Reflections

September 13, 2023

Today's Reading: Luther’s Small Catechism, the Lord's prayer: Fifth Petition

Daily Lectionary: 1 Kings 8:22-30, 46-63, 2 Corinthians 4:1-18

So we too will sincerely forgive and gladly do good to those who sin against us (SC, LP, Explanation to the Fifth Petition)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. Forgiveness is at the heart of the Christian Faith. No forgiveness, no Christianity. If Jesus does not take all our sins upon Himself in order to crucify them in His own body, and then deliver forgiveness to us in His resurrection life, there is no Christianity. That forgiveness is not conditional. He gives it freely, just as the master freely forgives the enormous debt owed by the servant in Matthew 18:23-27. This is what the Kingdom of Heaven is like: a master forgiving a debt that the servant could never repay, no matter how much time he had.

But then that same servant goes out and uses his new-found freedom from debt to force someone else to pay him. He won’t even give the second servant some more time, although the second servant is far more likely to repay the first than the first would be to repay the master. In other words, the first servant refuses to extend the gigantic gift of the master to the second servant. Jesus concludes the parable with the words of the master: “Should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?” And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart” (Matthew 18:33-35). 

Why are Jesus’ words so harsh? Simply for this reason: if God’s forgiveness in Christ is not big enough to cover the sins of  those who sin against us, then it is not big enough to cover our sins. It is all or nothing with God: either His forgiveness covers every single person, or it covers no one. 

So how do we learn to forgive others? Only by being forgiven. Our forgiveness of others is not actually ours; it is God’s. It does not come naturally to us; we often find it difficult, or even impossible. And, in fact, it is–for us. But the entirely undeserved forgiveness that God gives us in Christ not only covers us, but it covers those who sin against us. When we forgive, we are forgiving with Christ’s forgiveness. We’re playing with house money. All for us, and all for others. Forgiveness is everything. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

“Forgive our sins, Lord, we implore, That they may trouble us no more;  We, too, will gladly those forgive Who hurt us by the way they live.  Help us in our community  To serve each other willingly” (LSB 766:6).

- Pastor Timothy Winterstein is pastor at Faith Lutheran Church, East Wenatchee, Washington.

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

Study Christ's words on the cross to see how you can show more Christlike grace in your life. Perfect for group or individual study, each chapter has a Q&A at the end, and the back of the book includes a leader guide. Available now from Concordia Publishing House.

September 12, 2023

Today's Reading: Romans 13:1-10

Daily Lectionary: 1 Kings 7:51-8:21, 2 Corinthians 3:1-18

Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law (Romans 13:10)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. We do not often think of our obedience to governing authorities (or any authorities, for that matter) in terms of love. What does obeying the law of the land have to do with love? But that’s what Paul says. Even paying taxes he calls an exercise of love! He talks about all of this in terms of giving to each person what is “owed” to them, and then he says, “Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law” (Romans 13:8). 

The fulfilling of the commandments is love, because God commands His law for the good of people. It is not good for people if their lives are threatened by murder; it is not good if their possessions are stolen; it is not good if husband and wife are not united completely; it is not good if children do not obey their parents, and governmental authority is an extension of the parents’ authority (see the Explanation to the Fourth Commandment in the Small Catechism). To do what is truly good for another person is truly loving. And we don’t have to wonder what is truly good for another person, because God’s commandments tell us. 

Consider what would happen if we all decided not to obey the governing authorities. Would anarchy and chaos be good for us or for our neighbors? We obey the governing authorities because God has established them for our good and for the good of people around us, and we love them and want what is good for them. Of course, sometimes the governing authorities go beyond their God-given authority and act against Him (as parents sometimes do). In that case, as the apostles demonstrate, it would not be loving our neighbor to obey them, for example, to stop preaching the Gospel, or gathering around Jesus’ words and gifts. Then we must obey the God who puts all authorities in place, rather than the authorities who are rebelling against God. 

But all of it is for the love of our neighbor, whom God has given us to serve. As God has loved us, though the price of that love is the crucifixion of Jesus, so we love our neighbors as ourselves, whatever the consequences. Jesus fulfilled the law of God on our behalf; now we do the good works of the commandments, not to be right with God, but for the sake of our neighbors and their good. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Merciful God, for freedom You have set us free through Christ’s liberating death and resurrection. In this freedom, teach us to live in the fruit of the Spirit given us in our Baptism that we may bear in our bodies the fulfillment of the Law as we love our neighbors as ourselves; through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

- Pastor Timothy Winterstein is pastor at Faith Lutheran Church, East Wenatchee, Washington.

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

Study Christ's words on the cross to see how you can show more Christlike grace in your life. Perfect for group or individual study, each chapter has a Q&A at the end, and the back of the book includes a leader guide. Available now from Concordia Publishing House.

September 11, 2023

Today's Reading: Ezekiel 33:1-10

Daily Lectionary: 1 Kings 5:1-18, 2 Corinthians 1:23-2:17

How then can we live? (Ezekiel 33:10)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. When we observe the nature of the world, the sins of people against us, and our sins against others, it is easy to become pessimistic and cynical. We can identify all sorts of problems in the world, but we do not seem to be able to solve any of them. We recognize the symptoms of the problem in violence, hatred, injustice, division, and a lack of care for anyone but ourselves. 

The people of Israel did not have the technology to spread their sin, as we do, but they had the same sins. In Ezekiel 24, when God tells Ezekiel to declare to Jerusalem that the king of Babylon has laid siege to the city, God calls Jerusalem “the city of blood” (24:6, 7, 9). This is a repetition of the charge in chapter 22: “You shall say [to the people of Jerusalem], Thus says the Lord Yahweh: …You have become guilty by the blood you have shed, and defiled by the idols that you have made. … Father and mother are treated with contempt in you; the sojourner suffers extortion in your midst; the fatherless and the widow are wronged in you,” among many other things (Ezekiel 22:3, 4, 7ff.). 

To a greater or lesser degree, all Jerusalem’s sins are still present in our world. Ezekiel was sent by God to declare the people’s sins, just as God still sends preachers of His Word to declare His Law. When God’s Law brings to our attention the depth of our sin and idolatry and corruption, we might well say with the people, “Surely our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we rot away because of them. How then can we live” (Ezekiel 33:10)? God says, “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his ways and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel” (33:11)? 

Sin and rebellion against our Creator, who is our life, makes no sense. Why would we turn from Him and die? But that is what sinners, left to themselves, will always do. So God finally breaks the stalemate between His desire and sinners’ actions. He sends Jesus to become the wicked one and take all the world’s wickedness upon Himself, though it does not belong to Him. He fulfills Ezekiel’s vision and not only warns us of our impending death, but becomes our death. How then can we live? In Christ, crucified and risen; who gives Himself to us in Holy Baptism, Holy Absolution, and the Holy Supper. This is how we live. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, You desire not the death of a sinner, but rather that we turn from our evil ways and live. Graciously spare us those punishments which we by our sins have deserved, and grant us always to serve You in holiness and pureness of living; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

 
- Pastor Timothy Winterstein is pastor at Faith Lutheran Church, East Wenatchee, Washington.

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

Study Christ's words on the cross to see how you can show more Christlike grace in your life. Perfect for group or individual study, each chapter has a Q&A at the end, and the back of the book includes a leader guide. Available now from Concordia Publishing House.

September 10, 2023

Today's Reading: Matthew 18:1-20

Daily Lectionary: 1 Kings 3:1-15, 2 Corinthians 1:1-22

“For where two or three are gathered in My Name, there am I among them” (Matthew 18:20)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. Where is Jesus? He says, “Where two or three are gathered in My Name, there am I among them.” Notice the three parts of that: two or three gathered; in My Name; and there am I. So is Jesus not with us when we are alone? Do we have to meet another Christian so there are at least two of us, before Jesus will be present with us? No. Of course, Jesus is with each and all of His baptized children, “all the days, until the completion of this age” (Matthew 28:20). Here in Matthew 18, Jesus is speaking within the particular context of repentance and forgiveness. The idea of “two or three” goes back to Deuteronomy 19:15, where two or three witnesses are necessary to establish a charge against someone (see also 2 Corinthians 13:1). If there are two or three witnesses to a sin in the Body of Christ, then Jesus forgives that sinner and restores him or her within the gathering of two or three. 

Within the assembly of the Church (“two or three”), who are created and gathered in the Name of Jesus in Holy Baptism, there Jesus Himself will be present to forgive. Jesus is certainly present everywhere, because He is God, but He has not given us the promise of forgiveness everywhere. This is because He does not want us to be in doubt about where that forgiveness can be received. So here and in the last chapter of Matthew, He has given us a sure and certain promise: by the same Name into which people are baptized, Jesus will be present to forgive and restore us. 

The Name marks our existence as His people: we are baptized into that Name; each week, we hear the Invocation of that Name, which marks the gathering of His baptized Christians; then we hear the Absolution, which is proclaimed in that same Name, and which keeps us in and restores us to Christ’s baptismal grace. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

My faithful God, You fail me never; Your promise surely will endure. O cast me not away forever  If words and deeds become impure./Have mercy when I come defiled; Forgive, lift up, restore Your child” (LSB 590:3). 

O God, from whom all good proceeds, grant to us, Your humble servants, Your holy inspiration, that we may set our minds on the things that are right and, by Your merciful guiding, accomplish them; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

- Pastor Timothy Winterstein is pastor at Faith Lutheran Church, East Wenatchee, Washington.

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

Study Christ's words on the cross to see how you can show more Christlike grace in your life. Perfect for group or individual study, each chapter has a Q&A at the end, and the back of the book includes a leader guide. Available now from Concordia Publishing House.

September 9, 2023

Today's Reading: Introit to Pentecost 15: Psalm 92:1-4, antiphon Psalm 92:5s

Daily Lectionary: 1 Kings 2:1-27, 1 Corinthians 13:1-13

How great are Your works, O Yahweh! Very deep are Your thoughts! (Psalm 92:5)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. Here’s a clue to the theme for each Sunday’s Divine Service: trace the thread from the antiphon of the Introit (the first and last verse of the Introit), to the Collect for the day, to the readings. Sometimes the theme will be clear and obvious; other times it will be a little bit harder to identify. It is easier during the festival half of the Church Year (from Advent through Trinity) than it is during the Sundays after Pentecost. But looking ahead to the Introit with its antiphon, reading the assigned readings, and praying the Collect will help get the Word of God into your heart and onto your lips in preparation for the Divine Service. 

For example, for tomorrow, the Introit comes from Psalm 92 and the antiphon is 92:5, which I translated above. The psalm puts in parallel God’s “works” and God’s “thoughts,” and says that they are “great” and “very deep.” This causes us to ask, “What are God’s thoughts? Can I know them?” If God did not reveal His thoughts, we could not know them. His thoughts are not our thoughts, and His ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55:8-9). We would (as we often do) make up our own ideas about what God would do or not do.

But God has not left us to imagine His thoughts or figure them out on our own. He has revealed Himself in His great works. Christians start with what God has done and then we understand what God is like. What He says is the same as what He does. How He acts is the same as who He is. And He reveals His thoughts finally and forever in His Son, Jesus. In Jesus’ death and resurrection, we see the true depth of God’s thoughts, and the greatness of His works. 

In God’s works, we see God’s thoughts. Who could imagine that God would become flesh and die? Who could imagine that God would take on Himself the offense and curse of sin? Who would think that the least, the last, the helpless, the child would be the greatest in the Kingdom (Matthew 18:1-2)? More than that, God gives His Kingdom only to those who cannot give Him anything in return (18:3-4). None of us could imagine a mercy that never fails to seek those whom people would consider “lost” (18:10-14). God seeks us in Jesus, and then He seeks everyone through His Church, wherever two or three are gathered around His forgiving love (18:18-20). These thoughts of God would be too deep for us to imagine, if He had not sent His Son and revealed them to us in His works. How great are Your works, and very deep are Your thoughts! In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to your name, O Most High; to declare your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night” (Psalm 92:1-2).

- Pastor Timothy Winterstein is pastor at Faith Lutheran Church, East Wenatchee, Washington.

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

Study Christ's words on the cross to see how you can show more Christlike grace in your life. Perfect for group or individual study, each chapter has a Q&A at the end, and the back of the book includes a leader guide. Available now from Concordia Publishing House.

September 8, 2023

Today's Reading: 1 Corinthians 12:14-31

Daily Lectionary: 1 Kings 1:1-4, 15-35, 1 Corinthians 12:14-31

Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it (1 Corinthians 12:27)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. God puts the Church together as He chooses. There is a command here not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought (Romans 12:3), as if the Body of Christ would not survive without us. But there is a promise as well: God chose each one of us in Jesus Christ to be members of Christ’s Body. God has chosen you for salvation. 

Whenever we think we are indispensable to the Lord’s work, we actually make idols of ourselves. The only indispensable one is Jesus Himself. But graciously, He has chosen you and, in that sense, He has made us an integral member of Christ’s Body. We are not free to think of any other member of the Body as dispensable, because God has chosen each of them as well. 

Because God chooses sinners, and only sinners, to be purified by Christ’s blood as holy members of His Body, we will not have perfect (or, even, very good!) love for others, and they will not have perfect love for us. But since we are all, by God’s mercy, in this together, we are forced to practice love and forgiveness for one another. Just as you do not choose the family into which you are physically born, you do not choose the Church. 

We do often choose our local congregations, but here is an argument for being joined to the Body of Christ in the faithful congregation most local to us. We will have to learn to love the people there, with all their faults, and they will have to learn to love us, with all of ours. But wherever we are, we should remain (unless there is persistent false teaching), because God arranges the members of the Body, and all things, as He chooses (1 Corinthians 12:18). 

This is, finally, a comfort to us. Everything does not depend on us. God has put each of His Christians in their individual vocations, with particular people, to exercise our love for those whom God has put before us. And He has put us before them. We are not responsible for every person in the world, to serve everyone, or bear witness to everyone. He has put other people in those places. Our vocations are limited in how many relationships we have, but they are unlimited in love, since we will never run out of good works to do. When we are burdened, exhausted, and weary from all those good works; when we have not fulfilled them as we should; then we remember that it is the Body of Christ, and He forgives, sustains, and nourishes us by the Body and the Blood in the Sacrament. Thanks be to God for His continual provision for His Church! In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Lord, help us walk Your servant way  Wherever love may lead  And, bending low, forgetting self,  Each serve the other’s need (LSB 857:5).

- Pastor Timothy Winterstein is pastor at Faith Lutheran Church, East Wenatchee, Washington.

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

Study Christ's words on the cross to see how you can show more Christlike grace in your life. Perfect for group or individual study, each chapter has a Q&A at the end, and the back of the book includes a leader guide. Available now from Concordia Publishing House.

September 7, 2023

Today's Reading: 1 Corinthians 12:1-13

Daily Lectionary: 2 Samuel 12:1-25, 1 Corinthians 12:1-13

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed (1 Corinthians 12:1-13)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. The Corinthians have  a lot of questions. Apparently, they had asked Paul to teach them about “spiritual” things. The word “gifts” is actually not in 12:1. Paul does talk about gracious gifts of the Spirit starting in 12:4, but the Corinthians’ question was broader: what are “spiritual” things, because they seem to be competing with one another for the most spiritual, as the end of chapter 12 through chapter 13 shows.

They wanted to know about “the things of the Spirit.” Sometimes we want to separate “spiritual” things from “physical” things, as if the Spirit has nothing to do with our everyday lives, but is only concerned about “deeper” or “higher” things. But all of it is in the realm of the Holy Spirit! For those who have been reborn in Christ by water and the Spirit (John 3:5), all things are “spiritual.” 

The “gracious (gifts)” (where we get our English word “charismatic,” but which really refers to God’s gracious or free giving) of which Paul begins to speak in 12:4 are related to any and all things that the Christian does, especially in loving service to the neighbor. It is a Trinitarian work in and through us: one Spirit; one Lord (Jesus); one God (the Father) (12:4-6). Paul does not give an exhaustive list here of all the gifts the Spirit gives. His point is not that we all find ourselves in this list, but that the Spirit gives as the Spirit pleases. The Spirit orchestrates the work of the members of Christ’s body for the good of one another, as He sees fit (12:11, 18). Some of these gracious gifts are more “spectacular” than others, but none of them is expendable. The summary point is 12:7: “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good,” or for the benefit of the whole body. 

So what gifts has the Lord graciously given you, baptized and remade by His Spirit? What talents? At what things do your parents, friends, teachers, or pastors say you are good? Whatever it is, it is a “spiritual” thing, because you have been given the Spirit in baptism. Spiritual people do all things in the Spirit, and all for the good of others. You are, with all the other baptized believers, one Body in Christ. God has set up the Body perfectly according to His will, and He uses each person as He chooses. He has chosen you in Christ for His own purposes, and you can rejoice in the Spirit that God knows exactly what He’s doing with you. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

How clear is our vocation, Lord, When once we heed Your call: To live according to Your Word And daily learn, refreshed, restored, That You are Lord of all And will not let us fall (LSB 853:1).

- Pastor Timothy Winterstein is pastor at Faith Lutheran Church, East Wenatchee, Washington.

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

Study Christ's words on the cross to see how you can show more Christlike grace in your life. Perfect for group or individual study, each chapter has a Q&A at the end, and the back of the book includes a leader guide. Available now from Concordia Publishing House.

September 6, 2023

Today's Reading: Luther’s Small Catechism, the Lord's Prayer: Fourth Petition

Daily Lectionary: 2 Samuel 11:1-27, 1 Corinthians 11:17-34

We pray in this petition that God would lead us to…receive our daily bread with thanksgiving. (SC, LP, 4th Petition)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. God gives daily bread to everyone, even to the evil. This is the sort of God He is. Daily bread includes anything and everything that has to do with these bodies and this life. The God who created everything still sustains His creation and the people who live in it. 

Sinners, however, always believe that they have gotten everything for themselves. People make themselves into their own gods, and thank themselves for doing what they need to survive. Christians can get sucked into this way of thinking, when we forget that everything we have is a gift. We become selfish with our money and our time. We work and get a paycheck and provide for our needs. Then we expect that if someone does not have what he or she needs, the solution is for that person to work harder. You get what you deserve, after all.

We can only think that way about other people when we forget that God is the giver of all our daily bread. We would not have a job if God did not provide for it. We would not have food and clothing if God did not provide it. We would not have “good weather, peace, health, self-control, a good reputation, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like” if God did not give it. Instead, we continue to pray that God would keep us in mind of all His gracious gifts for as long as He gives us life and breath. Even more, in Christ He gives us everything we need to share His divine and eternal life. He is the true bread who has come down from heaven to give life to us and to the world, so that eating and drinking His body and blood, we will never die. We have deserved none of this. “All this He does only out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me” (Explanation to the First Article of the Creed). 

You can’t earn a gift. And since everything is gift, none of it is earned. Though many do not know that everything they have comes from their Creator, the Holy Spirit has graciously given us faith to know our dear Father through His Son, Jesus. We know where everything comes from, so we rejoice and give thanks to Him. And we also know that God serves those in need through those whom He has blessed with abundance. Freely have we received, freely we give (Matthew 10:8), until the new creation is revealed, in which no one will lack anything necessary to their life. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Give us this day our daily bread, And let us all be clothed and fed. Save us from hardship, war, and strife; In plague and famine, spare our life,  That we in honest peace may live, To care and greed no entrance give (LSB 766:5).

- Pastor Timothy Winterstein is pastor at Faith Lutheran Church, East Wenatchee, Washington.

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

Study Christ's words on the cross to see how you can show more Christlike grace in your life. Perfect for group or individual study, each chapter has a Q&A at the end, and the back of the book includes a leader guide. Available now from Concordia Publishing House.

September 5, 2023

Today's Reading: Romans 11:33-12:8

Daily Lectionary: 2 Samuel 7:19-29, 1 Corinthians 10:23-11:16

Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship (Romans 12:1)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. Verbs matter. In Romans 12:2, there is one active verb (“present”) and two passive verbs (“be conformed” and “be transformed”). And then there is a verb form that flows from that being transformed (“testing-to-approve”). Either the world is working on us, conforming us to its shape–which is our natural shape as sinners; or God is working on us by His Spirit, transforming our natural ways of thinking to align with His. Either we will be living sacrifices for the sake of the world, or die as this world dies. 

In His mercy, God has grafted us into Christ, the Vine, though we Gentiles do not deserve it any more than the Israelites who reject Christ. In Christ, He has chosen you and had mercy on you, though you, like all people, were bound up in your disobedience to God. Jesus is the only sacrifice for sins, now and forever. So you do not offer your bodies, your works, your love for others as sacrifices for your sins, and hope it all shakes out in your favor on the day of judgment. Jesus already took care of your sins. 

Now you are turned toward others as living sacrifices–a strange contradiction! No sacrifice ever stayed alive. But covered in the mercy of God, you are given as a sacrifice for the sake of other people, as long as you live in this world. And since you are “holy and pleasing” to God in Christ, you can know what is “good and pleasing and perfect,” His will for you. Paul goes on to give some examples of what that might look like: prophesying (in right relationship to the Christian Faith); serving, teaching, exhorting and encouraging; in generous contribution, zealous leadership, and cheerful acts of mercy (12:6-8). God gives each of these gifts to the members of Christ’s body, to be used in humility for the sake of other people. 

The English translation calls all this our “spiritual worship,” but the word “spiritual” isn’t there (instead, it is something like “rational” or “reasonable”), and the word for “worship” can also be translated “service.” So we offer our bodies, redeemed and cleansed by Jesus, as living sacrifices of good works for our neighbors. And this is our “reasonable service,” according to God’s command, which tells us what works are actually good. This is the Christian life: God has had unfathomable mercy on us, which transforms our minds to think according to the mind of Christ; and we pour ourselves out for the good of our neighbors in our God-given vocations, according to the gifts He gives us. This work is good and pleasing to God because we are good and pleasing to God in Christ. And He who began this good work in us will bring it to its perfect conclusion in the resurrection. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

O Lord, You have had mercy on us in Jesus Christ, by His sacrifice for our sins. Continue to make us living sacrifices, poured out in love for one another. Amen.

- Pastor Timothy Winterstein is pastor at Faith Lutheran Church, East Wenatchee, Washington.

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

Study Christ's words on the cross to see how you can show more Christlike grace in your life. Perfect for group or individual study, each chapter has a Q&A at the end, and the back of the book includes a leader guide. Available now from Concordia Publishing House.

September 4, 2023

Today's Reading: Isaiah 51:1-6

Daily Lectionary: 2 Samuel 7:1-17, 1 Corinthians 9:24-10:22

“My salvation will be forever” (Isaiah 51:6)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. “Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath; for the heavens vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and they who dwell in it will die in like manner” (Isaiah 51:6). That sounds a lot like many of the fears expressed by people today: fear about what’s happening in the world; fear about what’s happening to the creation; fear about death. But Isaiah is not repeating the fears of people; he’s speaking the words of Yahweh to His people. Listen to Me, God says. Look; pay attention. Look at all the things and know that none of them will last forever. This creation and all the people in it are subject to sin and death, and thus they all wear out and fade away. So do not put your trust in them! Do not make anything in this creation your god. None of it can save you. 

Listen, instead, to Me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek Yahweh. Look to Me, the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug (51:1). I am your creator. I made Abraham and Sarah, and from them I made Israel, My people. And by that family line, I bring to the world My salvation and My righteousness. All creation waits for Me to restore it in Christ. 

Listen and look! My salvation and My righteousness are in Jesus, by whom I judge the nations. He spreads out His arms, nailed to the cross, and My judgment is fulfilled in His body, to give you My righteousness and My salvation. I will comfort you in the midst of the mess of this creation, the mess of your family, the mess of your life. I will make deserts into gardens, and this old, wilderness creation into a new, Eden creation. You can find this comfort now in the places I have promised to be, in My Word and My Sacraments. There you can find the beginning of rivers in the desert, of the Garden I am making in the middle of the wilderness of this world. The day is coming when there will be only joy and gladness and thanksgiving forever, because God’s salvation in Jesus, risen from the dead, cannot be removed or killed or destroyed. “My salvation is forever, and My righteousness will never be dismayed” (51:6).  In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

“In Thee is gladness Amid all sadness, Jesus, sunshine of my heart. By Thee are given The gifts of heaven, Thou the true Redeemer art. Our souls Thou wakest, Our bonds Thou breakest; Who trusts Thee surely  Has built securely; He stands forever: Alleluia! Our hearts are pining To see Thy shining, Dying or living To Thee are cleaving; Naught can us sever: Alleluia!” (LSB 818:1) 

- Pastor Timothy Winterstein is pastor at Faith Lutheran Church, East Wenatchee, Washington.

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

Study Christ's words on the cross to see how you can show more Christlike grace in your life. Perfect for group or individual study, each chapter has a Q&A at the end, and the back of the book includes a leader guide. Available now from Concordia Publishing House.