February 5 (Exodus 15–16; Psalm 33; Mark 12)

A reading from the Book of Exodus. Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the Lord saying, I will sing to the Lord for he has triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation. This is my God and I will praise him. My Father's God and I will exalt him. The Lord is a man of war. The Lord is his name, Pharaoh's chariots and his host he cast into the sea, and his chosen officers were sunk in the Red Sea. The floods covered them. They went down into the depths like a stone. Your right hand O Lord, glorious in power. Your right hand O Lord, shatters the enemy. In the greatness of your majesty, you overthrow your adversaries. You send out your fury. It consumes them like stubble. At the blast of your nostrils, the waters piled up. The flood stood up in a heap. The deep congealed in the heart of the sea. The enemy said, I will pursue. I will overtake. I will divide the spoil. My desire shall have its fill of them. I will draw my sword. My hand shall destroy them. You blew with your wind. The sea covered them. They sank like lead in the mighty waters. Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods. Who is like you, majestic and holiness. Awesome and glorious deeds, doing wonders. You stretched out your right hand, the earth swallowed them. You have led in your steadfast love, the people whom you have redeemed. You have guided them by your strength to your holy abode. The peoples have heard. They tremble. Pangs have seized the inhabitants of Felistia. Now are the chiefs of Edom dismayed, trembling seizes the leaders of Moab. All the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away. Terror and dread fall upon them because of the greatness of your arm. They are still as a stone till your people O Lord, pass by. Till the people pass by whom you have purchased. You will bring them in and plant them on your own mountain. The place O Lord, which you have made for your abode. The sanctuary O Lord, which your hands have established, the Lord will reign forever and ever. For when the horses of Pharaoh with his chariots and his horsemen went into the sea, the Lord brought back the waters of the sea upon them, but the people of Israel walked on dry ground in the midst of the sea. The Miriam, the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women went out after her with tambourines and dancing, and Miriam sang to them. Sing to the Lord for he is triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider he is thrown into the sea. Then Moses made Israel set out from the red sea, and they went into the wilderness of sure. They went three days in the wilderness and found no water. When they came to Mora, they could not drink the water of Mora because it was bitter. Therefore it was named Mora, and the people grumbled against Moses saying, what shall we drink? And he cried to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a log, and he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet. They are the Lord made for them a statute and a rule, and there he tested them, saying, if you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your healer. Then they came to Elam where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and they encamped there by the water. They set out from Elam, and all the congregation of the people of Israel came to the wilderness of sin, which is between Elam and Sinai, on the 15th day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt, and the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, and the people of Israel said to them, would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meatpots and ate bread to the fool, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger. Then the Lord said to Moses, the whole I am about to reign bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not. On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily. So Moses and Aaron said to all the people of Israel, at evening you shall know that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your grumbling against the Lord, for what are we that you grumble against us? And Moses said, when the Lord gives you in the evening meat to eat, and in the morning bread to the fool, because the Lord has heard your grumbling that you grumble against him, but are we your grumbling is not against us but against the Lord? Then Moses said to Aaron, say to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, come near before the Lord, for he has heard your grumbling. And as soon as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, they looked toward the wilderness and behold the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud, and the Lord said to Moses, I have heard the grumbling of the people of Israel, say to them, at twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread, then you shall know that I am the Lord your God. In the evening quail came up and covered the camp, and in the morning due lay around the camp, and when the dew had gone up there was on the face of the wilderness a fine, flake-like thing, fine as frost on the ground. When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, what is it, for they did not know what it was, and Moses said to them, it is bread that the Lord has given you to eat, this is what the Lord has commanded, gather of it each one of you as much as he can eat, you shall each take an omen according to the number of the persons that each of you has in his tent. And the people of Israel did so, they gathered some more, some less, but when they measured it with an omen, whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack, each of them gathered as much as he could eat, and Moses said to them, let no one leave any of it over till the morning, but they did not listen to Moses, some left part of it till the morning, and it breaded worms and stank, and Moses was angry with them, morning by morning they gathered it, each as much as he could eat, but when the sun grew hot it melted. On the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread to omen's each, and when all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses he said to them, this is what the Lord has commanded, tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord, bake what you will bake, and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over lay aside to be kept till the morning, so they laid it aside till the morning as Moses commanded them, and it did not stink, and there were no worms in it. Moses said, he did today for today is a Sabbath to the Lord, today you will not find it in the field, six days you shall gather it, but on the seven day which is a Sabbath there will be none. On the seventh day some of the people went out together, but they found none, and the Lord said to Moses, how long will you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws? See, the Lord has given you the Sabbath, therefore on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days, remain each of you in his place, let no one go out of his place on the seventh day, so the people rested on the seventh day. Now the house of Israel called its name Manna, it was like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey. Moses said, this is what the Lord has commanded, let an omen of it be kept throughout your generations, so that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you out of the land of Egypt, and Moses said to Aaron, take a jar and put an omen of Manna in it and place it before the Lord to be kept throughout your generations. As the Lord commanded Moses, so Aaron placed it before the testimony to be kept, the people of Israel ate the Manna, forty years, till they came to a habitable land, they ate the Manna, till they came to the border of the land of Canaan, and Omer is the tenth part of Anifa. A reading from the Book of Psalms. Shout for joy in the Lord, O Urighteous, praise befits the upright, give thanks to the Lord with the liar, make melody to him with the harp of ten strings, sing to him a new song, play skillfully on the strings with loud shouts, for the word of the Lord is upright. And all his work is done in faithfulness. He loves righteousness and justice. The earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord. By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host. He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap. He puts the deeps in storehouses, let all the earth fear the Lord, let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him, for he spoke, and it came to be. He commanded, and it stood firm. The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing. He frustrates the plans of the peoples. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage. The Lord looks down from heaven. He sees all the children of man, from where he sits and thrown, he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth. He who fashions the hearts of them all and observes all their deeds. The King is not saved by his great army. A warrior is not delivered by his great strength. The warhorse is a false hope for salvation, and by its great might it cannot rescue. Behold the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love, that he may deliver their soul from death and keep them alive and famine. Our soul waits for the Lord. He is our help and our shield, for our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name, let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you. A reading of the Gospel according to Mark. And he began to speak to them in parables. A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower, and leased it to tenants and went into another country. When the season came, he sent a servant to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard, and they took him and beat him and sent him away in Dehandid. Again he sent to them another servant, and they struck him on the head and treated him shamefully, and he sent another and him they killed. And so with many others, some they beat and some they killed, he had still one other, a beloved son. Finally, he sent him to them, saying, they will respect my son, but those tenants said to one another, this is the heir, come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours, and they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. Have you not read this scripture? The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. And they were seeking to arrest him but feared the people, for they perceived that he had told the parable against them, so they left him and went away. And they sent to him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians to trap him in his talk, and they came and said to him, teacher, we know that you are true and do not care about anyone's opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances, but truly teach the way of God. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Should we pay them or should we not? But knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, why put me to the test? Bring me a denarius and let me look at it. And they brought one and he said to them, whose likeness and inscription is this? They said to him, Caesars. Jesus said to them, render to Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God the things that are gods, and they marveled at him. The Sadducees came to him who say that there is no resurrection, and they asked him a question saying, teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies and leaves a wife but leaves no child, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. There were seven brothers, the first took a wife and when he died left no offspring, and the second took her and died leaving no offspring, and the third likewise, and the seven left no offspring. Most of all the woman also died in the resurrection when they rise again whose wife will she be for the seven had her as wife. Jesus said to them, is this not the reason you are wrong because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God, for when they rise from the dead they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like angels in heaven. And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses and the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him saying, I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. He is not God of the dead but of the living. You are quite wrong. And one of the scribes came up and hurt them disputing with one another and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, which commandment is the most important of all? Jesus answered, the most important is here, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these. And the scribe said to him, you are a right teacher. You have truly said that he is one and there is no other besides him and to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength and to love one's neighbor as oneself is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, you are not far from the kingdom of God. And after that, no one dared to ask him any more questions. And as Jesus taught in the temple, he said, how can the scribe say that the Christ is the son of David? David himself and the Holy Spirit declared, the Lord said to my Lord, sit in my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet. David himself calls him Lord. So how is he his son and the great throng heard him gladly? And in his teaching, he said, beware of the scribes who like to walk around in long robes and like greetings in the marketplaces and have the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts who devour widows houses and for pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation. And he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums and a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins which make a penny. And he called his disciples to him and said to them, truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box for they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.