Daily Lectionary

May 26, 2027

May 25, 2027 May 27, 2027

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 3:1-22

Everything in Its Time

3¹For everything there is an appointed time.

There is an appropriate time for every activity under heaven:

²a time to give birth and a time to die,

a time to plant and a time to uproot plants,

³a time to kill and a time to heal,

a time to tear down and a time to build,

⁴a time to weep and a time to laugh,

a time to mourn and a time to dance,

⁵a time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones,

a time to embrace and a time not to embrace,

⁶a time to search and a time to stop searching,

a time to keep and a time to throw away,

⁷a time to rip and a time to sew,

a time to be silent and a time to speak,

⁸a time to love and a time to hate,

a time for war and a time for peace.

⁹What does the worker gain from his hard work? ¹⁰I have seen the task which God has given the children of Adam to keep them busy. ¹¹He has made everything beautiful in its time. Yes, he has also put eternity in their hearts, yet it is not possible for man to understand the work that God has done from beginning to end.

¹²I know that there is nothing better for them than to be happy and enjoy good things^[] while they live. ¹³Also, when anyone eats, drinks, and experiences the good things that his hard work leads to—this is God's gift.

¹⁴I know that everything God does will last forever. Nothing can be added to it or taken away from it. God acts so that people will fear him. ¹⁵Whatever exists now has already been, and whatever will be has already been. God makes whatever has already passed come again.^[]

There Is No Justice

¹⁶I saw something else under the sun: In the place where justice should be, there was wickedness, and in the place for righteousness, there was wickedness. ¹⁷I said in my heart, “God will judge the righteous and the wicked. Yes, there will be a time for every case to be settled before God.”^[]

¹⁸So I said in my heart, “This is done so that God can test the children of Adam, so that they can see what animals they are if left to themselves.”^[] ¹⁹For the outcome^[] for the children of Adam and the outcome for animals is the same. One dies just like the other. All have the same breath. Mankind has no advantage over animals, because everything is vapor. ²⁰All go to the same place. All were from the dust, and to the dust all return. ²¹Who knows whether the spirit of the man goes upward, and the spirit^[] of the animal goes down into the earth?

²²So I saw that there is nothing better for man than to be happy in his activities, since that is his reward.^[] For who will show him what there will be after him?

John 7:14-31

¹⁴When the festival was already half over, Jesus went up to the temple courts and began to teach. ¹⁵The Jews were amazed and asked, “How does this man know what is written without being instructed?”

¹⁶Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but it comes from him who sent me. ¹⁷If anyone wants to do his will, he will know whether my teaching is from God or if I speak on my own. ¹⁸The one who speaks on his own is seeking his own glory. But he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him—that is the one who is true, and there is no unrighteousness in him. ¹⁹Didn't Moses give you the law? Yet none of you does what the law tells you. Why are you trying to kill me?”

²⁰“You have a demon!” the crowd answered. “Who is trying to kill you?”

²¹Jesus answered them, “I did one work, and you are all amazed. ²²Consider this: Because Moses has given you circumcision (not that it comes from Moses, but from the fathers), you circumcise a man even on the Sabbath. ²³If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry at me because I made a man completely well on the Sabbath? ²⁴Stop judging by outward appearance. Instead make a right judgment.”

²⁵Some of the people from Jerusalem were saying, “Isn't this the man they want to kill? ²⁶Yet, look! He's speaking openly, and they don't say a thing to him. Certainly the rulers have not concluded that he is the Christ, have they? ²⁷But we know where this man is from. When the Christ comes, no one will know where he is from.”

²⁸Then Jesus called out as he was teaching in the temple courts, “Yes, you know me, and you know where I am from. Yet I have not come on my own, but the one who sent me is real. You do not know him. ²⁹I know him because I am from him, and he sent me.”

³⁰So they tried to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his time had not yet come.

³¹But many in the crowd believed in him and asked, “When the Christ comes, he won't do more miraculous signs than this man, will he?”