Calendar

Color: Green\r\rOld Testament: Micah 6:1–8\rPsalm: Psalm 15; antiphon: Psalm 16:1\rEpistle: 1 Corinthians 1:18–31\rGospel: Matthew 5:1–12\rIntroit: Psalm 1:1–5; antiphon: v. 6\rGradual: Psalm 117:1–2a; 96:8\rVerse: Matthew 5:3\r\rGod Manifests His Glory in the Humility and Weakness of Christ Crucified\r \rThe Lord tells His people, “I brought you up from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery” (Micah 6:4). By the sacrifice of His beloved Son, He has redeemed us from our slavery of sin and death; He has forgiven our transgressions by the shedding of His blood. His great mercy and salvation lead us “to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly” with our God (Micah 6:8). We boast only in the incarnate and crucified Lord Jesus. He is “the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:24). He is our life and salvation, our “wisdom” and “righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30). Now He opens His mouth and teaches us His wisdom. By His cross and Passion, the kingdom of heaven is ours. We receive mercy and are satisfied; we see God and are called sons of God in Christ. “Blessed are you,” therefore, “when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely” on account of Christ (Matt. 5:11).\r\rLectionary summary © 2021 The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Used by permission. http://lcms.org/worship

Color: White\r\rOld Testament: 1 Samuel 1:21–28\rPsalm: Psalm 84; antiphon: v. 4\rEpistle: Hebrews 2:14–18\rGospel: Luke 2:22–32\rGospel: Luke 2:22–40\rIntroit: Psalm 48:1–3, 8; antiphon: v. 9\rGradual: Psalm 48:1, 8a, 9\rVerse: Luke 2:34b\r\rGod Gives the Gift of a Child to Destroy Death\r \rThe Lord opened the barren womb of Hannah and gave her the gift of the son for whom she prayed, and in grateful response she presented and gave the child, Samuel, to the Lord’s service. “As long as he lives, he is lent to the Lord” (1 Sam. 1:28). So, too, did Mary and Joseph present the Child promised from the fall, born of a virgin’s womb. The true offering wasn’t the turtledoves or young pigeons. It was the Child they carried. This Child has come to “destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery” (Heb. 2:14b–15). Set free by His advent in our flesh and the promise of what He would do “in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people” (Heb. 2:17b), Simeon and Anna rejoiced. We also rejoice, for we, too, can face death unafraid and “depart in peace” (Luke 2:29) when our time comes.\r\rLectionary summary © 2021 The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Used by permission. http://lcms.org/worship

Color: Green\r\rOld Testament: Isaiah 58:3–9a\rPsalm: Psalm 112:1–9; antiphon: v. 4\rEpistle: 1 Corinthians 2:1–12\rEpistle: 1 Corinthians 2:1–16\rGospel: Matthew 5:13–20\rIntroit: Psalm 119:9–16; antiphon: v. 12\rGradual: Psalm 117:1–2a; 96:8\rVerse: Matthew 5:16b\r\rThe Righteousness of Christ\r \rJesus warns that “unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:20), but He also calls His imperfect people “the salt of the earth” and “the light of the world” (Matt. 5:13, 14). That’s because the Lord Jesus came not to abolish the Law or the prophets, “but to fulfill them” (Matt. 5:17) in perfect faith and love. Since He does and teaches all of God’s commandments, He is “called great in the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:19). God manifests His “demonstration of the Spirit and of power” in “Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2–4), and through the preaching of the Gospel He gives His “secret and hidden wisdom” (1 Cor. 2:7). Christ gives this perfect righteousness to His people, and it leads them to true fasting, which is “to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free” (Is. 58:6) and “to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house” (Is. 58:7).\r\rLectionary summary © 2021 The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Used by permission. http://lcms.org/worship

Color: White\r\rOld Testament: Exodus 24:8–18\rPsalm: Psalm 2:6–12; antiphon: v. 6\rEpistle: 2 Peter 1:16–21\rGospel: Matthew 17:1–9\rIntroit: Psalm 99:1–5; antiphon: v. 9\rGradual: Psalm 117:1–2a; 96:8\rVerse: Psalm 45:2a\r\rGod Manifests His Glory in the Body of Christ Jesus, Transfigured for Us by His Cross\r \rThe Transfiguration confirms “the prophetic word … to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place” (2 Peter 1:19). The divine glory of Jesus is manifested in the word of His apostles, who were “eyewitnesses of his majesty” (2 Peter 1:16). “He was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun” (Matt. 17:2). Moses and Elijah witnessed the fulfillment of the Old Testament in this Lord Jesus, and the Father testified concerning Him: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 17:5). By His own blood, shed on the cross, Jesus makes and seals the new covenant with us. Hence, “the appearance of the glory of the Lord” is no longer “like a devouring fire” (Ex. 24:17), but it is graciously revealed in His own body. As “Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel” went up the mountain with Moses and “beheld God, and ate and drank” (Ex. 24:9, 11), we also behold the Lord our God in Christ Jesus, and we abide with Him as we eat and drink His body and blood at the altar.\r\rLectionary summary © 2021 The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Used by permission. http://lcms.org/worship

Color: Black\r\rOld Testament: Joel 2:12–19\rPsalm: Psalm 51:1–13; antiphon: v. 17\rPsalm: Psalm 51; antiphon: v. 17\rEpistle: 2 Corinthians 5:20b—6:10\rGospel: Matthew 6:1–6, 16–21\rIntroit: Psalm 51:1–3, 10–12; antiphon: v. 17\rGradual: Hebrews 12:2\rVerse: Joel 2:13b\r\rReturn to the Lord Your God with All Your Heart, for He Has Reconciled You to Himself\r \rOn Ash Wednesday, we come down from the mountain with Jesus and set our face toward His cross and Passion in Jerusalem. We make our pilgrimage with Him by way of repentance, and thus we return to our dying and rising in Holy Baptism. Christ Jesus, “who knew no sin,” became our sin, so that by His death we are released from sin and in His resurrection we “become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21). As God has thereby reconciled the world to Himself in Christ, “now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2). He has provided the sacrificial Lamb, and He has left “a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering” (Joel 2:14) in the Eucharist. He summons us to return to Him with all our heart because He is “gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love” (Joel 2:13). We do so with faith and confidence in Him, and so we pray to Him as our Father, give to the needy from a heart of love, and fast for the sake of repentance (Matt. 6:3–4, 6, 17–18).\r\rLectionary summary © 2021 The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Used by permission. http://lcms.org/worship

Color: Purple\r\rOld Testament: Genesis 3:1–21\rPsalm: Psalm 32:1–7; antiphon: v. 7a\rEpistle: Romans 5:12–19\rGospel: Matthew 4:1–11\rIntroit: Psalm 91:9–13; antiphon: vv. 15–16\rGradual: Hebrews 12:2\rVerse: Ephesians 6:11\r\rFollowing His Baptism, Jesus is “led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil” (Matt. 4:1). As He takes upon Himself the curse of our sin and sets Himself against our enemy, He trusts His Father’s voice and waits upon His Father’s hand for all things. The devil questions His sonship, but the beloved and well-pleasing Son remains faithful and lives “by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4). Jesus patiently suffers hunger in His mortal flesh and returns to the dust whence man was taken, and by His pain He brings forth food for all the children of men (Gen. 3:18–19). By the sweat of His brow, we eat the fruit of His cross, even as our nakedness is covered by His righteousness. Although all people live in bondage to death through the trespass of the first man, Adam, all the more “have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many” (Rom. 5:15). His righteous obedience “leads to justification and life for all men” (Rom. 5:18).\r\rLectionary summary © 2021 The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Used by permission. http://lcms.org/worship

Color: Red\r\rOld Testament: Isaiah 66:1–2\rPsalm: Psalm 134; antiphon: Psalm 133:1\rSecond Reading: Acts 1:15–26\rGospel: Matthew 11:25–30\rIntroit: Psalm 89:1, 5, 15–16; antiphon: Psalm 119:46\rGradual: Ephesians 4:8b, 11, 12b; 2:19a, c\rVerse: Matthew 11:28\r\rSt. Matthias, Apostle\r \rWe know almost nothing about St. Matthias compared to Judas. While we know the grisly details of Judas’ death (Acts 1:18–19), we are unsure of Matthias’. After his election, the Bible never mentions him again. He seems to be a forgotten apostle. But what is fame to God? He looks to “he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word” (Is. 66:2). Judas trembled, but his contrition was without faith in God’s mercy in Christ. He tried to bear his own sin in the form of a noose. Jesus does not say, “See to it yourself,” (Matt. 27:4), but “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you … and you will find rest for your souls” (Matt. 11:28–29). Matthias was a witness of Christ’s ministry from John’s baptism to the resurrection (Acts 1:21–22), chosen to proclaim “the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 10:7) from repentance to redemption and new life. He and countless other forgotten ministers continually announce the truth that no sinner must bear his own yoke, for Christ bears it all and has put sin to death forever in His cross.\r\rLectionary summary © 2021 The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Used by permission. http://lcms.org/worship