Third Sunday in Lent (B), March 7, 2021—Exodus 20:1-17 ; John 2:13–22

These poems for Year B are all in my new book by Wipf and Stock, Lectionary Poems, Year B: More Surprising Grace for Pulpit and Pew. It will give you not just all the poems for the year, including five new hymn texts, but also an index of all 128 biblical references, plus a title index. Just $13.80 (check or Venmo)(and cheaper than Amazon) includes tax and mailing for a signed/inscribed copy. Buying multiple quantities reduces mailing cost. Let me know what I can send you: scott.l.barton["at" symbol]gmail.com.

 

 

Exodus 20:1-17

Marc Chagall: Moses Receiving the Tablets of the Law 

1966; Saint-paul-de-vence, France 

The World's Economy and God's

 

The thing about markets is this:

You get what you pay for;

The more you pay, the more you get,

The wise all know the score.

But watch that you don't read this text

As if it's tit for tat, 

As if the nature of our God

Is, "You do this, and I give that." 

The only God who's worth the time

Of day is One who gave; 

The only reason this God had

To free our forebear slaves 

Was just because that's how God is,

Who gives a heav'n for you;

So focus not on third and fourth

Removes as parents' due;

That line's a set up for the next

To make you drop your jaw—

The thousandth generation get

God's steadfast love! The law

We need to know is how for us

God wants the very best!

You get the world when you find out

By love you are possessed.

 

Scott L. Barton

 

Then God spoke all these words: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments. You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name. Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.

 

Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

 

+ + +

 

John 2:13-22

Greco: Christ Expelling the Money Changers in the Temple (1600)

 

Call Security!

 

I wonder why they don't shout out,

And call the cops on him who flouts

Decorum with his whipping ways!

Can you imagine him today,

Without a permit for such raucous acts

Which peaceful moderation lacks?

Perhaps it's theater, you think;

Would Jesus really raise such stink?

 

Or, demonstrations 'cross the globe

Which now, white consciences have probed

To say police brutality

Must stop! Plus the mentality

Where lives of African descent

Have mattered not, demands "Repent!"

Sometimes, a spark at the right time

Can make, for all, a change sublime.

How 'bout the students who deplore

The politicians who now whore

Their way to office with no spine,

And claim some right, almost divine,

To have an automatic gun,

Belongs to each and everyone?

I cheer their anger born of grief

To finally bring us all relief.

 

This Jesus was no Caspar Milquetoast

And hated Temple profits foremost,

And students activated now

Will whip machines of death, somehow.

 

Scott L. Barton

 

The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” The Jews then said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking of the temple of his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

 

Second Sunday in Lent (B), February 28, 2021—Genesis 17:1–7, 15–16; Romans 4:13–25

Stained glass panel, (c.1485) from the south clerestory (window K) 

of the Great Malvern Priory, Worcestershire, United Kingdom

 

The Promise is the Thing

 

When Abram, old at ninety-nine,

A time when most feel past their prime,

Heard God Almighty cov'nant make,

Did he then say, "It's my big break"?

Or, had he such an attitude,

That, in a word, was gratitude

For all the things that yet would be?

The kings, foretold, he'd never see,

(The son, how could that come to be???)

And yet . . . and yet, his life was changed.

Perhaps, you, too, might feel arranged

By God far more than you can take,

But then you’ll trust, through pain and aches,

That gifts which you can hardly guess

Will make new generations blessed.

 

Scott L. Barton

 

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless. And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous.” Then Abram fell on his face; and God said to him,

 

“As for me, this is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you.

 

I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.

 

...God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall give rise to nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.”

 

+ + +

 

Romans 4:13-25

 

Rembrandt: God Reveals his Covenant to Abraham (ca. 1655)

Dresden, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Kupferstichkabinett

 

 

I Reckon This Is True

 

I'm not sure Paul has it exactly right

About that part, "No distrust made him waver;"

For many incidents in later years

Reveal his faith had more a mixed bag flavor—

Like, passing off Sarah as his sister,

Which served to save this great believer's skin;

(And which later, Isaac also pulled off—

Like father, like son, we say with a grin!)

Like, on Moriah, there, with his only son

(Carrying the wood and sacrifice-bound)

It's as if he's playing a game of chicken

With this God, daring him to stand his ground.

But at one moment, Paul has it just right,

For Abraham, flat on his face, believed,

And at that moment, all his righteousness

Was not what he did, but what he received.

 

Scott L. Barton

 

For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation. 

 

For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”) —in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. Hoping against hope, he believed that he would become “the father of many nations,” according to what was said, “So numerous shall your descendants be.” He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. Therefore his faith “was reckoned to him as righteousness.” Now the words, “it was reckoned to him,” were written not for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification.

First Sunday in Lent (B), February 21, 2021—Genesis 9:8–17; Mark 1:9–15 and Genesis 9:8–17

Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoĭ, 1837-1887

Christ in the Desert

Genesis 9:8-17

 

Weather Forecast

 

God needed some way of remembering,

Or we needed some way of remembering

that God would remember,

Some sort of Post-It note,

"That pretty bow you tied around your finger"

As it's also been called,

A reminder that God would never smack us again,

Which shows up at the oddest times.

 

Yet many seem to have forgotten 

What sort of "us" is meant here.

It's you and me, yes;

But it's also "them" over there,

The people with different 

Looks and lives and even so-called beliefs,

Next door and across an ocean.

Oh—and every other living creature, too.

 

O God, I trust you remember the details.

But when will the rest of us remember 

That we're all in the same boat?

With the sun shining, I hope we get some rain soon.

 

Scott L. Barton

 

(“That pretty bow you tied around your finger” is from Leonard Bernstein, Symphony 3, Kaddish.)

 

Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, “As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

 

God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

+  +  +

 

Mark 1:9-15 and Genesis 9:8-17

 

Good News, No Matter What

 

What a confluence of opposites here!

Jesus of Nazareth—baptized by John!

Out from the water the baptized comes up—

While from the heavens, the Spirit comes down!

Voice from the heaven says he's the beloved—

Yet, to the wilderness, then, he is driven!

Tempted by Satan to give it all up—

Service by angels is Jesus then given!

John is arrested, we know he will die—

Jesus keeps preaching the good news of God!

Near is the kingdom, the judgment soon comes—

Think again - know that the good news is odd!

Waters may flood and your life overwhelm,

Violence, hunger and pain still confound—

God is the One who in covenant stays,

Still, with the promise of love which redounds.

 

Scott L. Barton

 

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”

 

Ash Wednesday (B), February 17, 2021—Isaiah 58:1–12 and Matthew 6:1–6, 16–21

 

Fast Times in a Pandemic

Isaiah says the fast to choose

Is not where you are in denial

Of all the things that make life good,

As if, all humble, you’re on trial.

 

Instead, he says, our public fast

Should be where we might change a life,

Go treat the poor as your own kind,

Stop pointing fingers, causing strife.

 

Then Jesus calls a private fast

The one where God’s the only crowd,

Where prayer alone with your beloved

Is what will make you glad and proud.

 

Thus, quarantine goes hand in hand

With Black Lives Matter action,

So someday all across this land

Our prayers will end our factions.

 

Isaiah 58:1–12

 

Shout out, do not hold back! 

Lift up your voice like a trumpet! 

Announce to my people their rebellion, 

to the house of Jacob their sins. 

Yet day after day they seek me 

and delight to know my ways, 

as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness 

and did not forsake the ordinance of their God; 

they ask of me righteous judgments, 

they delight to draw near to God.

“Why do we fast, but you do not see? 

Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?” 

Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day, 

and oppress all your workers. 

Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight 

and to strike with a wicked fist. 

Such fasting as you do today will not make your voice heard on high. 

Is such the fast that I choose, a day to humble oneself? 

Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush, 

and to lie in sackcloth and ashes? 

Will you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?

Is not this the fast that I choose: 

to loose the bonds of injustice, 

to undo the thongs of the yoke, 

to let the oppressed go free, 

and to break every yoke? 

Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, 

and bring the homeless poor into your house; 

when you see the naked, to cover them, 

and not to hide yourself from your own kin?

Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, 

and your healing shall spring up quickly; 

your vindicator shall go before you, 

the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. 

Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; 

you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am. 

 

If you remove the yoke from among you, 

the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, 

if you offer your food to the hungry 

and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, 

then your light shall rise in the darkness 

and your gloom be like the noonday. 

The Lord will guide you continually, 

and satisfy your needs in parched places, 

and make your bones strong; 

and you shall be like a watered garden, 

like a spring of water, whose waters never fail. 

Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; 

you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; 

you shall be called the repairer of the breach, 

the restorer of streets to live in.

 

Matthew 6:1–6, 16–21

 

“Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven. “So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

“And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

“And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

 

 

Transfiguration Sunday (B), February 14, 2021—2 Corinthians 4:3–6; 2 Kings 2:1–12 and Mark [8: 31—9:1] 9:2–9

 

Vie de Jesus Mafa: Transfiguration

 

2 Corinthians 4:3–6

 

A Church Unveiled

 

If we do not proclaim ourselves,

But Christ as Lord, and we, then, slaves

To those we might the good news tell—

That changes what we're called to crave.

 

No longer need we fear the worst—

An empty church, and shuttered doors—

Instead, our hunger and our thirst

Would be for those the world deplores.

 

Contagious joy—for all—would show

That Christ has touched our hearts and souls,

And Church would be where none outgrow

The God whose love our love extols.

 

Scott L. Barton 

 

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

 

+  +  +

 

2 Kings 2:1–12 and Mark [8:31—9:1] 9:2–9

 

Nerving the Church

 

Elisha doesn't want this gig to end;

He can't imagine losing both his mentor and his friend;

The prophets keep on telling him he'll lose his master dear;

He'd stop such words he doesn't want to hear.

 

When Jesus told his friends what they would see,

And Peter took his Lord aside to say: "That cannot be!"

The Lord's response to his, "No way!" was, "Yes, that is the way;

"And Satan from my life would have you stray."

 

Elisha thought he'd need a guarantee,

A double share of ruah for success would be the key;

Elijah said he'd need to see his end, and spirit claim;

Elisha new Elijah then became.

 

When Peter thought the vision they could hold,

A voice to Peter, James and John just like the thunder rolled,

And they remembered what to them six days ago he'd said,

Which nerved their trust in One raised from the dead.

 

Scott L. Barton

 

(George Buttrick said that the Transfiguration nerved the early church.  It seems to me that these two parallel stories of disciples who don't want their master to leave them can still serve to nerve the church today to take on the mantle of the One whose giving knew—and knows—no bounds.  I include previous verses to the given Gospel text because I think they are critical to understanding the voice from the cloud.)

 

Now when the Lord was about to take Elijah up to heaven by a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal. Elijah said to Elisha, “Stay here; for the Lord has sent me as far as Bethel.” But Elisha said, “As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So they went down to Bethel. The company of prophets who were in Bethel came out to Elisha, and said to him, “Do you know that today the Lord will take your master away from you?” And he said, “Yes, I know; keep silent.” Elijah said to him, “Elisha, stay here; for the Lord has sent me to Jericho.” But he said, “As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So they came to Jericho. The company of prophets who were at Jericho drew near to Elisha, and said to him, “Do you know that today the Lord will take your master away from you?” And he answered, “Yes, I know; be silent.” Then Elijah said to him, “Stay here; for the Lord has sent me to the Jordan.” But he said, “As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So the two of them went on. Fifty men of the company of prophets also went, and stood at some distance from them, as they both were standing by the Jordan. Then Elijah took his mantle and rolled it up, and struck the water; the water was parted to the one side and to the other, until the two of them crossed on dry ground.

 

When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me what I may do for you, before I am taken from you.” Elisha said, “Please let me inherit a double share of your spirit.” He responded, “You have asked a hard thing; yet, if you see me as I am being taken from you, it will be granted you; if not, it will not.” As they continued walking and talking, a chariot of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them, and Elijah ascended in a whirlwind into heaven. Elisha kept watching and crying out, “Father, father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!” But when he could no longer see him, he grasped his own clothes and tore them in two pieces.

 

+ + +

 

[Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

 

He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

 

And he said to them, “Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see that the kingdom of God has come with power.”]

 

Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” He did not know what to say, for they were terrified. Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!” Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus.

 

As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

 

 

Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany (B), February 7, 2021— Isaiah 40:21–31; Mark 1:29–39

Remember, you can get all these poems for Year B, 107 in all, plus an index of all 128 biblical references, and an index of titles, in Lectionary Poems, Year B: More Surprising Grace for Pulpit and Pew. Order from Wipf and Stock, Amazon, or me (for a signed copy and discounted to $13.80 including tax and shipping. Please see https://lectionarypoems.blogspot.com/2021/01/second-sunday-after-epiphany-b-january.html for more details).

Isaiah 40:21–31

 

Love Letter

 

There is no way I might construe

A poem that somehow could compare

To this, as if I'd e'er accrue

The faith and wisdom here laid bare.

 

This poet asks rhetorically

Why we might think we are alone,

Asserting categorically

What we have often claimed we've known.

 

And yet, though known, we're prone to act

As if it were the other way,

Imag'ning God as some abstract

Celestial concept, or cliché.

 

Isaiah shows another route,

Proclaiming overwhelming might

From One whose giving, absolute,

E'en lowly poets still recite.

 

Scott L. Barton

 

 

Have you not known? Have you not heard? 

Has it not been told you from the beginning? 

Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? 

It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, 

and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; 

who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, 

and spreads them like a tent to live in; 

who brings princes to naught, 

and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing. 

 

Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, 

scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, 

when he blows upon them, and they wither, 

and the tempest carries them off like stubble. 

 

To whom then will you compare me, 

or who is my equal? says the Holy One. 

Lift up your eyes on high and see: Who created these? 

He who brings out their host and numbers them, 

calling them all by name; 

because he is great in strength, 

mighty in power, 

not one is missing.

 

Why do you say, O Jacob, 

and speak, O Israel, 

"My way is hidden from the LORD,

and my right is disregarded by my God”? 

Have you not known? Have you not heard? 

The LORD is the everlasting God, 

the Creator of the ends of the earth. 

He does not faint or grow weary; 

his understanding is unsearchable. 

He gives power to the faint, 

and strengthens the powerless. 

Even youths will faint and be weary, 

and the young will fall exhausted; 

but those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, 

they shall mount up with wings like eagles, 

they shall run and not be weary, 

they shall walk and not faint.

 

 

Rembrandt: Healing of Peter's Mother-in-Law (1660)

 

Mark 1:29–39  

 

Up from the Sickbed and Right to the Stove!

 

Up from the sickbed and right to the stove!

Into her work, Peter's moth'r-in-law dove!

Funny how quickly to work did she fly,

Asking, it seems, neither wherefore nor why;

Then the whole city showed up, while they pressed

Jesus to cure all the sick and possessed;

Out to the desert he went then to pray;

Simon and friends, showing up in dismay,

Maybe helped Jesus decide to move on—

Get out of town, while he could, before dawn.

Work's never done, and all need the good news,

Grace to the next one will God always choose.

 

Scott L. Barton

[In a sermon at Fourth Presbyterian Church, Chicago, Joanna Adams once called Mark 1:31 one of the funniest verses in the Bible: "Speaking of get up and go!  Straight from the sickbed to the cookstove!"]

 

As soon as they left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now  Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.

 

That evening, at sunset, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered around the door. And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.

 

In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. And Simon and his companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him, ‘Everyone is searching for you.’ He answered, ‘Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.’ And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.