November 27, 2025

Today's Reading: Luke 17:11-19

Daily Lectionary: Isaiah 1:1-28; 1 Peter 1:1-12

“[the lepers] lifted up their voices, saying, ‘Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.’” (Luke 17:13)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Today, we celebrate the blessed and historic feast of American Thanksgiving and try to keep the sarcasm off our faces. Pilgrims and Indians ate together, got along perfectly, and avoided arguing about politics. If you sprinkle some Jesus on it, there’s a sermon in there about who you’re thankful to. The problem is, I’m bad at it. All I can do is hang onto the losses. The what could have beens. I can come up with something to say at the table, but my heart just isn’t in it most years.

I believe that God has made me and all creatures; that He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still takes care of them. He also gives me a long list of stuff I can’t list here because of word counts. This is most certainly true. Still, it’s easier to find two things missing than all the ones there. That’s why trying to be more thankful doesn’t work for long. We don’t need Thanksgiving sermons here. We need Jesus healing the least of these. Us.

This is more than just a reminder to look on the bright side. Leprosy sermons aren’t about feeling better with your lot in life; they’re about Jesus helping people who can’t help themselves. He’s not with the worthy, but the outcasts, the unclean, and even helps those who don’t know what thankfulness really is. Even the nine who fail to return are still healed. Because Christ isn’t in it for the thank yous. He did it because He loves them. He bears the cross for them. And He loves you. It isn’t measured in how many things you can list at the table to give thanks for. It’s measured in the cross.

Only Samaritan was truly thankful because thankfulness isn’t halfhearted praise, but going back to the source for more. True thankfulness is getting seconds because that means more to whoever cooked for you all day than anything else. Go to the Thanksgiving Meal. The Eucharist. Communion. Then, go back for more. Thanksgiving is just returning to it over and over, heaping everything else that wasn’t enough on a pile, and rejoicing in forgiveness and mercy for it all.

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Even so, Lord, quickly come To Thy final harvest home; Gather Thou Thy people in, Free from sorrow, free from sin, There, forever purified, In Thy garner to abide: Come with all Thine angels, come, Raise the glorious harvest home. (LSB 892:4)

Author: Rev. Harrison Goodman, content executive for Higher Things.

Audio Reflections Speaker: Rev. Richard Heinz, pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church in Lowell, IN.

This new devotional resource by Carl Fickenscher walks you through each week’s readings, revealing thematic connections and helping you better understand what is to come in worship each Sunday.

November 26, 2025

Today's Reading: Revelation 22:1-21

Daily Lectionary: Daniel 6:1-28; Daniel 9:1-27; Revelation 22:1-21

“Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates.” (Revelation 22:14)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

The Bible ends with hope. Christ will return soon. The faithful pray, “Amen. Come Lord Jesus,” and the grace of the Lord Jesus is with them all. If there’s that much hope, it can endure even when the evildoer still does evil. The filthy will still be filthy. The righteous still do right, and the holy still are holy. Don’t worry. Hope. And in hope, live. It’s going to look messy. As we live closer each day to the last when Christ returns, the evil and the holy will live alongside one another. It will look so messy that at times, we’ll lose sight of who is who. We find ourselves in plenty of filth, committing plenty of sin, and arguing about the right context of it all so we can appear righteous. Every war is fought so that the winner can proclaim their deeds righteous at the end and vilify the loser. Every sinner knows the pattern of self-justification. People blame others. People excuse themselves. So do you. Everyone will just keep doing what we’re doing until the end. But the Lord sees through the mess as to who is who. Not by your excuses. Not by your self-justifications. By His water. By His grace. By His Baptism.

You who have been baptized, who have washed your robes, have the right to the Tree of Life. Even your sin can’t take that right from you. For Jesus has taken that sin away through your Baptism. You are holy. Jesus makes you that way through your Baptism. Let the one who is holy still be holy. It’s just who you are. Even when you fall into sin. Daily, you are washed clean again. That’s why, in faith, you worship Christ. Keep doing what you’re doing. Take your sin to Jesus. Let the one who is thirsty take the water of life without price. Rejoice in your Baptism. Live in hope. The end will be soon. But even while it’s messy, never worry about who you are. You are baptized.

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Spirit, water, blood entreating, Working faith and its completing In the One whose death-defeating Life has come, with life for all. (LSB 597:5)

Author: Rev. Harrison Goodman, content executive for Higher Things.

Audio Reflections Speaker: Rev. Richard Heinz, pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church in Lowell, IN.

This new devotional resource by Carl Fickenscher walks you through each week’s readings, revealing thematic connections and helping you better understand what is to come in worship each Sunday.

November 25, 2025

Today's Reading: Colossians 1:13-20

Daily Lectionary: Daniel 5:1-30; Daniel 7:1-8:27; Revelation 21:9-27

“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” (Colossians 1:15)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

This is what God looks like. Jesus. And you’ll only see it here. On account of the “image of the invisible God” part. We rush to creation to find evidence of God, but can’t see anything, even if we know that even there Christ was working. Psalm 19 is right. Creation shows there is a God. It doesn’t reveal Him fully. You can argue about how complex a bird’s wing is. There is plenty out there to support the notion of intelligent design. But even then, what intelligence? It’s why everyone can look at the same bird, the same mountain range at sunset, and come up with different ideas about how we got here.

Here’s the thing, though. The chief work of God isn’t creating. It’s saving. This is the place you see God clearest. It looks like this. “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13-14). The cross He bore to redeem creation. Which is grander, making what can be broken, or redeeming something in a way that it can’t be lost? It isn’t just intelligence that shaped creation, but love. Mercy grand enough to see the depths to which we’ve fallen in sin, the darkness we get lost in, the pain we feel, and assume it unto Himself. God was made man that He would take upon Himself the fullness of our sin and bring it to nothing upon the cross. He did this for you. And it’s finished. Now. You live in the kingdom of the Son. On the Last Day, that kingdom will look like the resurrection. A new creation, free from darkness and sin and pain and death. But Colossians tells us that He has already transferred us. Already delivered us.

And again, you’ll only see it here. On the cross. Not in creation. Because that part still looks pretty dark. So we look to the light of the world, Jesus, who darkness cannot overcome, who has borne death and left it broken and defeated. Even if you still live in the land of darkness, you live in the kingdom of the Son, who cannot die again. That means the darkness can assault you, but never own you. The creation can fall apart, but you’ll just rise again. And if that ever gets hard to see, look to the cross, and know it stands.

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Praise be to Christ in whom we see The image of the Father shown, The firstborn Son revealed and known, The truth and grace of deity; Through whom creation came to birth, Whose fingers set the stars in place, The unseen pow'rs, and this small earth, The furthest bounds of time and space. (LSB 538:1)

Author: Rev. Harrison Goodman, content executive for Higher Things.

Audio Reflections Speaker: Rev. Richard Heinz, pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church in Lowell, IN.

This new devotional resource by Carl Fickenscher walks you through each week’s readings, revealing thematic connections and helping you better understand what is to come in worship each Sunday.

November 24, 2025

Today's Reading: Malachi 3:13-18

Daily Lectionary: Daniel 4:1-37; Revelation 21:1-8

“You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God. What is the profit of our keeping his charge or of walking as in mourning before the LORD of hosts?” (Malachi 3:14)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

It doesn’t seem to be going any better for the faithful than they were when Malachi wrote. We aren’t marked as the richest or most successful. We aren’t the healthiest. We don’t avoid natural disasters. It hurts down here for believer and unbeliever alike. Even the people in Malachi’s day noticed and dared to ask. What’s the point of all this? So the prophet responds. “They shall be mine, says the LORD of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him.” It’s not just, “Hey, one day you’ll go to heaven and they won’t, so you’re way better off.” That’s shallow at best, and pretty ugly at worst.

First of all, who do you think seems to shine the sun on the good and the evil alike? It’s God who gives even the unbelievers everything they have. It’s Him who seems to set up a system where even the wicked receive daily bread the same as the faithful. It’s almost like He wants sinners to receive good gifts. It’s almost like He loves us all enough to die for the entire world. Evil people have stuff because God atones for all. Bleeds for all our sin. That’s why the faithful have anything, too. Why do you think God giving you lots of stuff is somehow a great witness for Him and not just…like…really nice for you? The cross where God is even willing to die for His enemies makes a far better claim to His love.

If you want to see the difference between the wicked and the righteous, don’t look to how much they have. Don’t even look to what they’re doing. Look to the Lord, who forgives, saves, and names righteous. Yours is the God who insists on giving good gifts to those who don’t deserve them. He insists there be order we haven’t built, daily bread we haven’t earned, all so that there would be space for us to hear His word that promises even more to us. Forgiveness of sins. Life. Salvation. All of us are born evil. And by the word and sacraments, you believe. Others are brought to faith, too. And if heaven happens to get a little more crowded, you can do more than just lament the fact that someone had nice things and salvation. You can rejoice with all the angels in heaven when one sinner repents.

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Even so, Lord, quickly come To Thy final harvest home; Gather Thou Thy people in, Free from sorrow, free from sin, There, forever purified, In Thy garner to abide: Come with all Thine angels, come, Raise the glorious harvest home. (LSB 892:4)

Author: Rev. Harrison Goodman, content executive for Higher Things.

Audio Reflections Speaker: Rev. Richard Heinz, pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church in Lowell, IN.

This new devotional resource by Carl Fickenscher walks you through each week’s readings, revealing thematic connections and helping you better understand what is to come in worship each Sunday.

November 23, 2025

Today's Reading: Luke 23:27-43

Daily Lectionary: Daniel 3:1-30; Revelation 20:1-15

“One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, ‘Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!’But the other rebuked him, saying, ‘Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.’ And he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’And he said to him, ‘Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.’” (Luke 23:39–43)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

The thief on the cross shows that in someone’s last moments, they are the most honest with themselves. Crucifixion gave someone a lot of time to reflect on their life as they suffocated to death, their sins exposed before every person who witnessed the event and to themselves. The first thief thought that the kingdom of Christ was of this world. He had a prosperity Gospel that proclaimed that if he believed in Jesus, all of his problems would go away. He wanted a savior who brought down the heavenly armies and not only lowered him from the cross but also brought down the Roman Empire. This view of Jesus misses the purpose of his first coming. The second thief was aware of his sin and why he was hoisted up to die.

This second sinner was exposed and had nothing to hide behind. He knew he needed a savior and, more importantly, who was his savior. He had faith that Jesus had something better than this life of sin, and he believed that Jesus was the only way to get there. We have the same faith as the second thief because we also know that we offer nothing to our savior, but we believe that he will have mercy on us as he did to that fellow believer.

We have the assurance that we will see Jesus in Paradise when we receive his name in Baptism. We are no better than the thief who was crucified for his crimes. Like the thief, we are given faith, and that faith is sustained until God takes us home. We have continual assurance of what Jesus does for us when we receive him through his Word and the Sacraments. So on our deathbeds, as our weak bodies draw our last feeble breaths, we can look back to the promises of God and be confident that we will be with Jesus in Paradise.

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Lord Jesus Christ, You reign among us by the preaching of Your cross. Forgive Your people their offenses that we, being governed by Your bountiful goodness, may enter at last into Your eternal Paradise; for You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Author: Jonah Clausen, seminary student at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne.

Audio Reflections Speaker: Rev. Richard Heinz, pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church in Lowell, IN.

This new devotional resource by Carl Fickenscher walks you through each week’s readings, revealing thematic connections and helping you better understand what is to come in worship each Sunday.

November 22, 2025

Today's Reading: Introit for Pentecost 24 - Psalm 134; antiphon: Psalm 33:8

Daily Lectionary: Daniel 2:24-49; Revelation 19:1-21

“Come, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, who stand by night in the house of the Lord! Lift up your hands to the holy place and bless the Lord! May the Lord bless you from Zion, he who made heaven and earth!... Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him!” (Psalm 138:1-3, Psalm 33:8)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Psalm 138:3 gives three locations: 1) Zion, 2) Heaven, 3) Earth.

These are places, not just ideas or concepts—they’re proper nouns. Proper nouns are capitalized; ideas and concepts are not. Thus, Zion, the city of David, Heaven, the location of standing at the face of God (it’s the eternal Throne, Revelation 19:4). Heaven’s not geographically located, as if hiding behind the Sun; it’s where the angels and the living ones stand at the face of God (e.g., Revelation 19:4-6). Earth is, of course, a planet, like Mars or Jupiter; it’s the planet where the Lord placed us, where we live out our lives in service to neighbor.

Strangely, we seem afraid to give the proper nouns “Heaven” and Earth” their proper capitalizations. Maybe we’re a little afraid, so we cower and spell “Heaven” as “heaven,” treating it not as a place, but an idea or concept, thus “heaven.” (Most modern translations of Scripture do this even with Earth, as if there’s one planet named Jupiter, another named Earth.)

Zion is the city of David; Heaven is at the face of the Lord; Earth is our planet. What do the three have to do with each other? We brought Earth, the place of our creation and life, into sin. So on Earth, the Lord appointed a location to place his Name: Zion. Wherever the Lord places His Name, He is coming to bestow forgiveness upon the sinner.

For the Israelites, Zion is the holy place (Psalm 138:2), the location of the Temple. When Jesus comes, He says, “Tear down this Temple, and in three days I will build it up” (John 2:19). In this way, Jesus’ Body now stands as the Temple of God—the body torn down at the cross, raised up in three days in the resurrection.

Now Jesus brings you to Mount Zion, the city of the Living God. It’s the Church, the assembled saints (Hebrews 12:22). It’s where Jesus is distributing the riches of the New Testament in his Blood (Hebrews 12:24).

Zion is wherever Jesus is having his Gospel proclaimed on Earth, his Sacraments administered, and his people assembled so that they would hear the Name of the Living God proclaimed from Heaven.

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Lord Jesus, gather us to your Mt. Zion, the assembly of your saints. Let us hear your Word of Gospel. In the eating and drinking of your Body and Blood, forgive our sins, letting us receive the benefits of your cross, which is life and salvation. Amen.

Author: Rev. Warren Graff, pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Albuquerque, NM.

Audio Reflections Speaker: Rev. Richard Heinz, pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church in Lowell, IN.

This new devotional resource by Carl Fickenscher walks you through each week’s readings, revealing thematic connections and helping you better understand what is to come in worship each Sunday.

November 21, 2025

Today's Reading: Daniel 2:1-23

Daily Lectionary: Daniel 2:1-23; Revelation 18:1-24

“Daniel answered and said: ‘Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, to whom belong wisdom and might. He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding; he reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with him. To you, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise, for you have given me wisdom and might, and have now made known to me what we asked of you, for you have made known to us the king's matter.’” (Daniel 2:20-23)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Look around in the world and try to figure out what God is doing. A flood hits Florida, or in a foreign country, a dictator is overthrown—how are we to see God’s hand in this? Even in our personal lives, a friend gets laid off at work, or another friend gets a great, high-paying job—can we see how God is working in this?

The Prophet Daniel reveals that God’s hand is not absent from our world’s affairs. It’s God who sets up kings (or presidents, or dictators), and it is God who tears them down (Daniel 2:21). Our problem is that, while God uses events and persons of this world to work all things for the good of his people (Romans 8:26-30), we cannot know how God is doing this. His hand is there, but what’s it doing?

Even though King Nebuchadnezzar could not know it, and even while he was the captor of the Lord’s people, the Lord was using him to benefit the Lord’s people! By Nebuchadnezzar, the Lord kept his people intact so that generations later from Israel’s lineage, the Lord himself would come in the flesh as the Lamb of God who bears the sin of the world—including Nebuchadnezzar’s sin and yours and mine.

Because the Lord used people such as Nebuchadnezzar (and for that matter, later Judas) to keep a remnant of his people and to bring forth the salvation of the cross, we may give thanks that while we cannot know how, God’s hand is, indeed, working all things together for good for those called by the Gospel, so that nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus (cf. Romans 8:37-39).

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Blessed be your Name, O God. All wisdom and might is yours. You change the times and seasons, you remove kings and set them up, though we are not given to know how. To you, O God, I give thanks and praise, for you make known the wisdom of the cross to people of every nation, and by the preaching of your Word, you reveal the justification of the sinner by the blood of your Son, the Christ from the lineage of Israel. Amen.

Author: Rev. Warren Graff, pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Albuquerque, NM.

Audio Reflections Speaker: Rev. Richard Heinz, pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church in Lowell, IN.

This new devotional resource by Carl Fickenscher walks you through each week’s readings, revealing thematic connections and helping you better understand what is to come in worship each Sunday.

November 20, 2025

Today's Reading: Catechism: Table of Duties - To Children

Daily Lectionary: Daniel 1:1-21; Matthew 28:1-20

“Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ‘Honor your father and your mother’—which is the first commandment with a promise—’ that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life in the Earth.’ Eph. 6:1-3” (Catechism, Table of Duties: To Children)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

How does the Lord take care of you in this world—not just in your life of faith where you are justified by your Lord’s Word, but in your earthly life, where you need food and drink and home and safety?

The Lord sets, for the benefit of children, parents. Mom and Dad. The son or daughter, then, is given to receive all good gifts of family and childhood from his or her parents. And where the parent needs help in caring for a child, perhaps a teacher to teach algebra or a doctor to diagnose a fever, the parent brings in a teacher or doctor or whatever other profession so that the teacher or doctor (or whomever) is acting by the authority and in the stead of the mom and dad.

Mom and Dad are the Lord’s instruments. They are standing in the Lord’s stead to provide for the children. So obedience to parents is not just some ritualistic keeping of the law; it’s much more. When we are young, respect and obedience are our recognition that we receive every good gift from our Lord, including all the gifts of “daily bread,” through our parents. They are the Lord’s servants, his vessels.

This, of course, often goes poorly in our sinful world. A parent may die; a family may be torn by divorce; or a parent does his or her parenting poorly (which is true to some extent for every parent, except, of course, God the Father). Yet, in all of this, even when we find them in their weakness, we give thanks for parents, for they stand as God’s instruments to care for, protect, teach, encourage, comfort, and sustain the children. And we pray to our Father in Heaven that we may be forgiving of our parents where they do poorly, and happily obedient to them, hearing them with ears of respect and thankfulness.

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

You are our holy Lord, The all-subduing Word, Healer of strife. Yourself You did abase That from sin's deep disgrace You so might save our race And give us life. O ever be our guide, Our shepherd and our pride, Our staff and song. Jesus, O Christ of God, By your enduring Word, Lead us where You have trod; Make our faith strong. So now, and till we die, Sound we Your praises high And joyful sing: Infants, and all the throng, Who to the Church belong, Unite to swell the song To Christ, our king! (LSB 864:2,4,5)

Author: Rev. Warren Graff, pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Albuquerque, NM.

Audio Reflections Speaker: Rev. Richard Heinz, pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church in Lowell, IN.

This new devotional resource by Carl Fickenscher walks you through each week’s readings, revealing thematic connections and helping you better understand what is to come in worship each Sunday.