Thursday of the Sixteenth Week After Pentecost

October 2, 2025

Today's Reading: Catechism: Table of Duties - What Hearers Owe Their Pastors

Daily Lectionary: Deuteronomy 3:1-29; Matthew 7:1-12

“We ask you, brothers, to respect those who work hard among you, who are over you in the Lord and who admonish you. Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. (1 Thessalonians 5:12-13)

Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you. (Hebrews 13:17)” (Luther's Small Catechism, Table of Duties, What Hearers Owe Their Pastors)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

The Small Catechism’s Table of Duties contains quite a few orders. These directions indicate how we may better serve our Lord and benefit our neighbor and prepare us for Holy Absolution, showing us where we have done wrong. God's perfect will in His law is both good for us and condemnatory of the sin that remains in us. We will not see it perfected in mankind until the day of resurrection.

Our duty to our pastors, outlined above, is a particularly tall order. “Don’t be an affliction to me, child!” That is a comically gross simplification that still rings true. The work of your pastors is arduous and frequently thankless. Their vocation has an abnormally high burnout rate. But they still take great joy in serving you, delivering the confidence of forgiveness in Christ by water and Word.

When your pastors correct you in sin and any error, rejoice that he loves you enough to warn you of it. It would be far easier and less disruptive to ignore the thing. Your pastor does love you. He wants to instruct you in the Christian faith and to turn you from sin and error. He wants to deliver confidently the Words of Absolution into your ears.

He will be accountable for what he has done and left undone. And, he wants you to receive Jesus often. Let him do it. It’s for your good. The whole of creation needs to hear and receive this Good News of forgiveness and salvation in Jesus.

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Lord God, Heavenly Father, You have ordered all of creation for our good. From the foundations of it, You have been our God. Keep our hearts and minds ever set towards those things which please You, and glorify Your name in the earth, that the free course of the spread of the Gospel of forgiveness in Jesus may be received by all nations. This we pray in the holy name of Jesus Christ, Your beloved Son, our Lord. Amen.

Rev. Jason Kaspar, pastor of Mount Calvary Lutheran Church, La Grange, Texas.

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, KY.

Join author R. Reed Lessing helps with this chapter-by-chapter exploration of the Book of Numbers in Hope in the Wilderness. With helpful maps, diagrams, and connections to the rest of the Bible, you’ll be able to understand the beauty of Numbers.