May 31, 2023

Today's Reading: Table of Duties Luther’s Small Catechism: Tenth Commandment

Daily Lectionary: Numbers 23:4-28, Luke 22:47-71

We should fear and love God so that we do not entice or force away our neighbor’s wife, workers, or animals, or turn them against him, but urge them to stay and do their duty. (Explanation to the Tenth Commandment)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. God is the God who calls. God first calls us to faith in His Son, Jesus. He calls you to life and salvation in the waters of Baptism. This is the vocation, or calling, of every Christian, to live daily in God’s gifts of repentance and forgiveness. 

God also calls us into various vocations, or callings, throughout our life where we are given many responsibilities and opportunities to love and serve our neighbor, and to love and serve God through our vocations. Martin Luther called these vocations in life the masks of God, where God would hide in us to serve others, and where we would serve God through the needs of others all at the same time. So God calls us into the vocation of the Christian life in His Church. God calls us into vocations within the home and family. God calls us into vocations in daily labors of life in a civil society. 

This little word, vocation, is one of the ideas that connects the Small Catechism’s teachings in the Table of Duties and in the Tenth Commandment. Both reveal our responsibilities in our various vocations, or callings, in life. The Table of Duties highlights three areas where we love and serve our neighbor, the home, the church, and in society. The Tenth Commandment, likewise, highlights our relationship with our neighbors and the various vocations which are a part of his household and life.

Like all human relationships and vocations, we sin in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done and left undone in the home, the church, and society. This is part of the reason God gave us the Scripture passages that are found in the Table of Duties and the tenth commandment, to serve a mirror that shows our sin in our many callings in life. 

Thankfully, for all the times we fail and sin in our vocations in life, we rest on and are forgiven in the perfect life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, whose calling it is to be your Savior. We live in service and love to our neighbor knowing that Jesus perfectly feared, loved, and trusted the Father in all things he said and did for you. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Lord God, You have called Your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with courage, not knowing where we go but only that Your hand is leading us and Your love supporting us; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

-Pastor Samuel Schuldheisz is Pastor at Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church in Milton, WA

Audio Reflections Speaker: Jonathan Lackey is an LCMS seminarian.

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.