Reflections

February 26, 2025  Today's Reading: Genesis 45:3-15 Daily Lectionary: Job 21:1-21 ; Job 21:22-30:15 ; John 8:39-59 “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life.” (Genesis 45:4b-5) In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.  Until the moment Joseph revealed himself to his brothers...

February 25, 2025  Today's Reading: 1 Corinthians 15:21-26, 30-42 Daily Lectionary: Job 20:1-23, 29 ; John 8:21-38 “The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” (1 Corinthians 15:26) In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.   Christ has been raised from the dead. This is the act of God upon which we base our entire faith. Christ has been raised from the dead. And this is the event around which all of history re...

February 24, 2025 Today's Reading: Matthew 11:25-30 Daily Lectionary: Job 19:1-12, 21-27 ; John 8:1-20 “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28) In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.  On this day, the Church remembers Matthias, the thirteenth of the Twelve Apostles. As the book of Acts starts, the Eleven figure that they need a replacement for Judas, who be...

February 23, 2025 Today's Reading: Luke 6:27-38 Daily Lectionary: Job 18:1-21 ; John 7:32-53 [Jesus said,] “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who...

February 22, 2025 Today's Reading: Introit for Epiphany 7 - Psalm 37:1-5; antiphon: Psalm 37:7a, b Daily Lectionary: Job 17:1-16 ; John 7:14-31 Trust in the LORD, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and he will act. (From the Introit for the Seventh Sunday...

February 21, 2025 Today's Reading: John 7:1-13 Daily Lectionary: Job 16:1-22 ; John 7:1-13 For not even his brothers believed in him. Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil. You go up to the feast. I am not going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come.”...

February 20, 2025  Today's Reading: Catechism: The Ninth Commandment Daily Lectionary: Job 15:1-23, 30-35 ; John 6:60-71 You shall not covet your neighbor's house. What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not scheme to get our neighbor's inheritance or house, or get it in a way which only appears right, but help and be of service to him in keeping it. (Luther’s Small Catechis...

February 19, 2025 Today's Reading: John 6:41-59 Daily Lectionary: Job 14:1-22 ; John 6:41-59 “I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give fo...

February 18, 2025 Today's Reading: 1 Corinthians 15:(1-11) 12-20 Daily Lectionary: Job 13:13-28 ; John 6:22-40 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in...

February 17, 2025  Today's Reading: Jeremiah 17:5-8 Daily Lectionary: Job 13:1-12 ; John 6:1-21 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.” (Jeremiah 17:7...

February 16, 2025  Today's Reading: Luke 6:17-26 Daily Lectionary: Job 12:1-6, 12-25 ; John 5:30-47 And he came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. And those who were troubled with unclean spirits were c...

February 15, 2025 Today's Reading: Introit for Epiphany 6 - Psalm 119:1-2, 4-5; antiphon: Psalm 119:7 Daily Lectionary: Job 11:1-20 ; John 5:19-29 Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the LORD! Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart. (From the Introit for the Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany) In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. There is...

February 14, 2025  Today's Reading: John 5:1-18 Daily Lectionary: Job 10:1-22 ; John 5:1-18 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Get up,...

February 13, 2025 Today's Reading: Catechism: The Eighth Commandment Daily Lectionary: Job 9:1-35 ; John 4:46-54 You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not tell lies about our neighbor, betray him, slander him, or hurt his reputation, but defend him, speak well of him, and explain everything in the kindest way. (Luth...

February 12, 2025  Today's Reading: John 4:27-45 Daily Lectionary: Job 8:1-22 ; John 4:27-45 “Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying hol...

February 11, 2025  Today's Reading: 1 Corinthians 14:12b-20 Daily Lectionary: Job 7:1-21 ; John 4:7-26 For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful. What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also; I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also. (1 Corinthians 14:14–15) In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. Are you happy with the...

February 10, 2025 Today's Reading: Isaiah 6:1-8 (9-13) Daily Lectionary: Job 6:14-30 ; John 3:22-46 Then I said, “How long, O Lord?” And he said: “Until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without people, and the land is a desolate waste, and the LORD removes people far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land. And though a tenth remain in it, it will be burned a...

February 9, 2025  Today's Reading: Luke 5:1-11 Daily Lectionary: Job 6:1-13 ; John 3:1-21 But when Simon Peter saw [the great catch of fish], he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” (Luke 5:8) In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. Everyone thinks they are special. Everyone thinks they are different. Except you’re not. You think you are, and you think that you...

February 8, 2025 Today's Reading: Introit for Epiphany 5 - Psalm 71:15-18; antiphon: Psalm 71:12 Daily Lectionary: Job 5:1-27 ; John 2:13-25 O God, from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds. So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come. (Psalm 71:17-18) In the Name +...

February 7, 2025 Today's Reading: John 2:1-12 Daily Lectionary: Job 4:1-21 ; John 2:1-12 “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him. (John 2:10-11) In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. This sit...

February 6, 2025  Today's Reading: Catechism: The Seventh Commandment Daily Lectionary: Job 3:11-26 ; John 1:35-51 What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not take our neighbor’s money or possessions, or get them in any dishonest way, but help him to improve and protect his possessions and income. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. “Don’t take someone’s stuff without permission!”...

February 5, 2025 Today's Reading: Luke 4:31-44 Daily Lectionary: Job 2:1-3:10 ; John 1:19-34 And they were all amazed and said to one another, “What is this word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out!” (Luke 4:36) In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. We return again to this reminder: Epiphany is the season of the Church that reveals and enlightens us about who C...

February 4, 2025 Today's Reading: 1 Corinthians 12:31b-13:13 Daily Lectionary: Job 1:1-22 ; John 1:1-18 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away…So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:8,13) In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. “Love is love,” they tell me. “L...

February 3, 2025  Today's Reading: Jeremiah 1:4-10 (17-19)  Daily Lectionary: Zechariah 14:1-21 ; Titus 2:7-3:15 Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth. And the Lord said to me, “Behold, I have put my words in your mouth. See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.” (Jeremiah 1:9-10) In...

February 2, 2025 Today's Reading: Luke 2:22-32, 33-40 Daily Lectionary: Zechariah 12:1-13:9 ; Titus 1:1-2:6 “For my eyes have seen Your salvation, which You have prepared before the face of all people; a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of Your people Israel." (Luke 2:30-32) In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.  Simeon saw with his eyes what the ancients of Israel longed to see, and he saw wit...