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Seems "national holiday" takes precedence over discussing theology on Reddit or something :)

Anyway, I don't know if you've read this book but I think he solves the problem. I was pretty floored when I read it, and I think it'll end up being one of those silently influential works for a long time.

His basic thesis is that Lutherans historically suck at ethics because we're so focused on justification, meaning that we get swept up in whatever ethical or moral regime is popular at the moment. That's why there were Lutherans on both sides of the slavery debate, Lutherans on both sides of WW2 in Germany, etc.

The only way to avoid that outcome has historically been to reduce our Lutheran-ness a bit, which is what the LCMS charges the ELCA with doing, for example. Lutherans tend to be pretty eager to adopt other people's moral frameworks, whether that's Aquinastotle's virtue ethics or evangelical "fruits of the spirit" or the Democratic Party platform, or whatever.

He does some digging in Luther's works and finds early references to not two but three kinds of righteousness, and sometimes many kinds of righteousness. And I think it's the three kinds of righteousness model that solves the issue.

The three he presents are intended to mirror the legendary three uses of the law as well as the three parts of the Creed: civil or criminal righteousness, alien righteousness, and Christian righteousness. He ends up calling them first, second, and third righteousness, for lack of better terminology. Only one is God-ward, the alien righteousness, which justifies us and regenerates us entirely unilaterally on God's side. The other two are Earth-ward, one being the sort of default human righteousness, and the other being the conforming-to-Christ righteousness that derives from the Holy Spirit following regeneration. Those do require effort on our part. (He uses "coram Deo" and "coram mundo" instead of God-ward and Earth-ward because, you know, academic theology book.)

Here's his super snazzy diagram: http://i.imgur.com/spVLPyx.png

I think that this model accomplishes a couple good things. First, it takes into account all of the passages in the New Testament that aren't explicitly Gospel, but are framed as "the Gospel, therefore try to do these ethical things". The whole end of Romans, for example. Or, in inverse, the whole beginning of 1 Corinthians. Or, the sermon on the mount, about which I've had heated arguments with people over whether it counts as law or gospel. Second, it separates general civil righteousness which is expected of everyone from the "extra" ethical virtues expected of Christians. Humility, for example. I don't think this qualifies as an extra Law, because it only affects our social relationships and our portrayal of Christ to society. We aren't doing it to portray Christ to Christ.

Obviously it's not a complete discussion, and I'd expect lots of followup discussion, but I think it's worthwhile just to promote the existence of the idea for a bit and see how people respond to it.

Bizarrely, the only other thing the author has published is a book on Biblical dads.

I'm less ceremonial and more historical when looking at the Saints. I commemorate them by reading their hagiographies and looking for ways to apply their examples to my current situation. Sometimes it's difficult, like Saint Olaf who was beatified for being a kickass Viking King but even with him, I've found interesting examples; in his case, I found myself reading about the holiday Olsok and learning more about Norway.

Currently, I use Pfatteicher's "New Book of Festivals and Commemorations" to read about the saints and other festivals.

Treasury of Daily Prayer features the full lectionary, orders for the office of the hours, but also the Lutheran tradition of morning/evening prayer. I love this resource. It takes a little getting used to, but it works great. It's technically put out through LCMS, but that doesn't really matter. It features in its lectionary writings from Luther and the other reformers.

I'd recommend Jay Bakker's [Fall to Grace: A Revolution of God, Self & Society] (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0446539503/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_0ku8CbJGTF93P). Jay tends toward a Lutheran-sympathizing position on many things. I think he has wonderful explanations of sin in this book.