The Wartburg Project

Daily Lectionary

September 2, 2024

September 1, 2024 September 3, 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.

1 Kings 18:20-40

20So Ahab sent word to all the people of Israel, and he assembled the prophets on Mount Carmel.
21Then Elijah approached all the people and said, “How long will you stagger around on two crutches? If the Lord is God, follow him. If Baal is God, follow him.” But the people did not answer him a single word.
22Then Elijah said to the people, “I am the only one left of the Lord's prophets, but the prophets of Baal total four hundred fifty men. 23Provide two bulls for us. Let them choose one bull for themselves and cut it up and place it on the firewood, but they are not to light the fire. I will prepare the other bull and place it on the firewood, but I will not light the fire. 24Then you will call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the Lord. The god who answers with fire, he is God.”
All the people said, “This proposal is good.”
25Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose for yourselves one bull, and you go first because there are so many of you. Call on the name of your god. But do not light the fire.”
26So they took the bull which had been given to them and prepared it. Then they called on the name of Baal from morning until noon, “Baal! Answer us!” But there was not a sound. No one answered. So they staggered[] around the altar which they had made.
27When noon came, Elijah mocked them: “Shout louder! He is a god, isn't he? He may be deep in thought or busy or on a journey. Perhaps he is asleep and will wake up!” 28So they cried out with a loud voice, and according to their practice they cut themselves with daggers and spears until their blood flowed. 29After noon, they kept up a prophetic frenzy until the time of the evening sacrifice, but there was no sound. No one answered. There was no response.
30Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come here to me.” So they came to him, and he repaired the altar of the Lord, which had been torn down. 31Elijah took twelve stones, one for each of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come and had proclaimed, “Your name shall be Israel.” 32He built the stones into an altar in the name of the Lord. Around it he made a trench big enough to hold twenty-five pounds[] of seed. 33He arranged the wood, cut up the bull, and placed it on the wood.
Then he said, “Fill four jars with water and pour it on the sacrifice and on the wood.” 34Then he said, “Do it again.” So they did it again. Then he said, “Do it a third time.” So they did it a third time. 35The water flowed all around the altar. It even filled the trench.
36When the time of the evening sacrifice had arrived, Elijah the prophet stood up and said, “O Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and that I have done all these things by your word. 37Answer me, Lord! Answer me so that this people will know that you, O Lord, are God and that you are turning their hearts back to you.”
38Fire from the Lord fell on the sacrifice and on the wood, the stones, and the dirt and consumed them. It even licked up the water in the trench. 39When all the people saw this, they fell on their knees and said, “The Lord, he is God! The Lord, he is God!”
40Elijah said to them, “Seize the prophets of Baal! Do not let a single one of them escape!” So they seized them, and Elijah brought them down to the Kishon River and slaughtered them there.

Ephesians 2:1-22

Made Alive in Christ by Grace
21You were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2in which you formerly walked when you followed the ways of this present world. You were following the ruler of the domain of the air, the spirit now at work in the people who disobey.
3Formerly, we all lived among them in the passions of our sinful flesh, as we carried out the desires of the sinful flesh and its thoughts. Like all the others, we were by nature objects of God's wrath.
4But God, because he is rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in trespasses. It is by grace you have been saved! 6He also raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. 7He did this so that, in the coming ages, he might demonstrate the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8Indeed, it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9not by works, so that no one can boast.
10For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared in advance so that we would walk in them.
United in Christ
11Therefore, remember that at one time, you Gentiles in the flesh—the ones who are called “uncircumcised” by those called “the circumcised” (which is performed physically by human hands)— 12remember that at that time you were separated from Christ, excluded from the citizenship of Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of the promise. You were without hope and without God in the world.
13But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14For he himself is our peace. He made the two groups one by destroying the wall of hostility that divided them 15when he abolished the law of commandments and regulations in his flesh. He did this to create in himself one new person out of the two, in this way making peace. 16And he did this to reconcile both to God in one body through the cross by putting the hostility to death on it.[] 17He also came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.[]
19So then, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of God's household. 20You have been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the Cornerstone. 21In him the whole building is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22In him you too are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.