Friday 31 December 2021 DAILY LECTIONARY

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Friday 31 December 2021 
DAILY LECTIONARY

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1 Kings 3:5-14

At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God
said, ‘Ask what I should give you.’ And Solomon said, ‘You have
shown great and steadfast love to your servant my father David,
because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in
uprightness of heart towards you; and you have kept for him this great
and steadfast love, and have given him a son to sit on his throne
today. And now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in
place of my father David, although I am only a little child; I do not
know how to go out or come in. And your servant is in the midst of the
people whom you have chosen, a great people, so numerous they cannot
be numbered or counted. Give your servant therefore an understanding
mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil; for
who can govern this your great people?’

 It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. God said to him,
‘Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long
life or riches, or for the life of your enemies, but have asked for
yourself understanding to discern what is right, I now do according to
your word. Indeed I give you a wise and discerning mind; no one like
you has been before you and no one like you shall arise after you. I
give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honour all your
life; no other king shall compare with you. If you will walk in my
ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, as your father David
walked, then I will lengthen your life.’
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James 4:13-17,5:7-11

Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and
such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making
money.’ Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is
your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then
vanishes. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wishes, we will
live and do this or that.’ As it is, you boast in your arrogance;
all such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to
do and fails to do it, commits sin.
 Be patient, therefore, beloved,* until the coming of the Lord. The
farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with
it until it receives the early and the late rains. You also must be
patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near.*
Beloved,* do not grumble against one another, so that you may not be
judged. See, the Judge is standing at the doors! As an example of
suffering and patience, beloved,* take the prophets who spoke in the
name of the Lord. Indeed we call blessed those who showed endurance.
You have heard of the endurance of Job, and you have seen the purpose
of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.
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John 5:1-15

After this there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to
Jerusalem.

 Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in
Hebrew* Beth-zatha,* which has five porticoes. In these lay many
invalids—blind, lame, and paralysed.* One man was there who had been
ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew
that he had been there a long time, he said to him, ‘Do you want to
be made well?’ The sick man answered him, ‘Sir, I have no one to
put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am
making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.’ Jesus said to
him, ‘Stand up, take your mat and walk.’ At once the man was made
well, and he took up his mat and began to walk.

Now that day was a sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been
cured, ‘It is the sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your
mat.’ But he answered them, ‘The man who made me well said to me,
“Take up your mat and walk.” ’ They asked him, ‘Who is the man
who said to you, “Take it up and walk”?’ Now the man who had
been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had disappeared in* the
crowd that was there. Later Jesus found him in the temple and said to
him, ‘See, you have been made well! Do not sin any more, so that
nothing worse happens to you.’ The man went away and told the Jews
that it was Jesus who had made him well.
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Morning Psalms: Psalm 46, 48

Psalm 46

God is our refuge and strength,
   a very present* help in trouble. 
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change,
   though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea; 
though its waters roar and foam,
   though the mountains tremble with its tumult.
          Selah 

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
   the holy habitation of the Most High. 
God is in the midst of the city;* it shall not be moved;
   God will help it when the morning dawns. 
The nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms totter;
   he utters his voice, the earth melts. 
The Lord of hosts is with us;
   the God of Jacob is our refuge.*
          Selah 

Come, behold the works of the Lord;
   see what desolations he has brought on the earth. 
He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
   he breaks the bow, and shatters the spear;
   he burns the shields with fire. 
‘Be still, and know that I am God!
   I am exalted among the nations,
   I am exalted in the earth.’ 
The Lord of hosts is with us;
   the God of Jacob is our refuge.*
          Selah

Psalm 48

Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised
   in the city of our God.
His holy mountain, beautiful in elevation,
   is the joy of all the earth,
Mount Zion, in the far north,
   the city of the great King. 
Within its citadels God
   has shown himself a sure defence. 

Then the kings assembled,
   they came on together. 
As soon as they saw it, they were astounded;
   they were in panic, they took to flight; 
trembling took hold of them there,
   pains as of a woman in labour, 
as when an east wind shatters
   the ships of Tarshish. 
As we have heard, so have we seen
   in the city of the Lord of hosts,
in the city of our God,
   which God establishes for ever.
          Selah 

We ponder your steadfast love, O God,
   in the midst of your temple. 
Your name, O God, like your praise,
   reaches to the ends of the earth.
Your right hand is filled with victory. 
   Let Mount Zion be glad,
let the towns* of Judah rejoice
   because of your judgements. 

Walk about Zion, go all around it,
   count its towers, 
consider well its ramparts;
   go through its citadels,
that you may tell the next generation 
   that this is God,
our God for ever and ever.
   He will be our guide for ever.
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Evening Psalms: Psalm 90 (Eve of Holy Name)

Psalm 90

Lord, you have been our dwelling-place*
   in all generations. 
Before the mountains were brought forth,
   or ever you had formed the earth and the world,
   from everlasting to everlasting you are God. 

You turn us* back to dust,
   and say, ‘Turn back, you mortals.’ 
For a thousand years in your sight
   are like yesterday when it is past,
   or like a watch in the night. 

You sweep them away; they are like a dream,
   like grass that is renewed in the morning; 
in the morning it flourishes and is renewed;
   in the evening it fades and withers. 

For we are consumed by your anger;
   by your wrath we are overwhelmed. 
You have set our iniquities before you,
   our secret sins in the light of your countenance. 

For all our days pass away under your wrath;
   our years come to an end* like a sigh. 
The days of our life are seventy years,
   or perhaps eighty, if we are strong;
even then their span* is only toil and trouble;
   they are soon gone, and we fly away. 

Who considers the power of your anger?
   Your wrath is as great as the fear that is due to you. 
So teach us to count our days
   that we may gain a wise heart. 

Turn, O Lord! How long?
   Have compassion on your servants! 
Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love,
   so that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. 
Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,
   and for as many years as we have seen evil. 
Let your work be manifest to your servants,
   and your glorious power to their children. 
Let the favour of the Lord our God be upon us,
   and prosper for us the work of our hands—
   O prosper the work of our hands!
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Isaiah 65:15b-25

You shall leave your name to my chosen to use as a curse,
   and the Lord God will put you to death;
   but to his servants he will give a different name. 
Then whoever invokes a blessing in the land
   shall bless by the God of faithfulness,
and whoever takes an oath in the land
   shall swear by the God of faithfulness;
because the former troubles are forgotten
   and are hidden from my sight. 

For I am about to create new heavens
   and a new earth;
the former things shall not be remembered
   or come to mind. 
But be glad and rejoice for ever
   in what I am creating;
for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy,
   and its people as a delight. 
I will rejoice in Jerusalem,
   and delight in my people;
no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it,
   or the cry of distress. 
No more shall there be in it
   an infant that lives but a few days,
   or an old person who does not live out a lifetime;
for one who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth,
   and one who falls short of a hundred will be considered
accursed. 
They shall build houses and inhabit them;
   they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. 
They shall not build and another inhabit;
   they shall not plant and another eat;
for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be,
   and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. 
They shall not labour in vain,
   or bear children for calamity;*
for they shall be offspring blessed by the Lord—
   and their descendants as well. 
Before they call I will answer,
   while they are yet speaking I will hear. 
The wolf and the lamb shall feed together,
   the lion shall eat straw like the ox;
   but the serpent—its food shall be dust!
They shall not hurt or destroy
   on all my holy mountain,

says the Lord.
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Revelation 21:1-6

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the
first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the
holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice
from the throne saying,
‘See, the home* of God is among mortals.
He will dwell* with them;
they will be his peoples,*
and God himself will be with them;* 
he will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away.’

 And the one who was seated on the throne said, ‘See, I am making
all things new.’ Also he said, ‘Write this, for these words are
trustworthy and true.’ Then he said to me, ‘It is done! I am the
Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will
give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life.
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