From the Pulpit...

What can we glean from this portion? These three sections do not seem to naturally fall under a single heading. 1. The disciples, although sent to the house of Israel only on this occasion, were doing something like what we are called to do: preach the kingdom of God. We ought to know a little bit about that kingdom and the basics of the faith that we share with the world. 2. Herod is just a bad character, a villain, a pattern for all the ungodly rulers in the world. 3. Jesus took what little the disciples could produce and increased it tremendously. He can do a similar thing for your and my meager spiritual abilities so that we can do meaningful things for God and have a good impact on people around us.