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:
June 1 – Easter VII – The sanctity of human life means more than implementing regulations or controlling behaviors. Jesus longs “that they may be one” (John 17:22) and “that the love with which you have loved me may be in them” (John 17:26). This represents invitation and instruction to receive every neighbor as gift and privilege, treat all bodies and needs as such, and speak courageously and compassionately about it.
June 8 – Pentecost – Words about the worth and purpose invested in every human being belong not to us alone but to Almighty God Himself (John 14:24). Our Savior graciously endows the Words of Life with the Holy Spirit’s power (John 14:26). So we must not dilute or suppress what He has made unquestionably clear, and we may entrust the public effects of the message to His wisdom.
June 15 – Festival of the Holy Trinity/Father’s Day – The Maker of heavens and earth has the nature of fatherhood and sonship. Begetting and parenting belongs to His distinctive and eternal character. No greater wisdom, insight, or answer exists for any circumstance of humankind—surprise pregnancy and terminal diagnosis included—than the goodness of delighting in children and parents—embryo, elderly, or otherwise—and submitting ourselves to their welfare.
June 22 – Pentecost II (Proper 7C) – Death is the devil’s lair and destruction is his labor. Demonic forces lurk around the grave and lead to nowhere else (Luke 8:27). Feeble mortals do well not to dabble with such sinister powers, even if technology like abortion and assisted suicide make it accessible. Better to beg the Lord Jesus to rescue and safeguard human life even when it appears less than to us.
June 29 – St. Peter and St. Paul, Apostles – Humankind once mistook Jesus for somebody less than Lord God (Matthew 16:13-14). Even His own people once mistook Gentiles for something less than just as special (Acts 15:5). The Gospel and its Apostles delight to embrace neighbors not yet born and neighbors no longer able as blessings, brothers and sisters, beloved and belonging to one Heavenly Father. May we rejoice to proclaim and practice it!
July 6 – Pentecost IV (Proper 9C) – Our Lord Jesus Christ has the courage to speak warning to His country’s culture and communities (Luke 10:13-15). He whose eyes keep watch on national happenings (Psalm 66:7) knows no other way to restore ones He loves. Only abandoning evil allows anyone to embrace the Gospel’s comfort (Isaiah 66:13, 15-16!) and joy (Luke 10:19-20). May our sanctity of life witness follow His lead!
July 13 – Pentecost V (Proper 10C) – Aborting complicated pregnancies is like depriving the destitute by leaving not one last gleaning of hope (Leviticus 19:9-10). Euthanizing terminal loved ones is like striding right on by on the other side because the neighbor is dying (Luke 10:30-32). Almighty God clearly commands against both. But the Gospel of love for every life never fails to bear fruit wherever we dare to declare it (Colossians 1:6).
July 20 – Pentecost VI (Proper 11C) – Affirming the sanctity of every life means more than just ending abortion or opposing physician-assisted suicide. Sometimes it includes Gospel hospitality that sits and listens to neighbors about the crosses they carry (Luke 10:39). Bringing about death to dismiss and silence suffering may feel like a human right, but sharing one another’s sorrows represents the better portion (Luke 10:42).
July 27 – Pentecost VII (Proper 12C) – Surprise pregnancies and terminal diagnoses involve more than just political controversies or worldly concerns. Human lives embody spiritual matters because they arrive as the work, purpose, and property of God’s hands (Psalm 138:8). Who needs abortion or assisted suicide when the Heavenly Father urges us to ask for, expect, and await miracles (Luke 11:9-10)?
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).