Tuesday 19 March 2024 DAILY LECTIONARY

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Tuesday 19 March 2024 
DAILY LECTIONARY

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Exodus 5:1-6:1

Afterwards Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, ‘Thus says the
Lord, the God of Israel, “Let my people go, so that they may
celebrate a festival to me in the wilderness.” ’ But Pharaoh said,
‘Who is the Lord, that I should heed him and let Israel go? I do not
know the Lord, and I will not let Israel go.’ Then they said, ‘The
God of the Hebrews has revealed himself to us; let us go a three
days’ journey into the wilderness to sacrifice to the Lord our God,
or he will fall upon us with pestilence or sword.’ But the king of
Egypt said to them, ‘Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people
away from their work? Get to your labours!’ Pharaoh continued,
‘Now they are more numerous than the people of the land * and yet
you want them to stop working!’ That same day Pharaoh commanded the
taskmasters of the people, as well as their supervisors, ‘You shall
no longer give the people straw to make bricks, as before; let them go
and gather straw for themselves. But you shall require of them the
same quantity of bricks as they have made previously; do not diminish
it, for they are lazy; that is why they cry, “Let us go and offer
sacrifice to our God.” Let heavier work be laid on them; then they
will labour at it and pay no attention to deceptive words.’

 So the taskmasters and the supervisors of the people went out and
said to the people, ‘Thus says Pharaoh, “I will not give you
straw. Go and get straw yourselves, wherever you can find it; but your
work will not be lessened in the least.” ’ So the people scattered
throughout the land of Egypt, to gather stubble for straw. The
taskmasters were urgent, saying, ‘Complete your work, the same daily
assignment as when you were given straw.’ And the supervisors of the
Israelites, whom Pharaoh’s taskmasters had set over them, were
beaten, and were asked, ‘Why did you not finish the required
quantity of bricks yesterday and today, as you did before?’

 Then the Israelite supervisors came to Pharaoh and cried, ‘Why do
you treat your servants like this? No straw is given to your servants,
yet they say to us, “Make bricks!” Look how your servants are
beaten! You are unjust to your own people.’* He said, ‘You are
lazy, lazy; that is why you say, “Let us go and sacrifice to the
Lord.” Go now, and work; for no straw shall be given you, but you
shall still deliver the same number of bricks.’ The Israelite
supervisors saw that they were in trouble when they were told, ‘You
shall not lessen your daily number of bricks.’ As they left Pharaoh,
they came upon Moses and Aaron who were waiting to meet them. They
said to them, ‘The Lord look upon you and judge! You have brought us
into bad odour with Pharaoh and his officials, and have put a sword in
their hand to kill us.’

 Then Moses turned again to the Lord and said, ‘O Lord, why have
you mistreated this people? Why did you ever send me? Since I first
came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has mistreated this people,
and you have done nothing at all to deliver your people.’
Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Now you shall see what I will do to
Pharaoh: Indeed, by a mighty hand he will let them go; by a mighty
hand he will drive them out of his land.’
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1 Corinthians 14:20-40

Brothers and sisters,* do not be children in your thinking; rather, be
infants in evil, but in thinking be adults. In the law it is written,
‘By people of strange tongues
   and by the lips of foreigners
I will speak to this people;
   yet even then they will not listen to me,’
says the Lord. Tongues, then, are a sign not for believers but for
unbelievers, while prophecy is not for unbelievers but for believers.
If, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in
tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that
you are out of your mind? But if all prophesy, an unbeliever or
outsider who enters is reproved by all and called to account by all.
After the secrets of the unbeliever’s heart are disclosed, that
person will bow down before God and worship him, declaring, ‘God is
really among you.’
 What should be done then, my friends?* When you come together, each
one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an
interpretation. Let all things be done for building up. If anyone
speaks in a tongue, let there be only two or at most three, and each
in turn; and let one interpret. But if there is no one to interpret,
let them be silent in church and speak to themselves and to God. Let
two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said. If
a revelation is made to someone else sitting nearby, let the first
person be silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may
learn and all be encouraged. And the spirits of prophets are subject
to the prophets, for God is a God not of disorder but of peace.

(As in all the churches of the saints, So, my friends,* be eager to
prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues; but all things should
be done decently and in order.
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Mark 9:42-50

‘If any of you put a stumbling-block before one of these little ones
who believe in me,* it would be better for you if a great millstone
were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea. If your
hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter
life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell,* to the
unquenchable fire.* And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it
off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and
to be thrown into hell.*,* And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear
it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye
than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell,* where their worm
never dies, and the fire is never quenched.

 ‘For everyone will be salted with fire.* Salt is good; but if salt
has lost its saltiness, how can you season it?* Have salt in
yourselves, and be at peace with one another.’
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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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