The Old Testament Lesson
The Old Testament Lesson for today is taken from Jeremiah 31:27-34
The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of humans and the seed of animals. And just as I have watched over them to pluck up and break down, to overthrow, destroy, and bring evil, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, says the LORD. In those days they shall no longer say: "The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge." But all shall die for their own sins; the teeth of everyone who eats sour grapes shall be set on edge. The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt-- a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, "Know the LORD," for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.
The Epistle Lesson
The Epistle Lesson for today is taken from Romans 11:25-36
So that you may not claim to be wiser than you are, brothers and sisters, I want you to understand this mystery: a hardening has come upon part of Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved; as it is written, "Out of Zion will come the Deliverer; he will banish ungodliness from Jacob." "And this is my covenant with them, when I take away their sins." As regards the gospel they are enemies of God for your sake; but as regards election they are beloved, for the sake of their ancestors; for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. Just as you were once disobedient to God but have now received mercy because of their disobedience, so they have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy. For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all. O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! "For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?" "Or who has given a gift to him, to receive a gift in return?" For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen.
The Holy Gospel Lesson
The Holy Gospel is written in John 11:28-44
When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, and told her privately, "The Teacher is here and is calling for you." And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. The Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to him, "Lord, come and see." Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, "See how he loved him!" But some of them said, "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?" Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, "Take away the stone." Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, "Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days." Jesus said to her, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?" So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, "Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me." When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Unbind him, and let him go."
Morning Psalms
Psalm 137 Super flumina
1 By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept, when we remembered you, O Zion.
2 As for our harps, we hung them up on the trees in the midst of that land.
3 For those who led us away captive asked us for a song, and our oppressors called for mirth: "Sing us one of the songs of Zion."
4 How shall we sing the LORD'S song upon an alien soil?
5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill.
6 Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy.
7 Remember the day of Jerusalem, O LORD, against the people of Edom, who said, "Down with it! down with it! even to the ground!"
8 O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, happy the one who pays you back for what you have done to us!
9 Happy shall he be who takes your little ones, and dashes them against the rock!
Psalm 144 Benedictus Dominus
1 Blessed be the LORD my rock! who trains my hands to fight and my fingers to battle;
2 My help and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield in whom I trust, who subdues the peoples under me.
3 O LORD, what are we that you should care for us? mere mortals that you should think of us?
4 We are like a puff of wind; our days are like a passing shadow.
5 Bow your heavens, O LORD, and come down; touch the mountains, and they shall smoke.
6 Hurl the lightning and scatter them; shoot out your arrows and rout them.
7 Stretch out your hand from on high; rescue me and deliver me from the great waters, from the hand of foreign peoples,
8 Whose mouths speak deceitfully and whose right hand is raised in falsehood.
9 O God, I will sing to you a new song; I will play to you on a ten-stringed lyre.
10 You give victory to kings and have rescued David your servant.
11 Rescue me from the hurtful sword and deliver me from the hand of foreign peoples,
12 Whose mouths speak deceitfully and whose right hand is raised in falsehood.
13 May our sons be like plants well nurtured from their youth, and our daughters like sculptured corners of a palace.
14 May our barns be filled to overflowing with all manner of crops; may the flocks in our pastures increase by thousands and tens of thousands; may our cattle be fat and sleek.
15 May there be no breaching of the walls, no going into exile, no wailing in the public squares.
16 Happy are the people of whom this is so! happy are the people whose God is the LORD!
Evening Psalms
Psalm 42 Quemadmodum
1 As the deer longs for the water-brooks, so longs my soul for you, O God.
2 My soul is athirst for God, athirst for the living God; when shall I come to appear before the presence of God?
3 My tears have been my food day and night, while all day long they say to me, "Where now is your God?"
4 I pour out my soul when I think on these things; how I went with the multitude and led them into the house of God,
5 With the voice of praise and thanksgiving, among those who keep holy-day.
6 Why are you so full of heaviness, O my soul? and why are you so disquieted within me?
7 Put your trust in God; for I will yet give thanks to him, who is the help of my countenance, and my God.
8 My soul is heavy within me; therefore I will remember you from the land of Jordan, and from the peak of Mizar among the heights of Hermon.
9 One deep calls to another in the noise of your cataracts; all your rapids and floods have gone over me.
10 The LORD grants his loving-kindness in the daytime; in the night season his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.
11 I will say to the God of my strength, "Why have you forgotten me? and why do I go so heavily while the enemy oppresses me?"
12 While my bones are being broken, my enemies mock me to my face;
13 All day long they mock me and say to me, "Where now is your God?"
14 Why are you so full of heaviness, O my soul? and why are you so disquieted within me?
15 Put your trust in God; for I will yet give thanks to him, who is the help of my countenance, and my God.
Psalm 43 Judica me, Deus
1 Give judgment for me, O God, and defend my cause against an ungodly people; deliver me from the deceitful and the wicked.
2 For you are the God of my strength; why have you put me from you? and why do I go so heavily while the enemy oppresses me?
3 Send out your light and your truth, that they may lead me, and bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling;
4 That I may go to the altar of God, to the God of my joy and gladness; and on the harp I will give thanks to you, O God my God.
5 Why are you so full of heaviness, O my soul? and why are you so disquieted within me?
6 Put your trust in God; for I will yet give thanks to him, who is the help of my countenance, and my God.
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.
