Tuesday 14 August 2007 DAILY LECTIONARY

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Tuesday 14 August 2007 
DAILY LECTIONARY

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2 Samuel 14:1-20

Now Joab son of Zeruiah perceived that the king's mind was on Absalom.
Joab sent to Tekoa and brought from there a wise woman. He said to her,
'Pretend to be in mourning; put on mourning garments, do not anoint
yourself with oil, but behave like a woman who has been mourning many
days for the dead. Go to the king and speak to him as follows.' And Joab
put the words into her mouth.

 When the woman of Tekoa came to the king, she fell on her face to the
ground and did obeisance, and said, 'Help, O king!' The king asked her,
'What is your trouble?' She answered, 'Alas, I am a widow; my husband is
dead. Your servant had two sons, and they fought with one another in the
field; there was no one to part them, and one struck the other and
killed him. Now the whole family has risen against your servant. They
say, "Give up the man who struck his brother, so that we may kill him
for the life of his brother whom he murdered, even if we destroy the
heir as well." Thus they would quench my one remaining ember, and leave
to my husband neither name nor remnant on the face of the earth.'

 Then the king said to the woman, 'Go to your house, and I will give
orders concerning you.' The woman of Tekoa said to the king, 'On me be
the guilt, my lord the king, and on my father's house; let the king and
his throne be guiltless.' The king said, 'If anyone says anything to
you, bring him to me, and he shall never touch you again.' Then she
said, 'Please, may the king keep the Lord your God in mind, so that the
avenger of blood may kill no more, and my son not be destroyed.' He
said, 'As the Lord lives, not one hair of your son shall fall to the
ground.'

 Then the woman said, 'Please let your servant speak a word to my lord
the king.' He said, 'Speak.' The woman said, 'Why then have you planned
such a thing against the people of God? For in giving this decision the
king convicts himself, inasmuch as the king does not bring his banished
one home again. We must all die; we are like water spilled on the
ground, which cannot be gathered up. But God will not take away a life;
he will devise plans so as not to keep an outcast banished for ever from
his presence.* Now I have come to say this to my lord the king because
the people have made me afraid; your servant thought, "I will speak to
the king; it may be that the king will perform the request of his
servant. For the king will hear, and deliver his servant from the hand
of the man who would cut both me and my son off from the heritage of
God." Your servant thought, "The word of my lord the king will set me at
rest"; for my lord the king is like the angel of God, discerning good
and evil. The Lord your God be with you!'

 Then the king answered the woman, 'Do not withhold from me anything I
ask you.' The woman said, 'Let my lord the king speak.' The king said,
'Is the hand of Joab with you in all this?' The woman answered and said,
'As surely as you live, my lord the king, one cannot turn right or left
from anything that my lord the king has said. For it was your servant
Joab who commanded me; it was he who put all these words into the mouth
of your servant. In order to change the course of affairs your servant
Joab did this. But my lord has wisdom like the wisdom of the angel of
God to know all things that are on the earth.'
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Acts 21:1-14

When we had parted from them and set sail, we came by a straight course
to Cos, and the next day to Rhodes, and from there to Patara.* When we
found a ship bound for Phoenicia, we went on board and set sail. We came
in sight of Cyprus; and leaving it on our left, we sailed to Syria and
landed at Tyre, because the ship was to unload its cargo there. We
looked up the disciples and stayed there for seven days. Through the
Spirit they told Paul not to go on to Jerusalem. When our days there
were ended, we left and proceeded on our journey; and all of them, with
wives and children, escorted us outside the city. There we knelt down on
the beach and prayed and said farewell to one another. Then we went on
board the ship, and they returned home.

 When we had finished* the voyage from Tyre, we arrived at Ptolemais;
and we greeted the believers* and stayed with them for one day. The next
day we left and came to Caesarea; and we went into the house of Philip
the evangelist, one of the seven, and stayed with him. He had four
unmarried daughters* who had the gift of prophecy. While we were staying
there for several days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. He
came to us and took Paul's belt, bound his own feet and hands with it,
and said, 'Thus says the Holy Spirit, "This is the way the Jews in
Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and will hand him over to
the Gentiles." ' When we heard this, we and the people there urged him
not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, 'What are you doing,
weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound but
even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.' Since he would
not be persuaded, we remained silent except to say, 'The Lord's will be
done.'
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Mark 10:1-16

He left that place and went to the region of Judea and* beyond the
Jordan. And crowds again gathered around him; and, as was his custom, he
again taught them.

 Some Pharisees came, and to test him they asked, 'Is it lawful for a
man to divorce his wife?' He answered them, 'What did Moses command
you?' They said, 'Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of
dismissal and to divorce her.' But Jesus said to them, 'Because of your
hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. But from the
beginning of creation, "God made them male and female." "For this reason
a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife,* and
the two shall become one flesh." So they are no longer two, but one
flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.'

 Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. He
said to them, 'Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits
adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries
another, she commits adultery.'

 People were bringing little children to him in order that he might
touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. But when Jesus saw
this, he was indignant and said to them, 'Let the little children come
to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of
God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of
God as a little child will never enter it.' And he took them up in his
arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.
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Morning Psalms:  Psalm 97, 99, 100

Psalm 97

The Lord is king! Let the earth rejoice;
   let the many coastlands be glad! 
Clouds and thick darkness are all around him;
   righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. 
Fire goes before him,
   and consumes his adversaries on every side. 
His lightnings light up the world;
   the earth sees and trembles. 
The mountains melt like wax before the Lord,
   before the Lord of all the earth. 


The heavens proclaim his righteousness;
   and all the peoples behold his glory. 
All worshippers of images are put to shame,
   those who make their boast in worthless idols;
   all gods bow down before him. 
Zion hears and is glad,
   and the towns* of Judah rejoice,
   because of your judgements, O God. 
For you, O Lord, are most high over all the earth;
   you are exalted far above all gods. 


The Lord loves those who hate* evil;
   he guards the lives of his faithful;
   he rescues them from the hand of the wicked. 
Light dawns* for the righteous,
   and joy for the upright in heart. 
Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous,
   and give thanks to his holy name!



Psalm 99

The Lord is king; let the peoples tremble!
   He sits enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth quake! 
The Lord is great in Zion;
   he is exalted over all the peoples. 
Let them praise your great and awesome name.
   Holy is he! 
Mighty King,* lover of justice,
   you have established equity;
you have executed justice
   and righteousness in Jacob. 
Extol the Lord our God;
   worship at his footstool.
   Holy is he! 


Moses and Aaron were among his priests,
   Samuel also was among those who called on his name.
   They cried to the Lord, and he answered them. 
He spoke to them in the pillar of cloud;
   they kept his decrees,
   and the statutes that he gave them. 


O Lord our God, you answered them;
   you were a forgiving God to them,
   but an avenger of their wrongdoings. 
Extol the Lord our God,
   and worship at his holy mountain;
   for the Lord our God is holy.



Psalm 100

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth. 
   Worship the Lord with gladness;
   come into his presence with singing. 


Know that the Lord is God.
   It is he that made us, and we are his;*
   we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. 


Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
   and his courts with praise.
   Give thanks to him, bless his name. 


For the Lord is good;
   his steadfast love endures for ever,
   and his faithfulness to all generations.
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Evening Psalms: Psalm 94, 95

Psalm 94

O Lord, you God of vengeance,
   you God of vengeance, shine forth! 
Rise up, O judge of the earth;
   give to the proud what they deserve! 
O Lord, how long shall the wicked,
   how long shall the wicked exult? 


They pour out their arrogant words;
   all the evildoers boast. 
They crush your people, O Lord,
   and afflict your heritage. 
They kill the widow and the stranger,
   they murder the orphan, 
and they say, 'The Lord does not see;
   the God of Jacob does not perceive.' 


Understand, O dullest of the people;
   fools, when will you be wise? 
He who planted the ear, does he not hear?
He who formed the eye, does he not see? 
He who disciplines the nations,
he who teaches knowledge to humankind,
   does he not chastise? 
The Lord knows our thoughts,*
   that they are but an empty breath. 


Happy are those whom you discipline, O Lord,
   and whom you teach out of your law, 
giving them respite from days of trouble,
   until a pit is dug for the wicked. 
For the Lord will not forsake his people;
   he will not abandon his heritage; 
for justice will return to the righteous,
   and all the upright in heart will follow it. 


Who rises up for me against the wicked?
   Who stands up for me against evildoers? 
If the Lord had not been my help,
   my soul would soon have lived in the land of silence. 
When I thought, 'My foot is slipping',
   your steadfast love, O Lord, held me up. 
When the cares of my heart are many,
   your consolations cheer my soul. 
Can wicked rulers be allied with you,
   those who contrive mischief by statute? 
They band together against the life of the righteous,
   and condemn the innocent to death. 
But the Lord has become my stronghold,
   and my God the rock of my refuge. 
He will repay them for their iniquity
   and wipe them out for their wickedness;
   the Lord our God will wipe them out.



Psalm 95

O come, let us sing to the Lord;
   let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! 
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
   let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! 
For the Lord is a great God,
   and a great King above all gods. 
In his hand are the depths of the earth;
   the heights of the mountains are his also. 
The sea is his, for he made it,
   and the dry land, which his hands have formed. 


O come, let us worship and bow down,
   let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! 
For he is our God,
   and we are the people of his pasture,
   and the sheep of his hand. 


O that today you would listen to his voice! 
   Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,
   as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, 
when your ancestors tested me,
   and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. 
For forty years I loathed that generation
   and said, 'They are a people whose hearts go astray,
   and they do not regard my ways.' 
Therefore in my anger I swore,
   'They shall not enter my rest.'
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