Serve, Work and Transform: Daily Lectionary Readings for December 18, 2025

Daily Lectionary Readings
(Two-Year Cycle)

Lectionary Readings for

Thursday, December 18, 2025

Morning Psalm 18:1-20

¹I love you, O LORD, my strength.

²The LORD is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer,

my God, my rock in whom I take refuge,

my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

³I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised,

so I shall be saved from my enemies.

⁴The cords of death encompassed me;

the torrents of perdition assailed me;

⁵the cords of Sheol entangled me;

the snares of death confronted me.

⁶In my distress I called upon the LORD;

to my God I cried for help.

From his temple he heard my voice,

and my cry to him reached his ears.

⁷Then the earth reeled and rocked;

the foundations also of the mountains trembled

and quaked, because he was angry.

⁸Smoke went up from his nostrils,

and devouring fire from his mouth;

glowing coals flamed forth from him.

⁹He bowed the heavens, and came down;

thick darkness was under his feet.

¹⁰He rode on a cherub, and flew;

he came swiftly upon the wings of the wind.

¹¹He made darkness his covering around him,

his canopy thick clouds dark with water.

¹²Out of the brightness before him

there broke through his clouds

hailstones and coals of fire.

¹³The LORD also thundered in the heavens,

and the Most High uttered his voice.

¹⁴And he sent out his arrows, and scattered them;

he flashed forth lightnings, and routed them.

¹⁵Then the channels of the sea were seen,

and the foundations of the world were laid bare

at your rebuke, O LORD,

at the blast of the breath of your nostrils.

¹⁶He reached down from on high, he took me;

he drew me out of mighty waters.

¹⁷He delivered me from my strong enemy,

and from those who hated me;

for they were too mighty for me.

¹⁸They confronted me in the day of my calamity;

but the LORD was my support.

¹⁹He brought me out into a broad place;

he delivered me, because he delighted in me.

²⁰The LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness;

according to the cleanness of my hands he recompensed me.

Morning Psalm 147:12-20

¹²  Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem!
          Praise your God, O Zion!
¹³  For he strengthens the bars of your gates;
          he blesses your children within you.
¹⁴  He grants peace within your borders;
          he fills you with the finest of wheat.
¹⁵  He sends out his command to the earth;
          his word runs swiftly.
¹⁶  He gives snow like wool;
          he scatters frost like ashes.
¹⁷  He hurls down hail like crumbs —
          who can stand before his cold?
¹⁸  He sends out his word, and melts them;
          he makes his wind blow, and the waters flow.
¹⁹  He declares his word to Jacob,
          his statutes and ordinances to Israel.
²⁰  He has not dealt thus with any other nation;
          they do not know his ordinances.
     Praise the Lord!

First Reading Genesis 3:8-15

⁸They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. ⁹But the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, "Where are you?" ¹⁰He said, "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself." ¹¹He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?" ¹²The man said, "The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate." ¹³Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this that you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent tricked me, and I ate." ¹⁴The LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, cursed are you among all animals and among all wild creatures; upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. ¹⁵I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel."

Second Reading Revelation 12:1-10

¹A great portent appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. ²She was pregnant and was crying out in birthpangs, in the agony of giving birth. ³Then another portent appeared in heaven: a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. ⁴His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. Then the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, so that he might devour her child as soon as it was born. ⁵And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. But her child was snatched away and taken to God and to his throne; ⁶and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, so that there she can be nourished for one thousand two hundred sixty days.

⁷And war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. The dragon and his angels fought back, ⁸but they were defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. ⁹The great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

¹⁰Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, proclaiming, "Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Messiah, for the accuser of our comrades has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God."

Gospel Reading John 3:16-21

¹⁶"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

¹⁷"Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. ¹⁸Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. ¹⁹And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. ²¹But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God."

Evening Psalm 126

¹   When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion,
          we were like those who dream.
²   Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
          and our tongue with shouts of joy;
     then it was said among the nations,
          “The LORD has done great things for them.”
³   The LORD has done great things for us,
          and we rejoiced.

⁴   Restore our fortunes, O LORD,
          like the watercourses in the Negeb.
⁵   May those who sow in tears
          reap with shouts of joy.
⁶   Those who go out weeping,
          bearing the seed for sowing,
     shall come home with shouts of joy,
          carrying their sheaves.

Evening Psalm 62

¹   For God alone my soul waits in silence;
          from him comes my salvation.
²   He alone is my rock and my salvation,
          my fortress; I shall never be shaken.

³   How long will you assail a person,
          will you batter your victim, all of you,
          as you would a leaning wall, a tottering fence?
⁴   Their only plan is to bring down a person of prominence.
          They take pleasure in falsehood;
     they bless with their mouths,
          but inwardly they curse. Selah

⁵   For God alone my soul waits in silence,
          for my hope is from him.
⁶   He alone is my rock and my salvation,
          my fortress; I shall not be shaken.
⁷   On God rests my deliverance and my honor;
          my mighty rock, my refuge is in God.

⁸   Trust in him at all times, O people;
          pour out your heart before him;
          God is a refuge for us. Selah

⁹   Those of low estate are but a breath,
          those of high estate are a delusion;
     in the balances they go up;
          they are together lighter than a breath.
¹⁰  Put no confidence in extortion,
          and set no vain hopes on robbery;
          if riches increase, do not set your heart on them.

¹¹  Once God has spoken;
          twice have I heard this:
     that power belongs to God,
¹²       and steadfast love belongs to you, O Lord.
     For you repay to all
          according to their work.