Book of Common Prayer

¹⁵ Everyone who was sitting in the Assembly looked hard at Stephen. They all saw that his face was like the face of an angel.

Stephen tells the story

7 The high priest addressed Stephen.

“Are these things true?” he said.

² “My brothers and fathers,” replied Stephen, “please give me a hearing.

“The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he moved to live in Haran. ³ ‘Leave your land and your family,’ he said to him, ‘and go to the land which I will show you.’ ⁴ So he left the land of the Chaldeans and went to live in Haran. Then, from there, after his father’s death, God moved him on to this land in which you now live. ⁵ God didn’t give him an inheritance here, not even a place to stand up in. Instead, he promised (when Abraham still had no child) that he would give it as a possession to his seed after him. ⁶ This is what God said to him: that his seed would be strangers in a foreign land, that they would serve there as slaves, and that they would be afflicted for four hundred years. ⁷ But God said that he would judge the nation that had enslaved them, and that they would then come out and worship him ‘on this mountain.’ ⁸ And he gave them the covenant of circumcision. So Abraham became the father of Isaac, and he circumcised him on the eighth day. Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of the twelve patriarchs.

⁹ “Now the patriarchs became angry with Joseph, and were jealous of him. They sold him into Egypt. But God was with him, ¹⁰ and rescued him from all his troubles and gave him grace and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, making him ruler over Egypt and over all his household. ¹¹ But then there was a famine over the whole of Egypt and Canaan, which resulted in great hardship. Our ancestors couldn’t find food to eat. ¹² Jacob, however, heard that there was grain in Egypt, and sent our ancestors there on an initial visit. ¹³ On their second trip, Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and revealed to Pharaoh what family he was from. ¹⁴ So Joseph sent and summoned Jacob his father and all the family, seventy-five people in all. ¹⁵ Jacob came to Egypt, and he and our ancestors died there. ¹⁶ They were brought back to Shechem, and buried in the tomb which Abraham had bought with silver, at a named price, from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.”

Sower and reaper rejoice together

²⁷ Just then Jesus’ disciples came up. They were astonished that he was talking with a woman; but nobody said “What did you want?” or “Why were you talking with her?” ²⁸ So the woman left her water-jar, went into the town and spoke to the people.

²⁹ “Come on!” she said. “Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did! You don’t think he can be the Messiah, do you?”

³⁰ So they left the town and were coming out to him.

³¹ Meanwhile the disciples were nagging him.

“Come on, Rabbi!” they were saying. “You must have something to eat!”

³² “I’ve got food to eat that you know nothing about,” he said.

³³ “Nobody’s brought him anything to eat, have they?” said the disciples to one another.

³⁴ “My food,” replied Jesus, “is to do the will of the one who sent me, and to finish his work! ³⁵ Don’t you have a saying, ‘Another four months, then comes harvest’? Well, let me tell you, raise your eyes and see! The fields are white! It’s harvest time already! ³⁶ The reaper earns his pay, and gathers crops for the life of God’s coming age, so that sower and reaper can celebrate together. ³⁷ This is where that saying comes true, ‘One sows, another reaps.’ ³⁸ I sent you to reap what you didn’t work for. Others did the hard work, and you’ve come into the results.”

³⁹ Several Samaritans from that town believed in Jesus because of what the woman said in evidence about him, “He told me everything I did.” ⁴⁰ So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them. And he stayed there two days.

⁴¹ Many more believed because of what he said.

⁴² “We believe, too,” they said to the woman, “but it’s no longer because of what you told us. We’ve heard him ourselves! We know that he really is the one! He’s the savior of the world!”