Thursday 28 May 2015 DAILY LECTIONARY

[Daily Lectionary]

Thursday 28 May 2015
DAILY LECTIONARY

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Deuteronomy 4:32-40

For ask now about former ages, long before your own, ever since the day that God created human beings on the earth; ask from one end of heaven to the other: has anything so great as this ever happened or has its like ever been heard of? Has any people ever heard the voice of a god speaking out of a fire, as you have heard, and lived? Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by terrifying displays of power, as the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes? To you it was shown so that you would acknowledge that the Lord is God; there is no other besides him. From heaven he made you hear his voice to discipline you. On earth he showed you his great fire, while you heard his words coming out of the fire. And because he loved your ancestors, he chose their descendants after them. He brought you out of Egypt with his own presence, by his great power, driving out before you nations greater and mightier than yourselves, to bring you in, giving you their land for a possession, as it is still today. So acknowledge today and take to heart that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other. Keep his statutes and his commandments, which I am commanding you today for your own well-being and that of your descendants after you, so that you may long remain in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for all time.
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2 Corinthians 3:1-18

Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Surely we do not need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you or from you, do we? You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all; and you show that you are a letter of Christ, prepared by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. 
Such is the confidence that we have through Christ towards God. Not that we are competent of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our competence is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of letter but of spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. 
Now if the ministry of death, chiselled in letters on stone tablets, came in glory so that the people of Israel could not gaze at Moses’ face because of the glory of his face, a glory now set aside, how much more will the ministry of the Spirit come in glory? For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, much more does the ministry of justification abound in glory! Indeed, what once had glory has lost its glory because of the greater glory; for if what was set aside came through glory, much more has the permanent come in glory! 
Since, then, we have such a hope, we act with great boldness, not like Moses, who put a veil over his face to keep the people of Israel from gazing at the end of the glory that was being set aside. But their minds were hardened. Indeed, to this very day, when they hear the reading of the old covenant, that same veil is still there, since only in Christ is it set aside. Indeed, to this very day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their minds; but when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.
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Luke 16:1-9

Then Jesus said to the disciples, ‘There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. So he summoned him and said to him, “What is this that I hear about you? Give me an account of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.” Then the manager said to himself, “What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.” So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, “How much do you owe my master?” He answered, “A hundred jugs of olive oil.” He said to him, “Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.” Then he asked another, “And how much do you owe?” He replied, “A hundred containers of wheat.” He said to him, “Take your bill and make it eighty.” And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.
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Morning Psalms:  Psalm 37:1-18

Psalm 37:1-18

Do not fret because of the wicked;
   do not be envious of wrongdoers, 
for they will soon fade like the grass,
   and wither like the green herb. 


Trust in the Lord, and do good;
   so you will live in the land, and enjoy security. 
Take delight in the Lord,
   and he will give you the desires of your heart. 


Commit your way to the Lord;
   trust in him, and he will act. 
He will make your vindication shine like the light,
   and the justice of your cause like the noonday. 


Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for him;
   do not fret over those who prosper in their way,
   over those who carry out evil devices. 


Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath.
   Do not fret—it leads only to evil. 
For the wicked shall be cut off,
   but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land. 


Yet a little while, and the wicked will be no more;
   though you look diligently for their place, they will not be there. 
But the meek shall inherit the land,
   and delight in abundant prosperity. 


The wicked plot against the righteous,
   and gnash their teeth at them; 
but the Lord laughs at the wicked,
   for he sees that their day is coming. 


The wicked draw the sword and bend their bows
   to bring down the poor and needy,
   to kill those who walk uprightly; 
their sword shall enter their own heart,
   and their bows shall be broken. 


Better is a little that the righteous person has
   than the abundance of many wicked. 
For the arms of the wicked shall be broken,
   but the Lord upholds the righteous. 


The Lord knows the days of the blameless,
   and their heritage will abide for ever;
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Evening Psalms: Psalm 37:19-42

Psalm 37:19-42

they are not put to shame in evil times,
   in the days of famine they have abundance. 


But the wicked perish,
   and the enemies of the Lord are like the glory of the pastures;
   they vanish—like smoke they vanish away. 


The wicked borrow, and do not pay back,
   but the righteous are generous and keep giving; 
for those blessed by the Lord shall inherit the land,
   but those cursed by him shall be cut off. 


Our steps are made firm by the Lord,
   when he delights in our way; 
though we stumble, we shall not fall headlong,
   for the Lord holds us by the hand. 


I have been young, and now am old,
   yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken
   or their children begging bread. 
They are ever giving liberally and lending,
   and their children become a blessing. 


Depart from evil, and do good;
   so you shall abide for ever. 
For the Lord loves justice;
   he will not forsake his faithful ones. 


The righteous shall be kept safe for ever,
   but the children of the wicked shall be cut off. 
The righteous shall inherit the land,
   and live in it for ever. 


The mouths of the righteous utter wisdom,
   and their tongues speak justice. 
The law of their God is in their hearts;
   their steps do not slip. 


The wicked watch for the righteous,
   and seek to kill them. 
The Lord will not abandon them to their power,
   or let them be condemned when they are brought to trial. 


Wait for the Lord, and keep to his way,
   and he will exalt you to inherit the land;
   you will look on the destruction of the wicked. 


I have seen the wicked oppressing,
   and towering like a cedar of Lebanon. 
Again I passed by, and they were no more;
   though I sought them, they could not be found. 


Mark the blameless, and behold the upright,
   for there is posterity for the peaceable. 
But transgressors shall be altogether destroyed;
   the posterity of the wicked shall be cut off. 


The salvation of the righteous is from the Lord;
   he is their refuge in the time of trouble. 
The Lord helps them and rescues them;
   he rescues them from the wicked, and saves them,
   because they take refuge in him.
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