St. Paul Calendar

Crawford House

Color: Green

Old Testament: Amos 5:18–24
Psalm: Psalm 70; antiphon: v. 4
Epistle: 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18
Gospel: Matthew 25:1–13
Introit: Psalm 84:1, 9–12; antiphon: v. 3
Gradual: Revelation 7:14b; Psalm 84:5
Verse: Matthew 25:13

The Gospel Prepares Us for Our Heavenly Bridegroom’s Coming
 
The Day of the Lord is “darkness, and not light” (Amos 5:18, 20) for all who trust in their own righteousness and piety. The Lord will not accept their “burnt offerings and grain offerings,” nor will He look upon their “peace offerings” (Amos 5:22). Instead, He desires a heart of faith that trusts in Him, which lets “justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” (Amos 5:24) in love for the neighbor. In order for the “lamps” of our lives to burn brightly with such love, we must be filled with the “oil” of forgiveness through faith in our Bridegroom, Jesus Christ (Matt. 25:1–4). Therefore, as we await His coming, wisdom directs us “to the dealers” (Matt. 25:9), that is, to the ministers of His Gospel. Thus we wait upon the Lord, and we “encourage one another with these words” (1 Thess. 4:18). Waking or sleeping, we are prepared to meet Him when He comes “with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God,” and “we will always be with the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:16, 17).

Lectionary summary © 2021 The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Used by permission. http://lcms.org/worship

Color: Green

Old Testament: Zephaniah 1:7–16
Psalm: Psalm 90:1–12; antiphon: v. 17
Epistle: 1 Thessalonians 5:1–11
Gospel: Matthew 25:14–30
Introit: Psalm 143:2, 5–6, 10–11; antiphon: v. 1
Gradual: Revelation 7:14b; Psalm 84:5
Verse: Matthew 25:29a

God’s Gift of Forgiveness Engenders Our Forgiveness of Others
 
The Day of the Lord is “near and hastening fast,” and it will be “a day of distress and anguish, a day of ruin and devastation” (Zeph. 1:14, 15). The Lord will search out and punish “the men who are complacent” concerning His Word, “who fill their master’s house with violence and fraud” (Zeph. 1:9, 12). Then all their works and efforts will be for nothing: “Though they build houses, they shall not inhabit them; though they plant vineyards, they shall not drink wine from them” (Zeph. 1:13). But those who fear, love and trust in the Lord are “good and faithful” stewards of His property (Matt. 25:21). They live by faith in His free gift of forgiveness, and they multiply His goods in the loving forgiveness of their neighbor, and “the master of those servants” settles His accounts with them by the gracious reckoning of His Gospel (Matt. 25:19). Likewise, “God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. 5:9). Therefore, let us also “put on the breastplate of faith and love” in our dealings with one another (1 Thess. 5:8). 

Lectionary summary © 2021 The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Used by permission. http://lcms.org/worship

Color: Green

Old Testament: Ezekiel 34:11–16, 20–24
Psalm: Psalm 95:1–7a; antiphon: v. 7a
Epistle: 1 Corinthians 15:20–28
Gospel: Matthew 25:31–46
Introit: Psalm 39:4–5a, 7–8, 12; antiphon: 2 Peter 3:13 NIV
Gradual: Revelation 7:14b; Psalm 84:5
Verse: Revelation 22:13

By the Cross of Christ, We Enter the Kingdom of Our God and Father
 
When the crucified and risen Lord Jesus comes to judge the living and the dead, “he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats” (Matt. 25:32). “To those on his right,” who have been crucified and raised with Him through repentance and faith in His Gospel, He will grant the blessed kingdom of His Father (Matt. 25:34). Having been justified by His grace, they live unto righteousness in Him (Matt. 25:35–40). But “those on his left,” who trust in themselves and despise their neighbor, will depart “into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matt. 25:41). Until that day, the Lord searches for His sheep “as a shepherd seeks out his flock” (Ezek. 34:11–12). Through His preaching of repentance, He disciplines the proud sheep and goats, “the fat and the strong,” but through the preaching of forgiveness He rescues the lost, binds up the injured, strengthens the weak and feeds “the lean sheep” (Ezek. 34:16, 20). In this way, He destroys the power of death in the children of Adam by His cross, so that “in Christ shall all be made alive” by His resurrection (1 Cor. 15:20–26).

Lectionary summary © 2021 The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Used by permission. http://lcms.org/worship

Color: Blue

Old Testament: Isaiah 64:1–9
Psalm: Psalm 80:1–7; antiphon: v. 7
Epistle: 1 Corinthians 1:3–9
Gospel: Mark 11:1–10
Gospel: Mark 13:24–37
Introit: Psalm 25:1–3; antiphon: Zechariah 9:9b, alt.
Gradual: Zechariah 9:9; Psalm 118:26, alt.
Verse: Psalm 24:7

The Lord Jesus Comes in Meekness and Humility to Save Us
 
Although we pray that God “would rend the heavens and come down” (Is. 64:1), that He would take vengeance against our enemies, we ourselves “have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment” (Is. 64:6). We have continued in our sins for “a long time, and shall we be saved?” (Is. 64:5). Yet, the Lord does not punish us in anger. He comes in voluntary meekness and humility to save us by His grace. Just as He once came into Jerusalem to sacrifice Himself for us upon the cross (Mark 11:4–8), He still comes to His Church with the fruits of His Passion. By His ministry of the Gospel, we are “enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge,” and so He will “sustain you to the end” (1 Cor. 1:5, 8). Although “heaven and earth will pass away,” His words “will not pass away” (Mark 13:31). As He sends disciples to call us to Himself in the fellowship of His Church, so will He “send out the angels” to gather us and all of His elect “from the ends of the earth” to Himself in heaven forever (Mark 13:27).

Lectionary summary © 2021 The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Used by permission. http://lcms.org/worship

Color: Red

Old Testament: Ezekiel 3:16–21
Psalm: Psalm 139:1–12; antiphon: v. 17
Epistle: Romans 10:8b–18
Gospel: John 1:35–42a
Introit: Psalm 89:1, 5, 15–16; antiphon: John 15:27
Gradual: Romans 10:15b, 18b; Isaiah 52:7b, alt.
Verse: John 1:39a

St. Andrew, Apostle
 
The old church year ends with the watchman’s cry (Matt. 25:6), and the new one begins with it (Ezek. 3:17): John the Baptist’s call of warning and repentance, which St. Andrew heard and heeded. But John’s forerunning task was chiefly to point his disciples to Jesus, “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29, 36). Thus, Andrew became the first of Christ’s disciples. He, in turn, pointed his brother Simon Peter to the Messiah (John 1:41), and “immediately they left their nets and followed” the Christ (Matt. 4:20). “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news” (Rom. 10:15). Andrew’s eagerness to follow Christ and bring others to Him made “no distinction between Jew and Greek” (Rom. 10:12; John 12:20–22), and he may be counted as the first missionary. His zeal in following Christ led him, according to tradition, to face a martyr’s death on an X-shaped cross. So we are directed at the beginning of Advent to focus our eyes on Christ’s cross, where God’s Lamb was offered for our salvation.

Lectionary summary © 2021 The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Used by permission. http://lcms.org/worship