Daily Office - Mar 4

Psalm 5
Give ear to my words, O Lord; consider my lamentation.
Hearken to the voice of my crying, my King and my God, for to you I make my prayer.
In the morning, Lord, you will hear my voice;
early in the morning I make my appeal to you, and look up.
For you are the God who takes no pleasure in wickedness; no evil can dwell with you.
The boastful cannot stand in your sight; you hate all those that work wickedness.
You destroy those who speak lies; the bloodthirsty and deceitful the Lord will abhor.
But as for me, through the greatness of your mercy, I will come into your house;
I will bow down towards your holy temple in awe of you.
Lead me, Lord, in your righteousness, because of my enemies;
make your way straight before my face.
For there is no truth in their mouth, in their heart is destruction,
their throat is an open sepulchre, and they flatter with their tongue.
Punish them, O God; let them fall through their own devices.
Because of their many transgressions cast them out, for they have rebelled against you.
But let all who take refuge in you be glad; let them sing out their joy for ever.
You will shelter them, so that those who love your name may exult in you.
For you, O Lord, will bless the righteous; and with your favour you will defend them as with a shield.

Psalm 7
O Lord my God, in you I take refuge;
save me from all who pursue me, and deliver me, 'lest they rend me like a lion and tear me in pieces while there is no one to help me.
O Lord my God, if I have done these things: if there is any wickedness in my hands,
if I have repaid my friend with evil, or plundered my enemy without a cause,
Then let my enemy pursue me and overtake me,
trample my life to the ground, and lay my honour in the dust.
Rise up, O Lord, in your wrath;
lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies.
Awaken, my God, the judgement that you have commanded.
Let the assembly of the peoples gather round you;
be seated high above them: O Lord, judge the nations.
Give judgement for me according to my righteousness, O Lord,
and according to the innocence that is in me.
Let the malice of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous;
for you test the mind and heart, O righteous God.
God is my shield that is over me; he saves the true of heart.
God is a righteous judge; he is provoked all day long.
If they will not repent, God will whet his sword;
he has bent his bow and made it ready.
He has prepared the weapons of death; he makes his arrows shafts of fire.
Behold those who are in labour with wickedness, who conceive evil and give birth to lies.
They dig a pit and make it deep and fall into the hole that they have made for others.
Their mischief rebounds on their own head;
their violence falls on their own scalp.
I will give thanks to the Lord for his righteousness,
and I will make music to the name of the Lord Most High.

Jeremiah 11.1-17
The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord:

Hear the words of this covenant, and speak to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. You shall say to them, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Cursed be anyone who does not heed the words of this covenant, which I commanded your ancestors when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron-smelter, saying, Listen to my voice, and do all that I command you. So shall you be my people, and I will be your God, that I may perform the oath that I swore to your ancestors, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as at this day.
Then I answered, ‘So be it, Lord.’

And the Lord said to me:
Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem: Hear the words of this covenant and do them. For I solemnly warned your ancestors when I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, warning them persistently, even to this day, saying, Obey my voice. Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but everyone walked in the stubbornness of an evil will. So I brought upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they did not.

And the Lord said to me:
Conspiracy exists among the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. They have turned back to the iniquities of their ancestors of old, who refused to heed my words; they have gone after other gods to serve them; the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken the covenant that I made with their ancestors. Therefore, thus says the Lord, assuredly I am going to bring disaster upon them that they cannot escape; though they cry out to me, I will not listen to them. Then the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods to whom they make offerings, but they will never save them in the time of their trouble. For your gods have become as many as your towns, O Judah; and as many as the streets of Jerusalem are the altars to shame that you have set up, altars to make offerings to Baal.

As for you, do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer on their behalf, for I will not listen when they call to me in the time of their trouble. What right has my beloved in my house, when she has done vile deeds? Can vows and sacrificial flesh avert your doom? Can you then exult? The Lord once called you, ‘A green olive tree, fair with goodly fruit’; but with the roar of a great tempest he will set fire to it, and its branches will be consumed. The Lord of hosts, who planted you, has pronounced evil against you, because of the evil that the house of Israel and the house of Judah have done, provoking me to anger by making offerings to Baal.

John 7.37-52
On the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out,
‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, “Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.” ’
Now he said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive; for as yet there was no Spirit, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

When they heard these words, some in the crowd said,
‘This is really the prophet.’

Others said, ‘This is the Messiah.’

But some asked,
‘Surely the Messiah does not come from Galilee, does he? Has not the scripture said that the Messiah is descended from David and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?’
So there was a division in the crowd because of him. Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.

Then the temple police went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them,
‘Why did you not arrest him?’

The police answered,
‘Never has anyone spoken like this!’

Then the Pharisees replied,
‘Surely you have not been deceived too, have you? Has any one of the authorities or of the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd, which does not know the law—they are accursed.’

Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus before, and who was one of them, asked,
‘Our law does not judge people without first giving them a hearing to find out what they are doing, does it?’

They replied,
‘Surely you are not also from Galilee, are you? Search and you will see that no prophet is to arise from Galilee.’

The Collect
Almighty God,
whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain,
and entered not into glory before he was crucified:
mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross,
may find it none other than the way of life and peace;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.