Lectio Concordia

The Word of Authority – Wednesday

preparing for The Fourth Sunday after Epiphany

Series: Lectio Concordia

January 29, 2025 By Rev. Mark Ryman

• Online jigsaw puzzle of today's reading • Index

• Collect: Your word, Holy Lord, is a lamp to our feet and a light along the way. Open your word to us; disclose your truth so that we may know Christ and the power of his resurrection. Amen.

• Psalm 33:1–9

• Acts 2:42–47

• Our adversaries also condemn that part of the Seventh Article where we stated, “For the unity of the church it is sufficient to agree on the teaching of the gospel and the administration of the sacraments. It is not necessary that human traditions, rites, or ceremonies instituted by men should be the same everywhere.” Here they distinguish between universal and particular rites, and approve our article if it is understood concerning particular rites. They do not receive it concerning universal rites. We do not sufficiently understand what the adversaries mean. We are speaking of true unity — spiritual unity without which faith in the heart, or righteousness of the heart before God, cannot exist. For this to occur, we say that similarity of human rites, whether universal or particular, is not necessary because the righteousness of faith is not a righteousness bound to certain traditions as the teousness of the law was bound to the Mosaic ceremonies. The righteousness of the heart is a matter that makes the heart live. Human traditions, whether they are universal or particular, contribute nothing to the new life. [The Defense of the Augsburg Confession, The Church]

• "How Firm a Foundation, Ye Saints of the Lord" Tune

How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
is laid for your faith in God's excellent Word!
What more can be said than to you God hath said,
to you who for refuge to Jesus have fled?

"Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed,
for I am thy God, and will still give thee aid;
I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,
upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.

"When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
the rivers of sorrow shall not overflow;
for I will be near thee, thy troubles to bless,
and sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.

"When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,
my grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply;
the flame shall not hurt thee; I only design
thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.

"The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose,
I will not, I will not desert to its foes;
that soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I'll never, no, never, no, never forsake."

• Benediction: May the Word of God be active in you, piercing heart and soul like a two-edged sword, accomplishing the will of the Lord. Amen.

• Memory Verse: The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. (Isaiah 40:8)

• Memory Verse Aid: TGW, TFF, BTWOOG WSF. (I408)