All the Galatians references! Although not as many as last week. Some love for the semicontinuous psalmody, too. But also, kind of all over the place when it comes to topics.

Psalms 42-43 (semicontinuous)

The semicontinuous readings are not ignored! The first verses of each Psalm comes up in The Book of Concord. Psalm 42, verse 1 is quoted in The Large Catechism, Confession (LC Confession.33) as an image for the Christian's yearning to hear and receive God's absolution and forgiveness. There's some beautiful language here you might want to read, if not directly quote.

Psalm 43, verse 1 is quoted in Apology of the Augsburg Confession, Article 4: Justification (AP 4.179, quarto) along with several other biblical passages to show how God's people have called out for God to defend them because our own works cannot.

Galatians 3:23-29

Verse 24 is quoted in Apology of the Augsburg Confession, Article 4: Justification (AP 4.22) to show that the Commandments serve to call cultures into "righteousness of reason." Verse 24 is also quoted in Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration, Article 5: Law and Gospel (SD 5.24) to show again that God gives us the law to drive us to Christ, not to crush us with despair.

Verse 27 is quoted in Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration, Article 2: Free Will (SD 2.67) to show that there is a difference between those who have been baptized and those who have not. Only the baptized has free will "to assent to [the Word] and accept it--although in great weakness" (SD 2.67).

Verse 28 is cited through editorial insert in Apology of the Augsburg Confession, Article 10: The Holy Supper (AP 10.3) with a quote from Cyril of Alexandria's On the Gospel according to John. Here the point is the the real presence of Jesus in the bread and wine of communion.

TheoThru

Absolution continues as a theme this week, but more fully developed. The relationship between the law and the (specific sense) gospel becomes more apparent in this week's citations without ignoring the power of absolution and the sacraments in drawing Christians back into faithfulness.

Since Jesus is really present when we gather for worship, how do our services reflect that?
Since God is active in creating good order in society through the law, how do our lives outside of the church services reflect that?