Color: White\r\rOld Testament: Isaiah 11:1–5\rPsalm: Psalm 138; antiphon: v. 8a\rEpistle: Romans 12:9–16\rGospel: Luke 1:39–56\rGospel: Luke 1:39–45\rIntroit: 1 Samuel 2:1–2, 7–8; antiphon: Luke 1:46b–47\rGradual: Psalm 103:2; 105:5; 100:4\rVerse: Luke 1:45\r\rThe Visitation\r \rToday Zechariah’s house is prepared to sing: “The Lord God of Israel … has visited and redeemed his people” (Luke 1:68). For the Scriptures are being fulfilled: “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit” (Is. 11:1). What could raise a king from a dead line? Only the Lord Himself! This is no son of man’s will, but the seed of the woman (Gen. 3:15). The Word of the Lord has done this, and so all are blessed in Him. The “greeting” of blessed Mary causes John to leap in Elizabeth’s womb (Luke 1:41). Both are delighted at what the Word has wrought: “Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord” (Luke 1:45). Likewise we, too, “rejoice with those who rejoice” (Rom. 12:12–15), for our joyful hope is in the Lord who has visited us to redeem us — not just a town in Judah but our entire fallen world. The Holy Spirit discloses where salvation is to be found: in the most blessed fruit of Mary’s blessed womb. And the whole Church rejoices, saying, “My beloved! Behold, he comes” (Song of Songs 2:8).\r\rLectionary summary © 2021 The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Used by permission. http://lcms.org/worship

Color: Green\r\rOld Testament: Exodus 20:1–17\rPsalm: Psalm 19; antiphon: v. 8\rEpistle: Romans 6:3–11\rEpistle: Romans 6:1–11\rGospel: Matthew 5:20–26\rGospel: Matthew 5:17–26\rIntroit: Psalm 28:1–2, 7; antiphon: vv. 8–9\rGradual: Psalm 90:13, 1, 2b\rVerse: Psalm 31:1\r\rOur Only Hope Is in Christ’s Righteousness\r \r“Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt 5:20). God demands nothing less than perfection and holiness from you in regard to His commandments (Ex. 20:1–17). Your only hope, then, is not in your own goodness but in the goodness of Christ, who did not come to destroy the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfill them for you. In Christ, your righteousness does indeed exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees. For you have been baptized into Christ’s death and your sinful nature crucified. Therefore, he who has died has been freed from sin (Rom. 6:1–11). You are now raised with Christ to walk in newness of life and to share in His resurrection on the Last Day. Christ has brought you through the baptismal sea “out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (Ex. 20:2). Therefore, “consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 6:11).\r\rLectionary summary © 2021 The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Used by permission. http://lcms.org/worship

Color: Green\r\rOld Testament: Genesis 2:7–17\rPsalm: Psalm 33:1–11; antiphon: v. 6\rEpistle: Romans 6:19–23\rGospel: Mark 8:1–9\rIntroit: Psalm 47:3, 6–8; antiphon: vv. 1–2\rGradual: Psalm 34:11, 5\rVerse: Psalm 47:1\r\rJesus Restores Paradise and Feeds Us Freely\r \rIn the Garden of Eden, our first parents received food freely from the gracious hand of God, apart from any burdensome work (Gen 2:7–17). But after the fall, food would be received only through toil and labor. The curse declared, “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground . . .” (Gen. 3:19). In other words, “The wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). But into this wilderness world came Jesus the Messiah to restore creation. Having compassion on the weary multitudes, He renewed the bounty of Eden on the third day, freely granting an abundance of bread to the 4,000 (Mark 8:1–9). So also our Lord Jesus, having endured the burden of our sin, was raised on the third day to bring us back to Paradise. He now miraculously turns the bread of death into the Bread of Life in the Sacrament, giving you His very body and blood for your forgiveness. For “the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6:23).\r\rLectionary summary © 2021 The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Used by permission. http://lcms.org/worship

Color: Green\r\rOld Testament: Jeremiah 23:16–29\rPsalm: Psalm 26; antiphon: v. 12\rEpistle: Romans 8:12–17\rSecond Reading: Acts 20:27–38\rGospel: Matthew 7:15–23\rIntroit: Psalm 48:1, 3, 11, 14; antiphon: vv. 9–10\rGradual: Psalm 31:2b, 1a\rVerse: Psalm 78:1\r\rBeware of False Prophets\r \r“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves” (Matt. 7:15). Deceit has its strength in masquerading as the truth. False prophets speak a vision of their own heart, not from the mouth of the Lord (Jer. 23:16–29). They deny the judgment of the Lord, speaking peace to the unrepentant, when in truth there is condemnation and wrath. “You will recognize them by their fruits” (Matt. 7:20). The “fruits” of a true prophet are not outward righteousness or success but faithfulness in proclaiming the Word of the Lord. This is the will of the Father in heaven, that pastors take heed to the flock, the Father’s adopted ones (Rom. 8:12–17), warning them against the wolves and their lies, and shepherding the Church of God which He purchased with His own blood (Acts 20:27–38). For indeed, the cross is that good tree bearing good fruit—namely, the body and blood of Christ, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.\r\rLectionary summary © 2021 The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Used by permission. http://lcms.org/worship

Color: White\r\rOld Testament: Proverbs 31:10–31\rPsalm: Psalm 73:23–28; antiphon: v. 1\rSecond Reading: Acts 13:26–31\rGospel: John 20:1–2, 10–18\rIntroit: Psalm 30:1a, 2–3, 12b; antiphon: Psalm 31:1a\rGradual: Psalm 45:10; John 10:11b, 10b, 3b, 16c\rVerse: John 20:18a\r\rSt. Mary Magdalene\r \r“An excellent wife who can find?” (Prov. 31:10). The Lord’s love does not search out what is lovely. Instead, His love seeks out sinners and dies for them, washes them clean, and presents them to Himself as a spotless bride (Ephesians 5). Christ had no wife on earth; His bride is the Church — the assembly of forgiven sinners rescued by His death and resurrection. Among them is St. Mary Magdalene, one “who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem” (Acts 13:31). The Lord rescued her from the power of seven demons, and she provided for Him out of her means (Luke 8:2–3). Christians have traditionally connected her with the unnamed penitent woman who was forgiven much by faith and thus “loved much” by anointing Jesus’ feet (Luke 7:36–50). She was there at Christ’s death, present at His burial and honored as the first witness of His resurrection. She would have clung to Him there in the garden, but the Lord had “not yet ascended” to His Father and our Father (John 20:16–18) to “fill all things” (Eph. 4:10). For now He is heard in the Word of His witnesses and is here bodily in His Supper, not just for Mary, but for all penitents “who [fear] the Lord” (Prov. 31:30), so that grace may abound “all the more” (Rom. 5:20).\r\rLectionary summary © 2021 The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Used by permission. http://lcms.org/worship

Color: Red\r\rFirst Reading: Acts 11:27—12:5\rPsalm: Psalm 56; antiphon: v. 4\rEpistle: Romans 8:28–39\rGospel: Mark 10:35–45\rIntroit: Psalm 89:1, 5, 15–16; antiphon: Psalm 119:46\rGradual: Romans 10:15b, 18b; Isaiah 52:7b, alt.\rVerse: Mark 10:45\r\rSt. James the Elder, Apostle\r \rThe sons of Zebedee ask for seats at Jesus’ “right hand and … left, in your glory” (Mark 10:37). But they do not know what they are asking (Matt. 20:22), for God’s kingdom is not of glory and power but the cross. We will bear ours after Him. “For [His] sake we are being killed” and “regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” But “in all these things we are more than conquerors through him” (Rom. 8:36–37), for Jesus’ death is unique. He alone is baptized with our sin and drinks the cup of God’s wrath against it (Mark 10:38). We live in service to our neighbors after His example; He alone is “the Son of Man,” who came “to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). Today the Church commemorates the fulfillment of Christ’s prophecy about James, killed with Herod’s sword (Acts 12:2). He is honored as the first apostle to be “conformed to the image of [God’s] Son” (Rom. 8:29). But what is that when “Christ Jesus is the one who died — more than that, who was raised — who is at the right hand of God … interceding for us”? Nothing (not even a sword) can “separate” James and “us from the love of Christ” (Rom. 8:34–35).\r\rLectionary summary © 2021 The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Used by permission. http://lcms.org/worship