: @blackbarrelmedia on Facebook and Instagram, and @bbarrelmedia on Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices