Today's Reading: Introit for the 14th Sunday after Trinity

(Psalm 84:1-2a, 4, 10b, 11b; antiphon: vs. 9-10a)

Daily Lectionary: 2 Chronicles 31:1-21; Philippians 4:1-23

For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. (From the Introit for the 14th Sunday after Trinity)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. Where would you like to be on Sunday morning? In church? Under your covers? At a friend's house? Somewhere else doing something fun? The psalmist thinks there's no better place to be than in God's house. He'd rather be a doorkeeper (like an usher at church?) even though that's a little job in the temple, than be where the wicked are.

For Christians now, this psalm isn't just about going to a particular building. The Temple is Jesus. To desire the Temple is to desire Jesus. Better to be where Jesus is than anywhere else. After all, where else can you have your sins washed away? Where else will the Lord's herald proclaim your divine pardon? Where else will you enjoy a feast of salvation that promises eternal life? Nowhere else but where Jesus is!

Tomorrow, these words of the psalms, sung in the Introit, will drag us into God's house and lift up our heads and open our ears to the wonderful gifts that Jesus gives when we are there with Him. His Word, water, Body, and Blood, the good news of His death and resurrection to save you and the world, the joyful fellowship of fellow sinners who have been redeemed by Jesus: All these things await you in the Lord's house when you go to worship. That's better than any other place you can go! In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

This day God's people meeting, His Holy Scripture hear; His living presence greeting, Through bread and wine made near. We journey on believing, Renewed with heav'nly might, From grace more grace receiving, On this blest day of light. ("O Day of Rest and Gladness" LSB 906, st. 3)

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor René Castillero