November 13, 2024

Today's Reading: Matthew 26:20-35

Daily Lectionary: Jeremiah 26:1-19; Revelation 13:1-18; Matthew 26:20-35

Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you,for this is my blood of the [new testament], which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. (Matthew 26:26-28)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Jesus is with His Apostles in the Upper Room, preparing to go to the cross to die. Three days later, He will be raised from the dead. Forty days later, He will ascend to Heaven, leaving His Apostles and His church here on Earth.

Jesus is the Lord who will not leave His people alone. Ascended to Heaven, He will never not be with His church. So, on the night when He was betrayed, He gave His church a mandate. He instituted the Gift by which He would bodily be with His church until he comes again.

Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the [new testament], which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”

Until that day, when He comes with glory to judge both the living and the dead, He remains with His Church. He brings us again and again into His remembrance, forgiving our sin.

In the midst of the church, He is with us in his Body and Blood. Among the people He loves, He is proclaiming His Father’s Name (cf. Hebrews 2:11-13), cleansing us of all sin, declaring us innocent of all guilt, and covering all of our shame. Here, among us, with us, He is bestowing on us the wealth of His cross.

That’s what Jesus was doing in that Upper Room with his Apostles. A Man on His way to death— He was instituting His Last Will and Testament so that upon His death, the wealth of His cross would be freely given out to His beneficiaries, to all those He calls into His Church (cf. Hebrews 9:15-16).

It’s His Gift. Christ instituted it. It is life itself, instituted by Christ for us Christians to eat and drink.

The sureness and certainty of this Gift depends upon Him alone. We do not make the Sacrament, nor does it derive any authority or worthiness from us. It is His Body and His Blood. Your sins are forgiven.

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Your body and Your blood, Once slain and shed for me, Are taken at Your table, Lord, In blest reality. (LSB 628:3)

-Rev. Warren Graff, pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Albuquerque, NM

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, KY.

Spend time reading and meditating on God’s Word throughout the Church Year with the Enduring Grace Journal. Includes scripture readings, prayers, prompts, and space for journaling. The Church Year Journal, Enduring Grace, now available from Concordia Publishing House.

November 12, 2024

Today's Reading: Hebrews 9:24-28

Daily Lectionary: Jeremiah 25:1-18; Matthew 26:1-19

For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf… But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. (Hebrews 9:24, 26b)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Is there anything worse than standing at someone’s face when you’re in trouble? Maybe you had to tell your dad you broke the car window with a baseball or tell your mom that you dropped her pottery bowl on the ceramic tile floor.

There’s nothing worse than having to stand at someone’s face in judgment.

But then there’s Holy God! To stand at his face, where’s relief from that?

Wait. Someone’s standing at the face of God! It’s Jesus. Holy and blameless. He stands with no sin of His own. Why is He standing there? The Letter to the Hebrew Christians tells of Jesus standing at the Father’s face on our behalf (Hebrews 9:24). He’s at His Father’s face not for Himself, but for you, for me!

Are we troubled? Is Satan able to twist your conscience with guilt? He keeps bringing up your malice and inadequacies. Are the demons covering you in shame for what you have done, but also for what has been done to you?

You have someone standing in your place before the Father. The Apostle John says this: You have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous! (1 John 2:1-2) The Apostle Paul speaks of Jesus testifying to his Father on your behalf: Jesus is at the right hand of God interceding for you! (Romans 8:34)

What is Jesus saying on your behalf? What is His intercession for you? It is the testimony of his own blood. Jesus testifies that His sacrifice on the cross has put away your sin (Hebrews 9:26). With your sin put away, you’re guilty no more. You are no longer covered in shame. Jesus covers you in the honor of His own Name.

We do, indeed, stand at the face of the Father, but there’s relief. By the word of Jesus, you stand before His Father with no sin, no guilt, and no shame. You are now clothed in honor— you have Jesus’ Name on you!

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Lord of life, according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions. Declare me clean of all my sin. Against you only have I sinned. Purge me with the blood of the cross, cleanse me and my conscience will be whiter than snow. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and give me your Spirit. Let me stand before your face in righteousness, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Amen. [paraphrase from Psalm 51]

-Rev. Warren Graff, pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Albuquerque, NM

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, KY.

Spend time reading and meditating on God’s Word throughout the Church Year with the Enduring Grace Journal. Includes scripture readings, prayers, prompts, and space for journaling. The Church Year Journal, Enduring Grace, now available from Concordia Publishing House.

November 11, 2024

Today's Reading: 1 Kings 17:8-16

Daily Lectionary: Jeremiah 23:21-40; Matthew 25:31-46

Then the word of the Lord came to [Elijah], “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to feed you.” So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, “Bring me a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.” And as she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, “Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.” And she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. And now I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it and die.” And Elijah said to her, “Do not fear; go and do as you have said. But first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterward make something for yourself and your son. For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘The jar of flour shall not be spent, and the jug of oil shall not be empty, until the day that the Lord sends rain upon the earth.’” (1 Kings 17:8-14)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

This Zarephath widow expected death. The famine was severe. The prophet Elijah had announced the cause of the deadly drought: Israel had been unfaithful to her Lord. Elijah gave the warning, calling Israel to repentance. Still, Israel continued to go to the gods of the Canaanites— gods that were supposed to guarantee favorable seasons, steady rains, and bountiful harvests.

The woman knew what was happening. She’s from Zarephath, a town in the unclean region. But the Lord’s Word travels. God won’t be mocked. His people, to whom He had given this good land, had turned from Him to man-made gods. Zarephath, home of the Canaanite gods, would suffer, too. The Zarephath widow spoke truthfully in saying, "We will eat, and then we will die!"

But now she will know God not for His retribution but for His grace. Elijah brings the word of promise. By this Word, the Lord not only honors the widow by appointing her as His servant to feed His prophet, but He also brings her into the life of faith. She, too, is now an Israelite. She, too, now belongs to the forgiveness of sins and life everlasting. (Take a look at the widow’s statement of faith at 1 Kings 17:24)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Bless our pastors, Lord, with your Word. Let them rejoice in preaching your cross to sinners whom you love. Let them rightly accuse the old Adam with the Law and raise up the new Adam with your Gospel so that your people may be cleansed, strengthened, and comforted with your Word. Amen.

-Rev. Warren Graff, pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Albuquerque, NM

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, KY.

Spend time reading and meditating on God’s Word throughout the Church Year with the Enduring Grace Journal. Includes scripture readings, prayers, prompts, and space for journaling. The Church Year Journal, Enduring Grace, now available from Concordia Publishing House.

November 10, 2024

Today's Reading: Mark 12:38-44

Daily Lectionary: Jeremiah 23:1-20; Matthew 25:14-30

And in his teaching he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes and like greetings in the marketplaces and have the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.” And he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. (Mark 12:38-42)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

The widow enters the scene. The usual Temple characters are present, too, but Jesus draws our eyes to the widow.

The widow is not to be left alone. Moses had instructed the Israelites how they were to love the Lord God (“with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind”) and to love their neighbor (“love your neighbor as yourself”). In the Commandments, the Lord places you as His servant to care for your neighbor, especially for the weak and helpless. Moses taught how the fatherless, the orphans, the sojourners, and the widows are not to be left to fend for themselves. Deuteronomy 24:19, 21 states:

When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands… When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not strip it afterward. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow.

The sojourner, the fatherless, the widow— don’t leave them to fend for themselves. Be with them and help them. Why? Moses tells us, “Because you, too, were a slave before you were redeemed” (Deuteronomy 24:18).

The widow shows up. She is right where she belongs— at the location where the Lord is taking care of the fatherless, the widow, and those who are alone. Those who belong to Christ Jesus are the Israel of God, says Paul (Galatians 6:16). The Word comes to the church. The stranger, the fatherless, and the widow come to the church. Be with them: help them.

These words our Lord gives us for one other: comfort, console, suffer with, encourage, build-up. For we are redeemed by Christ Jesus; we are his body, the Church.

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

O God, so rule and govern our hearts and minds by your Holy Spirit that, being ever mindful of the end of all things and your just judgment, we may be stirred up to holiness of living here and dwell with you forever hereafter through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, on God, now and forever. Amen.

-Rev. Warren Graff, pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Albuquerque, NM

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, KY.

Spend time reading and meditating on God’s Word throughout the Church Year with the Enduring Grace Journal. Includes scripture readings, prayers, prompts, and space for journaling. The Church Year Journal, Enduring Grace, now available from Concordia Publishing House.

November 9, 2024

Today's Reading: Introit for Pentecost 25 - Psalm 107:1-2, 41-42; antiphon: Psalm 107:8

Daily Lectionary: Jeremiah 22:1-23; Matthew 25:1-13

Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever! Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he has redeemed from trouble… Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man!... but he raises up the needy out of affliction and makes their families like flocks. The upright see it and are glad, and all wickedness shuts its mouth. (Psalm 107:1-2, 8, 41-42)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Do you want to see the devil shut his mouth? In teaching us to pray the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus gives us the Petition, “Deliver us from evil.” We are praying for delivery not just from some general, abstract evil or bad stuff, but from the Evil One, from Satan. As the Large Catechism gives it, “Since the devil is not only a liar, but also a murderer (John 8:44), he constantly seeks our life. He wreaks his vengeance whenever he can afflict our bodies with misfortune and harm. Therefore, it happens that he often breaks men’s necks or drives them to insanity, drowns some, and moves many to commit suicide and to many other terrible disasters. So there is nothing for us to do upon Earth but to pray against this archenemy without stopping. For unless God preserved us, we would not be safe from this enemy for an hour.” (Large Catechism, 7th Petition, in Concordia, The Lutheran Confessions, CPH, 2005.)

The demons afflict our conscience, accusing us of sin (but not telling us the Gospel!) and bringing us into doubt and despair. Wouldn’t it be nice to see the devil shut his mouth?

Psalm 107 gives us words extolling our Lord’s steadfast love and redemption of the sinner (Psalm 107:1-2) and rejoicing in the Lord raising up sinners out of affliction and making the wicked one finally shut his mouth (Psalm 107:41-42).

What makes Satan shut his mouth? The Gospel. The Gospel is the Word of Christ crucified, of all sins forgiven, and everlasting life. The Gospel rips all accusations out of the mouth of Satan, for where sins are forgiven, who can accuse?

While we still live in our sinful flesh, of course, we will continue to be under the accusation of the Law, terrified by Satan. Yet, the Gospel creates the New Man (Paul calls him the New Adam). The New Man, the life of faith, hears the promise of the Gospel. In that promise, we know the defeat of Satan now by faith; in the resurrection, we will know that defeat of Satan by sight. He will have no more voice by which to accuse and afflict us, bringing us into shame. His mouth is shut.

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Father in Heaven, let your Name be holy among us as you make us holy with your Son’s Gospel. Deliver us from the evil one, and lead us away from all temptation. Amen.

-Rev. Warren Graff, pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Albuquerque, NM

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, KY.

Spend time reading and meditating on God’s Word throughout the Church Year with the Enduring Grace Journal. Includes scripture readings, prayers, prompts, and space for journaling. The Church Year Journal, Enduring Grace, now available from Concordia Publishing House.

November 8, 2024

Today's Reading: Jeremiah 20:1-18

Daily Lectionary: Jeremiah 20:1-18; Matthew 24:29-51

O Lord, you have deceived me, and I was deceived; you are stronger than I, and you have prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all the day; everyone mocks me… O Lord of hosts, who tests the righteous, who sees the heart and the mind, let me see your vengeance upon them, for to you have I committed my cause. Sing to the Lord; praise the Lord! For he has delivered the life of the needy from the hand of evildoers. (Jeremiah 20:7, 12-13)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Are we ready to learn how to pray from Jeremiah?

Here’s an odd thing about prayer: we must be taught it (cf. Luke 11:1). It doesn’t come to us naturally. That’s because the sinful flesh wants to justify itself by the Law (cf. Luke 10:29). And a self-justifying sinner sees no need to make an appeal to God.

So, where will we learn to pray? The Lord’s Prayer, of course. Then also from the prophets and Psalms.

When we learn to pray from Jeremiah, we find the prophet speaking to Holy God in a way that seems almost insane. Jeremiah’s prayer: “O Lord, you have deceived me, and I was deceived; you are stronger than I, and you have prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all the day; everyone mocks me… For the word of the Lord has become for me a reproach and derision all day long. (Jeremiah 20:7-8)”

This is the voice of faith. Jeremiah calls on the LORD's Name (the word LORD in our translations is actually the Hebrew word for the Lord’s name, Y-H-W-H; the Lord makes an oath by His Name, giving His promise—the Gift of the Gospel). Jeremiah intercedes to the throne in Heaven that the Father’s will would be manifested so that the Lord’s servant would live in peace.

Shall we pray Jeremiah’s prayer?

Yes. In praying to our Father, we don’t paper over the affliction we have in life as his people. And as long as we are in our sinful flesh (i.e., until we die and are with our Lord, or Jesus first comes again on the Last Day, Matthew 24:29-31), the Lord’s Word which justifies us and makes us His people, will bring us into conflict with the world, with our own sinful flesh, and with the demons (who do not want us to hear the Gospel, but want to tempt us to try to justify ourselves).

Our prayer, uttered sometimes from desperation or doubt, is heard by the Lord who loves us, justifies us, and keeps us in his promise.

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

O Lord, your Word brings me into affliction in this world of sin and death. But, Lord of hosts, who tests the righteous, and who sees the heart and the mind, in my need, deliver my life from the hand of Satan and lead me away from temptation. Amen.

-Rev. Warren Graff, pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Albuquerque, NM

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, KY.

Spend time reading and meditating on God’s Word throughout the Church Year with the Enduring Grace Journal. Includes scripture readings, prayers, prompts, and space for journaling. The Church Year Journal, Enduring Grace, now available from Concordia Publishing House.

November 7, 2024

Today's Reading: Catechism - Table of duties: To workers of all kinds

Daily Lectionary: Jeremiah 11:1-23; Jeremiah 12:1-19:15; Matthew 24:1-28

To Workers of all kinds. Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever God he does, whether he is slave or free. Ephesians 6:5-8

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Are we forgetting a man in the boat? When Jesus calls James and John to leave their fishing business to follow him as Apostles, we might forget who else was in that boat (See Mark 1:16-20).

Zebedee, their father, was in that boat, too. He was not called to be an Apostle. What became of him? The text tells us Zebedee was left in the boat with “the hired servants.” This was a business—there were employees, and all that entails.

Jesus called Twelve men as Apostles. But other Christians were not called to be Apostles.

Jesus didn’t forget them. Every Christian has several vocations. Zebedee, left in the boat, had the vocation of catching fish and even of running a business with employees. And we can add to Zebedee’s God-given vocations such things as father, husband, neighbor, and more.

That’s how Jesus takes care of us and our families in this world. He first provides the blood of redemption on the cross, forgiving our sins and cleansing our conscience. But our Lord also provides for our daily needs. He sets us in vocations, whether catching fish or building boats or many other vocations (carpenter, engineer, doctor, nurse, teacher, police officer, and many, many more you might think of). This is Jesus using our hands to provide for our neighbors.

When we see how our Lord honors us by using our hands and minds and bodies to serve family and neighbor, we can then have much joy in our labor (even when that labor is difficult and not very fun), and, as the Catechism puts it, “serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men.”

For Jesus loves all people and honors us by using us as His hands to serve our neighbor.

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

O Lord, as you gave Zebedee to serve his neighbor by providing fish, give to us vocations to serve our neighbor according to the gifts you give us. As we serve in our various vocations of student or teacher, of sister or brother, of child or parent, and other vocations where we are employed to provide for house and home, food and drink, health and well-being of our neighbor, let us rejoice in all which you give us to do, knowing that we are your redeemed servants. Amen.

-Rev. Warren Graff, pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Albuquerque, NM

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, KY.

Spend time reading and meditating on God’s Word throughout the Church Year with the Enduring Grace Journal. Includes scripture readings, prayers, prompts, and space for journaling. The Church Year Journal, Enduring Grace, now available from Concordia Publishing House.

November 6, 2024

Today's Reading: Matthew 23:13-39

Daily Lectionary: Jeremiah 8:18-9:12; Matthew 23:13-39

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. (Matthew 23:25-28)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

How do we want to use the holy Law? We might think of having the Law as either a puppy or a wolf. A puppy we can control; a wolf kills us.

The Pharisees and teachers of the law did teach the Law. But it wasn’t a killing Law. It was law as a way to act right and look clean on the outside, like cleaning a cup to look good while ignoring the poison inside. That’s having the Law as a puppy. It won’t kill you. At the end of the day, you end up using the Law the way you want.

In this way, using the Law to outwardly guide your life will make it appear clean, letting you hope that it makes you clean inside, too. But the Law won’t cleanse the conscience. The inside remains unclean.

The Lord uses the Law as a wolf coming at the sinner with a killing accusation. You can’t control the Law, finding the use for it you want. Rather, the Law puts to death the Old Adam. When the Old Man of sin falls dead to the Law, then the Gospel cleanses the conscience, forgiving the sin. In this way, the sinner is made clean not by cleaning up the outside but by the Lord speaking the Gospel to him. This is the new, cleansed, inner man, the man of faith, the New Adam.

Jesus says to the teachers of the law, “First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.” This is Jesus’ gift to you: He cleanses your inside, your conscience, by His Gospel. He justifies you. Then, from a clean heart, your works are clean as they are done in faith toward Him.

And when your works aren’t clean (which is, after all, every day), it is, again, repentance. Repentance is the Law accusing you, then the Gospel turning you back to Jesus, forgiving you.

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Heavenly Father, I pray that You would forgive me all my sins where I have done wrong, and graciously keep me. For into Your hands I commend myself, my body and soul, and all things. Let Your holy angel be with me, that the evil foe may have no power over me. Amen.

-Rev. Warren Graff, pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Albuquerque, NM

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, KY.

Spend time reading and meditating on God’s Word throughout the Church Year with the Enduring Grace Journal. Includes scripture readings, prayers, prompts, and space for journaling. The Church Year Journal, Enduring Grace, now available from Concordia Publishing House.