Reflecting on the Nineteenth
Sunday after Pentecost
Year A

Daily Readings for Monday
October 9, 2023

Prayer

God, our beloved, 

you set before us the goal of new life in Christ. 

May we live in the power of his resurrection 

and bring forth the fruit of your gentle and loving rule. Amen.

 

Psalm 119:49-56

God’s commandments are my songs

 

Remember your word to your servant,

in which you have made me hope.

This is my comfort in my distress,

that your promise gives me life.

The arrogant utterly deride me,

but I do not turn away from your law.

When I think of your ordinances from of old,

I take comfort, O Lord.

Hot indignation seizes me because of the wicked,

those who forsake your law.

Your statutes have been my songs

wherever I make my home.

I remember your name in the night, O Lord,

and keep your law.

This blessing has fallen to me,

for I have kept your precepts.

 

Deuteronomy 5:1-21

The commandments at Sinai

 

Moses convened all Israel, and said to them:

 

Hear, O Israel, the statutes and ordinances that I am addressing to you today; you shall learn them and observe them diligently. The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Horeb. Not with our ancestors did the Lord make this covenant, but with us, who are all of us here alive today. The Lord spoke with you face to face at the mountain, out of the fire. (At that time I was standing between the Lord and you to declare to you the words of the Lord; for you were afraid because of the fire and did not go up the mountain.) And he said:

 

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.

 

You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.

 

You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.

 

Observe the sabbath day and keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you. Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day.

 

Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God commanded you, so that your days may be long and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

 

You shall not murder.

 

Neither shall you commit adultery.

 

Neither shall you steal.

 

Neither shall you bear false witness against your neighbor.

 

Neither shall you covet your neighbor’s wife.

 

Neither shall you desire your neighbor’s house, or field, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

 

1 Peter 2:4-10

Christ the cornerstone

 

Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in scripture:

 

“See, I am laying in Zion a stone,

a cornerstone chosen and precious;

and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”

 

To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe,

 

“The stone that the builders rejected

has become the very head of the corner,”

 

and

 

“A stone that makes them stumble,

and a rock that makes them fall.”

 

They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

 

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

 

Once you were not a people,

but now you are God’s people;

once you had not received mercy,

but now you have received mercy.

 

 

 

Prayer

Holy God, 

you love justice and hate oppression; 

you call us to righteousness and not to exploitation. 

Give us generous and loving hearts, 

and eyes to see the splendor of your reign, 

that we may live in truth and honor, 

and praise you for the transformation of our lives, 

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

Psalm 144

Prayer for blessing

 

Blessed be the Lord, my rock,

who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle;

my rock and my fortress,

my stronghold and my deliverer,

my shield, in whom I take refuge,

who subdues the peoples under me.

O Lord, what are human beings that you regard them,

or mortals that you think of them?

They are like a breath;

their days are like a passing shadow.

Bow your heavens, O Lord, and come down;

touch the mountains so that they smoke.

Make the lightning flash and scatter them;

send out your arrows and rout them.

Stretch out your hand from on high;

set me free and rescue me from the mighty waters,

from the hand of aliens,

whose mouths speak lies,

and whose right hands are false.

I will sing a new song to you, O God;

upon a ten-stringed harp I will play to you,

the one who gives victory to kings,

who rescues his servant David.

Rescue me from the cruel sword,

and deliver me from the hand of aliens,

whose mouths speak lies,

and whose right hands are false.

May our sons in their youth

be like plants full grown,

our daughters like corner pillars,

cut for the building of a palace.

May our barns be filled,

with produce of every kind;

may our sheep increase by thousands,

by tens of thousands in our fields,

and may our cattle be heavy with young.

May there be no breach in the walls, no exile,

and no cry of distress in our streets.

Happy are the people to whom such blessings fall;

happy are the people whose God is the Lord.

 

Ezekiel 19:10-14

A lament for Israel the vine

 

Your mother was like a vine in a vineyard

transplanted by the water,

fruitful and full of branches

from abundant water.

Its strongest stem became

a ruler’s scepter;

it towered aloft

among the thick boughs;

it stood out in its height

with its mass of branches.

But it was plucked up in fury,

cast down to the ground;

the east wind dried it up;

its fruit was stripped off,

its strong stem was withered;

the fire consumed it.

Now it is transplanted into the wilderness,

into a dry and thirsty land.

And fire has gone out from its stem,

has consumed its branches and fruit,

so that there remains in it no strong stem,

no scepter for ruling.

 

This is a lamentation, and it is used as a lamentation.

 

1 Peter 2:4-10

Christ the cornerstone

 

Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in scripture:

 

“See, I am laying in Zion a stone,

a cornerstone chosen and precious;

and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”

 

To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe,

 

“The stone that the builders rejected

has become the very head of the corner,”

 

and

 

“A stone that makes them stumble,

and a rock that makes them fall.”

 

They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

 

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

 

Once you were not a people,

but now you are God’s people;

once you had not received mercy,

but now you have received mercy.

 

 

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Prayer reprinted from Revised Common Lectionary Prayers, © 2002 Consultation on Common Texts. Reproduced by permission.

Revised Common Lectionary Daily Readings copyright © 2005 Consultation on Common Texts admin. Augsburg Fortress. Reproduced by permission. No further reproduction allowed without the written permission of Augsburg Fortress.

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.


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