Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 106[a]
Israel’s Confession of Sin and God’s Mercy
1 Alleluia.
Give thanks[b] to the Lord, for he is good;
his kindness endures forever.
2 Who can possibly recount the mighty acts of the Lord
and fully proclaim his praise?[c]
3 Blessed[d] are those who do what is right
and practice justice constantly.
4 Remember me, O Lord, out of the love you have for your people;
come to me with your salvation.[e]
5 Let me delight in the success of your chosen ones,
share in the joy of your nation,
and glory in your heritage.
6 [f]Like our ancestors, we[g] have sinned;
we have gone astray and done evil.
7 When our ancestors were in Egypt,
they failed to be mindful of your wonders;
they did not remember your many kindnesses
and rebelled against the Most High at the Red Sea.
8 Yet he saved them for his name’s sake[h]
so that he might make known his mighty power.
9 He rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried up;
he led them through the depths as through a wilderness.
10 He saved them from those who hated them;
from the hand of the enemy he delivered them.
11 The waters closed over their adversaries;
not a single one of them survived.
12 Then they believed his words
and sang his praises.[i]
13 [j]But they soon forgot what he had done
and had no confidence in his plan.
14 In the wilderness they yielded to their cravings;
in the wasteland they put God to the test.
15 He gave them everything they wanted
but struck them with a consuming disease.
16 [k]In the camp they grew envious of Moses
and of Aaron, who was consecrated to the Lord.
17 The earth parted and swallowed Dathan
and closed over the company of Abiram.
18 Fire blazed all through them,
and the wicked were consumed in flames.
19 [l]They constructed a calf at Horeb
and worshiped this molten image.
20 They exchanged their Glory[m]
for an image of a bull that eats grass.
21 They forgot the God who had saved them,
who had done great things in Egypt,
22 wonders in the land of Ham,[n]
and awesome deeds at the Red Sea.
23 He was contemplating their destruction,
but Moses, his chosen one,
stood in the breach[o] before him
to keep his wrath from destroying them.
24 [p]Then they derided the land of delights,[q]
for they had no faith in his word.
25 They grumbled in their tents
and refused to obey the voice of the Lord.
26 Therefore, he swore with uplifted hand
to strike them down in the wilderness
27 and disperse their descendants among the nations,
scattering them in foreign lands.
28 [r]They joined in worshiping Baal of Peor
and ate food sacrificed to lifeless gods.
29 They provoked the Lord to anger by their evil deeds,
and a plague broke out among them.
30 Then Phinehas stood up and executed judgment,
and the plague came to an end.
31 This was credited to him as righteousness[s]
for all the generations to come.
32 [t]At the waters of Meribah[u] they angered the Lord,
and Moses endured difficulties because of them.
33 For they rebelled against the Spirit of God,
and rash words issued from Moses’ lips.[v]
34 [w]They did not exterminate the peoples
as the Lord had commanded them to do.
35 Rather, they mingled with the nations
and adopted their practices.
36 They worshiped their idols,
which became a snare to them.
37 They sacrificed to false gods[x]
their sons and their daughters.
38 They shed innocent blood,
the blood of their sons and daughters,
whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan,
polluting the land with their blood.
39 Thus, they defiled themselves by their actions
and prostituted themselves by their conduct.[y]
40 [z]Then the anger of the Lord flared up against his people,
and he abhorred his own heritage.
41 He handed them over to the nations,
and their foes became their rulers.
42 Their enemies oppressed them
and kept them in subjection to their power.
43 Time and again he came to their rescue,
but they rebelled against his counsel
and sank low because of their sin.
44 Even so, he took pity on their distress
when he heard their cries.
45 He called to mind his covenant[aa] with them,
and he relented because of his great mercy.
46 He aroused compassion for them
on the part of all their captors.
47 Save us, O Lord, our God,
and gather us from among the nations,
so that we may give thanks to your holy name
and glory in praising[ab] you.
48 Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting.[ac]
Let all the people say, “Amen.”
Alleluia.[ad]
Chapter 1[a]
Naomi’s Life in Moab. 1 In the days of the judges,[b] a famine broke out in the land. A certain man from Bethlehem in Judah went to live in the land of Moab along with his wife and his two sons. 2 The man’s name was Elimelech and his wife was Naomi, and his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They traveled to the land of Moab and dwelt there.
3 Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4 They both married Moabite women. The name of one was Orpah, and the name of the other was Ruth. When they had lived there for about ten years,[c] 5 both Mahlon and Chilion died, leaving the woman bereft of her husband and two sons.
6 [d]She set out with her two daughters-in-law to return from the land of Moab, for in Moab she had heard how the Lord had come to the aid of his people, giving them food to eat. 7 She and her two daughters-in-law set out from the place where they had been living and took the road leading back to the land of Judah. 8 Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Each of you should go back to your mother’s house. May the Lord show you as much kindness as you have shown to those who died and to me. 9 May the Lord grant each of you consolation in the home of a husband.” She then kissed them, and they wept aloud. 10 They said to her, “We will go with you back to your people.” 11 But Naomi replied, “Go back, my daughters. Why would you go with me? Do I still have any sons in my womb who might become your husbands? 12 Go back, my daughters. Go your way. I am too old even to have a husband. Even if I thought that there was still hope for me and I slept with a husband tonight and gave birth to sons, 13 would you wait for them to grow up? Would you stay unmarried for them? No, my daughters, for it greatly grieves me on your account that the hand of the Lord has been raised against me.”
14 Ruth Stays with Naomi. They cried out loud again, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her.
Address
Chapter 1
Greeting to the Church. 1 Paul, an apostle[a] of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the Church of God in Corinth, and to all the saints throughout Achaia: 2 grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Sufferings and Consolation.[b] 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercy and the God of all consolation.[c] 4 He consoles us in all our afflictions and thereby enables us to console others in their tribulations, offering them the consolation with which we ourselves are consoled by God.
5 For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so too, through Christ, do we receive our consolation. 6 If we are being afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation. If we are being consoled, it is to help us to console you and give you the patience and the strength to endure the same sufferings that we endure. 7 Our hope for you is unshaken, because we know that as you share in the sufferings, you also share in the consolations.
8 Brethren, we do not want you to be unaware of the hardships we experienced[d] in Asia. The burden we endured was far too heavy for us to bear, to such an extent that we even despaired of life itself. 9 Indeed, in our hearts we felt that we were under a sentence of death. This was so that we not put our trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead.
10 He delivered us from this deadly peril, and he will continue to so deliver us. He on whom we have set our hopes will deliver us again, 11 as you assist us with your prayers, so that thanks may be given by many to God on our behalf for the blessing granted to us through the prayers of so many.
Chapter 5
The Sermon on the Mount—Magna Carta of the Christian Life[a]
The Beatitudes.[b] When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on the mountain. After he was seated, his disciples gathered around him. 2 Then he began to teach them as follows:3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice,
for they will have their fill.
7 Blessed are the merciful,
for they will obtain mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure of heart, for they will see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted in the cause of justice,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and utter all kinds of calumnies against you for my sake. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven. In the same manner, they persecuted the prophets who preceded you.
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