Daily Office - Mar 9

Psalm 31
In you, O Lord, have I taken refuge; let me never be put to shame;
deliver me in your righteousness.
Incline your ear to me; make haste to deliver me.
Be my strong rock, a fortress to save me, for you are my rock and my stronghold; guide me, and lead me for your name’s sake.
Take me out of the net that they have laid secretly for me, for you are my strength.

Into your hands I commend my spirit,
for you have redeemed me, O Lord God of truth.

I hate those who cling to worthless idols;
I put my trust in the Lord.
I will be glad and rejoice in your mercy, for you have seen my affliction and known my soul in adversity.
You have not shut me up in the hand of the enemy; you have set my feet in an open place.
Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am in trouble;
my eye is consumed with sorrow, my soul and my body also.

For my life is wasted with grief, and my years with sighing;
my strength fails me because of my affliction, and my bones are consumed.
I have become a reproach to all my enemies and even to my neighbours, an object of dread to my acquaintances;  when they see me in the street they flee from me.
I am forgotten like one that is dead, out of mind;
I have become like a broken vessel.
For I have heard the whispering of the crowd;
fear is on every side; they scheme together against me, and plot to take my life.

But my trust is in you, O Lord. I have said, ‘You are my God.
‘My times are in your hand;
deliver me from the hand of my enemies, and from those who persecute me.
‘Make your face to shine upon your servant, and save me for your mercy’s sake.’
Lord, let me not be confounded for I have called upon you;
but let the wicked be put to shame;
let them be silent in the grave.
Let the lying lips be put to silence that speak against the righteous with arrogance, disdain and contempt.

How abundant is your goodness, O Lord, which you have laid up for those who fear you;
which you have prepared in the sight of all for those who put their trust in you.
You hide them in the shelter of your presence from those who slander them;
you keep them safe in your refuge from the strife of tongues.
Blessed be the Lord!
For he has shown me his steadfast love when I was as a city besieged.
I had said in my alarm,
‘I have been cut off from the sight of your eyes.’
Nevertheless, you heard the voice of my prayer when I cried out to you.

Love the Lord, all you his servants;
for the Lord protects the faithful, but repays to the full the proud.
Be strong and let your heart take courage, all you who wait in hope for the Lord.

Jeremiah 16.10-17.4
And when you tell this people all these words, and they say to you,
‘Why has the Lord pronounced all this great evil against us? What is our iniquity? What is the sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?’
then you shall say to them:

It is because your ancestors have forsaken me, says the Lord, and have gone after other gods and have served and worshipped them, and have forsaken me and have not kept my law; and because you have behaved worse than your ancestors, for here you are, every one of you, following your stubborn, evil will, refusing to listen to me. Therefore I will hurl you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your ancestors have known, and there you shall serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favour.

Therefore, the days are surely coming, says the Lord, when it shall no longer be said,
‘As the Lord lives who brought the people of Israel up out of the land of Egypt’,
but ‘
As the Lord lives who brought the people of Israel up out of the land of the north and out of all the lands where he had driven them.’ For I will bring them back to their own land that I gave to their ancestors.

I am now sending for many fishermen, says the Lord, and they shall catch them; and afterwards I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks. For my eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from my presence, nor is their iniquity concealed from my sight. And I will doubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable idols, and have filled my inheritance with their abominations.

O Lord, my strength and my stronghold,  my refuge on the day of trouble,
to you shall the nations come  from the ends of the earth and say:
Our ancestors have inherited nothing but lies, worthless things in which there is no profit.
Can mortals make for themselves gods?
   Such are no gods!

‘Therefore I am surely going to teach them, this time I am going to teach them my power and my might, and they shall know that my name is the Lord.’

The sin of Judah is written with an iron pen; with a diamond point it is engraved on the tablet of their hearts, and on the horns of their altars, while their children remember their altars and their sacred poles, beside every green tree, and on the high hills, on the mountains in the open country.

Your wealth and all your treasures I will give for spoil as the price of your sin throughout all your territory. By your own act you shall lose the heritage that I gave you, and I will make you serve your enemies in a land that you do not know, for in my anger a fire is kindled that shall burn for ever.

John 9.1-17
As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him,
‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’

Jesus answered,
‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.’

When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man’s eyes, saying to him,
‘Go, wash in the pool of Siloam’ (which means Sent).

Then he went and washed and came back able to see. The neighbours and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask,
‘Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?’ Some were saying, ‘It is he.’ Others were saying, ‘No, but it is someone like him.’
He kept saying, ‘I am the man.’
But they kept asking him, ‘Then how were your eyes opened?’

He answered,
‘The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and said to me, “Go to Siloam and wash.” Then I went and washed and received my sight.’

They said to him, ‘Where is he?’ He said, ‘I do not know.’

They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. Now it was a sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. Then the Pharisees also began to ask him how he had received his sight. He said to them,
‘He put mud on my eyes. Then I washed, and now I see.’

Some of the Pharisees said,
‘This man is not from God, for he does not observe the sabbath.’

But others said,
‘How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?’

And they were divided. So they said again to the blind man,
‘What do you say about him? It was your eyes he opened.’

He said,
‘He is a prophet.’

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.