Daily Readings: August 28, 2023

Monday after the Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, 430

Morning	Evening
Psalm 1 Psalm 2 Psalm 3	Psalm 4 Psalm 7
1 Kings 1:5-31 Acts 26:1-23 Mark 13:14-27

The Collect of the Day

Proper 16

The Sunday closest to August 24

Grant, O merciful God, that your Church, being gathered together in unity by your Holy Spirit, may show forth your power among all peoples, to the glory of your Name;through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Augustine of Hippo

Lord God, the light of the minds that know you, the life of the souls that love you, and the strength of the hearts that serve you: Help us, following the example of your servant, Augustine of Hippo, so to know you that we may truly love you, and soto love you that we may fully serve you, whose service is perfect freedom; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Psalms

1

Beatus vir qui non abiitBCP p. 585

¹Happy are they who have not walked in the counsel of the wicked, *nor lingered in the way of sinners, nor sat in the seats of the scornful!

²Their delight is in the law of the Lord, *and they meditate on his law day and night.

³They are like trees planted by streams of water, bearing fruit in due season, with leaves that do not wither; *everything they do shall prosper.

⁴It is not so with the wicked; *they are like chaff which the wind blows away.

⁵Therefore the wicked shall not stand upright when judgment comes, *nor the sinner in the council of the righteous.

⁶For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, *but the way of the wicked is doomed.

2

Quare fremuerunt gentes?BCP p. 586

¹Why are the nations in an uproar? *Why do the peoples mutter empty threats?

²Why do the kings of the earth rise up in revolt, and the princes plot together, *against the Lord and against his Anointed?

³“Let us break their yoke,” they say; *“let us cast off their bonds from us.”

⁴He whose throne is in heaven is laughing; *the Lord has them in derision.

⁵Then he speaks to them in his wrath, *and his rage fills them with terror.

⁶“I myself have set my king *upon my holy hill of Zion.”

⁷Let me announce the decree of the Lord: *he said to me, “You are my Son; this day have I begotten you.

⁸Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance *and the ends of the earth for your possession.

⁹You shall crush them with an iron rod *and shatter them like a piece of pottery.”

¹⁰And now, you kings, be wise; *be warned, you rulers of the earth.

¹¹Submit to the Lord with fear, *and with trembling bow before him;

¹²Lest he be angry and you perish; *for his wrath is quickly kindled.

¹³Happy are they all *who take refuge in him!

3

Domine, quid multiplicatiBCP p. 587

¹Lord, how many adversaries I have! *how many there are who rise up against me!

²How many there are who say of me, *“There is no help for him in his God.”

³But you, O Lord, are a shield about me; *you are my glory, the one who lifts up my head.

⁴I call aloud upon the Lord, *and he answers me from his holy hill;

⁵I lie down and go to sleep; *I wake again, because the Lord sustains me.

⁶I do not fear the multitudes of people *who set themselves against me all around.

⁷Rise up, O Lord; set me free, O my God; *surely, you will strike all my enemies across the face, you will break the teeth of the wicked.

⁸Deliverance belongs to the Lord. *Your blessing be upon your people!

Daily Office Readings

Acts 26:1-23

A Reading from the Acts of the Apostles.

¹Agrippa said to Paul, “You have permission to speak for yourself.” Then Paul stretched out his hand and began to defend himself: ²“I consider myself fortunate that it is before you, King Agrippa, I am to make my defense today against all the accusations of the Jews, ³because you are especially familiar with all the customs and controversies of the Jews; therefore I beg of you to listen to me patiently. ⁴“All the Jews know my way of life from my youth, a life spent from the beginning among my own people and in Jerusalem. ⁵They have known for a long time, if they are willing to testify, that I have belonged to the strictest sect of our religion and lived as a Pharisee. ⁶And now I stand here on trial on account of my hope in the promise made by God to our ancestors, ⁷a promise that our twelve tribes hope to attain, as they earnestly worship day and night. It is for this hope, your Excellency, that I am accused by Jews! ⁸Why is it thought incredible by any of you that God raises the dead? ⁹“Indeed, I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things against the name of Jesus of Nazareth. ¹⁰And that is what I did in Jerusalem; with authority received from the chief priests, I not only locked up many of the saints in prison, but I also cast my vote against them when they were being condemned to death. ¹¹By punishing them often in all the synagogues I tried to force them to blaspheme; and since I was so furiously enraged at them, I pursued them even to foreign cities. ¹²”With this in mind, I was traveling to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests, ¹³when at midday along the road, your Excellency, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and my companions. ¹⁴When we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It hurts you to kick against the goads.’ ¹⁵I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ The Lord answered, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. ¹⁶But get up and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you to serve and testify to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you. ¹⁷I will rescue you from your people and from the Gentiles—to whom I am sending you ¹⁸to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’ ¹⁹“After that, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, ²⁰but declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout the countryside of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God and do deeds consistent with repentance. ²¹For this reason the Jews seized me in the temple and tried to kill me. ²²To this day I have had help from God, and so I stand here, testifying to both small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would take place: ²³that the Messiah must suffer, and that, by being the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light both to our people and to the Gentiles.”

⁵Now Adonijah son of Haggith exalted himself, saying, “I will be king”; he prepared for himself chariots and horsemen, and fifty men to run before him. ⁶His father had never at any time displeased him by asking, “Why have you done thus and so?” He was also a very handsome man, and he was born next after Absalom. ⁷He conferred with Joab son of Zeruiah and with the priest Abiathar, and they supported Adonijah. ⁸But the priest Zadok, and Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and the prophet Nathan, and Shimei, and Rei, and David’s own warriors did not side with Adonijah. ⁹Adonijah sacrificed sheep, oxen, and fatted cattle by the stone Zoheleth, which is beside En-rogel, and he invited all his brothers, the king’s sons, and all the royal officials of Judah, ¹⁰but he did not invite the prophet Nathan or Benaiah or the warriors or his brother Solomon. ¹¹Then Nathan said to Bathsheba, Solomon’s mother, “Have you not heard that Adonijah son of Haggith has become king and our lord David does not know it? ¹²Now therefore come, let me give you advice, so that you may save your own life and the life of your son Solomon. ¹³Go in at once to King David, and say to him, ‘Did you not, my lord the king, swear to your servant, saying: Your son Solomon shall succeed me as king, and he shall sit on my throne? Why then is Adonijah king?’ ¹⁴Then while you are still there speaking with the king, I will come in after you and confirm your words.” ¹⁵So Bathsheba went to the king in his room. The king was very old; Abishag the Shunammite was attending the king. ¹⁶Bathsheba bowed and did obeisance to the king, and the king said, “What do you wish?” ¹⁷She said to him, “My lord, you swore to your servant by the Lord your God, saying: Your son Solomon shall succeed me as king, and he shall sit on my throne. ¹⁸But now suddenly Adonijah has become king, though you, my lord the king, do not know it. ¹⁹He has sacrificed oxen, fatted cattle, and sheep in abundance, and has invited all the children of the king, the priest Abiathar, and Joab the commander of the army; but your servant Solomon he has not invited. ²⁰But you, my lord the king—the eyes of all Israel are on you to tell them who shall sit on the throne of my lord the king after him. ²¹Otherwise it will come to pass, when my lord the king sleeps with his ancestors, that my son Solomon and I will be counted offenders.” ²²While she was still speaking with the king, the prophet Nathan came in. ²³The king was told, “Here is the prophet Nathan.” When he came in before the king, he did obeisance to the king, with his face to the ground. ²⁴Nathan said, “My lord the king, have you said, ‘Adonijah shall succeed me as king, and he shall sit on my throne’? ²⁵For today he has gone down and has sacrificed oxen, fatted cattle, and sheep in abundance, and has invited all the king’s children, Joab the commander of the army, and the priest Abiathar, who are now eating and drinking before him, and saying, ‘Long live King Adonijah!’ ²⁶But he did not invite me, your servant, and the priest Zadok, and Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and your servant Solomon. ²⁷Has this thing been brought about by my lord the king and you have not let your servants know who should sit on the throne of my lord the king after him?” ²⁸King David answered, “Summon Bathsheba to me.” So she came into the king’s presence, and stood before the king. ²⁹The king swore, saying, “As the Lord lives, who has saved my life from every adversity, ³⁰as I swore to you by the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Your son Solomon shall succeed me as king, and he shall sit on my throne in my place,’ so will I do this day.” ³¹Then Bathsheba bowed with her face to the ground, and did obeisance to the king, and said, “May my lord King David live forever!”