Thursday March 10, 2022
St. Thomas Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/St.Thomas.the.Apostle.Cambridgehttps://www.facebook.com/groups/969531309814142 (this is St. Luke’s page) Thursday, March 10, 2022 CollectLord God, the well-spring of life, pour into our hearts the living water of your grace. By your light we see light. Increase our faith, and grant that we may walk in the brightness of your presence; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.Come, let us worship. The Proclamation of the Word-1st Reading: Deuteronomy 9:23 – 10:5(NRSV)And when the Lord sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, ‘Go up and occupy the land that I have given you’, you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God, neither trusting him nor obeying him. You have been rebellious against the Lord as long as he has known you.Throughout the forty days and forty nights that I lay prostrate before the Lord when the Lord intended to destroy you, I prayed to the Lord and said, ‘Lord God, do not destroy the people who are your very own possession, whom you redeemed in your greatness, whom you brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; pay no attention to the stubbornness of this people, their wickedness and their sin, otherwise the land from which you have brought us might say, “Because the Lord was not able to bring them into the land that he promised them, and because he hated them, he has brought them out to let them die in the wilderness.” For they are the people of your very own possession, whom you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.’
The Second Pair of Tablets
At that time the Lord said to me, ‘Carve out two tablets of stone like the former ones, and come up to me on the mountain, and make an ark of wood. I will write on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets, which you smashed, and you shall put them in the ark.’ So I made an ark of acacia wood, cut two tablets of stone like the former ones, and went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hand. Then he wrote on the tablets the same words as before, the ten commandments that the Lord had spoken to you on the mountain out of the fire on the day of the assembly; and the Lord gave them to me. So I turned and came down from the mountain, and put the tablets in the ark that I had made; and there they are, as the Lord commanded me. Psalm 50 (Book of Alternative Services page 768):1 The Lord, the God of gods, has spoken; * he has called the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting. 2 Out of Zion, perfect in its beauty, * God reveals himself in glory. 3 Our God will come and will not keep silence; * before him there is a consuming flame, and round about him a raging storm. 4 He calls the heavens and the earth from above * to witness the judgement of his people. 5 “Gather before me my loyal followers, * those who have made a covenant with me and sealed it with sacrifice.” 6 Let the heavens declare the rightness of his cause; * for God himself is judge. 7 Hear, O my people, and I will speak: “O Israel, I will bear witness against you; * for I am God, your God. 8 I do not accuse you because of your sacrifices; * your offerings are always before me. 9 I will take no bull-calf from your stalls, * nor he-goats out of your pens; 10 For the beasts of the forest are mine, * the herds in their thousands upon the hills. 11 I know every bird in the sky, * and the creatures of the fields are in my sight. 12 If I were hungry, I would not tell you, * for the whole world is mine and all that is in it. 13 Do you think I eat the flesh of bulls, * or drink the blood of goats? 14 Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving * and make good your vows to the Most High. 15 Call upon me in the day of trouble; * I will deliver you, and you shall honour me.” 16 But to the wicked God says: * “Why do you recite my statutes, and take my covenant upon your lips; 17 Since you refuse discipline, * and toss my words behind your back? 18 When you see a thief, you make him your friend, * and you cast in your lot with adulterers. 19 You have loosed your lips for evil, * and harnessed your tongue to a lie. 20 You are always speaking evil of your brother * and slandering your own mother’s son. 21 These things you have done, and I kept still, * and you thought that I am like you.” 22 “I have made my accusation; * I have put my case in order before your eyes. 23 Consider this well, you who forget God, * lest I rend you and there be none to deliver you. 24 Whoever offers me the sacrifice of thanksgiving honours me; * but to those who keep in my way will I show the salvation of God.” Blessed are you, God of glory; you call us to give up all our vain attempts to reach you, and to come before you in thanksgiving for your great salvation, shown to us in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. The Proclamation of the Word-2nd Reading: Hebrews 4:1-10 (NRSV)
The Rest That God Promised
Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest is still open, let us take care that none of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For indeed the good news came to us just as to them; but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. For we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said, ‘As in my anger I swore, “They shall not enter my rest” ’, though his works were finished at the foundation of the world. For in one place it speaks about the seventh day as follows: ‘And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.’ And again in this place it says, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’ Since therefore it remains open for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, again he sets a certain day—‘today’—saying through David much later, in the words already quoted, ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.’ For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not speak later about another day. So then, a sabbath rest still remains for the people of God; for those who enter God’s rest also cease from their labours as God did from his. Gospel Reading: John 3:16 – 21 (NRSV)‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.‘Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgement, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.’ The Lord’s Prayer Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. Closing PrayerGracious God, you have made us fellow citizens with the saints in the city of your eternal light. In the time of storm, when the foundations shake, teach us to wait in silence on your steadfast and transforming love, made known to us in Jesus Christ our Lord. May the grace of God uphold you, the peace of God surround you, the love of God flow from you and the strength of God protect and bring you safely through this day. Amen. God bless and keep us through this season of our lives -