Monday 23 September 2024 DAILY LECTIONARY

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Monday 23 September 2024  
DAILY LECTIONARY

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Esther 4:4-17

When Esther’s maids and her eunuchs came and told her, the queen was
deeply distressed; she sent garments to clothe Mordecai, so that he
might take off his sackcloth; but he would not accept them. Then
Esther called for Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs, who had been
appointed to attend her, and ordered him to go to Mordecai to learn
what was happening and why. Hathach went out to Mordecai in the open
square of the city in front of the king’s gate, and Mordecai told
him all that had happened to him, and the exact sum of money that
Haman had promised to pay into the king’s treasuries for the
destruction of the Jews. Mordecai also gave him a copy of the written
decree issued in Susa for their destruction, that he might show it to
Esther, explain it to her, and charge her to go to the king to make
supplication to him and entreat him for her people.

 Hathach went and told Esther what Mordecai had said. Then Esther
spoke to Hathach and gave him a message for Mordecai, saying, ‘All
the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know
that if any man or woman goes to the king inside the inner court
without being called, there is but one law—all alike are to be put
to death. Only if the king holds out the golden sceptre to someone,
may that person live. I myself have not been called to come in to the
king for thirty days.’ When they told Mordecai what Esther had said,
Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, ‘Do not think that in the
king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For
if you keep silence at such a time as this, relief and deliverance
will rise for the Jews from another quarter, but you and your
father’s family will perish. Who knows? Perhaps you have come to
royal dignity for just such a time as this.’ Then Esther said in
reply to Mordecai, ‘Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and
hold a fast on my behalf, and neither eat nor drink for three days,
night or day. I and my maids will also fast as you do. After that I
will go to the king, though it is against the law; and if I perish, I
perish.’ Mordecai then went away and did everything as Esther had
ordered him.
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Acts 18:1-11

After this Paul* left Athens and went to Corinth. There he found a Jew
named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy
with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all Jews to
leave Rome. Paul* went to see them, and, because he was of the same
trade, he stayed with them, and they worked together—by trade they
were tentmakers. Every sabbath he would argue in the synagogue and
would try to convince Jews and Greeks.

 When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied
with proclaiming the word,* testifying to the Jews that the Messiah*
was Jesus. When they opposed and reviled him, in protest he shook the
dust from his clothes* and said to them, ‘Your blood be on your own
heads! I am innocent. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.’ Then
he left the synagogue* and went to the house of a man named Titius*
Justus, a worshipper of God; his house was next door to the synagogue.
Crispus, the official of the synagogue, became a believer in the Lord,
together with all his household; and many of the Corinthians who heard
Paul became believers and were baptized. One night the Lord said to
Paul in a vision, ‘Do not be afraid, but speak and do not be silent;
for I am with you, and no one will lay a hand on you to harm you, for
there are many in this city who are my people.’ He stayed there for
a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.
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Luke 1:1-4,3:1-14

Since many have undertaken to set down an orderly account of the
events that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed on
to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants
of the word, I too decided, after investigating everything carefully
from the very first,* to write an orderly account for you, most
excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the truth concerning the
things about which you have been instructed. 

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius
Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler* of Galilee, and his
brother Philip ruler* of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and
Lysanias ruler* of Abilene, during the high-priesthood of Annas and
Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the
wilderness. He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming
a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written
in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah,
‘The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
“Prepare the way of the Lord,
   make his paths straight. 
Every valley shall be filled,
   and every mountain and hill shall be made low,
and the crooked shall be made straight,
   and the rough ways made smooth; 
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” ’

 John said to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, ‘You
brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear
fruits worthy of repentance. Do not begin to say to yourselves, “We
have Abraham as our ancestor”; for I tell you, God is able from
these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the axe is
lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not
bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.’

 And the crowds asked him, ‘What then should we do?’ In reply he
said to them, ‘Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has
none; and whoever has food must do likewise.’ Even tax-collectors
came to be baptized, and they asked him, ‘Teacher, what should we
do?’ He said to them, ‘Collect no more than the amount prescribed
for you.’ Soldiers also asked him, ‘And we, what should we do?’
He said to them, ‘Do not extort money from anyone by threats or
false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.’
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Morning Psalms:  Psalm 80

Psalm 80

Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel,
   you who lead Joseph like a flock!
You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth 
   before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh.
Stir up your might,
   and come to save us! 

Restore us, O God;
   let your face shine, that we may be saved. 

O Lord God of hosts,
   how long will you be angry with your people’s prayers? 
You have fed them with the bread of tears,
   and given them tears to drink in full measure. 
You make us the scorn* of our neighbours;
   our enemies laugh among themselves. 

Restore us, O God of hosts;
   let your face shine, that we may be saved. 

You brought a vine out of Egypt;
   you drove out the nations and planted it. 
You cleared the ground for it;
   it took deep root and filled the land. 
The mountains were covered with its shade,
   the mighty cedars with its branches; 
it sent out its branches to the sea,
   and its shoots to the River. 
Why then have you broken down its walls,
   so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit? 
The boar from the forest ravages it,
   and all that move in the field feed on it. 

Turn again, O God of hosts;
   look down from heaven, and see;
have regard for this vine, 
   the stock that your right hand planted.* 
They have burned it with fire, they have cut it down;*
   may they perish at the rebuke of your countenance. 
But let your hand be upon the one at your right hand,
   the one whom you made strong for yourself. 
Then we will never turn back from you;
   give us life, and we will call on your name. 

Restore us, O Lord God of hosts;
   let your face shine, that we may be saved.
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Evening Psalms:  Psalm 77, 79

Psalm 77

I cry aloud to God,
   aloud to God, that he may hear me. 
In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord;
   in the night my hand is stretched out without wearying;
   my soul refuses to be comforted. 
I think of God, and I moan;
   I meditate, and my spirit faints.
          Selah 

You keep my eyelids from closing;
   I am so troubled that I cannot speak. 
I consider the days of old,
   and remember the years of long ago. 
I commune* with my heart in the night;
   I meditate and search my spirit:* 
‘Will the Lord spurn for ever,
   and never again be favourable? 
Has his steadfast love ceased for ever?
   Are his promises at an end for all time? 
Has God forgotten to be gracious?
   Has he in anger shut up his compassion?’
          Selah 
And I say, ‘It is my grief
   that the right hand of the Most High has changed.’ 

I will call to mind the deeds of the Lord;
   I will remember your wonders of old. 
I will meditate on all your work,
   and muse on your mighty deeds. 
Your way, O God, is holy.
   What god is so great as our God? 
You are the God who works wonders;
   you have displayed your might among the peoples. 
With your strong arm you redeemed your people,
   the descendants of Jacob and Joseph.
          Selah 

When the waters saw you, O God,
   when the waters saw you, they were afraid;
   the very deep trembled. 
The clouds poured out water;
   the skies thundered;
   your arrows flashed on every side. 
The crash of your thunder was in the whirlwind;
   your lightnings lit up the world;
   the earth trembled and shook. 
Your way was through the sea,
   your path, through the mighty waters;
   yet your footprints were unseen. 
You led your people like a flock
   by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

Psalm 79

O God, the nations have come into your inheritance;
   they have defiled your holy temple;
   they have laid Jerusalem in ruins. 
They have given the bodies of your servants
   to the birds of the air for food,
   the flesh of your faithful to the wild animals of the earth. 
They have poured out their blood like water
   all around Jerusalem,
   and there was no one to bury them. 
We have become a taunt to our neighbours,
   mocked and derided by those around us. 

How long, O Lord? Will you be angry for ever?
   Will your jealous wrath burn like fire? 
Pour out your anger on the nations
   that do not know you,
and on the kingdoms
   that do not call on your name. 
For they have devoured Jacob
   and laid waste his habitation. 

Do not remember against us the iniquities of our ancestors;
   let your compassion come speedily to meet us,
   for we are brought very low. 
Help us, O God of our salvation,
   for the glory of your name;
deliver us, and forgive our sins,
   for your name’s sake. 
Why should the nations say,
   ‘Where is their God?’
Let the avenging of the outpoured blood of your servants
   be known among the nations before our eyes. 

Let the groans of the prisoners come before you;
   according to your great power preserve those doomed to die. 
Return sevenfold into the bosom of our neighbours
   the taunts with which they taunted you, O Lord! 
Then we your people, the flock of your pasture,
   will give thanks to you for ever;
   from generation to generation we will recount your praise.
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