Monday 23 March 2009 DAILY LECTIONARY

[Daily Lectionary]

 Monday 23 March 2009 
DAILY LECTIONARY
 
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Jeremiah 16:10-21
 
And when you tell this people all these words, and they say to you, ‘Why has the Lord pronounced all this great evil against us? What is our iniquity? What is the sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?’ then you shall say to them: It is because your ancestors have forsaken me, says the Lord, and have gone after other gods and have served and worshipped them, and have forsaken me and have not kept my law; and because you have behaved worse than your ancestors, for here you are, every one of you, following your stubborn, evil will, refusing to listen to me. Therefore I will hurl you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your ancestors have known, and there you shall serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favour.
 Therefore, the days are surely coming, says the Lord, when it shall no longer be said, ‘As the Lord lives who brought the people of Israel up out of the land of Egypt’, but ‘As the Lord lives who brought the people of Israel up out of the land of the north and out of all the lands where he had driven them.’ For I will bring them back to their own land that I gave to their ancestors.
 
 I am now sending for many fishermen, says the Lord, and they shall catch them; and afterwards I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks. For my eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from my presence, nor is their iniquity concealed from my sight. And* I will doubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable idols, and have filled my inheritance with their abominations.
 
 
O Lord, my strength and my stronghold,
   my refuge on the day of trouble,
to you shall the nations come
   from the ends of the earth and say:
Our ancestors have inherited nothing but lies,
   worthless things in which there is no profit.
Can mortals make for themselves gods?
   Such are no gods!
 
 ‘Therefore I am surely going to teach them, this time I am going to teach them my power and my might, and they shall know that my name is the Lord.’
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Romans 7:1-12
 
Do you not know, brothers and sisters*—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only during that person’s lifetime? Thus a married woman is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives; but if her husband dies, she is discharged from the law concerning the husband. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man, she is not an adulteress.
 
 In the same way, my friends,* you have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God. While we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive, so that we are slaves not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit.
 What then should we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet, if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’ But sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. Apart from the law sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died, and the very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good. ******************************************************************
John 6:1-15
 
After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias.*  A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming towards him, Jesus said to Philip, ‘Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?’ He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, ‘Six months’ wages* would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.’ One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, ‘There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?’ Jesus said, ‘Make the people sit down.’ Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they* sat down, about five thousand in all. Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, ‘Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.’ So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, ‘This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.’
 
 When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
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Morning Psalms: Psalm 89:1-18
 
Psalm 89:1-18
 
I will sing of your steadfast love, O Lord,* for ever;
   with my mouth I will proclaim your faithfulness to all generations.
I declare that your steadfast love is established for ever;
   your faithfulness is as firm as the heavens.
 
 
You said, ‘I have made a covenant with my chosen one,
   I have sworn to my servant David:
“I will establish your descendants for ever,
   and build your throne for all generations.” ’
          Selah
 
 
Let the heavens praise your wonders, O Lord,
   your faithfulness in the assembly of the holy ones.
For who in the skies can be compared to the Lord?
   Who among the heavenly beings is like the Lord,
a God feared in the council of the holy ones,
   great and awesome* above all that are around him?
O Lord God of hosts,
   who is as mighty as you, O Lord?
   Your faithfulness surrounds you.
You rule the raging of the sea;
   when its waves rise, you still them.
You crushed Rahab like a carcass;
   you scattered your enemies with your mighty arm.
The heavens are yours, the earth also is yours;
   the world and all that is in it—you have founded them.
The north and the south*—you created them;
   Tabor and Hermon joyously praise your name.
You have a mighty arm;
   strong is your hand, high your right hand.
Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne;
   steadfast love and faithfulness go before you.
Happy are the people who know the festal shout,
   who walk, O Lord, in the light of your countenance;
they exult in your name all day long,
   and extol* your righteousness.
For you are the glory of their strength;
   by your favour our horn is exalted.
For our shield belongs to the Lord,
   our king to the Holy One of Israel.
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Evening Psalms: Psalm 89:19-52
 
Psalm 89:19-52
 
Then you spoke in a vision to your faithful one, and said:
   ‘I have set the crown* on one who is mighty,
   I have exalted one chosen from the people.
I have found my servant David;
   with my holy oil I have anointed him;
my hand shall always remain with him;
   my arm also shall strengthen him.
The enemy shall not outwit him,
   the wicked shall not humble him.
I will crush his foes before him
   and strike down those who hate him.
My faithfulness and steadfast love shall be with him;
   and in my name his horn shall be exalted.
I will set his hand on the sea
   and his right hand on the rivers.
He shall cry to me, “You are my Father,
   my God, and the Rock of my salvation!”
I will make him the firstborn,
   the highest of the kings of the earth.
For-ever I will keep my steadfast love for him,
   and my covenant with him will stand firm.
I will establish his line for ever,
   and his throne as long as the heavens endure.
If his children forsake my law
   and do not walk according to my ordinances,
if they violate my statutes
   and do not keep my commandments,
then I will punish their transgression with the rod
   and their iniquity with scourges;
but I will not remove from him my steadfast love,
   or be false to my faithfulness.
I will not violate my covenant,
   or alter the word that went forth from my lips.
Once and for all I have sworn by my holiness;
   I will not lie to David.
His line shall continue for ever,
   and his throne endure before me like the sun.
It shall be established for ever like the moon,
   an enduring witness in the skies.’
          Selah
 
 
But now you have spurned and rejected him;
   you are full of wrath against your anointed.
You have renounced the covenant with your servant;
   you have defiled his crown in the dust.
You have broken through all his walls;
   you have laid his strongholds in ruins.
All who pass by plunder him;
   he has become the scorn of his neighbours.
You have exalted the right hand of his foes;
   you have made all his enemies rejoice.
Moreover, you have turned back the edge of his sword,
   and you have not supported him in battle.
You have removed the sceptre from his hand,*
   and hurled his throne to the ground.
You have cut short the days of his youth;
   you have covered him with shame.
          Selah
 
 
How long, O Lord? Will you hide yourself for ever?
   How long will your wrath burn like fire?
Remember how short my time is—*
   for what vanity you have created all mortals!
Who can live and never see death?
   Who can escape the power of Sheol?
          Selah
 
 
Lord, where is your steadfast love of old,
   which by your faithfulness you swore to David?
Remember, O Lord, how your servant is taunted;
   how I bear in my bosom the insults of the peoples,*
with which your enemies taunt, O Lord,
   with which they taunted the footsteps of your anointed.
 
 
Blessed be the Lord for ever.Amen and Amen.
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