Life Thoughts in the Church Year
Life Thoughts in the Church Year are designed to help pastors and congregations see the church year through the lens of the sanctity of human life. Life Thoughts are based on the appointed readings from Lutheran Service Book using the Three-Year Lectionary.
Life Thoughts in the Church Year – One-Year Lectionary
March 22 – Lent V (Judica) – The Lord God forbade father Abraham from sacrificing his boy Isaac (Genesis 22:12). The lesson extends to us, too. Abortion is immoral because it is unnecessary. Jesus alone serves as beast of burden in the solemn rite of righting wrongs (Hebrews 9:14). This Word has become flesh in order to deliver humankind entirely from the death business (John 8:51). And we get to keep this Word precisely by giving it to neighbors.
March 29 – Palm Sunday/Passion of Our Lord (Palmarum) – Sinful nature prizes popularity, property, and power. It despises dependence and discards aging or gestating neighbors because of it. But Jesus proves that God has designed humankind to rely on Him and each other. His salvation comes about by humbly and happily entrusting oneself to an Almighty Father (Philippians 2:6-8). We need not take life and death into our own hands when we can rest upon His.
Life Thoughts in the Church Year – April-June 2026 – One-Year Lectionary
Life Thoughts in the Church Year – April-June 2026 – One-Year Lectionary (PDF)
Life Thoughts in the Church Year – April-June 2026 – One-Year Lectionary (WORD)
Life Thoughts in the Church Year – Three-Year Lectionary
March 22 (Lent 5) – Jesus is the “resurrection and the life” (John 11:25), the one true God who raises the dead from their graves and gives them new life (Ezekiel 37:5-6). Everything Jesus has said and done testifies that He gives, sustains, and loves life. It is inconceivable to think that Jesus, who raised Lazarus from the tomb and who died to “give life to our mortal bodies” (Romans 8:11), would approve of the murder of any innocent person, regardless of their size or condition.
March 29 (Palm Sunday) – When Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, he gave up, washed his hands, called himself innocent, and let the Innocent One, our Lord Jesus Christ, be taken away and crucified (Matthew 27:24-26). As the world around us continues to call for the death of the innocent, it may seem that we are gaining nothing, and we will be tempted to wash our hands and give up like Pilate did. But the Lord, in His mercy, has given you a tongue to speak that you may sustain with His Word those who are weary (Isaiah 50:4). God grant us the strength to speak up on behalf of the innocent ones and let “every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:11).
Life Thoughts in the Church Year – April-June 2026 – Three-Year Lectionary