Friday 15 August 2014 DAILY LECTIONARY

[Daily Lectionary]

Friday 15 August 2014  
DAILY LECTIONARY

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Judges 14:20-15:20

And Samson’s wife was given to his companion, who had been his best man.
After a while, at the time of the wheat harvest, Samson went to visit his wife, bringing along a kid. He said, ‘I want to go into my wife’s room.’ But her father would not allow him to go in. Her father said, ‘I was sure that you had rejected her; so I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister prettier than she? Why not take her instead?’ Samson said to them, ‘This time, when I do mischief to the Philistines, I will be without blame.’ So Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took some torches; and he turned the foxes* tail to tail, and put a torch between each pair of tails. When he had set fire to the torches, he let the foxes go into the standing grain of the Philistines, and burned up the shocks and the standing grain, as well as the vineyards and* olive groves. Then the Philistines asked, ‘Who has done this?’ And they said, ‘Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he has taken Samson’s wife and given her to his companion.’ So the Philistines came up, and burned her and her father. Samson said to them, ‘If this is what you do, I swear I will not stop until I have taken revenge on you.’ He struck them down hip and thigh with great slaughter; and he went down and lived in the cleft of the rock of Etam.

 Then the Philistines came up and encamped in Judah, and made a raid on Lehi. The men of Judah said, ‘Why have you come up against us?’ They said, ‘We have come up to bind Samson, to do to him as he did to us.’ Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and they said to Samson, ‘Do you not know that the Philistines are rulers over us? What then have you done to us?’ He replied, ‘As they did to me, so I have done to them.’ They said to him, ‘We have come down to bind you, so that we may give you into the hands of the Philistines.’ Samson answered them, ‘Swear to me that you yourselves will not attack me.’ They said to him, ‘No, we will only bind you and give you into their hands; we will not kill you.’ So they bound him with two new ropes, and brought him up from the rock.

 When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting to meet him; and the spirit of the Lord rushed on him, and the ropes that were on his arms became like flax that has caught fire, and his bonds melted off his hands. Then he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached down and took it, and with it he killed a thousand men. And Samson said,
‘With the jawbone of a donkey,
   heaps upon heaps,
with the jawbone of a donkey
   I have slain a thousand men.’ 
When he had finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone; and that place was called Ramath-lehi.*

 By then he was very thirsty, and he called on the Lord, saying, ‘You have granted this great victory by the hand of your servant. Am I now to die of thirst, and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?’ So God split open the hollow place that is at Lehi, and water came from it. When he drank, his spirit returned, and he revived. Therefore it was named En-hakkore,* which is at Lehi to this day. And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines for twenty years.
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Acts 7:17-29

‘But as the time drew near for the fulfilment of the promise that God had made to Abraham, our people in Egypt increased and multiplied until another king who had not known Joseph ruled over Egypt. He dealt craftily with our race and forced our ancestors to abandon their infants so that they would die. At this time Moses was born, and he was beautiful before God. For three months he was brought up in his father’s house; and when he was abandoned, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son. So Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in his words and deeds.

 ‘When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his relatives, the Israelites.* When he saw one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian. He supposed that his kinsfolk would understand that God through him was rescuing them, but they did not understand. The next day he came to some of them as they were quarrelling and tried to reconcile them, saying, “Men, you are brothers; why do you wrong each other?” But the man who was wronging his neighbour pushed Moses* aside, saying, “Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?” When he heard this, Moses fled and became a resident alien in the land of Midian. There he became the father of two sons.
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John 4:43-54

When the two days were over, he went from that place to Galilee (for Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honour in the prophet’s own country). When he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, since they had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the festival; for they too had gone to the festival.
 Then he came again to Cana in Galilee where he had changed the water into wine. Now there was a royal official whose son lay ill in Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. Then Jesus said to him, ‘Unless you* see signs and wonders you will not believe.’ The official said to him, ‘Sir, come down before my little boy dies.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Go; your son will live.’ The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started on his way. As he was going down, his slaves met him and told him that his child was alive. So he asked them the hour when he began to recover, and they said to him, ‘Yesterday at one in the afternoon the fever left him.’ The father realized that this was the hour when Jesus had said to him, ‘Your son will live.’ So he himself believed, along with his whole household. Now this was the second sign that Jesus did after coming from Judea to Galilee.  ******************************************************************
Morning Psalms:  Psalm 102

Psalm 102

Hear my prayer, O Lord;
   let my cry come to you. 
Do not hide your face from me
   on the day of my distress.
Incline your ear to me;
   answer me speedily on the day when I call. 


For my days pass away like smoke,
   and my bones burn like a furnace. 
My heart is stricken and withered like grass;
   I am too wasted to eat my bread. 
Because of my loud groaning
   my bones cling to my skin. 
I am like an owl of the wilderness,
   like a little owl of the waste places. 
I lie awake;
   I am like a lonely bird on the housetop. 
All day long my enemies taunt me;
   those who deride me use my name for a curse. 
For I eat ashes like bread,
   and mingle tears with my drink, 
because of your indignation and anger;
   for you have lifted me up and thrown me aside. 
My days are like an evening shadow;
   I wither away like grass. 


But you, O Lord, are enthroned for ever;
   your name endures to all generations. 
You will rise up and have compassion on Zion,
   for it is time to favour it;
   the appointed time has come. 
For your servants hold its stones dear,
   and have pity on its dust. 
The nations will fear the name of the Lord,
   and all the kings of the earth your glory. 
For the Lord will build up Zion;
   he will appear in his glory. 
He will regard the prayer of the destitute,
   and will not despise their prayer. 


Let this be recorded for a generation to come,
   so that a people yet unborn may praise the Lord: 
that he looked down from his holy height,
   from heaven the Lord looked at the earth, 
to hear the groans of the prisoners,
   to set free those who were doomed to die; 
so that the name of the Lord may be declared in Zion,
   and his praise in Jerusalem, 
when peoples gather together,
   and kingdoms, to worship the Lord. 


He has broken my strength in mid-course;
   he has shortened my days. 
‘O my God,’ I say, ‘do not take me away
   at the mid-point of my life,
you whose years endure
   throughout all generations.’ 


Long ago you laid the foundation of the earth,
   and the heavens are the work of your hands. 
They will perish, but you endure;
   they will all wear out like a garment.
You change them like clothing, and they pass away; 
   but you are the same, and your years have no end. 
The children of your servants shall live secure;
   their offspring shall be established in your presence.
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Evening Psalms:  Psalm 107:1-32

Psalm 107:1-32

O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
   for his steadfast love endures for ever. 
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,
   those he redeemed from trouble 
and gathered in from the lands,
   from the east and from the west,
   from the north and from the south.* 


Some wandered in desert wastes,
   finding no way to an inhabited town; 
hungry and thirsty,
   their soul fainted within them. 
Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
   and he delivered them from their distress; 
he led them by a straight way,
   until they reached an inhabited town. 
Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
   for his wonderful works to humankind. 
For he satisfies the thirsty,
   and the hungry he fills with good things. 


Some sat in darkness and in gloom,
   prisoners in misery and in irons, 
for they had rebelled against the words of God,
   and spurned the counsel of the Most High. 
Their hearts were bowed down with hard labour;
   they fell down, with no one to help. 
Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
   and he saved them from their distress; 
he brought them out of darkness and gloom,
   and broke their bonds asunder. 
Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
   for his wonderful works to humankind. 
For he shatters the doors of bronze,
   and cuts in two the bars of iron. 


Some were sick* through their sinful ways,
   and because of their iniquities endured affliction; 
they loathed any kind of food,
   and they drew near to the gates of death. 
Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
   and he saved them from their distress; 
he sent out his word and healed them,
   and delivered them from destruction. 
Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
   for his wonderful works to humankind. 
And let them offer thanksgiving sacrifices,
   and tell of his deeds with songs of joy. 


Some went down to the sea in ships,
   doing business on the mighty waters; 
they saw the deeds of the Lord,
   his wondrous works in the deep. 
For he commanded and raised the stormy wind,
   which lifted up the waves of the sea. 
They mounted up to heaven, they went down to the depths;
   their courage melted away in their calamity; 
they reeled and staggered like drunkards,
   and were at their wits’ end. 
Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
   and he brought them out from their distress; 
he made the storm be still,
   and the waves of the sea were hushed. 
Then they were glad because they had quiet,
   and he brought them to their desired haven. 
Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
   for his wonderful works to humankind. 
Let them extol him in the congregation of the people,
   and praise him in the assembly of the elders.
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