January 25, 2025 

Today's Reading: Acts 9:1-22

Daily Lectionary: Zechariah 1:1-21; Matthew 19:27-30

But the Lord said to [Ananias], “Go, for [Paul] is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” (Acts 9:15-16)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

It must have been a troubling thing for Ananias to hear that Paul was to be set aside to proclaim the Gospel to Gentiles. Before this time, Paul was an enemy of Christ. He sought to arrest and convict Jewish converts of blasphemy, a charge that would most certainly put their life in jeopardy. And before his conversion, Paul couldn’t have dreamed that salvation was ever meant for the Gentile.

But the Lord’s way is not our way. He sees things a little bit differently than we would. Where we would most certainly have chosen somebody, anybody, other than Paul, God deemed it good and right and salutary to use this mortal enemy of Christ to then proclaim the very same Christ into the world.

Paul will later admit that he is unworthy of such a task: “The least of all the apostles,” he will title himself. But what better way to proclaim the weakness of the cross to the sinner than to use the weakest and most unworthy of all vessels? But this is the way of our Lord: When we are weak, then He is strong.

For the Gospel isn’t about the sinner who is being used to proclaim it, but it is about the sinless Son of God who has come to make that sinner, and all other sinners, righteous…  We don’t look to our pastors to be perfect, but we look to our pastors to proclaim the perfection of Christ. It is in that way, then, that Christ is made known: through the lips of unclean pastors into the ears of unclean sinners.

So we give thanks to our Lord above for the conversion that He wrought in St. Paul. If the Holy Spirit can bring about faith in a murderous blasphemer, then He can certainly bring faith and sustain that faith in me, in you, in all. 

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Almighty God, You turned the heart of him who persecuted the Church and, by his preaching, caused the light of the Gospel to shine throughout the world. Grant us ever to rejoice in the saving light of Your Gospel and, following the example of the apostle Paul, to spread it to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

-Rev. Eli Lietzau, pastor of Wheat Ridge Evangelical Lutheran Church in Wheat Ridge, CO.

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

What makes a church "good?" Come join the fictional family as they test out eight different churches in their brand-new town and answer this question along the way. Will the Real Church Please Stand Up? by Matthew Richard, now available from Concordia Publishing House.