The Wartburg Project

Daily Lectionary

May 27, 2024

May 26, 2024 May 28, 2024

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.

Ecclesiastes 4:1-16

41I looked again, and I saw all the acts of oppression being done under the sun. Just look at the tears of the oppressed, who have no one to comfort them! Their violent oppressors had the upper hand, and there was no one to comfort them.
2So I congratulate the dead, who already have died, more than the living, who are still alive. 3But better than either of them is the one who has never existed, who has never seen the evil done under the sun.
4I also saw that all hard work and all accomplishment are the result of a person's envy of his neighbor. This too is vapor and chasing the wind.
5The fool idly folds his hands and eats his own flesh. 6Better one handful with relaxation than two handfuls with hard work and chasing the wind.
7I looked again and saw another example of meaningless vapor under the sun: 8There was a single person all alone, without even a son or a brother, and there was no end to all his hard work. His eyes also were not satisfied with wealth. “So for whom am I working so hard,” he asks, “and depriving myself of enjoyment?” This too is vapor and a miserable task.
9Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their hard work. 10If one of them falls, his companion can lift him up. Pity the person who falls and has no one else to lift him up. 11What's more, if two lie down, they can keep warm, but how can one person keep warm alone? 12Though an attacker can overpower one person, two people together can stand up against him. A rope with three strands is not quickly snapped.
13Better a poor but wise child than an old but foolish king, who no longer knows enough to pay attention to a warning, 14for he came out of prison to rule as king, even though he had been born poor in the land that became his kingdom.[] 15I saw that all the living, all those people walking under the sun, sided with the king's successor, the child who took his place. 16There was no end to all the people who were before them. Yet people who come later will not be pleased with him. This too is vapor and chasing the wind.

John 7:32-53

32The Pharisees heard the crowd whispering these things about him, so the chief priests and the Pharisees sent temple guards to arrest him.
33Then Jesus said, “I am going to be with you only a little while longer. Then I am going away to the one who sent me. 34You will be looking for me and will not find me, and where I am going to be, you cannot come.”
35Then the Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? He does not intend to go to the Jews scattered among the Greeks and teach the Greeks, does he? 36What does he mean by saying, ‘You will be looking for me and will not find me, and where I am going to be, you cannot come’?”
37On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and called out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink! 38As the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from deep within the person who believes in me.” 39By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were going to receive. For the Holy[] Spirit had not yet come, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.
40After hearing his words, some of the people said, “This is truly the Prophet.” 41Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some said, “Surely the Christ does not come from Galilee, does he? 42Doesn't the Scripture say that the Christ comes from David's descendants and from the little town of Bethlehem where David lived?” 43So the people were divided because of him. 44Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.
45Then the guards came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn't you bring him in?”
46The guards answered, “No one ever spoke the way this man does!”
47So the Pharisees answered them, “You have not been deceived too, have you? 48Have any of the rulers or Pharisees believed in him? 49But this crowd, which does not know the law, is cursed!”
50One of them, Nicodemus, who had come to Jesus earlier, asked, 51“Does our law condemn a man before we hear from him and find out what he's doing?”
52“You are not from Galilee too, are you?” they replied. “Search and you will see that a prophet does not come from Galilee.”
53Then each of them went home.[]