Our first reading is from Psalm 54

May the Lord bless you as you receive his word.

Save me, O God, by your name; vindicate me by your might.

Hear my prayer, O God; listen to the words of my mouth.

Arrogant foes are attacking me; ruthless people are trying to kill me--people without regard for God.

Surely God is my help; the Lord is the one who sustains me.

Let evil recoil on those who slander me; in your faithfulness destroy them.

I will sacrifice a freewill offering to you; I will praise your name, Lord, for it is good.

You have delivered me from all my troubles, and my eyes have looked in triumph on my foes.

Our Second Reading is from Romans 11:25-32

I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in, and in this way all Israel will be saved. As it is written:

“The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob.

And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins.”

As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies for your sake; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable. Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God’s mercy to you. For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.

This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

As you journey on, go with his blessing:

Guide us waking, O Lord, and guard us sleeping, that awake we may watch with Christ, and asleep rest in his peace. May Almighty God bless, preserve, and keep us, this day and forevermore. Amen.

Our first reading is from Judges 6:1-12

May the Lord bless you as you receive his word.

The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites. Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds. Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples invaded the country. They camped on the land and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys. They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count them or their camels; they invaded the land to ravage it. Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the Lord for help.

When the Israelites cried out to the Lord because of Midian, he sent them a prophet, who said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I brought you up out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. I rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians. And I delivered you from the hand of all your oppressors; I drove them out before you and gave you their land. I said to you, ‘I am the Lord your God; do not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live.’ But you have not listened to me.”

The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”

Our Second Reading is from 1 Corinthians 2:1-5

And so, it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.

This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

As you journey on, go with his blessing:

Guide us waking, O Lord, and guard us sleeping, that awake we may watch with Christ, and asleep rest in his peace. May Almighty God bless, preserve, and keep us, this day and forevermore. Amen.

Our first reading is from Isaiah 10:12-20

May the Lord bless you as you receive his word.

When the Lord has finished all his work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem, he will say, “I will punish the king of Assyria for the wilful pride of his heart and the haughty look in his eyes. For he says:

“‘By the strength of my hand I have done this, and by my wisdom, because I have understanding.

I removed the boundaries of nations; I plundered their treasures; like a mighty one I subdued their kings.

As one reaches into a nest, so my hand reached for the wealth of the nations;

as people gather abandoned eggs, so I gathered all the countries;

not one flapped a wing or opened its mouth to chirp.’”

Does the axe raise itself above the person who swings it, or the saw boast against the one who uses it?

As if a rod were to wield the person who lifts it up, or a club brandish the one who is not wood!

Therefore, the Lord, the Lord Almighty, will send a wasting disease upon his sturdy warriors;

under his pomp a fire will be kindled like a blazing flame.

The Light of Israel will become a fire, their Holy One a flame;

in a single day it will burn and consume his thorns and his briers.

The splendour of his forests and fertile fields it will completely destroy,

as when a sick person wastes away.

And the remaining trees of his forests will be so few that a child could write them down.

In that day the remnant of Israel, the survivors of Jacob,

will no longer rely on him who struck them down

but will truly rely on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.

Our Second Reading is from John 7:14-17

Not until halfway through the festival did Jesus go up to the temple courts and begin to teach. The Jews there were amazed and asked, “How did this man get such learning without having been taught?”

Jesus answered, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from the one who sent me. Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.

This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. As you journey on, go with his blessing:

Guide us waking, O Lord, and guard us sleeping, that awake we may watch with Christ, and asleep rest in his peace. May Almighty God bless, preserve, and keep us, this day and forevermore. Amen.