Zion Lutheran Sioux Falls

Second Sunday after Epiphany

Our Bible Reading of the Day is Exodus 16. The Israelites arrive in the wilderness with no food, grumbling against Moses and Aaron. God keeps His promise to provide for His people as He daily sends manna (bread) and quail (meat) from heaven for them to gather. The Lord teaches His people to trust as they gather only what they need for one day. The Israelites arrive in the wilderness with no food, grumbling against Moses and Aaron. God keeps His promise to provide for His people as He daily sends manna (bread) and quail (meat) from heaven for them to gather. The Lord teaches His people to trust as they gather only what they need for one day.

First Sunday After Epiphany

Our Bible Reading of the Day is Exodus 12:1-32. God, through Moses, threatens one final plague—worse than any previously experienced. Following God’s instructions, the Israelites make careful preparations for the Passover, marking their doorposts with the blood of a lamb prepared for the feast. The final plague takes place at midnight as all the firstborn throughout Egypt die. The Egyptians hand over their valuables, hastening the Israelites away.Jesus Christ, the true Lamb of God, was slain for our sins. By His blood, we are protected from the eternal wrath of God and promised the gift of eternal life.

The Epiphany of Our Lord

The Feast of the Epiphany centers in the visit of the Magi from the East. While Christmas has focused on the incarnation of our Lord … that is, on God becoming flesh … the season of Epiphany emphasizes the manifestation or self-revelation of God in that same flesh of Christ. The Lord Himself has entered our darkness and rises upon us with the brightness of His true light (Is. 60:1–2). He does so chiefly by His Word of the Gospel, which He causes to be preached within His Church on earth … not only to the Jews but also to Gentiles (Eph. 3:8–10). As the Magi were guided by the promises of Holy Scripture to find and worship the Christ Child with His mother in the house (Matt. 2:5–11), so does He call disciples from all nations by the preaching of His Word to find and worship Him within His Church (Is. 60:3–6). With gold, they confess His royalty; with incense, His deity; and with myrrh, His priestly sacrifice (Matt. 2:11).

Fourth Sunday of Advent

Advent is the season of holy anticipation. Christ arrives in three ways: He came in humility at Bethlehem, He comes now in Word and Sacrament, and He will come again in glory. Each week we live in eager expectation, moved to sing with the shepherds and the saints: Behold your King’s arrival, rich with grace on grace! Today, THE KING WHO CAME IN HUMILITY: The Child of Bethlehem comes in lowliness yet carries heaven’s majesty. The shepherds’ astonishment and haste mirror our anticipation of grace fulfilled in flesh.

Third Sunday of Advent

Advent is the season of holy anticipation. Christ arrives in three ways: He came in humility at Bethlehem, He comes now in Word and Sacrament, and He will come again in glory. Each week we live in eager expectation, moved to sing with the shepherds and the saints: Behold your King’s arrival, rich with grace on grace! Today, THE KING WHO COMES IN WORD AND SACRAMENT: The King is not absent … He arrives here and now in preaching, water, bread, and wine. In these “commonplace” things God delivers extraordinary miracles of forgiveness and new life.