The Wartburg Project

Daily Lectionary

October 6, 2023

October 5, 2023 October 7, 2023

These daily readings from the EHV follow the one-year daily lectionary provided in Christian Worship: Hymnal, the Lutheran Service Book, and the Treasury of Daily Prayer. In this lectionary, two readings of 15-25 verses each are provided for each day. Under this plan, nearly all of the New Testament and approximately one-third of the Old Testament are read each year. These readings fit well within the daily offices of Matins, Vespers, or Compline as daily family devotions.

Deuteronomy 5:22-6:9

22These are the words the Lord spoke to your whole assembly at the mountain from the middle of the fire, the thick cloud, and the gloom, with a loud voice, and he did not add anything. He wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me. 23When you heard the voice from the middle of the darkness while the mountain was burning with fire, you approached me—all the heads of your tribes and your elders.
24Then you said, “See how the Lord our God has shown us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice from the middle of the fire. Today we have seen that a man can live even though God has spoken to him. 25But now, why should we die, because this great fire will consume us? If we continue to hear the voice of the Lord our God any longer, we will die. 26For who of all flesh has ever heard the voice of the living God speaking from the middle of fire as we have and has lived? 27You go near and listen to everything that the Lord our God says, and then you speak to us everything that the Lord our God speaks to you, and we will hear and do it.”
28The Lord heard what you said when you spoke to me. So the Lord said to me, “I heard what these people said when they spoke to you. Everything that they spoke to you is good. 29If only this would be in their hearts—to fear me and to keep all my commandments always, so that it might go well for them and for their children continually. 30Go and say to them, ‘Go back to your tents.’ 31As for you, stand here with me and I will speak to you all the commands and the statutes and the ordinances that you are to teach them and that they are to do in the land that I am giving them as a possession. 32Tell them:[] ‘Be conscientious about doing just as the Lord your God commanded you. Do not turn aside to the right or to the left. 33Walk in every way the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live and it may be good for you and you may live long in the land that you will possess.’”
61Moses spoke as follows:[]
Now this is the body of commands, and these are the statutes and the ordinances that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, so you may carry them out in the land to which you are crossing over to receive as a possession, 2so that you may fear the Lord your God by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I am commanding to you, as well as to your children and grandchildren, all the days of your life, and so that your days may be long.
3Listen, O Israel, and be conscientious about doing those things, so it may go well for you and so you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your fathers, promised you. 4Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God. The Lord is one! 5Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul[] and with all your might. 6These words that I am commanding you today are to be on your heart. 7Teach them diligently to your children, and speak about them when you sit in your house and when you walk on the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8Tie them as a sign on your wrists, and they will serve as symbols on your forehead. 9Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Matthew 9:1-17

Jesus Forgives Sins
(Mark 2:1-12; Luke 5:17-26)
91Jesus got into a boat, crossed over, and came to his own town. 2There people brought to him a man who was paralyzed, lying on a stretcher. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Take heart, son! Your sins are forgiven.”
3Then some of the experts in the law said among themselves, “This fellow is blaspheming!”
4Since Jesus knew their thoughts, he said, “Why are you thinking evil in your hearts? 5Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? 6But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,” he then said to the paralyzed man, “Get up, take your stretcher, and go home.”
7The man got up and went home. 8When the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe and glorified God, who had given such authority to men.
Calling of Matthew
(Mark 2:13-17; Luke 5:27-32)
9As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting in the tax collector's booth. He said to him, “Follow me.” Matthew got up and followed him.
10As Jesus was reclining at the table in Matthew's house, many tax collectors and sinners were actually there too, eating with Jesus and his disciples. 11When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
12When Jesus heard this, he said to them, “The healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do. 13Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’[] In fact, I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
A Question About Fasting
(Mark 2:18-22; Luke 5:33-39)
14Then John's disciples came to him and said, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast at all?”
15Jesus said to them, “Can the attendants of the bridegroom mourn while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast. 16No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, because the patch would tear away from the garment, and the hole would be made even worse. 17And people do not pour new wine into old wineskins. If they did, the skins would burst, the wine would be spilled, and the skins would be ruined. Instead they pour new wine into fresh wineskins. By doing that, both are preserved.”