Tuesday 22 May 2007 DAILY LECTIONARY

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Tue May 22 04:00:00 EDT 2007


Tuesday 22 May 2007 
DAILY LECTIONARY

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Ezekiel 7:10-15,23b-27

See, the day! See, it comes!
   Your doom has gone out.
The rod has blossomed, pride has budded. 
   Violence has grown into a rod of wickedness.
None of them shall remain,
   not their abundance, not their wealth;
   no pre-eminence among them. 
The time has come, the day draws near;
   let not the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn,
   for wrath is upon all their multitude. 
For the sellers shall not return to what has been sold as long as they
remain alive. For the vision concerns all their multitude; it shall not
be revoked. Because of their iniquity, they cannot maintain their lives.

They have blown the horn and made everything ready;
   but no one goes to battle,
   for my wrath is upon all their multitude. 
The sword is outside, pestilence and famine are inside;
   those in the field die by the sword;
   those in the city—famine and pestilence devour them. 
Make a chain!
For the land is full of bloody crimes;
   the city is full of violence. 
I will bring the worst of the nations
   to take possession of their houses.
I will put an end to the arrogance of the strong,
   and their holy places shall be profaned. 
When anguish comes, they will seek peace,
   but there shall be none. 
Disaster comes upon disaster,
   rumour follows rumour;
they shall keep seeking a vision from the prophet;
   instruction shall perish from the priest,
   and counsel from the elders. 
The king shall mourn,
   the prince shall be wrapped in despair,
   and the hands of the people of the land shall tremble.
According to their way I will deal with them;
   according to their own judgements I will judge them.
And they shall know that I am the Lord.
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Hebrews 6:13-20

When God made a promise to Abraham, because he had no one greater by
whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying, ‘I will surely bless you
and multiply you.’ And thus Abraham, having patiently endured, obtained
the promise. Human beings, of course, swear by someone greater than
themselves, and an oath given as confirmation puts an end to all
dispute. In the same way, when God desired to show even more clearly to
the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he
guaranteed it by an oath, so that through two unchangeable things, in
which it is impossible that God would prove false, we who have taken
refuge might be strongly encouraged to seize the hope set before us. We
have this hope, a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that
enters the inner shrine behind the curtain, where Jesus, a forerunner
on our behalf, has entered, having become a high priest for ever
according to the order of Melchizedek.
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Luke 10:1-17

After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of
him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go.
He said to them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few;
therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his
harvest. Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the
midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one
on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, “Peace to this
house!” And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will
rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. Remain in the
same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the labourer
deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. Whenever you
enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you;
cure the sick who are there, and say to them, “The kingdom of God has
come near to you.” But whenever you enter a town and they do not
welcome you, go out into its streets and say, “Even the dust of your
town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet
know this: the kingdom of God has come near.” I tell you, on that day
it will be more tolerable for Sodom than for that town. 
‘Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the deeds of power
done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented
long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But at the judgement it will
be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you, Capernaum,
will you be exalted to heaven?
   No, you will be brought down to Hades. 
‘Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects
me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.’ 
The seventy returned with joy, saying, ‘Lord, in your name even the
demons submit to us!’
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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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