Thursday 21 November 2024 DAILY LECTIONARY

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Thursday 21 November 2024  
DAILY LECTIONARY

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Malachi 2:1-16

And now, O priests, this command is for you. If you will not listen,
if you will not lay it to heart to give glory to my name, says the
Lord of hosts, then I will send the curse on you and I will curse your
blessings; indeed I have already cursed them,* because you do not lay
it to heart. I will rebuke your offspring, and spread dung on your
faces, the dung of your offerings, and I will put you out of my
presence.*

 Know, then, that I have sent this command to you, so that my
covenant with Levi may hold, says the Lord of hosts. My covenant with
him was a covenant of life and well-being, which I gave him; this
called for reverence, and he revered me and stood in awe of my name.
True instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips.
He walked with me in integrity and uprightness, and he turned many
from iniquity. For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and
people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger
of the Lord of hosts. But you have turned aside from the way; you have
caused many to stumble by your instruction; you have corrupted the
covenant of Levi, says the Lord of hosts, and so I make you despised
and abased before all the people, inasmuch as you have not kept my
ways but have shown partiality in your instruction.
 Have we not all one father? Has not one God created us? Why then are
we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our ancestors?
Judah has been faithless, and abomination has been committed in Israel
and in Jerusalem; for Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the Lord,
which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god. May the
Lord cut off from the tents of Jacob anyone who does this—any to
witness* or answer, or to bring an offering to the Lord of hosts.

 And this you do as well: You cover the Lord’s altar with tears,
with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or
accepts it with favour at your hand. You ask, ‘Why does he not?’
Because the Lord was a witness between you and the wife of your youth,
to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your
wife by covenant. Did not one God make her?* Both flesh and spirit are
his.* And what does the one God* desire? Godly offspring. So look to
yourselves, and do not let anyone be faithless to the wife of his
youth. For I hate* divorce, says the Lord, the God of Israel, and
covering one’s garment with violence, says the Lord of hosts. So
take heed to yourselves and do not be faithless.
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James 4:13-5:6

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.
Come now, you rich people, weep and wail for the miseries that are
coming to you. Your riches have rotted, and your clothes are
moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be
evidence against you, and it will eat your flesh like fire. You have
laid up treasure* for the last days. Listen! The wages of the
labourers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry
out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord
of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you
have fattened your hearts on a day of slaughter. You have condemned
and murdered the righteous one, who does not resist you.
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Luke 17:20-37

Once Jesus* was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was
coming, and he answered, ‘The kingdom of God is not coming with
things that can be observed; nor will they say, “Look, here it
is!” or “There it is!” For, in fact, the kingdom of God is
among* you.’

 Then he said to the disciples, ‘The days are coming when you will
long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see
it. They will say to you, “Look there!” or “Look here!” Do not
go, do not set off in pursuit. For as the lightning flashes and lights
up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in
his day.* But first he must endure much suffering and be rejected by
this generation. Just as it was in the days of Noah, so too it will be
in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating and drinking, and
marrying and being given in marriage, until the day Noah entered the
ark, and the flood came and destroyed all of them. Likewise, just as
it was in the days of Lot: they were eating and drinking, buying and
selling, planting and building, but on the day that Lot left Sodom, it
rained fire and sulphur from heaven and destroyed all of them —it
will be like that on the day that the Son of Man is revealed. On that
day, anyone on the housetop who has belongings in the house must not
come down to take them away; and likewise anyone in the field must not
turn back. Remember Lot’s wife. Those who try to make their life
secure will lose it, but those who lose their life will keep it. I
tell you, on that night there will be two in one bed; one will be
taken and the other left. There will be two women grinding meal
together; one will be taken and the other left.’* Then they asked
him, ‘Where, Lord?’ He said to them, ‘Where the corpse is, there
the vultures will gather.’
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Morning Psalms:  Psalm 105:1-22

Psalm 105:1-22

O give thanks to the Lord, call on his name,
   make known his deeds among the peoples. 
Sing to him, sing praises to him;
   tell of all his wonderful works. 
Glory in his holy name;
   let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice. 
Seek the Lord and his strength;
   seek his presence continually. 
Remember the wonderful works he has done,
   his miracles, and the judgements he has uttered, 
O offspring of his servant Abraham,*
   children of Jacob, his chosen ones. 

He is the Lord our God;
   his judgements are in all the earth. 
He is mindful of his covenant for ever,
   of the word that he commanded, for a thousand generations, 
the covenant that he made with Abraham,
   his sworn promise to Isaac, 
which he confirmed to Jacob as a statute,
   to Israel as an everlasting covenant, 
saying, ‘To you I will give the land of Canaan
   as your portion for an inheritance.’ 

When they were few in number,
   of little account, and strangers in it, 
wandering from nation to nation,
   from one kingdom to another people, 
he allowed no one to oppress them;
   he rebuked kings on their account, 
saying, ‘Do not touch my anointed ones;
   do my prophets no harm.’ 

When he summoned famine against the land,
   and broke every staff of bread, 
he had sent a man ahead of them,
   Joseph, who was sold as a slave. 
His feet were hurt with fetters,
   his neck was put in a collar of iron; 
until what he had said came to pass,
   the word of the Lord kept testing him. 
The king sent and released him;
   the ruler of the peoples set him free. 
He made him lord of his house,
   and ruler of all his possessions, 
to instruct* his officials at his pleasure,
   and to teach his elders wisdom.
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Evening Psalms:  Psalm 105:23-45

Psalm 105:23-45

Then Israel came to Egypt;
   Jacob lived as an alien in the land of Ham. 
And the Lord made his people very fruitful,
   and made them stronger than their foes, 
whose hearts he then turned to hate his people,
   to deal craftily with his servants. 

He sent his servant Moses,
   and Aaron whom he had chosen. 
They performed his signs among them,
   and miracles in the land of Ham. 
He sent darkness, and made the land dark;
   they rebelled* against his words. 
He turned their waters into blood,
   and caused their fish to die. 
Their land swarmed with frogs,
   even in the chambers of their kings. 
He spoke, and there came swarms of flies,
   and gnats throughout their country. 
He gave them hail for rain,
   and lightning that flashed through their land. 
He struck their vines and fig trees,
   and shattered the trees of their country. 
He spoke, and the locusts came,
   and young locusts without number; 
they devoured all the vegetation in their land,
   and ate up the fruit of their ground. 
He struck down all the firstborn in their land,
   the first issue of all their strength. 

Then he brought Israel* out with silver and gold,
   and there was no one among their tribes who stumbled. 
Egypt was glad when they departed,
   for dread of them had fallen upon it. 
He spread a cloud for a covering,
   and fire to give light by night. 
They asked, and he brought quails,
   and gave them food from heaven in abundance. 
He opened the rock, and water gushed out;
   it flowed through the desert like a river. 
For he remembered his holy promise,
   and Abraham, his servant. 

So he brought his people out with joy,
   his chosen ones with singing. 
He gave them the lands of the nations,
   and they took possession of the wealth of the peoples, 
that they might keep his statutes
   and observe his laws.
Praise the Lord!
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