Tuesday 28 November 2023 DAILY LECTIONARY

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Tuesday 28 November 2023
DAILY LECTIONARY

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Nahum 1:1-13

An oracle concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum of
Elkosh.

A jealous and avenging God is the Lord,
   the Lord is avenging and wrathful;
the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries
   and rages against his enemies. 
The Lord is slow to anger but great in power,
   and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty. 

His way is in whirlwind and storm,
   and the clouds are the dust of his feet. 
He rebukes the sea and makes it dry,
   and he dries up all the rivers;
Bashan and Carmel wither,
   and the bloom of Lebanon fades. 
The mountains quake before him,
   and the hills melt;
the earth heaves before him,
   the world and all who live in it. 

Who can stand before his indignation?
   Who can endure the heat of his anger?
His wrath is poured out like fire,
   and by him the rocks are broken in pieces. 
The Lord is good,
   a stronghold on a day of trouble;
he protects those who take refuge in him, 
   even in a rushing flood.
He will make a full end of his adversaries,*
   and will pursue his enemies into darkness. 
Why do you plot against the Lord?
   He will make an end;
   no adversary will rise up twice. 
Like thorns they are entangled,
   like drunkards they are drunk;
   they are consumed like dry straw. 
>From you one has gone out
   who plots evil against the Lord,
   one who counsels wickedness. 

Thus says the Lord,
‘Though they are at full strength and many,*
   they will be cut off and pass away.
Though I have afflicted you,
   I will afflict you no more. 
And now I will break off his yoke from you
   and snap the bonds that bind you.’
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1 Peter 1:13-25

Therefore prepare your minds for action;* discipline yourselves; set
all your hope on the grace that Jesus Christ will bring you when he is
revealed. Like obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires
that you formerly had in ignorance. Instead, as he who called you is
holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct; for it is written,
‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’

 If you invoke as Father the one who judges all people impartially
according to their deeds, live in reverent fear during the time of
your exile. You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways
inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver
or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb
without defect or blemish. He was destined before the foundation of
the world, but was revealed at the end of the ages for your sake.
Through him you have come to trust in God, who raised him from the
dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are set on God.

 Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the
truth* so that you have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply*
from the heart.* You have been born anew, not of perishable but of
imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God.* For
‘All flesh is like grass
   and all its glory like the flower of grass.
The grass withers,
   and the flower falls, 
but the word of the Lord endures for ever.’
That word is the good news that was announced to you.
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Matthew 19:13-22
 
Then little children were being brought to him in order that he might
lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples spoke sternly to those
who brought them; but Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to
me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom
of heaven belongs.’ And he laid his hands on them and went on his
way.
 Then someone came to him and said, ‘Teacher, what good deed must I
do to have eternal life?’ And he said to him, ‘Why do you ask me
about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you wish to
enter into life, keep the commandments.’ He said to him, ‘Which
ones?’ And Jesus said, ‘You shall not murder; You shall not commit
adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness;
Honour your father and mother; also, You shall love your neighbour as
yourself.’ The young man said to him, ‘I have kept all these;*
what do I still lack?’ Jesus said to him, ‘If you wish to be
perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money* to the poor,
and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ When
the young man heard this word, he went away grieving, for he had many
possessions.
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Morning Psalms: Psalm 121, 122, 123

Psalm 121

I lift up my eyes to the hills—
   from where will my help come? 
My help comes from the Lord,
   who made heaven and earth. 

He will not let your foot be moved;
   he who keeps you will not slumber. 
He who keeps Israel
   will neither slumber nor sleep. 

The Lord is your keeper;
   the Lord is your shade at your right hand. 
The sun shall not strike you by day,
   nor the moon by night. 

The Lord will keep you from all evil;
   he will keep your life. 
The Lord will keep
   your going out and your coming in
   from this time on and for evermore.

Psalm 122

I was glad when they said to me,
   ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord!’ 
Our feet are standing
   within your gates, O Jerusalem. 

Jerusalem—built as a city
   that is bound firmly together. 
To it the tribes go up,
   the tribes of the Lord,
as was decreed for Israel,
   to give thanks to the name of the Lord. 
For there the thrones for judgement were set up,
   the thrones of the house of David. 

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:
   ‘May they prosper who love you. 
Peace be within your walls,
   and security within your towers.’ 
For the sake of my relatives and friends
   I will say, ‘Peace be within you.’ 
For the sake of the house of the Lord our God,
   I will seek your good.

Psalm 123

To you I lift up my eyes,
   O you who are enthroned in the heavens! 
As the eyes of servants
   look to the hand of their master,
as the eyes of a maid
   to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes look to the Lord our God,
   until he has mercy upon us. 

Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us,
   for we have had more than enough of contempt. 
Our soul has had more than its fill
   of the scorn of those who are at ease,
   of the contempt of the proud.
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Evening Psalms: Psalm 124, 125, 126

Psalm 124

If it had not been the Lord who was on our side
   —let Israel now say— 
if it had not been the Lord who was on our side,
   when our enemies attacked us, 
then they would have swallowed us up alive,
   when their anger was kindled against us; 
then the flood would have swept us away,
   the torrent would have gone over us; 
then over us would have gone
   the raging waters. 

Blessed be the Lord,
   who has not given us
   as prey to their teeth. 
We have escaped like a bird
   from the snare of the fowlers;
the snare is broken,
   and we have escaped. 

Our help is in the name of the Lord,
   who made heaven and earth.

Psalm 125

Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion,
   which cannot be moved, but abides for ever. 
As the mountains surround Jerusalem,
   so the Lord surrounds his people,
   from this time on and for evermore. 
For the sceptre of wickedness shall not rest
   on the land allotted to the righteous,
so that the righteous may not stretch out
   their hands to do wrong. 
Do good, O Lord, to those who are good,
   and to those who are upright in their hearts. 
But those who turn aside to their own crooked ways
   the Lord will lead away with evildoers.
   Peace be upon Israel!

Psalm 126

When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,*
   we were like those who dream. 
Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
   and our tongue with shouts of joy;
then it was said among the nations,
   ‘The Lord has done great things for them.’ 
The Lord has done great things for us,
   and we rejoiced. 

Restore our fortunes, O Lord,
   like the watercourses in the Negeb. 
May those who sow in tears
   reap with shouts of joy. 
Those who go out weeping,
   bearing the seed for sowing,
shall come home with shouts of joy,
   carrying their sheaves.
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