Sunday, December 24 | St. Andrew's Anglican Church

Psalm 8

¹ O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. ²Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger. ³When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, ⁴what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? ⁵Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. ⁶You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, ⁷all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, ⁸the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. ⁹O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Psalm 24

¹ The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, ²for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers. ³Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? ⁴He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. ⁵He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. ⁶Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob. ⁷Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. ⁸Who is this King of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle! ⁹Lift up your heads, O gates! And lift them up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. ¹⁰Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory!

Psalm 29

¹ Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. ²Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness. ³The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord, over many waters. ⁴The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty. ⁵The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars; the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon. ⁶He makes Lebanon to skip like a calf, and Sirion like a young wild ox. ⁷The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire. ⁸The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness; the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. ⁹The voice of the Lord makes the deer give birth and strips the forests bare, and in his temple all cry, “Glory!” ¹⁰The Lord sits enthroned over the flood; the Lord sits enthroned as king forever. ¹¹May the Lord give strength to his people! May the Lord bless his people with peace!

Psalm 45

¹ My heart overflows with a pleasing theme; I address my verses to the king; my tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe. ² You are the most handsome of the sons of men; grace is poured upon your lips; therefore God has blessed you forever. ³ Gird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one, in your splendor and majesty! ⁴ In your majesty ride out victoriously for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness; let your right hand teach you awesome deeds! ⁵ Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies; the peoples fall under you. ⁶ Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness; ⁷ you have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions; ⁸ your robes are all fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia. From ivory palaces stringed instruments make you glad; ⁹ daughters of kings are among your ladies of honor; at your right hand stands the queen in gold of Ophir. ¹⁰ Hear, O daughter, and consider, and incline your ear: forget your people and your father's house, ¹¹ and the king will desire your beauty. Since he is your lord, bow to him. ¹² The people of Tyre will seek your favor with gifts, the richest of the people. ¹³ All glorious is the princess in her chamber, with robes interwoven with gold. ¹⁴ In many-colored robes she is led to the king, with her virgin companions following behind her. ¹⁵ With joy and gladness they are led along as they enter the palace of the king. ¹⁶ In place of your fathers shall be your sons; you will make them princes in all the earth. ¹⁷ I will cause your name to be remembered in all generations; therefore nations will praise you forever and ever.

Psalm 46

¹ God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. ² Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, ³ though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah ⁴ There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. ⁵ God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns. ⁶ The nations rage, the kingdoms totter; he utters his voice, the earth melts. ⁷ The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah ⁸ Come, behold the works of the Lord, how he has brought desolations on the earth. ⁹ He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the chariots with fire. ¹⁰ “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” ¹¹ The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah

Psalm 84

¹ How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! ²My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God. ³Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, at your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God. ⁴Blessed are those who dwell in your house, ever singing your praise! ⁵Blessed are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion. ⁶As they go through the Valley of Baca they make it a place of springs; the early rain also covers it with pools. ⁷They go from strength to strength; each one appears before God in Zion. ⁸O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, O God of Jacob! Selah ⁹Behold our shield, O God; look on the face of your anointed! ¹⁰For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. ¹¹For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. ¹²O Lord of hosts, blessed is the one who trusts in you!

Psalm 89:1-29

¹ I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord, forever; with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations. ² For I said, “Steadfast love will be built up forever; in the heavens you will establish your faithfulness.” ³ You have said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one; I have sworn to David my servant: ⁴ ‘I will establish your offspring forever, and build your throne for all generations.’” Selah ⁵ Let the heavens praise your wonders, O Lord, your faithfulness in the assembly of the holy ones! ⁶ For who in the skies can be compared to the Lord? Who among the heavenly beings is like the Lord, ⁷ a God greatly to be feared in the council of the holy ones, and awesome above all who are around him? ⁸ O Lord God of hosts, who is mighty as you are, O Lord, with your faithfulness all around you? ⁹ You rule the raging of the sea; when its waves rise, you still them. ¹⁰ You crushed Rahab like a carcass; you scattered your enemies with your mighty arm. ¹¹ The heavens are yours; the earth also is yours; the world and all that is in it, you have founded them. ¹² The north and the south, you have created them; Tabor and Hermon joyously praise your name. ¹³ You have a mighty arm; strong is your hand, high your right hand. ¹⁴ Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; steadfast love and faithfulness go before you. ¹⁵ Blessed are the people who know the festal shout, who walk, O Lord, in the light of your face, ¹⁶ who exult in your name all the day and in your righteousness are exalted. ¹⁷ For you are the glory of their strength; by your favor our horn is exalted. ¹⁸ For our shield belongs to the Lord, our king to the Holy One of Israel. ¹⁹ Of old you spoke in a vision to your godly one, and said: “I have granted help to one who is mighty; I have exalted one chosen from the people. ²⁰ I have found David, my servant; with my holy oil I have anointed him, ²¹ so that my hand shall be established with him; my arm also shall strengthen him. ²² The enemy shall not outwit him; the wicked shall not humble him. ²³ I will crush his foes before him and strike down those who hate him. ²⁴ My faithfulness and my steadfast love shall be with him, and in my name shall his horn be exalted. ²⁵ I will set his hand on the sea and his right hand on the rivers. ²⁶ He shall cry to me, ‘You are my Father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation.’ ²⁷ And I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth. ²⁸ My steadfast love I will keep for him forever, and my covenant will stand firm for him. ²⁹ I will establish his offspring forever and his throne as the days of the heavens.

Genesis 3:8-15

⁸And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LordGod among the trees of the garden. ⁹But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” ¹⁰And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” ¹¹He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” ¹²The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” ¹³Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” ¹⁴The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. ¹⁵I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

Isaiah 59:15b-21

^15b The Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice. ¹⁶ He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no one to intercede; then his own arm brought him salvation, and his righteousness upheld him. ¹⁷ He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head; he put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and wrapped himself in zeal as a cloak. ¹⁸ According to their deeds, so will he repay, wrath to his adversaries, repayment to his enemies; to the coastlands he will render repayment. ¹⁹ So they shall fear the name of the Lord from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun; for he will come like a rushing stream, which the wind of the Lord drives. ²⁰ “And a Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn from transgression,” declares the Lord. ²¹ “And as for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the Lord: “My Spirit that is upon you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouth of your offspring, or out of the mouth of your children's offspring,” says the Lord, “from this time forth and forevermore.”

Galatians 3:15-4:7

¹⁵To give a human example, brothers: even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified. ¹⁶Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ. ¹⁷This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void. ¹⁸For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise. ¹⁹Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary. ²⁰Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one. ²¹Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. ²²But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. ²³ Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. ²⁴ So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. ²⁵ But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, ²⁶ for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. ²⁷ For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. ²⁸ There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slavenor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. ²⁹ And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise. ^4:1 I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, ² but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. ³ In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. ⁴ But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, ⁵ to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. ⁶ And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” ⁷ So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

Philippians 2:5-11

⁵ Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷ but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. ⁸ And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. ⁹ Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰ so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹ and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Revelation 12:1-10

¹ And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. ²She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. ³And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. ⁴His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. ⁵She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, ⁶and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days. ⁷Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, ⁸but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. ⁹And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. ¹⁰And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.

Matthew 1:1-25

¹ The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. ²Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, ³and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram, ⁴and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, ⁵and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, ⁶and Jesse the father of David the king. And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, ⁷and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph, ⁸and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, ⁹and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, ¹⁰and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, ¹¹and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon. ¹²And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, ¹³and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, ¹⁴and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud,¹⁵and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob,¹⁶and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ. ¹⁷So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations. ¹⁸ Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹ And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. ²⁰ But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. ²¹ She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” ²² All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: ²³ “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). ²⁴ When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, ²⁵ but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.

John 3:16-21

¹⁶“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. ¹⁸Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. ¹⁹And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.²⁰For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. ²¹But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

DAILY OFFICE