Bread for the Day 2019: Daily Bible Readings and Prayers

By Dennis Bushkofsky and Gertrud Mueller Nelson

Bread for the Day is a daily-use devotional resource filled with rich treasures. It offers a brief scripture reading (NRSV texts) for each day following the daily lectionary developed by the Consultation on Common Texts and presented in Evangelical Lutheran Worship. It is dated for January 1, 2019, through December 31, 2019.

Bread for the Day gives readers a prayer and hymn for each day, brief yet helpful introductions to the seasons, table graces/meal prayers for the holidays and seasons and household blessings for special times throughout the year, including Anniversary of a Baptism, Blessing for the New Year, Blessing for a Home at Epiphany, Blessing of the Household for Thanksgiving Day, Remembering Those Who Have Died, Lighting the Advent Wreath, Blessing of the Christmas Tree.

In addition there are monthly reminders for prayer requests, notes on festivals and commemorations, simplified forms for morning and evening prayer, and waking prayers and bedtime prayers, including prayers with children.

Use Bread for the Day for personal, household, or group devotions. This is the perfect resource for individuals, congregations, households, Bible study groups, prayer groups, pastors, church councils, outreach teams, confirmation students, and teachers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Augsburg Fortress
• Release date: Oct 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9781506410258

Book preview

Reflection

Foreword

Beloved of God,

For generations, the living word has sustained God’s people. In times of prosperity and turmoil, joy and sorrow, the church has found hope and consolation in scripture.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has embraced the initiative called Book of Faith. In it we have committed ourselves to deepening our fluency in the first language of faith, holy scripture. Bread for the Day is a wonderful resource for your daily encounter with the word. You will be nourished, encouraged, and sustained, as have the saints before you.

As the Conference of Bishops, we invite you to join us and this whole church in persistent attentiveness to the word. Your faith will be deepened, your witness empowered, and your church enriched. God bless your journey in faith.

Conference of Bishops

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

For more about Book of Faith, visit www.bookoffaith.org.

Introduction

Daily prayer is an essential practice for those who seek to hear God’s voice and cultivate an inner life. Whether you pray alone or with others, with brevity or sustained meditation, the rhythm of daily prayer reveals the life-sustaining communion to which God invites all human beings. Such prayer is a serene power silently at work, drawing us into the ancient yet vital sources of faith, hope, and love.

The guiding principle of the selection of daily readings in Bread for the Day is their relationship to the Sunday readings as presented in the Revised Common Lectionary (a system of readings in widespread use across denominations). The readings are chosen so that the days leading up to Sunday (Thursday through Saturday) prepare for the Sunday readings. The days flowing out from Sunday (Monday through Wednesday) reflect on the Sunday readings.

How this book is organized

Each day’s page is dated and named in relationship to the church’s year. Lesser festivals are listed along with the date as part of the day heading. Commemorations are listed just below in smaller type. Notes on those commemorated can be found on pages 407–415.

Several verses of one of the appointed scripture texts are printed. The full text citation is provided for those who would like to reflect on the entire text. In addition, two or three additional reading citations with short descriptions are provided.

Two psalms are appointed for each week; one psalm for Monday through Wednesday and a second psalm for Thursday through Saturday. In this way the days leading up to Sunday or flowing out from Sunday have a distinct relationship with one another in addition to their relationship with the Sunday readings.

Following the printed scripture text is a hymn suggestion from Evangelical Lutheran Worship and a prayer that incorporates a theme present in one or more of the readings.

Household prayers and blessings appropriate to the changing seasons are placed throughout the book. Simplified forms of morning and evening prayer, morning and evening blessings, and prayers with children can be found on pages 424–430.

How to use this book

Use the weekday readings to prepare for and reflect on the Sunday readings.

Use the questions printed on page 431 to guide your reflection on the scripture texts.

Use the resources for household prayer placed throughout the book. See the Contents on pages 3–4 for a complete list.

Use the page at the beginning of each month to record prayer requests.

In addition to being used to guide individual prayer, this book may also be used to guide family prayer, prayer in congregational or other settings during the week, prayer with those who are sick or homebound, or with other groups.

Even though Christians gather on the Lord’s day, Sunday, for public worship, much of our time is spent in the home. We first learn the words, gestures, and songs of faith in the home. We discover our essential identity as a community of faith and mark significant transitions of life in the home. To surround and infuse the daily rhythm of sleeping and waking, working, resting, and eating with the words and gestures of Christian prayer is to discover the ancient truth of the gospel: the ordinary and the human can reveal the mystery of God and divine grace. Like planets around the sun, our daily prayer draws us to the Sunday assembly where we gather for the word and the breaking of the bread in the changing seasons of the year. From the Sunday assembly, our daily prayer flows into the week.

Prayer List for January

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Tuesday, January 1, 2019

Name of Jesus

Luke 2:15-21

The child is named Jesus

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us. So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

After eight days had passed, it was time to circumcise the child; and he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. (Luke 2:15-21)

Hymn: All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name! ELW 634

Eternal Father, you gave your incarnate Son the holy name of Jesus to be a sign of our salvation. Plant in every heart the love of the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Wednesday, January 2, 2019

Week of Christmas 1

Johann Konrad Wilhelm Loehe, renewer of the church, died 1872

Proverbs 1:1-7

Grow in wisdom and knowledge

Let the wise also hear and gain in learning,

and the discerning acquire skill,

to understand a proverb and a figure,

the words of the wise and their riddles.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge;

fools despise wisdom and instruction. (Prov. 1:5-7)

Hymn: We Eat the Bread of Teaching, ELW 518

O Ancient of Days, all wisdom begins and ends in you. Grant us discerning hearts and minds that yearn to follow you and your ways both now and forever.

Thursday, January 3, 2019

Week of Christmas 1

Psalm 72

Prayers for the king

Give the king your justice, O God,

and your righteousness to a king’s son.

May he judge your people with righteousness,

and your poor with justice.

May the kings of Tarshish and of the isles

render him tribute,

may the kings of Sheba and Seba

bring gifts.

May all kings fall down before him,

all nations give him service. (Ps. 72:1-2, 10-11)

Hymn: Angels, from the Realms of Glory, ELW 275

We come before you, King of kings, grateful for your justice and mercy. We wait in eager anticipation and ask that you bring us to the day when all nations will gather around your throne and sing your praise.

Friday, January 4, 2019

Week of Christmas 1

Isaiah 6:1-5

The Lord high and lofty

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. And one called to another and said:

"Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;

the whole earth is full of his glory."

The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke. And I said: Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts! (Isa. 6:1-5)

Hymn: The Bells of Christmas, ELW 298

Holy God, we admit we are unworthy of your abiding presence. Heaven and earth cannot contain your glory, and yet you chose to dwell among us. We are humbled by your majesty and ask for eyes with which to see all your gifts.

Saturday, January 5, 2019

Week of Christmas 1

Jeremiah 31:7-14

Joy as God’s scattered flock gathers

Hear the word of the Lord, O nations,

and declare it in the coastlands far away;

say, "He who scattered Israel will gather him,

and will keep him as a shepherd a flock."

For the Lord has ransomed Jacob,

and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him.

They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion,

and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the Lord,

over the grain, the wine, and the oil,

and over the young of the flock and the herd;

their life shall become like a watered garden,

and they shall never languish again. (Jer. 31:10-12)

Hymn: The First Noel, ELW 300

We are lost without you, God our shepherd. You lead us to joy and hope. Keep us close and overwhelm our desire to wander, that we may be nourished and sustained by you alone.

Blessing for a Home at Epiphany

Matthew writes that when the magi saw the shining star stop overhead, they were filled with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother (Matt. 2:10-11). In the home, Christ is met in family and friends, in visitors and strangers. In the home, faith is shared, nurtured, and put into action. In the home, Christ is welcome.

Twelfth Night (January 5), Epiphany of Our Lord (January 6), or another day during the time after Epiphany offers an occasion for gathering with friends and family members for a blessing for the home. Someone may lead the greeting and blessing, while another person may read the scripture passage. Following an eastern European tradition, a visual blessing may be inscribed with white chalk above the main door; for example, 20 + CMB + 19. The numbers change with each new year. The three letters stand for either the ancient Latin blessing Christe mansionem benedicat, which means, Christ, bless this house, or the legendary names of the magi (Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar).

Greeting

Peace to this house and to all who enter here.

By wisdom a house is built,

and through understanding it is established;

through knowledge its rooms are filled

with rare and beautiful treasures. (Prov. 24:3-4)

Reading

As we prepare to ask God’s blessing on this household,

let us listen to the words of scripture.

In the beginning was the Word,

and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

He was in the beginning with God.

All things came into being through him,

and without him not one thing came into being.

What has come into being in him was life,

and the life was the light of all people.

The Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory,

the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.

From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.

(John 1:1-4, 14, 16)

Inscription

This inscription may be made with chalk above the entrance:

20 + C M B + 19

Write the appropriate character (left) while speaking the text (right).

The magi of old, known as

C             Caspar,

M            Melchior, and

B             Balthasar

followed the star of God’s Son who came to dwell among us

20           two thousand

19           and nineteen years ago.

+             Christ, bless this house,

+             and remain with us throughout the new year.

Prayer of Blessing

O God,

you revealed your Son to all people by the shining light of a star.

We pray that you bless this home and all who live here

with your gracious presence.

May your love be our inspiration, your wisdom our guide,

your truth our light, and your peace our benediction;

through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Then everyone may walk from room to room, blessing the house with incense or by sprinkling with water, perhaps using a branch from the Christmas tree.

Sunday, January 6, 2019

Epiphany of Our Lord

Matthew 2:1-12

Christ revealed to the nations

In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage. When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They told him, In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet. (Matt. 2:1-5)

Hymn: O Morning Star, How Fair and Bright! ELW 308

Almighty and ever-living God, you revealed the incarnation of your Son by the brilliant shining of a star. Shine the light of your justice always in our hearts and over all lands, and accept our lives as the treasure we offer in your praise and for your service, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Time after Epiphany

On the Epiphany of Our Lord (January 6), the household joins the church throughout the world in celebrating the manifestation, the epiphany, of Christ to the world. The festival of Christmas is thus set within the context of outreach to the larger community; it possesses an outward movement. The festival of the Epiphany asks the Christian household: How might our faith in Christ the Light be shared with friends and family, with our neighbors, with the poor and needy in our land, with those who live in other nations?

Table Prayer for Epiphany and the Time after Epiphany (January 6–March 5)

Generous God,

you have made yourself known in Jesus, the light of the world.

As this food and drink give us refreshment,

so strengthen us by your Spirit,

that as your baptized sons and daughters

we may share your light with all the world.

Grant this through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Monday, January 7, 2019

Time after Epiphany

Ephesians 4:17—5:1

Life lived in Christ

Now this I affirm and insist on in the Lord: you must no longer live as the Gentiles live, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart. They have lost all sensitivity and have abandoned themselves to licentiousness, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. That is not the way you learned Christ! For surely you have heard about him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus. You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. (Eph. 4:17-24)

Hymn: Bright and Glorious Is the Sky, ELW 301

God almighty, you have justified us in your Son, Jesus Christ. Now you continue the work, sanctifying our hearts and minds so we will look more and more like him. May we always receive your unwavering grace and hide our lives in you.

Tuesday, January 8, 2019

Time after Epiphany

Ephesians 5:15-20

Wise living in evil days

Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil. So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Eph. 5:15-20)

Hymn: How Marvelous God’s Greatness, ELW 830

Sovereign God, you call us to be holy like you are holy. We praise you for your guidance and your wisdom. We ask that you help us to walk humbly and live lives worthy of the calling we’ve received.

Wednesday, January 9, 2019

Time after Epiphany

Luke 1:67-79

The Savior is seen

Then [John’s] father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke this prophecy:

"And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;

for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,

to give knowledge of salvation to his people

by the forgiveness of their sins.

By the tender mercy of our God,

the dawn from on high will break upon us,

to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,

to guide our feet into the way of peace." (Luke 1:67, 76-79)

Hymn: Blessed Be the God of Israel, ELW 552

Long ago, O God, prophets declared hope and light for the downcast, and filled with your mercy they prepared your people for the gift of your coming Son. In the same way, may you prepare our hearts for the reality of his righteousness as well.

Thursday, January 10, 2019

Time after Epiphany

Psalm 29

The voice of God upon the waters

Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings,

ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.

Ascribe to the Lord the glory of his name;

worship the Lord in holy splendor.

The voice of the Lord is over the waters;

the God of glory thunders,

the Lord, over mighty waters.

The voice of the Lord is powerful;

the voice of the Lord is full of majesty. (Ps. 29:1-4)

Hymn: My God, How Wonderful Thou Art, ELW 863

Living God, you are the creator of heaven and earth. We eagerly listen for your voice. We seek to hear your majesty echo throughout the world you made. As we grow in our understanding of your love, open our hearts to the mystery of your ways.

Friday, January 11, 2019

Time after Epiphany

1 Corinthians 2:1-10

The Spirit reveals the depths of God

But we speak God’s wisdom, secret and hidden, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written,

"What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,

nor the human heart conceived,

what God has prepared for those who love him"—

these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. (1 Cor. 2:7-10)

Hymn: Holy Spirit, Ever Dwelling, ELW 582

Your wisdom is hidden on high, and you ordained your plan to reveal it before the world began. May your Spirit of wisdom never leave us; may it guide us always closer and closer to you, our everlasting God.

Saturday, January 12, 2019

Time after Epiphany

Ecclesiastes 3:1-15

All that is, is God’s doing

What gain have the workers from their toil? I have seen the business that God has given to everyone to be busy with. He has made everything suitable for its time; moreover he has put a sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. I know that there is nothing better for them than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live; moreover, it is God’s gift that all should eat and drink and take pleasure in all their toil. I know that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it; God has done this, so that all should stand in awe before him. That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already is; and God seeks out what has gone by. (Eccles. 3:9-15)

Hymn: How Small Our Span of Life, ELW 636

You are the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. No matter the number of days you set before us, we long to use them wisely, aware of your presence and living in gratitude for all you have given us.

Sunday, January 13, 2019

Baptism of Our Lord

Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

The baptism of Jesus

As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, John answered all of them by saying, I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.

Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased. (Luke 3:15-17, 21-22)

Hymn: Christ, When for Us You Were Baptized, ELW 304

Almighty God, you anointed Jesus at his baptism with the Holy Spirit and revealed him as your beloved Son. Keep all who are born of water and the Spirit faithful in your service, that we may rejoice to be called children of God, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Monday, January 14, 2019

Time after Epiphany

Psalm 106:1-12

God saves through water

Praise the Lord!

O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;

for his steadfast love endures forever.

Who can utter the mighty doings of the Lord,

or declare all his praise?

Happy are those who observe justice,

who do righteousness at all times. (Ps. 106:1-3)

Hymn: Praise and Thanks and Adoration, ELW 783

We praise you, God, for your mighty works. We thank you for anointing us with your Holy Spirit and equipping us to stand firm in the faith we have received. May our praise swell to the highest heights that the whole world would know your name.

Tuesday, January 15, 2019

Time after Epiphany

Martin Luther King Jr., renewer of society, martyr, died 1968

1 John 5:13-21

The life of those born of God

We know that those who are born of God do not sin, but the one who was born of God protects them, and the evil one does not touch them. We know that we are God’s