Sunday, December 15 | St. Andrew's Anglican Church

Psalm 63

¹ O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;
    my soul thirsts for you;
    my flesh faints for you,
    as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
²So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
    beholding your power and glory.
³Because your steadfast love is better than life,
    my lips will praise you.
⁴So I will bless you as long as I live;
    in your name I will lift up my hands.
⁵My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food,
    and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips,
⁶when I remember you upon my bed,
    and meditate on you in the watches of the night;
⁷for you have been my help,
    and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.
⁸My soul clings to you;
    your right hand upholds me.
⁹But those who seek to destroy my life
    shall go down into the depths of the earth;
¹⁰they shall be given over to the power of the sword;
    they shall be a portion for jackals.
¹¹But the king shall rejoice in God;
    all who swear by him shall exult,
    for the mouths of liars will be stopped.

Psalm 98

¹Oh sing to the Lord a new song,
    for he has done marvelous things!
    His right hand and his holy arm
    have worked salvation for him.
²The Lord has made known his salvation;
    he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations.
³He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness
    to the house of Israel.
    All the ends of the earth have seen
    the salvation of our God.
⁴Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth;
    break forth into joyous song and sing praises!
⁵Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre,
    with the lyre and the sound of melody!
⁶With trumpets and the sound of the horn
    make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord!
⁷Let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
    the world and those who dwell in it!
⁸Let the rivers clap their hands;
    let the hills sing for joy together
⁹before the Lord, for he comes
    to judge the earth.
    He will judge the world with righteousness,
    and the peoples with equity.

Psalm 103

¹ Bless the Lord, O my soul,
    and all that is within me,
    bless his holy name!
²Bless the Lord, O my soul,
    and forget not all his benefits,
³who forgives all your iniquity,
    who heals all your diseases,
⁴who redeems your life from the pit,
    who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
⁵who satisfies you with good
    so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
⁶The Lord works righteousness
    and justice for all who are oppressed.
⁷He made known his ways to Moses,
    his acts to the people of Israel.
⁸The Lord is merciful and gracious,
    slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
⁹He will not always chide,
    nor will he keep his anger forever.
¹⁰He does not deal with us according to our sins,
    nor repay us according to our iniquities.
¹¹For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
    so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
¹²as far as the east is from the west,
    so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
¹³As a father shows compassion to his children,
    so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
¹⁴For he knows our frame;
    he remembers that we are dust.
¹⁵As for man, his days are like grass;
    he flourishes like a flower of the field;
¹⁶for the wind passes over it, and it is gone,
    and its place knows it no more.
¹⁷But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him,
    and his righteousness to children’s children,
¹⁸to those who keep his covenant
    and remember to do his commandments.
¹⁹The Lord has established his throne in the heavens,
    and his kingdom rules over all.
²⁰Bless the Lord, O you his angels,
    you mighty ones who do his word,
    obeying the voice of his word!
²¹Bless the Lord, all his hosts,
    his ministers, who do his will!
²²Bless the Lord, all his works,
    in all places of his dominion.
    Bless the Lord, O my soul!

Isaiah 13:6-13

⁶Wail, for the day of the Lord is near;
    as destruction from the Almighty it will come!
⁷Therefore all hands will be feeble,
    and every human heart will melt.
⁸They will be dismayed:
    pangs and agony will seize them;
    they will be in anguish like a woman in labor.
    They will look aghast at one another;
    their faces will be aflame.
⁹Behold, the day of the Lord comes,
    cruel, with wrath and fierce anger,
    to make the land a desolation
    and to destroy its sinners from it.
¹⁰For the stars of the heavens and their constellations
    will not give their light;
    the sun will be dark at its rising,
    and the moon will not shed its light.
¹¹I will punish the world for its evil,
    and the wicked for their iniquity;
    I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant,
    and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless.
¹²I will make people more rare than fine gold,
    and mankind than the gold of Ophir.
¹³Therefore I will make the heavens tremble,
    and the earth will be shaken out of its place,
    at the wrath of the Lord of hosts
    in the day of his fierce anger.

Hebrews 12:18-29

¹⁸For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest ¹⁹and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. ²⁰For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” ²¹Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.” ²²But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, ²³and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, ²⁴and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. ²⁵See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. ²⁶At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” ²⁷This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. ²⁸Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, ²⁹for our God is a consuming fire.

John 3:22-30

²²After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he remained there with them and was baptizing. ²³John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because water was plentiful there, and people were coming and being baptized ²⁴(for John had not yet been put in prison). ²⁵Now a discussion arose between some of John’s disciples and a Jew over purification. ²⁶And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness—look, he is baptizing, and all are going to him.” ²⁷John answered, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. ²⁸You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’ ²⁹The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. ³⁰He must increase, but I must decrease.”