Saturday 22 March 2008 DAILY LECTIONARY

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Saturday 22 March 2008  (Holy Saturday)
DAILY LECTIONARY

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Lamentations 3:37-58

Who can command and have it done,
   if the Lord has not ordained it? 
Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
   that good and bad come? 
Why should any who draw breath complain
   about the punishment of their sins? 


Let us test and examine our ways,
   and return to the Lord. 
Let us lift up our hearts as well as our hands
   to God in heaven. 
We have transgressed and rebelled,
   and you have not forgiven. 


You have wrapped yourself with anger and pursued us,
   killing without pity; 
you have wrapped yourself with a cloud
   so that no prayer can pass through. 
You have made us filth and rubbish
   among the peoples. 


All our enemies
   have opened their mouths against us; 
panic and pitfall have come upon us,
   devastation and destruction. 
My eyes flow with rivers of tears
   because of the destruction of my people. 


My eyes will flow without ceasing,
   without respite, 
until the Lord from heaven
   looks down and sees. 
My eyes cause me grief
   at the fate of all the young women in my city. 


Those who were my enemies without cause
   have hunted me like a bird; 
they flung me alive into a pit
   and hurled stones on me; 
water closed over my head;
   I said, 'I am lost.' 


I called on your name, O Lord,
   from the depths of the pit; 
you heard my plea, 'Do not close your ear
   to my cry for help, but give me relief!' 
You came near when I called on you;
   you said, 'Do not fear!' 


You have taken up my cause, O Lord,
   you have redeemed my life.
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Hebrews 4L1-18

Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest is still open, let us
take care that none of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For
indeed the good news came to us just as to them; but the message they
heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with
those who listened.* For we who have believed enter that rest, just as
God* has said,
'As in my anger I swore,
"They shall not enter my rest" ',
though his works were finished at the foundation of the world. For in
one place it speaks about the seventh day as follows: 'And God rested on
the seventh day from all his works.' And again in this place it says,
'They shall not enter my rest.' Since therefore it remains open for some
to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to
enter because of disobedience, again he sets a certain
day-'today'-saying through David much later, in the words already
quoted,
'Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts.' 
For if Joshua had given them rest, God* would not speak later about
another day. So then, a sabbath rest still remains for the people of
God; for those who enter God's rest also cease from their labours as God
did from his. Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest, so
that no one may fall through such disobedience as theirs.

 Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any
two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from
marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
And before him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to
the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account. 

 Since, then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the
heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. For
we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our
weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested* as we
are, yet without sin. Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with
boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of
need.
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Romans 8:1-11

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ
Jesus. For the law of the Spirit* of life in Christ Jesus has set you*
free from the law of sin and of death. For God has done what the law,
weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin,* he condemned sin in the
flesh, so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us,
who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.* For
those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of
the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit* set their minds
on the things of the Spirit.* To set the mind on the flesh is death, but
to set the mind on the Spirit* is life and peace. For this reason the
mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to
God's law-indeed it cannot, and those who are in the flesh cannot please
God.

 But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit,* since the Spirit
of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does
not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead
because of sin, the Spirit* is life because of righteousness. If the
Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who
raised Christ* from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also
through* his Spirit that dwells in you.
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Morning Psalms:  Psalm 95, 88

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.'


Psalm 88

O Lord, God of my salvation,
   when, at night, I cry out in your presence, 
let my prayer come before you;
   incline your ear to my cry. 


For my soul is full of troubles,
   and my life draws near to Sheol. 
I am counted among those who go down to the Pit;
   I am like those who have no help, 
like those forsaken among the dead,
   like the slain that lie in the grave,
like those whom you remember no more,
   for they are cut off from your hand. 
You have put me in the depths of the Pit,
   in the regions dark and deep. 
Your wrath lies heavy upon me,
   and you overwhelm me with all your waves.
          Selah 


You have caused my companions to shun me;
   you have made me a thing of horror to them.
I am shut in so that I cannot escape; 
   my eye grows dim through sorrow.
Every day I call on you, O Lord;
   I spread out my hands to you. 
Do you work wonders for the dead?
   Do the shades rise up to praise you?
          Selah 
Is your steadfast love declared in the grave,
   or your faithfulness in Abaddon? 
Are your wonders known in the darkness,
   or your saving help in the land of forgetfulness? 


But I, O Lord, cry out to you;
   in the morning my prayer comes before you. 
O Lord, why do you cast me off?
   Why do you hide your face from me? 
Wretched and close to death from my youth up,
   I suffer your terrors; I am desperate.* 
Your wrath has swept over me;
   your dread assaults destroy me. 
They surround me like a flood all day long;
   from all sides they close in on me. 
You have caused friend and neighbour to shun me;
   my companions are in darkness.
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Evening Psalms:  Psalm 27

Psalm 27

The Lord is my light and my salvation;
   whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold* of my life;
   of whom shall I be afraid? 


When evildoers assail me
   to devour my flesh-
my adversaries and foes-
   they shall stumble and fall. 


Though an army encamp against me,
   my heart shall not fear;
though war rise up against me,
   yet I will be confident. 


One thing I asked of the Lord,
   that will I seek after:
to live in the house of the Lord
   all the days of my life,
to behold the beauty of the Lord,
   and to inquire in his temple. 


For he will hide me in his shelter
   in the day of trouble;
he will conceal me under the cover of his tent;
   he will set me high on a rock. 


Now my head is lifted up
   above my enemies all around me,
and I will offer in his tent
   sacrifices with shouts of joy;
I will sing and make melody to the Lord. 


Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud,
   be gracious to me and answer me! 
'Come,' my heart says, 'seek his face!'
   Your face, Lord, do I seek. 
   Do not hide your face from me. 


Do not turn your servant away in anger,
   you who have been my help.
Do not cast me off, do not forsake me,
   O God of my salvation! 
If my father and mother forsake me,
   the Lord will take me up. 


Teach me your way, O Lord,
   and lead me on a level path
   because of my enemies. 
Do not give me up to the will of my adversaries,
   for false witnesses have risen against me,
   and they are breathing out violence. 


I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord
   in the land of the living. 
Wait for the Lord;
   be strong, and let your heart take courage;
   wait for the Lord!
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