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.