Daily Word
Daily Bible Readings for the Week of the Twenty-third Sunday of Pentecost, Year Two
Scripture Text: Revelation 21:2
CLICK for online jigsaw of this week's Scripture graphic.
Join us for Morning Prayer in the chapel (well, in the counting room until the construction is finished), Monday through Friday* at 8:30am, where we read and discuss these Scriptures and pray together. We do the same during Vespers in the parsonage Sunday evenings at 6pm. Join us! The parsonage is across the street from the church.
Our readings for the week of the Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost are listed below. Each verse is linked and will open to Biblia so you may read online. Click the link to read online or read in your Bible. The additional reading each day speaks to the common conversation between the three readings.
Sunday: Revelation 21:1–4, 21:22–22:5; Hebrews 11:32–12:2; Matthew 5:1–12
The object of faith must, therefore, be God Himself solely and alone. Solely upon Him, and not upon his own merits, must man trust; and hence, in temptation he should wait upon the hand of God, who will act in his behalf, and in the midst of suffering bestow grace upon him
Charles E. Hay, “Translator’s Preface,” in The Theology of Luther in Its Historical Development and Inner Harmony, trans. Charles E. Hay, vol. 1 (Philadelphia: Lutheran Publication Society, 1897), 329.
Monday: Micah 2:1–13; Revelation 7:1–8; Luke 9:51–62
To enjoy communion with God it is necessary that the heart should put away all worldliness, and let its natural will be dead, so that God alone may live and work in us.
Julius Köstlin, Life of Luther, Second Edition (London; New York: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1895), 59.
Tuesday: Micah 3:1–8; Revelation 7:9–17; Luke 10:1–16
To all God’s servants this command is given: “He that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully;” and “deliver it they must, whether men will hear, or whether they will forbear.”
Charles Simeon, Horae Homileticae: Hosea to Malachi, vol. 10 (London: Holdsworth and Ball, 1832), 286.
Wednesday: Micah 3:9–4:5; Revelation 8:1–13; Luke 10:17–24
...after 1533, [Luther] was accustomed to remark that Christ destroyed the power of the devil and of hell, whither he went with soul and body. The later Lutheran theology recognised the descent as a real descent into hell. Christ, the God-man, after the resurrection and the reunion of his soul with his body, immediately before his reappearance on earth, i.e. early on Easter morning, went, body and soul, to the hell of the damned, the time which elapsed between his death on the cross and the resurrection having been spent in Paradise. The “descent into hell” was the first act accomplished by the God-man after his entrance into his divine unlimited power, and is therefore considered as the first degree of the state of exaltation. It thus constitutes also his first entering into possession of the kingdom of his power, and in the revelation of his victory over the devil, and the consequent inability of the latter to prevail against believers, whence the “descent” is also designated as “the triumph over the devil and his angels.” His preaching in hell is designated as condemnatory (legalis and damnatoria, Formula Concordiæ, art. 9).
John M’Clintock and James Strong, “Hell, Christ’s Descent Into,” in Cyclopædia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature (New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1891), 171–72.
Thursday: Micah 5:1–4, 10–15; Revelation 9:1–12; Luke 10:25–37
Whoever therefore, is a proud saint, wise or just, cannot become God’s material and receive God’s work within himself, but remains in his own work and makes an imaginary, seeming, false, and painted saint of himself, i.e., a hypocrite.” (183.) “For he whom Thou [God] dost justify will never become righteous by his works; hence it is called Thy righteousness, since Thou givest it to us by grace, and we do not obtain it by works.”
F. Bente, Historical Introductions to the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, electronic ed. (Concordia Publishing House, 1921), 126.
Friday: Micah 6:1–8; Revelation 9:13–21; Luke 10:38–42
Every attempt to substitute costly gifts, or gorgeous ceremonies, or showy processions, or lights, or music, or gestures, or anything bodily and sensuous, for the ritual of repentance, faith, fear, love, and self-consecration—consecration of the will and affections—to the service of Almighty God can only be made in ignorance of his character and mind as revealed to us in Holy Scripture. It is as truly superstitious as were Micah’s images, and teraphim, and ephod, and house of God. With the regard to the second, the outward accessories of worship must be of a kind to assist the worshipper in his endeavour to draw near to God and worship him with all the powers of his soul. Under the pretence of purely spiritual worship, it is very easy so to get rid of all outwards acts and circumstances as to get rid of worship itself. The light of religion in the soul cannot burn unless in an atmosphere which feeds the flame.
H. D. M. Spence-Jones, ed., Judges, The Pulpit Commentary (London; New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1909), 180.
Saturday: Micah 7:1–7; Revelation 10:1–11; Luke 11:1–13
O!” said Luther, “wait, ‘wait upon the Lord;’ we must attend and hold out, for He cometh most certainly at last. It is far better that we wait upon the Lord, than to betake ourselves to the Pope’s side, or to the Bishop of Mentz, by whom, notwithstanding, we have no hope; for they cannot help themselves, they are poor worm-sacks. I hear,” said Luther, “that Eck is dead; I am sorry for that unworthy man: I well hoped that he would have acknowledged his blaspheming of God, but he did not: he allowed himself in boasting, bragging, lechery, whoredom, &c., wherein he grew old, and by continual practice they became natural to him, insomuch that he is now dead and lost.”
Martin Luther, Luther’s Table Talk: Or, Some Choice Fragments from the Familiar Discourse of the Godly, Learned Man, and Famous Champion of God’s Truth (London; Dublin; Edinburgh; Newcastle upon Tyne: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green; Hatchard; Seeley; Rivingtons; W. Whyte and Co.; Finlay and Charlton, 1832), 253–54.
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Rev. Dr. Mark E. Ryman has served as a pastor for St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Salisbury, NC, since January 2021. Previously, Pastor Ryman served congregations in North Carolina and Ohio, as well as a call to specialized ministry with Sola Publishing.
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