Friday 23 February 2024 DAILY LECTIONARY

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Friday 23 February 2024
DAILY LECTIONARY

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Genesis 40:1-23

Some time after this, the cupbearer of the king of Egypt and his baker
offended their lord the king of Egypt. Pharaoh was angry with his two
officers, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker, and he put them in
custody in the house of the captain of the guard, in the prison where
Joseph was confined. The captain of the guard charged Joseph with
them, and he waited on them; and they continued for some time in
custody. One night they both dreamed—the cupbearer and the baker of
the king of Egypt, who were confined in the prison—each his own
dream, and each dream with its own meaning. When Joseph came to them
in the morning, he saw that they were troubled. So he asked
Pharaoh’s officers, who were with him in custody in his master’s
house, ‘Why are your faces downcast today?’ They said to him,
‘We have had dreams, and there is no one to interpret them.’ And
Joseph said to them, ‘Do not interpretations belong to God? Please
tell them to me.’

 So the chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph, and said to him,
‘In my dream there was a vine before me, and on the vine there were
three branches. As soon as it budded, its blossoms came out and the
clusters ripened into grapes. Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand; and I
took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh’s cup, and placed the
cup in Pharaoh’s hand.’ Then Joseph said to him, ‘This is its
interpretation: the three branches are three days; within three days
Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your office; and you
shall place Pharaoh’s cup in his hand, just as you used to do when
you were his cupbearer. But remember me when it is well with you;
please do me the kindness to make mention of me to Pharaoh, and so get
me out of this place. For in fact I was stolen out of the land of the
Hebrews; and here also I have done nothing that they should have put
me into the dungeon.’

 When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was favourable, he
said to Joseph, ‘I also had a dream: there were three cake baskets
on my head, and in the uppermost basket there were all sorts of baked
food for Pharaoh, but the birds were eating it out of the basket on my
head.’ And Joseph answered, ‘This is its interpretation: the three
baskets are three days; within three days Pharaoh will lift up your
head—from you!—and hang you on a pole; and the birds will eat the
flesh from you.’

 On the third day, which was Pharaoh’s birthday, he made a feast
for all his servants, and lifted up the head of the chief cupbearer
and the head of the chief baker among his servants. He restored the
chief cupbearer to his cupbearing, and he placed the cup in
Pharaoh’s hand; but the chief baker he hanged, just as Joseph had
interpreted to them. Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph,
but forgot him.
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1 Corinthians 3:16-23

Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit
dwells in you?* If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy
that person. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

 Do not deceive yourselves. If you think that you are wise in this
age, you should become fools so that you may become wise. For the
wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written,
‘He catches the wise in their craftiness’, 
and again,
‘The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise,
   that they are futile.’ 
So let no one boast about human leaders. For all things are yours,
whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the
present or the future—all belong to you, and you belong to Christ,
and Christ belongs to God.
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Mark 2:13-22

Jesus* went out again beside the lake; the whole crowd gathered around
him, and he taught them. As he was walking along, he saw Levi son of
Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, ‘Follow
me.’ And he got up and followed him.

 And as he sat at dinner* in Levi’s* house, many tax-collectors and
sinners were also sitting* with Jesus and his disciples—for there
were many who followed him. When the scribes of* the Pharisees saw
that he was eating with sinners and tax-collectors, they said to his
disciples, ‘Why does he eat* with tax-collectors and sinners?’
When Jesus heard this, he said to them, ‘Those who are well have no
need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not
the righteous but sinners.’
 Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting; and people*
came and said to him, ‘Why do John’s disciples and the disciples
of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?’ Jesus said
to them, ‘The wedding-guests cannot fast while the bridegroom is
with them, can they? As long as they have the bridegroom with them,
they cannot fast. The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away
from them, and then they will fast on that day.

 ‘No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak; otherwise,
the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear
is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the
wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins;
but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.’
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Morning Psalms: Psalm 95, 40, 54

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.’

Psalm 40

I waited patiently for the Lord;
   he inclined to me and heard my cry. 
He drew me up from the desolate pit,*
   out of the miry bog,
and set my feet upon a rock,
   making my steps secure. 
He put a new song in my mouth,
   a song of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear,
   and put their trust in the Lord. 

Happy are those who make
   the Lord their trust,
who do not turn to the proud,
   to those who go astray after false gods. 
You have multiplied, O Lord my God,
   your wondrous deeds and your thoughts towards us;
   none can compare with you.
Were I to proclaim and tell of them,
   they would be more than can be counted. 

Sacrifice and offering you do not desire,
   but you have given me an open ear.*
Burnt-offering and sin-offering
   you have not required. 
Then I said, ‘Here I am;
   in the scroll of the book it is written of me.* 
I delight to do your will, O my God;
   your law is within my heart.’ 

I have told the glad news of deliverance
   in the great congregation;
see, I have not restrained my lips,
   as you know, O Lord. 
I have not hidden your saving help within my heart,
   I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation;
I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness
   from the great congregation. 

Do not, O Lord, withhold
   your mercy from me;
let your steadfast love and your faithfulness
   keep me safe for ever. 
For evils have encompassed me
   without number;
my iniquities have overtaken me,
   until I cannot see;
they are more than the hairs of my head,
   and my heart fails me. 

Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me;
   O Lord, make haste to help me. 
Let all those be put to shame and confusion
   who seek to snatch away my life;
let those be turned back and brought to dishonour
   who desire my hurt. 
Let those be appalled because of their shame
   who say to me, ‘Aha, Aha!’ 

But may all who seek you
   rejoice and be glad in you;
may those who love your salvation
   say continually, ‘Great is the Lord!’ 
As for me, I am poor and needy,
   but the Lord takes thought for me.
You are my help and my deliverer;
   do not delay, O my God.

Psalm 54

Save me, O God, by your name,
   and vindicate me by your might. 
Hear my prayer, O God;
   give ear to the words of my mouth. 

For the insolent have risen against me,
   the ruthless seek my life;
   they do not set God before them.
          Selah 

But surely, God is my helper;
   the Lord is the upholder of* my life. 
He will repay my enemies for their evil.
   In your faithfulness, put an end to them. 

With a freewill-offering I will sacrifice to you;
   I will give thanks to your name, O Lord, for it is good. 
For he has delivered me from every trouble,
   and my eye has looked in triumph on my enemies.
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Evening Psalms: Psalm 51

Psalm 51

Have mercy on me, O God,
   according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
   blot out my transgressions. 
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
   and cleanse me from my sin. 

For I know my transgressions,
   and my sin is ever before me. 
Against you, you alone, have I sinned,
   and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you are justified in your sentence
   and blameless when you pass judgement. 
Indeed, I was born guilty,
   a sinner when my mother conceived me. 

You desire truth in the inward being;*
   therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart. 
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
   wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 
Let me hear joy and gladness;
   let the bones that you have crushed rejoice. 
Hide your face from my sins,
   and blot out all my iniquities. 

Create in me a clean heart, O God,
   and put a new and right* spirit within me. 
Do not cast me away from your presence,
   and do not take your holy spirit from me. 
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
   and sustain in me a willing* spirit. 

Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
   and sinners will return to you. 
Deliver me from bloodshed, O God,
   O God of my salvation,
   and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance. 

O Lord, open my lips,
   and my mouth will declare your praise. 
For you have no delight in sacrifice;
   if I were to give a burnt-offering, you would not be pleased. 
The sacrifice acceptable to God* is a broken spirit;
   a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. 

Do good to Zion in your good pleasure;
   rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, 
then you will delight in right sacrifices,
   in burnt-offerings and whole burnt-offerings;
   then bulls will be offered on your altar.
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