Today's Reading: Introit to Pentecost 11: Psalm 34:4-8; antiphon: Psalm 34:1

Daily Lectionary: 1 Samuel 9:1-27, Acts 21:37-22:16

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. The angel of the Lord is, more than sometimes, the Son of God.  Angel means messenger.  Voice. Word.  The Word of the Lord made flesh spoke even before He was made flesh.  The Son of God was at work in the Old Testament too.  The angel of the Lord who saves the poor man out of his troubles, who encamps around those who fear them and delivers them is the one who would become man to die and rise.  

It doesn’t just change the actor. It changes what the help looks like.  We imagine help from angels looks like spiritual war protecting us from demons.  We imagine it looks like forces unseen at work to keep us safe.  But the angel of the Lord dwells with us in our suffering to deliver us by suffering for us on the cross.  God won’t be far from our cries for help in times of trouble.  But He saves us not by sending legions of angels to conquer the trouble but by bearing it Himself.  God saves us through weakness, not strength.  But that means when you look around and things are falling apart, it isn’t because God has left us.  

It usually just means we’re looking in the wrong places.  Oh taste and see that the Lord is good.  God dwells with sinners to save today.  In communion, Jesus encamps on altars surrounded by the faithful, struggling with sin week after week. Struggling with death. Struggling with the evil one.  He gives the victory we’re desperate for week after week.  He brings deliverance you can taste. His body and blood for you.  They save you.  From the sins you can’t escape on your own.  From the death that looms.  From the evil one.  We eat and drink the body and blood of Jesus that forgives all your sin, brings life everlasting, and robs the devil of all his might.  That It’s worth praising. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.