Tuesday March 8, 2022
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Tuesday, March 8, 2022
Collect Eternal God, you create us by your power and redeem us by your love. Guide and strengthen us by your Spirit, that we may give ourselves today in love and service to one another and to you, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Come, let us worship.
The Proclamation of the Word-
1st Reading: Deuteronomy 9:4-12 (NRSV)
When the Lord your God thrusts them out before you, do not say to yourself, ‘It is because of my righteousness that the Lord has brought me in to occupy this land’; it is rather because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is dispossessing them before you. It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you are going in to occupy their land; but because of the wickedness of those nations that the Lord your God is dispossessing them before you, in order to fulfil the promise that the Lord made on oath to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.Know, then, that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to occupy because of your righteousness; for you are a stubborn people. Remember and do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness; you have been rebellious against the Lord from the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place.Even at Horeb you provoked the Lord to wrath, and the Lord was so angry with you that he was ready to destroy you. When I went up the mountain to receive the stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant that the Lord made with you, I remained on the mountain for forty days and forty nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water. And the Lord gave me the two stone tablets written with the finger of God; on them were all the words that the Lord had spoken to you at the mountain out of the fire on the day of the assembly. At the end of forty days and forty nights the Lord gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant. Then the Lord said to me, ‘Get up, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you have brought from Egypt have acted corruptly. They have been quick to turn from the way that I commanded them; they have cast an image for themselves.’
Psalm 45 (Book of Alternative Services page 762):
1 My heart is stirring with a noble song; let me recite what I have fashioned for the king; * my tongue shall be the pen of a skilled writer.
2 You are the fairest of men; * grace flows from your lips, because God has blessed you for ever.
3 Strap your sword upon your thigh, O mighty warrior, * in your pride and in your majesty.
4 Ride out and conquer in the cause of truth * and for the sake of justice.
5 Your right hand will show you marvellous things; * your arrows are very sharp, O mighty warrior.
6 The peoples are falling at your feet, * and the king’s enemies are losing heart.
7 Your throne, O God, endures for ever and ever, * a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of your kingdom; you love righteousness and hate iniquity.
8 Therefore God, your God, has anointed you * with the oil of gladness above your fellows.
9 All your garments are fragrant with myrrh, aloes, and cassia, * and the music of strings from ivory palaces makes you glad.
10 Kings’ daughters stand among the ladies of the court; * on your right hand is the queen, adorned with the gold of Ophir.
11 “Hear, O daughter; consider and listen closely; * forget your people and your father’s house.
12 The king will have pleasure in your beauty; * he is your master; therefore do him honour.
13 The people of Tyre are here with a gift; * the rich among the people seek your favour.”
14 All glorious is the princess as she enters; * her gown is cloth-of-gold.
15 In embroidered apparel she is brought to the king; * after her the bridesmaids follow in procession.
16 With joy and gladness they are brought, * and enter into the palace of the king.
17 “In place of fathers, O king, you shall have sons; * you shall make them princes over all the earth.
18 I will make your name to be remembered from one generation to another; * therefore nations will praise you for ever and ever.”
Gracious God, your love unites heaven and earth in a new festival of gladness. Lift our spirits to learn the way of joy that leads us to your banquet hall, where all is golden with praise. We ask this through Jesus Christ the Lord. Amen.
The Proclamation of the Word-2nd Reading:
Hebrews 3:1-11 (NRSV)
Moses a Servant, Christ a Son
Therefore, brothers and sisters, holy partners in a heavenly calling, consider that Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses also ‘was faithful in all God’s house.’ Yet Jesus is worthy of more glory than Moses, just as the builder of a house has more honour than the house itself. (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.) Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that would be spoken later. Christ, however, was faithful over God’s house as a son, and we are his house if we hold firm the confidence and the pride that belong to hope.
Warning against Unbelief
Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, as on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your ancestors put me to the test, though they had seen my works for forty years. Therefore I was angry with that generation, and I said, “They always go astray in their hearts, and they have not known my ways.” As in my anger I swore, “They will not enter my rest.”’
Gospel Reading: John 2:13-22 (NRSV)
Jesus Cleanses the Temple
The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money-changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. He told those who were selling the doves, ‘Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a market-place!’ His disciples remembered that it was written, ‘Zeal for your house will consume me.’ The Jews then said to him, ‘What sign can you show us for doing this?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’ The Jews then said, ‘This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?’ But he was speaking of the temple of his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
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 Prayer God of hope, in times of trouble save us from blind despair and help us to wait in confidence for the bloom of new life which, in the darkness, we cannot imagine. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ the 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.