Luke 16:1-13
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
The Parable of the Dishonest Manager
16 Then Jesus[a] said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property.(A) 2 So he summoned him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management because you cannot be my manager any longer.’ 3 Then the manager said to himself, ‘What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. 4 I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.’ 5 So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 He answered, ‘A hundred jugs of olive oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.’ 7 Then he asked another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He replied, ‘A hundred containers of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill and make it eighty.’ 8 And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly, for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.(B) 9 And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth[b] so that when it is gone they may welcome you into the eternal homes.[c](C)
10 “Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much, and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much.(D) 11 If, then, you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth,[d] who will entrust to you the true riches?(E) 12 And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? 13 No slave can serve two masters, for a slave will either hate the one and love the other or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”[e](F)
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Amos 8:4-7
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
4 Hear this, you who trample on the needy,
and bring to ruin the poor of the land,(A)
5 saying, “When will the new moon be over
so that we may sell grain,
and the Sabbath,
so that we may offer wheat for sale?
We will make the ephah smaller and the shekel heavier
and practice deceit with false balances,(B)
6 buying the poor for silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals
and selling the sweepings of the wheat.”(C)
7 The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob:
Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.(D)
Jeremiah 8:18-22
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
The Prophet Mourns for the People
18 My joy is gone; grief is upon me;
my heart is sick.
19 Listen! The cry of the daughter of my people
from far and wide in the land:
“Is the Lord not in Zion?
Is her King not in her?”
(“Why have they provoked me to anger with their images,
with their foreign idols?”)(A)
20 “The harvest is past, the summer is ended,
and we are not saved.”
21 For the brokenness of the daughter of my people I am broken,
I mourn, and horror has seized me.(B)
22 Is there no balm in Gilead?
Is there no physician there?
Why then has the health of the daughter of my people
not been restored?(C)
Jeremiah 9:1
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
9 [a]O that my head were a spring of water
and my eyes a fountain of tears,
so that I might weep day and night
for the slain of the daughter of my people!(A)
Psalm 113
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Psalm 113
God the Helper of the Needy
1 Praise the Lord!
Praise, O servants of the Lord;
praise the name of the Lord.(A)
2 Blessed be the name of the Lord
from this time on and forevermore.(B)
3 From the rising of the sun to its setting,
the name of the Lord is to be praised.(C)
4 The Lord is high above all nations
and his glory above the heavens.(D)
5 Who is like the Lord our God,
who is seated on high,(E)
6 who looks far down
on the heavens and the earth?(F)
7 He raises the poor from the dust
and lifts the needy from the ash heap,
8 to make them sit with princes,
with the princes of his people.
9 He gives the barren woman a home,
making her the joyous mother of children.
Praise the Lord!(G)
1 Timothy 2:1-7
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Instructions concerning Prayer
2 First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, 2 for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity.(A) 3 This is right and acceptable before God our Savior,(B) 4 who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.(C) 5 For
there is one God;
there is also one mediator between God and humankind,
Christ Jesus, himself human,(D)
6 who gave himself a ransom for all
—this was attested at the right time.(E) 7 For this I was appointed a herald and an apostle (I am telling the truth;[a] I am not lying), a teacher of the gentiles in faith and truth.(F)
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