​Joseph, Guardian of Jesus (transferred) 1I will sing of your steadfast love, O LORD, forever; with my mouth I will proclaim your faithfulness to all generations. 2I declare that your steadfast love is established forever; your faithfulness is as firm as the heavens. 3You said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one, I have sworn to my servant David: 4‘I…

​Fourth Sunday in Lent 1The LORD said to Samuel, “How long will you grieve over Saul? I have rejected him from being king over Israel. Fill your horn with oil and set out; I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.” 2Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears of…

​32Then Samuel said, “Bring Agag king of the Amalekites here to me.” And Agag came to him haltingly. Agag said, “Surely this is the bitterness of death.” 33But Samuel said, “As your sword has made women childless, so your mother shall be childless among women.” And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the LORD in Gilgal. 34Then Samuel went to Ramah; and…

22And Samuel said, “Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obedience to the voice of the LORD? Surely, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams. 23For rebellion is no less a sin than divination, and stubbornness is like iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the…

10The word of the LORD came to Samuel: 11I regret that I made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me, and has not carried out my commands. Samuel was angry; and he cried out to the LORD all night. 12Samuel rose early in the morning to meet Saul, and Samuel was told, “Saul went to Carmel, where he set…

1Sing aloud to God our strength; shout for joy to the God of Jacob. 2Raise a song, sound the tambourine, the sweet lyre with the harp. 3Blow the trumpet at the new moon, at the full moon, on our festal day. 4For it is a statute for Israel, an ordinance of the God of Jacob. 5He made it a decree in Joseph,…

1Then Jacob went on his journey, and came to the land of the people of the east. 2As he looked, he saw a well in the field and three flocks of sheep lying there beside it; for out of that well the flocks were watered. The stone on the well’s mouth was large, 3and when all the flocks were gathered there, the…

​Third Sunday in Lent 5So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. 7A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.”…

​1Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard, “Jesus is making and baptizing more disciples than John” 2— although it was not Jesus himself but his disciples who baptized — 3he left Judea and started back to Galilee. 4But he had to go through Samaria. 5So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob…

​ITASCA — The Conference of Bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) met Feb. 28–March 4 at the Eaglewood Resort in Itasca, Ill. The conference, an advisory body of the ELCA, comprises 65 synod bishops, the presiding bishop and the secretary. The Rev. Tracie L. Bartholomew, bishop of the ELCA New Jersey Synod and chair of the conference, opened the meeting…