Monday, September 23 | St. Andrew's Anglican Church

Psalm 77

¹I cry aloud to God,
    aloud to God, and he will hear me.
²In 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.
³When I remember God, I moan;
    when I meditate, my spirit faints.
⁴You hold my eyelids open;
    I am so troubled that I cannot speak.
⁵I consider the days of old,
    the years long ago.
⁶I said, “Let me remember my song in the night;
    let me meditate in my heart.”
    Then my spirit made a diligent search:
⁷“Will the Lord spurn forever,
    and never again be favorable?
⁸Has his steadfast love forever ceased?
    Are his promises at an end for all time?
⁹Has God forgotten to be gracious?
    Has he in anger shut up his compassion?”
¹⁰Then I said, “I will appeal to this,
    to the years of the right hand of the Most High.”
¹¹I will remember the deeds of the Lord;
    yes, I will remember your wonders of old.
¹²I will ponder all your work,
    and meditate on your mighty deeds.
¹³Your way, O God, is holy.
    What god is great like our God?
¹⁴You are the God who works wonders;
    you have made known your might among the peoples.
¹⁵You with your arm redeemed your people,
    the children of Jacob and Joseph.
¹⁶When the waters saw you, O God,
    when the waters saw you, they were afraid;
    indeed, the deep trembled.
¹⁷The clouds poured out water;
    the skies gave forth thunder;
    your arrows flashed on every side.
¹⁸The crash of your thunder was in the whirlwind;
    your lightnings lighted up the world;
    the earth trembled and shook.
¹⁹Your way was through the sea,
    your path through the great waters;
    yet your footprints were unseen.
²⁰You led your people like a flock
    by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

Psalm 79

¹ O God, the nations have come into your inheritance;
    they have defiled your holy temple;
    they have laid Jerusalem in ruins.
²They have given the bodies of your servants
    to the birds of the heavens for food,
    the flesh of your faithful to the beasts of the earth.
³They have poured out their blood like water
    all around Jerusalem,
    and there was no one to bury them.
⁴We have become a taunt to our neighbors,
    mocked and derided by those around us.
⁵How long, O Lord? Will you be angry forever?
    Will your jealousy burn like fire?
⁶Pour out your anger on the nations
    that do not know you,
    and on the kingdoms
    that do not call upon your name!
⁷For they have devoured Jacob
    and laid waste his habitation.
⁸Do not remember against us our former iniquities;
    let your compassion come speedily to meet us,
    for we are brought very low.
⁹Help us, O God of our salvation,
    for the glory of your name;
    deliver us, and atone for our sins,
    for your name’s sake!
¹⁰Why 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!
¹¹Let the groans of the prisoners come before you;
    according to your great power, preserve those doomed to die!
¹²Return sevenfold into the lap of our neighbors
    the taunts with which they have taunted you, O Lord!
¹³But we your people, the sheep of your pasture,
    will give thanks to you forever;
    from generation to generation we will recount your praise.

Psalm 80

¹ Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel,
    you who lead Joseph like a flock.
    You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth.
²Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh,
    stir up your might
    and come to save us!
³Restore us, O God;
    let your face shine, that we may be saved!
⁴O Lord God of hosts,
    how long will you be angry with your people’s prayers?
⁵You have fed them with the bread of tears
    and given them tears to drink in full measure.
⁶You make us an object of contention for our neighbors,
    and our enemies laugh among themselves.
⁷Restore us, O God of hosts;
    let your face shine, that we may be saved!
⁸You brought a vine out of Egypt;
    you drove out the nations and planted it.
⁹You cleared the ground for it;
    it took deep root and filled the land.
¹⁰The mountains were covered with its shade,
    the mighty cedars with its branches.
¹¹It sent out its branches to the sea
    and its shoots to the River.
¹²Why then have you broken down its walls,
    so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit?
¹³The boar from the forest ravages it,
    and all that move in the field feed on it.
¹⁴Turn again, O God of hosts!
    Look down from heaven, and see;
    have regard for this vine,
¹⁵the stock that your right hand planted,
    and for the son whom you made strong for yourself.
¹⁶They have burned it with fire; they have cut it down;
    may they perish at the rebuke of your face!
¹⁷But let your hand be on the man of your right hand,
    the son of man whom you have made strong for yourself!
¹⁸Then we shall not turn back from you;
    give us life, and we will call upon your name!
¹⁹Restore us, O Lord God of hosts!
    Let your face shine, that we may be saved!

Esther 4:4-17

⁴When Esther’s young women 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. ⁵Then 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 this was and why it was. ⁶Hathach went out to Mordecai in the open square of the city in front of the king’s gate, ⁷and 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. ⁸Mordecai also gave him a copy of the written decree issued in Susa for their destruction, that he might show it to Esther and explain it to her and command her to go to the king to beg his favor and plead with him on behalf of her people. ⁹And Hathach went and told Esther what Mordecai had said. ¹⁰Then Esther spoke to Hathach and commanded him to go to Mordecai and say, ¹¹“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—to be put to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter so that he may live. But as for me, I have not been called to come in to the king these thirty days.” ¹²And they told Mordecai what Esther had said. ¹³Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “Do not think to yourself that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. ¹⁴For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” ¹⁵Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai, ¹⁶“Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.” ¹⁷Mordecai then went away and did everything as Esther had ordered him.

Acts 18:1-11

¹ After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. ²And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. And he went to see them, ³and because he was of the same trade he stayed with them and worked, for they were tentmakers by trade. ⁴And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks. ⁵When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus. ⁶And when they opposed and reviled him, he shook out his garments and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.” ⁷And he left there and went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshiper of God. His house was next door to the synagogue. ⁸Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, together with his entire household. And many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed and were baptized. ⁹And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, ¹⁰for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.” ¹¹And he stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.

Luke 1:1-4; 3:1-14

¹ Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, 2 just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, 3 it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught. … ^3:1 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, ²during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. ³And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. ⁴As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet,
    “The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
    ‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
    make his paths straight.
⁵Every valley shall be filled,
    and every mountain and hill shall be made low,
    and the crooked shall become straight,
    and the rough places shall become level ways,
⁶and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”
⁷He said therefore 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? ⁸Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. ⁹Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” ¹⁰And the crowds asked him, “What then shall we do?” ¹¹And he answered them, “Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise.” ¹²Tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?” ¹³And he said to them, “Collect no more than you are authorized to do.” ¹⁴Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages.”