The
Old Testament Lesson
The
Old Testament Lesson for today is taken from Jeremiah 5:1-9
Run
to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, look around and take note! Search
its squares and see if you can find one person who acts justly and seeks
truth-- so that I may pardon Jerusalem. Although they say, "As the LORD
lives," yet they swear falsely. O LORD, do your eyes not look for truth?
You have struck them, but they felt no anguish; you have consumed them, but
they refused to take correction. They have made their faces harder than rock;
they have refused to turn back. Then I said, "These are only the poor,
they have no sense; for they do not know the way of the LORD, the law of their
God. Let me go to the rich and speak to them; surely they know the way of the
LORD, the law of their God." But they all alike had broken the yoke, they
had burst the bonds. Therefore a lion from the forest shall kill them, a wolf
from the desert shall destroy them. A leopard is watching against their cities;
everyone who goes out of them shall be torn in pieces-- because their
transgressions are many, their apostasies are great. How can I pardon you? Your
children have forsaken me, and have sworn by those who are no gods. When I fed
them to the full, they committed adultery and trooped to the houses of prostitutes.
They were well-fed lusty stallions, each neighing for his neighbor's wife.
Shall I not punish them for these things? says the LORD; and shall I not bring
retribution on a nation such as this?
This is the Word of the Lord
Thanks
be to God!
The
Epistle Lesson
The
Epistle Lesson for today is taken from Romans 2:25-3:18
Circumcision
indeed is of value if you obey the law; but if you break the law, your
circumcision has become uncircumcision. So, if those who are uncircumcised keep
the requirements of the law, will not their uncircumcision be regarded as
circumcision? Then those who are physically uncircumcised but keep the law will
condemn you that have the written code and circumcision but break the law. For
a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is true circumcision something
external and physical. Rather, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly, and real
circumcision is a matter of the heart-- it is spiritual and not literal. Such a
person receives praise not from others but from God. Then what advantage has
the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? Much, in every way. For in the
first place the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. What if some were
unfaithful? Will their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no
means! Although everyone is a liar, let God be proved true, as it is written,
"So that you may be justified in your words, and prevail in your
judging." But if our injustice serves to confirm the justice of God, what
should we say? That God is unjust to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human
way.) By no means! For then how could God judge the world? But if through my falsehood
God's truthfulness abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a
sinner? And why not say (as some people slander us by saying that we say),
"Let us do evil so that good may come"? Their condemnation is
deserved! What then? Are we any better off? No, not at all; for we have already
charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under the power of sin, as it is
written: "There is no one who is righteous, not even one; there is no one
who has understanding, there is no one who seeks God. All have turned aside,
together they have become worthless; there is no one who shows kindness, there
is not even one." "Their throats are opened graves; they use their
tongues to deceive." "The venom of vipers is under their lips." "Their
mouths are full of cursing and bitterness." "Their feet are swift to
shed blood; ruin and misery are in their paths, and the way of peace they have
not known." "There is no fear of God before their eyes."
This is the Word of the Lord
Thanks
be to God!
The
Holy Gospel Lesson
The
Holy Gospel is written in John 5:30-47
Glory be to Thee, O Lord!
"I
can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge; and my judgment is just, because
I seek to do not my own will but the will of him who sent me. "If I
testify about myself, my testimony is not true. There is another who testifies
on my behalf, and I know that his testimony to me is true. You sent messengers
to John, and he testified to the truth. Not that I accept such human testimony,
but I say these things so that you may be saved. He was a burning and shining
lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. But I have a
testimony greater than John's. The works that the Father has given me to
complete, the very works that I am doing, testify on my behalf that the Father
has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself testified on my behalf. You
have never heard his voice or seen his form, and you do not have his word
abiding in you, because you do not believe him whom he has sent. "You
search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and
it is they that testify on my behalf. Yet you refuse to come to me to have life.
I do not accept glory from human beings. But I know that you do not have the
love of God in you. I have come in my Father's name, and you do not accept me;
if another comes in his own name, you will accept him. How can you believe when
you accept glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the
one who alone is God? Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father;
your accuser is Moses, on whom you have set your hope. If you believed Moses,
you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But if you do not believe what he
wrote, how will you believe what I say?"
Here
ends the Gospel lesson for today
Glory
be to Thee ,O Christ!
Morning Psalms
Psalm 69 Salvum me fac
1 Save me, O God, for
the waters have risen up to my neck.
2 I am sinking in deep mire, and there is no firm
ground for my feet.
3 I have come into deep waters, and the torrent
washes over me.
4 I have grown weary with my crying; my throat is
inflamed; my eyes have failed from looking for my God.
5 Those who hate me without a cause are more than
the hairs of my head; my lying foes who would destroy me are mighty. Must I
then give back what I never stole?
6 O God, you know my foolishness, and my faults are
not hidden from you.
7 Let not those who hope in you be put to shame
through me, Lord GOD of hosts; let not those who seek you be disgraced because
of me, O God of Israel.
8 Surely, for your sake have I suffered reproach, and
shame has covered my face.
9 I have become a stranger to my own kindred, an
alien to my mother's children.
10 Zeal for your house has eaten me up; the scorn
of those who scorn you has fallen upon me.
11 I humbled myself with fasting, but that was
turned to my reproach.
12 I put on sack-cloth also, and became a byword
among them.
13 Those who sit at the gate murmur against me, and
the drunkards make songs about me.
14 But as for me, this is my prayer to you, at the
time you have set, O LORD:
15 In your great mercy, O God, answer me with your
unfailing help.
16 Save me from the mire; do not let me sink; let
me be rescued from those who hate me and out of the deep waters.
17 Let not the torrent of waters wash over me,
neither let the deep swallow me up; do not let the Pit shut its mouth upon me.
18 Answer me, O LORD, for your love is kind; in
your great compassion, turn to me."
19 Hide not your face from your servant; be swift
and answer me, for I am in distress.
20 Draw near to me and redeem me; because of my
enemies deliver me.
21 You know my reproach, my shame, and my dishonor;
my adversaries are all in your sight."
22 Reproach has broken my heart, and it cannot be
healed; I looked for sympathy, but there was none, for comforters, but I could
find no one.
23 They gave me gall to eat, and when I was
thirsty, they gave me vinegar to drink.
24 Let the table before them be a trap and their
sacred feasts a snare.
25 Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not
see, and give them continual trembling in their loins.
26 Pour out your indignation upon them, and let the
fierceness of your anger overtake them.
27 Let their camp be desolate, and let there be
none to dwell in their tents.
28 For they persecute him whom you have stricken and
add to the pain of those whom you have pierced.
29 Lay to their charge guilt upon guilt, and let
them not receive your vindication.
30 Let them be wiped out of the book of the living and
not be written among the righteous.
31 As for me, I am afflicted and in pain; your
help, O God, will lift me up on high.
32 I will praise the Name of God in song; I will
proclaim his greatness with thanksgiving.
33 This will please the LORD more than an offering
of oxen, more than bullocks with horns and hoofs.
34 The afflicted shall see and be glad; you who
seek God, your heart shall live.
35 For the LORD listens to the needy, and his
prisoners he does not despise.
36 Let the heavens and the earth praise him, the
seas and all that moves in them;
37 For God will save Zion and rebuild the cities of
Judah; they shall live there and have it in possession.
38 The children of his servants will inherit it, and
those who love his Name will dwell therein.
Evening Psalms
Psalm 73 Quam bonus Israel!
1 Truly, God is
good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.
2 But as for me, my feet had nearly slipped; I had
almost tripped and fallen;
3 Because I envied the proud and saw the prosperity
of the wicked:
4 For they suffer no pain, and their bodies are
sleek and sound;
5 In the misfortunes of others they have no share; they
are not afflicted as others are;
6 Therefore they wear their pride like a necklace and
wrap their violence about them like a cloak.
7 Their iniquity comes from gross minds, and their
hearts overflow with wicked thoughts.
8 They scoff and speak maliciously; out of their
haughtiness they plan oppression.
9 They set their mouths against the heavens, and
their evil speech runs through the world.
10 And so the people turn to them and find in them
no fault.
11 They say, "How should God know? is there
knowledge in the Most High?"
12 So then, these are the wicked; always at ease,
they increase their wealth.
13 In vain have I kept my heart clean, and washed
my hands in innocence.
14 I have been afflicted all day long, and punished
every morning.
15 Had I gone on speaking this way, I should have
betrayed the generation of your children.
16 When I tried to understand these things, it was
too hard for me;
17 Until I entered the sanctuary of God and
discerned the end of the wicked.
18 Surely, you set them in slippery places; you
cast them down in ruin.
19 Oh, how suddenly do they come to destruction, come
to an end, and perish from terror!
20 Like a dream when one awakens, O Lord, when you
arise you will make their image vanish.
21 When my mind became embittered, I was sorely
wounded in my heart.
22 I was stupid and had no understanding; I was
like a brute beast in your presence.
23 Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my
right hand.
24 You will guide me by your counsel, and
afterwards receive me with glory.
25 Whom have I in heaven but you? and having you I
desire nothing upon earth.
26 Though my flesh and my heart should waste away, God
is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever.
27 Truly, those who forsake you will perish; you
destroy all who are unfaithful.
28 But it is good for me to be near God; I have
made the Lord GOD my refuge.
29 I will speak of all your works in the gates of
the city of Zion.
New
Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education
of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of
America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The New Revised Standard
Version Bible may be quoted and/or reprinted up to and inclusive of five
hundred (500) verses without express written permission of the publisher,
provided the verses quoted do not amount to a complete book of the Bible or
account for fifty percent (50%) of the total work in which they are quoted.