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.
Also available:
Life Thoughts in the Church Year – One-Year Lectionary 2025 (Word)
Life Thoughts in the Church Year – One-Year Lectionary 2025 (PDF)
Audio: LifeMoments from Lutherans For Life and KFUO Radio
Life Thoughts in the Church Year – Three-Year Lectionary:
August 3 – Pentecost VIII (Proper 13C) – The Lord our God has made human lives His business (Psalm 100:3; Luke 13:20). That makes the sanctity of every human life the Church’s business. Crucified and ascended Jesus Christ invites us to press even death into service – never the death of the neighbor’s body, but rather the death of the sinful and selfish desires (Colossians 3:5) that lie behind abortion and assisted suicide.
August 10 – Pentecost IX (Proper 14C) – The Heavenly Father hopes for human offspring as numerous as the stars (Genesis 15:5) and countless as grains of sand (Hebrews 11:12). So Christians encourage our communities to share our joy in regarding children – no matter what size, skills, or circumstances – as more precious than any amount of income, possessions, or pets (Luke 12:22-24).
August 17 – Pentecost X (Proper 15C) – Proclaiming and practicing the Word of the Lord doesn’t always make people glad (Luke 12:51-52). Discomfort and persecution come with speaking truth and showing love (Hebrews 11:36-38). But Almighty God’s insistence on the sanctity of every human life, though occasionally unpopular, always brings precisely the community, fellowship, and belonging that we all need (Hebrews 12:1-2).
August 24 – St. Bartholomew (Proper 16C) – Proverbs 3:8 promises that fearing the Lord and turning from evil brings healing to “your navel.” Belly buttons testify to gestation. Scripture’s prescription for surprise pregnancy encourages rejecting death. If the Apostle Bartholomew gave his very skin trusting in the resurrection body (tradition suggests his martyrdom flayed him alive), the Gospel leaves no room for “my body, my choice.”
August 31 – Pentecost XII (Proper 17C) – God in His glory disguises the sanctity of life so that we may know the joy of finding it (Proverbs 25:2). Great delight awaits those who search beyond appearances, behind ages, beneath abilities to receive every neighbor as a blessing. May we with both lips and fingers reach into sin’s hiding places to pull sons and daughters out (Luke 14:5).
September 7 – Pentecost XIII (Proper 18C) – Funny how the Almighty Maker invites (orders?) His people to choose life (Deuteronomy 30:19). By His creating, redeeming, and calling, life has already chosen us—and every single one of our neighbors—from fertilization to forever. Any dealings with death—like abortion and assisted suicide—diametrically oppose and dangerously depart from His express commandments.
September 14 – Holy Cross (Proper 19C) – Jesus made His cross a decidedly public proclamation, lifted up and appealing to everyone (John 12:32). Christianity knows nothing of private convictions and personal choices. We get to speak openly, courageously, and compassionately that no other deliverance exists (Psalm 40:10), not even abortion or assisted suicide. Every human life belongs to Him alone who has drawn all unto Himself.
September 21 – St. Matthew (Proper 20C) – First-century tax collectors like Matthew exploited their neighbors, their own kin, for personal profit. Yet Jesus in forgiveness and fellowship made them an illustration of how family ought to be treated (even when embryos or elderly relatives make us uncomfortable). Let us, like the repentant evangelist, proclaim how Christ crucified can release even from abortion’s guilt.
September 28 – Pentecost XVI (Proper 21C) – Abortion and physician-assisted suicide find their primary motivation in protecting leisure and luxury. The prophet Amos proclaims woe to such priorities (Amos 6:1), and the Apostle Paul warns Timothy that they invite evils (1 Timothy 6:10). Instead, we get to remind one another to “take hold of that which is truly life” (1 Timothy 6:19), namely the Savior and the neighbor right in front of us (Luke 16:20-22).
October 5 – (Proper 22) – As the world continues to devalue human life, we cry out to God like Habakkuk, “Violence!” (Habakkuk 1:2). Knowing the One in whom we have believed (2 Timothy 1: 12), we are not shaken, for He is our rock, our salvation, and our fortress (Psalm 62:2). Our Lord, who abhors even the thought that His little ones should be enticed to sin (Luke 17:2), certainly does not sit idly by as those little ones are abused, neglected, and killed. He hears our prayers and answers them all in the way He knows best. “If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay” (Habakkuk 2:3).
October 12 – (Proper 23) – Nearly all of Jesus’ contemporaries would have been taught that lepers justly suffered the consequences of their own sinful decisions and were unworthy of God’s compassion. Jesus, whose works are always “faithful and just” (Psalm 111:7), shows us that there is no one who is unworthy of His care and compassion. Every single person, regardless of their size, condition, or past decisions, is loved by God, precious in His sight, and covered by His redeeming grace.
October 19 – (Proper 24) – The world has always been filled with people who have turned away from the truth of God’s Word and are not willing to endure sound doctrine (2 Timothy 4:3-4), especially regarding the sanctity of human life. Knowing that we can’t force people to believe God’s Word and value God’s precious gift of life, we “lift up our eyes to the hills,” trusting that “… our help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth” (Psalm 121:1-2). For we trust that God alone has the power to change hearts, and He does so through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which is able to make us wise unto salvation (2 Timothy 3:15).
October 26 – (Proper 25) – Defending the lives that God created, redeemed, and called by the Gospel is a good thing! But we must be careful not to become like the Pharisee in Jesus’ parable, who became so proud of his good works that he mistreated those who didn’t think like him (Luke 18:11-12). Affirming the sanctity of every life also means caring about those who disagree with us, treating them with compassion and sharing the forgiveness of Christ with them, that they, too, might receive the “crown of righteousness” on the Last Day (2 Timothy 4:8).
November 2 – (Proper 26) – The crowd around Jesus reminds us that our sinful flesh is always tempted to look upon those of small stature as those who are less worthy of Christ’s love and protection (Luke 19:3-7). But Jesus reminds us that whether they are physically small (like the unborn), or if we belittle them because of their sins (like Zacchaeus), He desires His salvation to come unto every person and each house (Luke 19:9), “for with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with Him is plentiful redemption” (Psalm 130:7).
November 9 – (Proper 27) – God is defined by life! He identifies Himself as the great “I am” (Exodus 3:14), the true and living God. Jesus also teaches us that not only is God the living God, He is also the God of the living (Luke 20:38)! The Lord of life values the lives of all people so highly that He gives life to all people; He died to rescue all people from their slavery to sin, death, and the devil regardless of their size, age, or condition; and He promises resurrection and everlasting life to all who believe in Him.
November 16 – (Proper 28) – As the days draw closer to Christ’s return, we have witnessed people brought before kings and governors for the sake of Jesus’ name and the truth that every life is precious in God’s sight, just like Jesus warned (Luke 21:10-12). But don’t be afraid! “This is your opportunity to bear witness” (Luke 21:13)! We can go out “leaping like calves from the stall” (Malachi 4:2), proclaiming the sanctity of all life because we know that God promises to “give you a mouth and wisdom” (Luke 21:15) and that the “sun of righteousness” shall soon “rise with healing in its wings” (Malachi 4:2).
November 23 – (Proper 29) – When people argue that we should not bring more children into a world such as this, they agree with the people of Jerusalem at the time of its destruction: “Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed” (Luke 23:29). But this is not the way that Jesus intends us to view the gift of new life. Instead, we weep with those who cannot bear and nurse, and we celebrate God’s gift of life, trusting that He will always reign over all things and be the “refuge and strength” of His people (Colossians 1:18; Psalm 46:1), and the little children will always be His “treasured possession” (Malachi 3:17).
November 30 – Advent 1 – Being a Gospel-motivated voice for life means loving all our neighbors, regardless of their size, condition, or past. As servants in the Master’s house (Matthew 24:43), we not only need to be prepared for Christ’s coming (Matthew 24:44; Romans 13:11), we should be eager to make all others ready, preaching the Gospel to them, inviting them “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord” (Isaiah 2:3) that they, too, might be brought into the safety of the ark of the holy Church.
December 7 – Advent 2 – We rejoice that God Himself defends the cause of the poor and needy (Psalm 72:4) and that He does this primarily through us, His saints. We must be careful, however, that we don’t fall into self-righteousness and become a pharisaical “brood of vipers” (Matthew 3:7), always pointing out the sins of others while neglecting our own. Instead, as children of Abraham, we are all to “bear fruit in keeping with repentance” (Matthew 3:8), remembering that the things of God’s Word were “written for our instruction” (Romans 15:4), as well as for the instruction of others.
December 14 – Advent 3 – God sends us, like John, to be His messengers and share His Gospel with the world before He comes (Matthew 11:10). Instead of grumbling against one another (James 5:9), we have the privilege of sharing Christ’s forgiveness, comfort, and encouragement with those having feeble knees and anxious hearts (Isaiah 35:3-4), especially with those frightened women facing surprise pregnancies, women enduring the cross of barrenness, and those carrying the guilt of abortion.
December 21 – Advent 4 – The birth of the King of Glory (Psalm 24:7) is surrounded by the messiness of human sin and intrigue (Matthew 1:18-25). As we rejoice that our Lord has taken on our human likeness with all its sin and pain, being “descended from David according to the flesh” (Romans 1:3), we can also rejoice that Jesus has sanctified every human life, even those born in circumstances which are surrounded by sin and pain.
December 25 – The Nativity of our Lord – “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14), and in Him is life (John 1:4)! By His holy incarnation, being conceived in the Virgin Mary, growing in her womb, and being born as an ordinary man in Bethlehem (Luke 2:4-6), our Lord Christ has sanctified our human nature, along with every stage of human life and development from the womb to forever.
December 28 – Holy Innocents – The devil hates little children because he hates the Christ child, who was promised to crush his head (Genesis 3:15). Sadly, his influence can still be seen today in those who, like Herod, see little children as a threat to their authority and aim for their destruction (Matthew 2:16). As we weep with Rachel and her children (Jeremiah 31:15), we also rejoice that by sparing His only-begotten Son from Herod’s wrath, God has provided eternal salvation for all the holy innocents—past, present and future—that they too might join in the heavenly song around the throne of God (Revelation 14:3).