Book of Common Prayer

The Lord is King!^[a]

Sing a new song!^[a]

David wrote this song when he made the Philistine king think that he was crazy. He wanted the king to send him away.^[a]

God is great!^[b]

Messages from God

14 So you must always want to love other people. Also, want very much to receive spiritual gifts from God. More than anything else, want to speak messages from God. ² If someone speaks in a different language, he is speaking only to God. The people who hear him do not understand his message. God's Spirit is causing him to speak about secret things. It does not help people. ³ But if someone speaks a clear message from God, he helps the people who hear him. He helps them to become stronger as believers. He helps them to be happy and strong in their troubles. ⁴ Anyone who speaks in a different language only helps himself. But a person who speaks a message from God helps the believers in the church to become strong.

⁵ I would like all of you to speak in different kinds of languages. But even more, I want you to speak God's message clearly to people. Anyone who can speak a message from God is important in the church. He is more important than someone who speaks in different kinds of languages. That person only helps the church if someone can explain what he says. Only in that way will his message help the church to become stronger.

⁶ My Christian friends, if I come to visit you, then I want to help you. But if I speak to you in languages that you do not understand, that will not help you at all. I would need to explain to you what God has shown to me. I would need to help you to understand something. I would need to speak a clear message from God, or teach you something. Only that would help you. ⁷ Think about how people make music with flutes or harps. Those things are not alive. We have to use them to make clear sounds. If we do not use them properly, then nobody can recognize the music. ⁸ Soldiers will not prepare to fight unless they hear a clear sound from the trumpet.

⁹ It is the same for you. You must use your tongue to speak clearly. If not, nobody will understand what you are saying. You will only be speaking words into the air. ¹⁰ There are many different kinds of languages in this world. They all mean something to the people who speak them. ¹¹ Perhaps somebody may speak to me in a language that I do not understand. Then we are like foreign people to each other. ¹² So think about what is best for you. You really want the gifts that come from God's Spirit. Most of all, you should want the gifts that will help the whole church to become stronger.

Jesus tells a story about some workers in a field

20 Jesus said, ‘I will tell you a story to show what the kingdom of heaven is like. There was an important man who had a field where he grew grapes. He went out early in the morning. He wanted to find some people who would work in his field. ² The master agreed with the workers that he would pay them one silver coin for a day's work.^[a] Then he sent them to work in the field.

³ The master went out again about three hours later. He saw some other men standing in the market place. They had no work to do. ⁴ So the master said to these men, “You also go and work in my field. I will pay you the right amount of money.” ⁵ So the workers went to the master's field and started to work.

The master went out again at noon, and he went again three hours after that. Both times he sent men to his field to work. ⁶ Two hours later, at five o'clock, he went out again. He found more men who were standing there. And they had no work to do. The master asked them, “Why are you standing here all day and you are not working?”

⁷ The men said to the master, “Nobody has asked us to work for him.”

So the master said to them, “You also go now and work in my field.”

⁸ Then the evening came. The master of the field spoke to the man who had authority over the workers. He said to him, “Tell the workers to come here. Pay them their money. Begin with the workers who started to work at the end of the day. Finish with the workers who started first.”

⁹ The workers who had come to work at five o'clock in the evening received one silver coin each. ¹⁰ The workers who had come to work first thought that they would receive more than the other workers. But each of them also received one silver coin. ¹¹ When they received their money, they were not happy. They told the master that he had not been fair to them. ¹² They said to him, “Some of these other workers came last and only worked for one hour. But you have paid them the same money as you paid us. And we have worked all day in the hot sun.”

¹³ Then the master said to one of the workers, “My friend, I am being fair to you. You agreed to work for one day and to receive one silver coin. ¹⁴ Take your money and go home. I choose to give this last man the same amount of money as I gave to you. ¹⁵ It is my money. I can choose what to do with it. I want to be kind to people and give them more than we agreed. Does that make you upset?” ’

¹⁶ Jesus then said, ‘So, one day, those people who are not important now will become the most important. Those people who are very important now will become the least important.’