The Wartburg Project

Daily Lectionary

May 28, 2024

May 27, 2024 May 29, 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 5:1-20

Empty Vows, Empty Words
51Watch your step when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen, rather than to give the kind of sacrifice fools give, for they do not know that they are doing wrong.[]
2Do not be hasty with your mouth, and in your heart do not be in a hurry to bring a matter before God, because God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few. 3As too much busyness leads to dreams, too many words lead to foolish talk.
4When you make a vow to God, do not delay in fulfilling it, for he takes no delight in fools. Fulfill whatever you have vowed. 5Better that you do not vow, than that you do make a vow and do not fulfill it. 6Do not let your mouth lead you into sin, and do not say to the temple official that the vow was a mistake. Why should God be angry because of what you say and ruin the work your hands have done?
7A lot of dreaming produces a lot of vapor. So does a lot of words.[] Instead, fear God.
Life Is Futile
8If you see the poor being oppressed, and you see the province being robbed of justice and fairness, do not be shocked about the situation, because one high official is watched by a higher one, and higher ones are over them! 9All officials take their cut of the profit from the land; even the king benefits from the fields.[]
10Anyone who loves money is never satisfied with money, and anyone who loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. This too is vanishing vapor.
11When goods increase, so do those who eat them. What profit, then, does the owner get, except to see these things with his eyes?
12The worker's sleep is sweet, whether he eats little or much, but a rich person's abundant possessions allow him no sleep.
13I have seen a sickening evil under the sun—wealth hoarded by its owner to his own harm, 14or wealth that is lost in a bad investment. Or a man fathers a son, but he has nothing left in his hand to give him. 15As he came out from his mother's womb, so he will go again, naked as he came. From his hard work he can pick up nothing that he can carry away in his hand. 16This too is a sickening evil: Just as he came, so he will go. So what does he gain, he who works for the wind? 17Besides this, during all his days he eats in darkness, with great frustration, sickness, and anger.
18So then, here is what I have seen to be good: It is beautiful to eat, to drink, and to look for good in all a person's hard work which he has done under the sun, during the few days of his life that God has given him, for that is his reward. 19Likewise, for everyone to whom God has given wealth and riches, if God has also given him ability to eat from it, to enjoy his reward,[] and to rejoice in the results of his hard work—this is a gift of God, 20for the man seldom reflects on the days of his life, since God keeps him busy with the joy in his heart.

John 8:1-20

The Adulteress
81But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2Early in the morning, he came back into the temple courts. And all the people kept coming to him. He sat down and taught them.
3Then the experts in the law and Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery and had her stand in the center. 4“Teacher,” they said to him, “this woman was caught in the act of committing adultery. 5In the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” 6They asked this to test him, so that they might have evidence to accuse him.
Jesus bent down and started writing on the ground with his finger. 7But when they kept on asking him for an answer, he stood up and said to them, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8Then he stooped down again and wrote on the ground.
9When they heard this, they went away one by one, beginning with the older men. Jesus was left alone with the woman in the center. 10Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
11“No one, Lord,” she answered.
Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin anymore.”
Jesus Is the Light of the World
12When Jesus spoke to them again, he said, “I am the Light of the World. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
13So the Pharisees said to him, “You testify about yourself. Your testimony is not valid.”
14“Even if I testify about myself,” Jesus replied, “my testimony is valid, because I know where I came from and where I am going. But you do not know where I came from or where I am going. 15You judge according to the flesh. I am not judging anyone. 16But even if I were to judge, my judgment would be true, because I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent me. 17Even in your law it is written that the testimony of two people is valid. 18I am one who testifies about myself, and the Father who sent me testifies about me.”
19Then they asked him, “Where is your Father?”
“You do not know me or my Father,” Jesus answered. “If you knew me, you would also know my Father.”
20He spoke these words while teaching in the temple area near the offering box. But no one arrested him, because his time had not arrived yet.