1LB24.   Genesis 9:8-15.  With the flood God destroyed sin by destroying the sinners who created sin and thereby restored his covenant that would bring his creatures and himself once again into a holy union.  God said to Noah: “I set my bow in the clouds to serve as a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.”

Mark 1:12-15.  “The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert.”  The Spirit terminated Jesus ordinary everyday homey family life with his mother and relatives to begin his public ministry.  His forty days in the desert and temptations by Satan changed Jesus earthly life into that of a spiritually driven Messiah.    In his temptations in the desert, Jesus is introduced to the great enemy of his public ministry.  For all humanity it was the time of fulfillment to bring the world out of the grip of the ruler of the world to salvation and redemption.  (John 14:30) This world was challenged to no longer belong to itself but to God its Creator and King. (John 16:33)

Psalm 25: “Your ways, O Lord, make know to me; teach me your paths. Guide me in truth and teach me, for you are God my savior.”

1 Peter 3:18-22.  God washes away sin to make us holy as He is holy by cleansing the inner person.  It is up to us to join in Christ’s resurrection “into heaven.”

1LB21.    Genesis 9:8-15.   God establishes a new covenant that promises “that never again shall all bodily creatures be destroyed by the waters of a flood.”  The waters are a symbol of the force that can both destroy and generate life.  For us the waters of baptism destroy the life of sin that can come by being governed by the flesh alone but give life to those who are alive in the flesh yet draw life from the Holy Spirit.

Mark 1:12-15.   Jesus lived in Nazareth preparing for his public ministry for thirty years.  For his initial entrance in that public ministry, the Holy Spirit put him on a sort of novitiate or boot camp of living “in the desert for forty days, tempted by Satan.  Jesus was being reoriented from ordinary daily village life to his new full time work of bringing souls to the Father.  Jesus proclaims: “The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel.”  Our forty days of Lent are also given to us to reorient us from being lost in the petty routine of worldly, material living to the real purpose of life, the sanctification of our souls.

1 Peter 3:18-22.   While there is no certainty what Peter meant when he wrote the words “Jesus went to preach to the spirits in prison,” my interpretation is that Jesus went to those who had imprisoned themselves in a life that was lived only based on what their flesh and bodies demanded of them but ignored any or most spiritual needs.  The waters of baptism, as did the water of the flood, call for the washing away of all that is not of God so that we might have the “clear conscience” of a holiness of life.  In this Lenten season Jesus calls us to live subject to his kingship over us.

1LB18.   Genesis 9:8-15.  God washes away sin by washing away the sinners.  With the saintly survivors God makes a covenant to never again devastate the earth and its mortal beings by another flood.

Psalm 25:4-5, 6-7, 8-9.  “Good and upright is the Lord, thus he shows sinners the way.”  Now he wishes to conquer sin by personally guiding each sinner.  The refrain is: “Your ways, O Lord, are love and truth to those who keep your covenant.”  Through his truth and love God shows the way to heaven to those who wish to be obedient to Him.

Mark 1:12-15.  For forty days Jesus remained in the desert so to call us to remain the desert of Lent to repent of our sins, replacing our sinful ways with the spiritual life that comes to us through the gospel.  The never-ending temptations of the devil serve to force us to become more consciously dependent on the Holy Spirit and less complacent and careless about our spiritual life.  As long as we are alive in this world, i.e. in the flesh, we are, so to speak, “among the wild beasts,” i.e. the powerful allurements of this world.  Everyday our baptismal commitment or covenant to be members of the kingdom of God is challenged.

1 Peter 3:18-22.  By suffering and dying for us on the cross, Jesus enabled us to follow him in his resurrection and ascension to heaven.  The flood prefigured our baptism, our being cleansed of sin, so that we can join Jesus in heaven where he reigns with the Father.  Perhaps the sentence: “In it (death in the flesh) he also went to preach to the spirits in prison” recalls the sentence in the Apostles’ Creed: “he descended into hell.”  I can only guess that St. Peter means to say that Jesus went to those who died before his act of redemption, including those  who died in the flood, to offer them a chance to also be redeemed.

6B24.       Leviticus 13:1-2, 44-46.   According to Old Testament Law, the person who had leprosy was to live apart from the rest of humanity and he had to cry out: “Unclean, unclean!” so to ward off the healthy from having any contact with him.  Actually, his isolation was a greater torture than his sickness.

Mark 1:40-45.  Jesus, moved with pity at the request of the leper, said, “Be made clean,” “and he was made clean.”  Because of his power to miraculously cure people of their afflictions was always inundated with crowds.  Jesus worked his miracles so to draw people to put their faith in him as the one who would save them spiritually, even more importantly than physically.  Our sinfulness should encourage us to always be approaching Jesus saying, “Master, make me clean.”

1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1.  “Brothers and sisters, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God.”   Our bodies make demands on us; the world around us makes demands on us.  Inasmuch as their demands are reasonable and rational, we comply.  However God is supreme.  God understands well human situations.  He is a loving, understanding Father.   God must always come first and foremost.  The presence of the Lord in us ought to shine like a light in the darkness.

6B21.   Leviticus 13:1-2, 44-46.  Among the Hebrews sickness, especially leprosy was considered to be the result of one’s sinfulness.  The word ‘unclean’ then meant to be unclean in every way.

Mark 1: 40-45.   Our gospel begins, “A leper came to Jesus and kneeling down begged him and said, ‘If you wish, you can make me clean.’” Jesus then said, “I do will it.  Be made clean.”  “And he was made clean.”  Although the leper was physically cured of leprosy, some day he would die from something else.  More than being clean of leprosy, being clean of sinfulness would give him the life that is everlasting health.  In John 6:68c after many of Jesus’ disciples chose to no longer follow Jesus because he told them they must eat his body and drink his blood, Peter, refusing to abandon Jesus said to Jesus, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”  Jesus’ fame and popularity because of his miraculous works were meant to challenge people to believe in him as their eternal Savior, to take them beyond the physical that dies, to the spiritual that never dies.  All too many of the people embraced the miracles that benefited their bodies here and now, but not the life in Jesus that would give them eternal salvation.

1 Corinthians 10:31—11:1.     Paul wrote: “Do everything for the glory of God.”  Paul did that by trying “to please everyone in every way, not seeking my own benefit but that of the many, that they may be saved.”  He wrote in last Sunday’s epistle: “I have become all things to all, to save at least some.”  Paul was always attempting in his person to reflect the Savior.  So he wrote: “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.”  We are also called to show something of Jesus in ourselves through our daily life of faith in Jesus so to bring some to Jesus.  Our lives should be the life of the good news that is Jesus within us.

6B18.   Leviticus 13:1-2, 44-46.  This is one of the commands of the Torah or Law of the Lord for the Hebrew people.  People who had leprosy were considered both physically and morally unclean and sinful.  Any contact with them would make one unclean and so lepers needed to cry out to warn people to stay their distance.

Mark 1:40-45.  I imagine that this leper has heard of how powerful Jesus is and so says to Jesus, “If you wish, you can make me clean.”  “Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, touched him, and said to him, ‘I do will it. Be made clean.’”  We give glory to God when we, recognizing our needs, humble ourselves before the Lord and request his power to make us clean and whole and holy.  This is something of the daily bread that we petition for in the ‘Our Father prayer’.  What we cannot do, God can do but we need to ask so to receive.  We must live with a never ending sense of having needs we cannot fill and the willingness to ask the only one who can fill those needs.

Jesus commands the cleaned leper not to broadcast the miracle because he would be deluged with miracle seekers.  Instead the leper did not do as he was commanded.  He had gained a healthy body but, by rejected the will of God, he lost the holiness of soul.

1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1.  Paul implores us, “Do everything for the glory of God.”  We will be working for the glory of God if we always seek to please God in all things, to accomplish his will.  Reading the lives of the saints helps us understand how to please the Lord above all things.

5B24.    Job 7:1-4, 6-7.  “Job spoke, saying: Is not man’s life on earth a drudgery?”  Life is often lived without any self-compensation or just getting done what one feels one must do out of obligation without getting any sense of payback and without ‘what’s in it for me’.

Mark 1:29-39.  Jesus cured the mother of Simon’s wife.  She gained back her health and “waited on them.”  She went back to being the kind person that made her feel useful.  After curing “all who were ill or possessed by demons,” “rising very early before dawn, he left and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed.”  After working hard, Jesus felt the need to stay connected to God, his Father, his spiritual source of energy.  Then he felt driven to continue to go on to other places to preach the gospel.  Jesus said, “For this purpose have I come.”

1 Corinthians 9:16-19, 22-23.  In regard to preaching the gospel Paul writes, “For an obligation has been imposed on me and woe to me if I do not preach it!”  In Acts13:2 & 4 the Holy   Spirit sent Paul and Barnabas to preach the gospel.  More than just being sent, Paul seems to be deeply driven by the Holy Spirit to not only preach the gospel but to make himself “a slave to all so as to win over as many as possible;” “to become all things to all, to save at least some.”  I think Paul is saying that he felt so compelled and constrained that he was doing anything and everything that is morally acceptable to convert people to Jesus.  In bringing the gospel to others Paul hopes that he himself will one day have a share in it by going home to the Lord.      (2 Corinthians 5:8)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5B21.   Job 7:1-4, 6-7.   Filled with a sense of desolation, Job says, “I shall not see happiness again.”  Why does something like this appear in the Bible?  The importance of being empty and in deep need is to have nowhere else to go except to God.  This Sunday’s Psalm 147 says, “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” “The Lord sustains the lowly.”  Our weakness is an invitation and opportunity to live in God’s strength.    Psalm 147 goes on to say: “Great is our Lord and mighty in power.”  If we think that we can do all on our own without God because we read something or have some rules to follow, we are lost.  That was the downfall of the Pharisees.

Mark 1:29-39.  The demons that Jesus drove out knew that he was “the Holy One of God.”  However, they could not and would not accept him into their hearts as the God of their lives because Satan had already taken possession of that position.  To know who Jesus is to have the door open and to intellectually see who he is.  Far more important than to know who Jesus is in our minds is to invite him into our hearts and have him as the love that is our life that makes us the rich soil that bears the fruit that is called holiness.

Jesus went off to pray in a deserted place.  In his humanness he sought to be filled with the divine strength of his Father.   Through prayer God filled Jesus’ humanness, as God does with our humanness, with his divine strength.  Through his miracles and preaching Jesus sought to fill the people with the saving love and life of his Father.  Earthly life dies at the grave as does the life of all the living creatures of this earth.  Eternal life is Jesus’ life within us that knows no grave.  Choose to live the life that never dies!

1 Corinthians 9:16-19, 22-23.   Paul wrote:  “All this I do for the sake of the gospel, so that I too may have a share in it.”  The recompense that Paul seeks is to win the prize (1 Corinthians 9:24) that is eternal life in heaven.  For him it is superfluous to think of anything else.  True life is God and only God is genuine life.  Everything else is an eventual garbage heap.

5B18.   Job 7:1-4, 6-7.  Job says, “I shall not see happiness again.”  He feels hopelessly lost, unable to help himself to find any sense of happiness or self-worth.  It is time for him to turn to God to do what he cannot do on his own.

Psalm 147:1-2, 3-4, 5-6.  God rebuilds and gathers together those who cannot help themselves, “for he is gracious.”  He is all powerful and uses his power to help the powerless.

Mark 1:29-39.  “Simon’s mother-in-law lay sick with a fever” unable to help herself.  Jesus raised her up from her sickness and continued on to help others who were helpless with sickness and demon-possession.  He was able to bring God’s powerful aid to those in need because God worked through him in his humanness.  “Rising very early before dawn, he left and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed.”  Jesus, in his humanness, sets an example for all humanity to go to God to find the help we need and to appeal for help for others.

A river of the needy people came to him.  “They brought to him all who were ill or possessed by demons.  The whole town was gathered at the door.”  They said, “Everyone is looking for you.”  He poured out from himself all the goodness that God had given him to give, not for his own good but for their good.

1 Corinthians 9:16-19, 22-23.  Paul feels obliged to preach the gospel but without expecting or requiring any compensation from those to whom he preaches.  He goes to all possible lengths, he says, “to save at least some.  All this I do for the sake of the gospel, so that I too may have a share in it,” the good news that Jesus has saved us from our sins to give us eternal life.  Jesus said in John 14:23: “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.” The good news is that, when we love Jesus by giving over our lives to his will, God will love us by sharing with us his life by living within us.

4B24.    The Lord said to Moses, “I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their kin, and will put my words into his mouth; he shall tell them all that I command him.”  The Church sees this as God’s way of foretelling of the ministry of Jesus who was to lead his People on their way to heaven.

Mark 1:21-28.   “The people were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.” “He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him.”  Jesus was just beginning his public ministry after the death of John the Baptist.  He preached and worked miracles in sharp contrast to what the people were used to in that he taught and worked “as one having authority.”  God the Father sent his Son into the world vested and empowered by him to bring about the fulfillment of what God had begun in Abraham and Moses.

1 Corinthians 7:32-35.  Paul writes, “An unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord.” “But a married man is anxious about the things of the world.” Traditionally it has been taught that we are to follow the vocation or calling of the Lord as to whether we are to be married or single.  Paul is making it clear that the vocation to be single, if it is practiced in the way the Lord wishes us to, has true value in the eyes of the Lord.  All of us, whether married or single, by the fact that the love of the Lord called us into life in this world, are called to be holy in his image and likeness.