October 21, 2024

Today's Reading: Ecclesiastes 5:10-20

Daily Lectionary: Deuteronomy 20:1-20; Matthew 15:21-39

As he came from his mother’s womb he shall go again, naked as he came, and shall take nothing for his toil that he may carry away in his hand. (Ecclesiastes 5:15)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. Does someone need to buy Solomon a Snickers bar? Why all the doom and gloom? The country singer who “never saw no hearse pullin’ no U-Haul” couldn’t hold a candle to Solomon today. But it is not doom and gloom Solomon is preaching. He is preaching faith and life because Solomon is preaching Jesus.

From clothing and shoes to house and home, food and drink to good government and good weather, land and animals to family and friends, Solomon says it all comes from our heavenly Father. But Solomon also knows what St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians centuries later: “If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Corinthians 15:19).

Solomon preaches about how this life is unpredictable. One day, you can be sitting on top of the world, and the next day, the world can be sitting on top of you. It’s vanity, he says, a great evil. But that is where the promise of Jesus’ death on the cross comes in. The cross is where you are promised your identity in this life and the next: God’s own dear children.

Whether you are on top of the world or the world is on top of you, Solomon says not only is your heavenly Father there and in control for you, He has placed you right where He wants you and is smiling on you the whole time. Why? Because you never sin? No, but because He is your Father. That’s why. Your sins do not own you anymore. Your sins do not, cannot, define you now. They lost that power over you when Jesus died for them on the cross.

Whether you accumulate a lot or nothing at all in this life, you can smile and rejoice, too, because God’s got this. And He’s got you. With Jesus washed onto you in your Baptism, proclaimed over all your sins in His Word, given to you at His Supper, your life will not, cannot, end now. You are God’s dear child. He loves you. So you need not be afraid of today or any other day. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

The world seeks after wealth And all that mammon offers Yet never is content Though gold should fill its coffers. I have a higher good, Content with it I’ll be: My Jesus is my wealth. What is the world to me! (LSB 730:3)

-Rev. Bradley Drew, pastor of Mount Olive Lutheran Church in Metairie, LA.

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

In Embracing Your Lutheran Identity, Author Gene Edward Veith Jr. will guide readers through that heritage, starting with the Early Church and moving through the Reformation to Lutheranism today. Readers will learn about key people in the history of Lutheranism, from two teenagers who were the first martyrs of the Reformation, through the Saxon immigrants who left everything behind so they could practice Lutheranism freely, to the Lutherans who have stood strong for the faith in our own day.