Pr. DFD

Friday, September 18, 2026

September 19– Saturday prior to Pentecost 17 (Proper 20)

1 John 3:17 - Our reading is the inspiration for the hymn, “We Give Thee But Thine Own.” How does this hymn harmonize with our theme for today? It emphasizes our stewardship of life and harmonizes with the Gospel with its emphasis on working in the Lord’s Kingdom. How has the Lord blessed your life? How will you return a portion to Him this coming week?

The many ways that God has provided for our needs are apparent to anyone with eyes to see. God created the sun to give light by day and the moon and stars to give light by night. The sun warms the earth, making it habitable. Its warmth causes seeds to sprout in abundance, and plants respond to its light with a process called photosynthesis, which is essential to our food supply. God gives us air to breathe and water to drink.

The author of “We give Thee but Thine Own” was William Walsham How (1823-1897), an Anglican bishop. He was known as “the poor man’s bishop” because of his concern for the poor—and “the omnibus bishop” because he used public transportation rather than a private carriage for travels around town.

Bishop How wrote a number of hymns that reflect his concern for expressing the Gospel in terms that the average person could understand. This hymn is a good example. It speak of stewardship, not as a church budget concern, but as acknowledgement of the blessings that we have received from God.[1]

We give Thee but Thine own,

Whate’er the gift may be;

All that we have is Thine alone,

A trust, O Lord, from Thee.

[1] https://sermonwriter.com/hymn-stories/give-thee-thine/

Thursday, September 17, 2026

September 18 – Friday prior to Pentecost 17 (Proper 20)

Matthew 20:1-16 - The parable of the laborers in the vineyard in the Gospel lesson for this coming week reminds us that God’s generosity is equal to all. When payment time came for the laborers in the vineyard, it was learned that each was to receive equal pay regardless of hours worked. The reward is the same in the kingdom whether we enter early or late. The thief on the cross receives the same reward as the faithful Christian who lives eighty plus years. Are we to spurn God’s generosity?

When Jesus repeats Himself pay attention. He never wastes words. He’s not taking up dead air space. He’s speaking an intense and powerful truth. Never shallow. Always sincere. Jesus tells us “Many who are first will be last and the last first.” He speaks these words with respect to Peter’s response.

Pious Peter. He speaks for Himself. He speaks for the twelve. He speaks for you. Peter reminds the Lord what he has done. He has sacrificed He’s gone without.

He’s given up, forgone and forfeited many things for Jesus’ sake. “See we have left everything and followed you Jesus. What then will we have?”

Jesus’ parable is a reaction to Peter's question. "We’ve given up everything." “What's in it for us?” he asks. Jesus tells this parable because mercy is being challenged. Who are you to spurn God’s mercy?

I mentioned this a week or so ago yet it bears repeating. Faith believes that God is not a Divine Accountant or Probation Officer. Rather, He’s an indulgent father. Who throws a party for his indigent son. He’s like an employer. Who pays employees a full day’s wage. Even though they only worked an hour. He’s like a lavish wedding host. Who provides copious amounts of only the best and finest wine. He’s your Good Shepherd. Content to leave behind ninety-nine of His herd in safety. Who will risk all. To save just one, that is lost.

A Prayer For Home and Family -Visit, we implore You, O Lord, the homes in which Your people dwell, and keep far from them all harm and danger. Grant us to dwell together in peace under the protection of Your holy angels, and may Your blessing be with us forever, through Jesus Christ, our Lord.[1]

Wednesday, September 16, 2026

September 17 – Thursday prior to Pentecost 17 (Proper 20)

Philippians 1:1-5; 6-11; 19-27 - Our Epistle lesson for this week speaks of the generosity of Christ both in life and in death. Paul finds life on earth is Christ while the anticipation of death is gain. Paul says he does not know whether to live or die, because death would mean heaven and a closer relationship with Christ, his greatest reward. Thus our life here on earth is nothing but preparation for our life to be lived in glory.

During the summer months we went through a systematic and organized series of reading through Paul’s letter to the church in Rome. This coming week we will consider the opening lines of his letter to the Philippian congregation. He begins by writing with a greeting, “Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." (1:1-2)

The course and flow of God’s good work in us is seen in Paul’s prayer (Philippians 1:9-11). God’s good work begins with love (verse 9). But, Paul’s hope is that this deep and passionate commitment to love might overflow with “knowledge and insight” (verse 9). This is an appeal that their love might be right-sighted; that they might be wise and judicious in their actions, so that when the day of Christ comes they might prove to be “pure and blameless” (verse 10). Perhaps the best way to understand this is to speak of an intense and blemish-free reflection of the life and love of Christ.

A final note here is that Paul anticipates that it is through their devotion to Jesus Christ and their life in Him, that the Philippians will have produced a harvest of righteousness (Philippians 1:11) -- that is, plainly understood, they will have embraced the challenge of living and establishing justice. [1]

Collect for Proper 20 – Lord God heavenly Father, since we cannot stand before You relying on anything we have done, help us trust in Your abiding grace and live according to Your Word; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.[2]

[1] https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2695

Tuesday, September 15, 2026

September 16 – Wednesday prior to Pentecost 17 (Proper 20)

Isaiah 55:6-9 - Generosity of mercy to all who return. In Sunday’s first reading, the prophet’s hearers are encouraged to seek God and return to Him for mercy and pardon. God’s thoughts and ways are totally different from ours. This truth is illustrated in today’s reading, the parable of laborers in the vineyard.

If God were like the world, he would not take back his enemies and freely pardon them. The world, rather, would seek revenge and treat enemies with hatred. We, by our nature, do not love or seek reconciliation. We hate and kill and never, never forgive. God is so different — thank God for that! Those who return to the Lord in repentance will receive mercy and pardon. The same thought is echoed in the much-loved hymn, “Just as I Am” as the hymn writer reminds us that the Lord will welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve.

If you ask God for forgiveness, can you be sure that He grants it? What are the qualities to which God responds? With what urgency should you seek Him? This passage presents one of the great assurances in the Bible that God does hear and respond to sincere request for forgiveness.

Seek the Lord urgently. Our seeking must be "while he may be found . . . while He is near." God would not be God if He were no more than a cosmic houseboy to be summoned at our whim. There are moments of time and windows of opportunity when we must seek God. St. Paul insists, "now is the accepted time...now is the day of salvation." -2 Corinthians 6: 2

The assurance of our forgiveness rests in the character of God Himself. To be God, He must stand true to His promise. We can be sure of seeking and finding forgiveness.

God’s pardon and forgiveness is:

Available to all

Abundant and free

Amazing and certain

Keep, we pray O Lord, Your church with Your perpetual mercy. Because without You we cannot but fall, keep us ever by Your help from all things hurtful, and lead us to all things profitable.[1]

[1] Collect for Proper 20, Lutheran Service Book © 2006 Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis Image Schnorr von Carolsfeld woodcut "The Crucifixion" copyright © WELS used with permission for personal and congregational use

Monday, September 14, 2026

September 15, – Tuesday prior to Pentecost 17 (Proper 20)

Psalm 27:1-9 - This week’s Psalm is David’s triumphant prayer to God to deliver him from all those who conspire to bring him down. The prayer presupposes the Lord’s covenant with David. It is faith which publicly testifies to the Psalmist’s confident reliance on the Lord.

When it got dark in biblical times, they lit lamps -- not the brilliant LED lanterns you can purchase today, but simple pottery lamps, with a single wick and flame, casting just enough light to see a short ways ahead. Psalm 119:105 says, “Your Word is a lamp to my feet, a light to my path.” If we follow God’s will, we do not know what the road will look like in a few miles or years. God gives us just a pottery lamp’s worth of light, just enough to take a few more steps. You have to trust God with that kind of light.

“The Lord is my light; whom shall I fear?” We fear the future -- but with God as our light, that small flicker banishes the darkness, and we are not alone.

“One thing I asked of the Lord; that will I seek after; to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple” (verse 4) is one of the Bible’s most eloquent, emotionally powerful, visionary verses, well worth memorizing, or installing as your life’s mission statement, etching it into the core of your soul.

So many pregnant phrases in Psalm 27 beg for reflection.

“Now my head is lifted up” (verse 6) -- that we do not hang our heads any longer, but look forward, with dignity, because of God's salvation.

“Your face, Lord, do I seek” (verse 8) -- for we do not seek some vague, ephemeral deity, but a God with a human face, the compassionate, strong face of Jesus, God become like us.

“I believe I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living,” (verse 13) -- that faith is not merely about the pledge of eternal life in another world, but it is in this world, not merely some spiritual realm, but the real, physical world, in my body, in my neighborhood, in politics, in economics, everywhere that is anywhere now.[1]

Prayer for Psalm 27 – Gracious Father, protector of those who hope in you, You heard the cry of your Son and kept him safe in your shelter in the day of evil. Grant that your servants who seek your face in times of trouble may see your goodness in the land of he living; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. [2]

[1] https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1872

Sunday, September 13, 2026

September 14 – Monday prior to Pentecost 17 (Proper 20)

Psalm 116:12-13, 15 - Antiphon, verse 17: “I will offer to You the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the Lord.” – This psalm is a song of deliverance from death. David or another king such as Hezekiah may have written it. (See Isaiah 38:10-20)

Isaiah sets the tone reminding us Hezekiah was sick and near death. Isaiah the prophet went to him and said to him, "Thus says the LORD: 'Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.'"

The King responds, “In the prime of my life must I go through the gates of death and be robbed of the rest of my years?” Death is no respecter of persons. It will strike at any time to persons young and old alike, even those in the prime of their life.

Hezekiah had looked forward to a long life, and to a prosperous and peaceful reign. Then he became ill and everything changed. Sickness often has this effect on the minds of people. It changes our focus.

Hezekiah did recover and went on to purify and repair the Temple, purged its idols, and reformed the priesthood. He is one of the kings mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew. (Matthew 1:10)

Recovery from illness, from trauma and stress can have a profound effect on people. It brings back to our memory the times in which the Lord was with us as we recall His guiding hand.

Today is Holy Cross Day. A day we remember our Savior; the wounded healer who carried our sin and sickness to the cross. Isaiah would later write, “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” -Isaiah 53:4-6

As you recall the mercies of your Savior respond with words of praise and acts of mercy to your neighbor. For the Lord has had mercy upon us.

Prayer for Holy Cross (September 14) – Merciful God Your Son Jesus Christ was lifted high upon a cross that He might bear the sins of the world and draw all people to Himself. Grant that we who glory in His death for our redemption may faithfully heed His call to bear the cross and follow Him;[1]

Prayer for Psalm 116 – God of power and mercy, through the Passion and resurrection of your Son you have freed us from the bonds of death and the anguish of separation from you. Be with us on our pilgrimage, and help us offer you a sacrifice of praise, fulfill our vows, and glorify you in the presence of all your people; through Jesus Christ our Lord. [2]

Saturday, September 12, 2026

Proper 20 (Pentecost 17)

Proper 20

Series A

Isaiah 55:6–9

Philippians 1:12–14, 19–30

Matthew 20:1–16

Disciples Live in Their Vocations by Grace through Faith in Christ

Those who are sent as “laborers for his vineyard” (Matthew 20:1) depict the wide diversity of vocations to which the disciples of Christ Jesus are called. Whatever our particular stations in life may be, we are called to live and serve by faith in His promises. Our labors do not merit anything before Him, for He is already generous to one and all without partiality. In mercy He has chosen to bear “the burden of the day and the scorching heat” on our behalf, to make us equal to Himself and to give us what belongs to Him, that is, the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 20:12–15). This way of the Lord is foolishness to the world and foreign to our thoughts, but He draws near, so that “he may be found” (Isaiah 55:6), “he may have compassion” and “abundantly pardon” (Isaiah 55:7). So it is that we are found in Christ Jesus, and He is honored in our bodies, “whether by life or by death” (Philippians 1:20), by “fruitful labor” (Philippians 1:22) or by suffering. It is by faith in His forgiveness that our works are “worthy of the Gospel” (Philippians 1:27).

In the Lessons for this week the Gospel, as usual, gives the key to the theme of the day. When a payment time comes for the laborers in the vineyard, it was learned that each was to receive equal pay regardless of hours worked. The reward is the same in the Kingdom whether we enter early or late. They who return to the Lord (Old Testament reading) will receive mercy and pardon. In the Epistle lesson, Paul says he does not know whether to live or die, because death would mean a closer relationship with Christ, his greatest reward. The Lord is good to all. The suggested Psalm relates to the Old Testament lesson –“seek the Lord.”

Collect for Proper 20 “Lord God heavenly Father, since we cannot stand before You relying on anything we have done, help us trust in Your abiding grace and live according to Your Word; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who live4s and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.” Amen

Matthew 20:1-16

The parable of the laborers in the vineyard in the Gospel lesson for this coming week reminds us that God’s generosity is equal to all. When payment time came for the laborers in the vineyard, it was learned that each was to receive equal pay regardless of hours worked. The reward is the same in the kingdom whether we enter early or late. The thief on the cross receives the same reward as the faithful Christian who lives eighty plus years. Are we to spurn God’s generosity?

Laborers in the Vineyard

20:1

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.

Ὁμοία γάρ ἐστιν ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν ἀνθρώπῳ οἰκοδεσπότῃ ὅστις ἐξῆλθεν ἅμα πρωῒ μισθώσασθαι ἐργάτας εἰς τὸν ἀμπελῶνα αὐτοῦ.

20:2

After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius[a] a day, he sent them into his vineyard.

συμφωνήσας δὲ μετὰ τῶν ἐργατῶν ἐκ δηναρίου τὴν ἡμέραν ἀπέστειλεν αὐτοὺς εἰς τὸν ἀμπελῶνα αὐτοῦ.

20:3

And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace,

καὶ ἐξελθὼν περὶ τρίτην ὥραν εἶδεν ἄλλους ἑστῶτας ἐν τῇ ἀγορᾷ ἀργούς·

20:4

and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’

καὶ ἐκείνοις εἶπεν· Ὑπάγετε καὶ ὑμεῖς εἰς τὸν ἀμπελῶνα, καὶ ὃ ἐὰν ᾖ δίκαιον δώσω ὑμῖν·

20:5

So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same.

οἱ δὲ ἀπῆλθον. [b]πάλιν ἐξελθὼν περὶ ἕκτην καὶ ἐνάτην ὥραν ἐποίησεν ὡσαύτως.

20:6

And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’

περὶ δὲ τὴν ἑνδεκάτην ἐξελθὼν εὗρεν ἄλλους ἑστῶτας, καὶ λέγει αὐτοῖς· Τί ὧδε ἑστήκατε ὅλην τὴν ἡμέραν ἀργοί;

20:7

They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’

λέγουσιν αὐτῷ· Ὅτι οὐδεὶς ἡμᾶς ἐμισθώσατο. λέγει αὐτοῖς· Ὑπάγετε καὶ ὑμεῖς εἰς τὸν [e]ἀμπελῶνα.

20:8

And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’

ὀψίας δὲ γενομένης λέγει ὁ κύριος τοῦ ἀμπελῶνος τῷ ἐπιτρόπῳ αὐτοῦ· Κάλεσον τοὺς ἐργάτας καὶ ἀπόδος [f]αὐτοῖς τὸν μισθὸν ἀρξάμενος ἀπὸ τῶν ἐσχάτων ἕως τῶν πρώτων.

20:9

And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius.

καὶ ἐλθόντες οἱ περὶ τὴν ἑνδεκάτην ὥραν ἔλαβον ἀνὰ δηνάριον.