Tuesday 15 August 2023 DAILY LECTIONARY

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Tuesday 15 August 2023 
DAILY LECTIONARY

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2 Samuel 14:1-20

Now Joab son of Zeruiah perceived that the king’s mind was on
Absalom. Joab sent to Tekoa and brought from there a wise woman. He
said to her, ‘Pretend to be in mourning; put on mourning garments,
do not anoint yourself with oil, but behave like a woman who has been
mourning many days for the dead. Go to the king and speak to him as
follows.’ And Joab put the words into her mouth.

 When the woman of Tekoa came to the king, she fell on her face to
the ground and did obeisance, and said, ‘Help, O king!’ The king
asked her, ‘What is your trouble?’ She answered, ‘Alas, I am a
widow; my husband is dead. Your servant had two sons, and they fought
with one another in the field; there was no one to part them, and one
struck the other and killed him. Now the whole family has risen
against your servant. They say, “Give up the man who struck his
brother, so that we may kill him for the life of his brother whom he
murdered, even if we destroy the heir as well.” Thus they would
quench my one remaining ember, and leave to my husband neither name
nor remnant on the face of the earth.’

 Then the king said to the woman, ‘Go to your house, and I will
give orders concerning you.’ The woman of Tekoa said to the king,
‘On me be the guilt, my lord the king, and on my father’s house;
let the king and his throne be guiltless.’ The king said, ‘If
anyone says anything to you, bring him to me, and he shall never touch
you again.’ Then she said, ‘Please, may the king keep the Lord
your God in mind, so that the avenger of blood may kill no more, and
my son not be destroyed.’ He said, ‘As the Lord lives, not one
hair of your son shall fall to the ground.’

 Then the woman said, ‘Please let your servant speak a word to my
lord the king.’ He said, ‘Speak.’ The woman said, ‘Why then
have you planned such a thing against the people of God? For in giving
this decision the king convicts himself, inasmuch as the king does not
bring his banished one home again. We must all die; we are like water
spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up. But God will not
take away a life; he will devise plans so as not to keep an outcast
banished for ever from his presence.* Now I have come to say this to
my lord the king because the people have made me afraid; your servant
thought, “I will speak to the king; it may be that the king will
perform the request of his servant. For the king will hear, and
deliver his servant from the hand of the man who would cut both me and
my son off from the heritage of God.” Your servant thought, “The
word of my lord the king will set me at rest”; for my lord the king
is like the angel of God, discerning good and evil. The Lord your God
be with you!’

 Then the king answered the woman, ‘Do not withhold from me
anything I ask you.’ The woman said, ‘Let my lord the king
speak.’ The king said, ‘Is the hand of Joab with you in all
this?’ The woman answered and said, ‘As surely as you live, my
lord the king, one cannot turn right or left from anything that my
lord the king has said. For it was your servant Joab who commanded me;
it was he who put all these words into the mouth of your servant. In
order to change the course of affairs your servant Joab did this. But
my lord has wisdom like the wisdom of the angel of God to know all
things that are on the earth.’
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Acts 21:1-14

When we had parted from them and set sail, we came by a straight
course to Cos, and the next day to Rhodes, and from there to Patara.*
When we found a ship bound for Phoenicia, we went on board and set
sail. We came in sight of Cyprus; and leaving it on our left, we
sailed to Syria and landed at Tyre, because the ship was to unload its
cargo there. We looked up the disciples and stayed there for seven
days. Through the Spirit they told Paul not to go on to Jerusalem.
When our days there were ended, we left and proceeded on our journey;
and all of them, with wives and children, escorted us outside the
city. There we knelt down on the beach and prayed and said farewell to
one another. Then we went on board the ship, and they returned home.

 When we had finished* the voyage from Tyre, we arrived at Ptolemais;
and we greeted the believers* and stayed with them for one day. The
next day we left and came to Caesarea; and we went into the house of
Philip the evangelist, one of the seven, and stayed with him. He had
four unmarried daughters* who had the gift of prophecy. While we were
staying there for several days, a prophet named Agabus came down from
Judea. He came to us and took Paul’s belt, bound his own feet and
hands with it, and said, ‘Thus says the Holy Spirit, “This is the
way the Jews in Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and
will hand him over to the Gentiles.” ’ When we heard this, we and
the people there urged him not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul
answered, ‘What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I
am ready not only to be bound but even to die in Jerusalem for the
name of the Lord Jesus.’ Since he would not be persuaded, we
remained silent except to say, ‘The Lord’s will be done.’
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Mark 10:1-16

He left that place and went to the region of Judea and* beyond the
Jordan. And crowds again gathered around him; and, as was his custom,
he again taught them.

 Some Pharisees came, and to test him they asked, ‘Is it lawful for
a man to divorce his wife?’ He answered them, ‘What did Moses
command you?’ They said, ‘Moses allowed a man to write a
certificate of dismissal and to divorce her.’ But Jesus said to
them, ‘Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment
for you. But from the beginning of creation, “God made them male and
female.” “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother
and be joined to his wife,* and the two shall become one flesh.” So
they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined
together, let no one separate.’

 Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter.
He said to them, ‘Whoever divorces his wife and marries another
commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and
marries another, she commits adultery.’

 People were bringing little children to him in order that he might
touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. But when Jesus
saw this, he was indignant and said to them, ‘Let the little
children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that
the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive
the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.’ And he
took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.
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Morning Psalms:  Psalm 97, 99, 100

Psalm 97

The Lord is king! Let the earth rejoice;
   let the many coastlands be glad! 
Clouds and thick darkness are all around him;
   righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. 
Fire goes before him,
   and consumes his adversaries on every side. 
His lightnings light up the world;
   the earth sees and trembles. 
The mountains melt like wax before the Lord,
   before the Lord of all the earth. 

The heavens proclaim his righteousness;
   and all the peoples behold his glory. 
All worshippers of images are put to shame,
   those who make their boast in worthless idols;
   all gods bow down before him. 
Zion hears and is glad,
   and the towns* of Judah rejoice,
   because of your judgements, O God. 
For you, O Lord, are most high over all the earth;
   you are exalted far above all gods. 

The Lord loves those who hate* evil;
   he guards the lives of his faithful;
   he rescues them from the hand of the wicked. 
Light dawns* for the righteous,
   and joy for the upright in heart. 
Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous,
   and give thanks to his holy name!

Psalm 99

The Lord is king; let the peoples tremble!
   He sits enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth quake! 
The Lord is great in Zion;
   he is exalted over all the peoples. 
Let them praise your great and awesome name.
   Holy is he! 
Mighty King,* lover of justice,
   you have established equity;
you have executed justice
   and righteousness in Jacob. 
Extol the Lord our God;
   worship at his footstool.
   Holy is he! 

Moses and Aaron were among his priests,
   Samuel also was among those who called on his name.
   They cried to the Lord, and he answered them. 
He spoke to them in the pillar of cloud;
   they kept his decrees,
   and the statutes that he gave them. 

O Lord our God, you answered them;
   you were a forgiving God to them,
   but an avenger of their wrongdoings. 
Extol the Lord our God,
   and worship at his holy mountain;
   for the Lord our God is holy.

Psalm 100

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth. 
   Worship the Lord with gladness;
   come into his presence with singing. 

Know that the Lord is God.
   It is he that made us, and we are his;*
   we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. 

Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
   and his courts with praise.
   Give thanks to him, bless his name. 

For the Lord is good;
   his steadfast love endures for ever,
   and his faithfulness to all generations.
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Evening Psalms: Psalm 94, 95

Psalm 94

O Lord, you God of vengeance,
   you God of vengeance, shine forth! 
Rise up, O judge of the earth;
   give to the proud what they deserve! 
O Lord, how long shall the wicked,
   how long shall the wicked exult? 

They pour out their arrogant words;
   all the evildoers boast. 
They crush your people, O Lord,
   and afflict your heritage. 
They kill the widow and the stranger,
   they murder the orphan, 
and they say, ‘The Lord does not see;
   the God of Jacob does not perceive.’ 

Understand, O dullest of the people;
   fools, when will you be wise? 
He who planted the ear, does he not hear?
He who formed the eye, does he not see? 
He who disciplines the nations,
he who teaches knowledge to humankind,
   does he not chastise? 
The Lord knows our thoughts,*
   that they are but an empty breath. 

Happy are those whom you discipline, O Lord,
   and whom you teach out of your law, 
giving them respite from days of trouble,
   until a pit is dug for the wicked. 
For the Lord will not forsake his people;
   he will not abandon his heritage; 
for justice will return to the righteous,
   and all the upright in heart will follow it. 

Who rises up for me against the wicked?
   Who stands up for me against evildoers? 
If the Lord had not been my help,
   my soul would soon have lived in the land of silence. 
When I thought, ‘My foot is slipping’,
   your steadfast love, O Lord, held me up. 
When the cares of my heart are many,
   your consolations cheer my soul. 
Can wicked rulers be allied with you,
   those who contrive mischief by statute? 
They band together against the life of the righteous,
   and condemn the innocent to death. 
But the Lord has become my stronghold,
   and my God the rock of my refuge. 
He will repay them for their iniquity
   and wipe them out for their wickedness;
   the Lord our God will wipe them out.

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.’
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