Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Prayer for Help

5 Hear my words, O Lord. Think about my crying. ² Listen to my cry for help, my King and my God. For I pray to you. ³ In the morning, O Lord, You will hear my voice. In the morning I will lay my prayers before You and will look up.

⁴ You are not a God Who is pleased with what is bad. The sinful cannot be with You. ⁵ The proud cannot stand before You. You hate all who do wrong. ⁶ You destroy those who tell lies. The Lord hates liars and men who kill other people.

⁷ But as for me, by Your great loving-kindness, I will come into Your house. At Your holy house I will put my face to the ground before You in love and fear. ⁸ O Lord, lead me in what is right and good, because of the ones who hate me. Make Your way straight in front of me.

⁹ For in their talk there is no truth. Their hearts destroy. Their mouths are like an open grave. With their tongues, they say sweet-sounding words that are not true. ¹⁰ Hold them guilty, O God! Let them fall by their own plans. Throw them out because of their many sins. For they have fought against You. ¹¹ But let all who put their trust in You be glad. Let them sing with joy forever. You make a covering for them, that all who love Your name may be glad in You. ¹² For You will make those happy who do what is right, O Lord. You will cover them all around with Your favor.

Jonah’s Anger and the Lord’s Loving-Pity

4 But Jonah was not pleased at all, and he became angry. ² He prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is this not what I said You would do while still in my own country? That is why I ran away to Tarshish. For I knew that You are a kind and loving God Who shows pity. I knew that You are slow to anger and are filled with loving-kindness, always ready to change Your mind and not punish. ³ So now, O Lord, take my life from me. For death is better to me than life.” ⁴ And the Lord said, “Have you any reason to be angry?”

⁵ Then Jonah left the city and sat to the east of the city. There he made a tent for himself, and sat in its shadow until he could see what would happen in the city. ⁶ Then the Lord God made a plant grow up over Jonah to cover him from the hot sun and to stop his suffering. Jonah was very happy about the plant. ⁷ But at the beginning of the next day, God sent a worm to destroy the plant and it dried up. ⁸ When the sun came up, God sent a hot east wind. And the sun’s heat came upon Jonah’s head so that he became weak and begged with all his heart to die. He said, “Death is better to me than life.”

⁹ Then God said to Jonah, “Do you have a good reason to be angry about the plant?” And Jonah said, “I have a good reason to be angry, angry enough to die.” ¹⁰ The Lord said, “You had loving-pity on the plant which you did not work for. You did not cause it to grow. It came up during the night and died during the night. ¹¹ And should I not have loving-pity for Nineveh, the large city where more than 120,000 people live who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?”

Philip and the Man from Ethiopia

²⁶ An angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, “Get up and go south. Take the road that goes down from Jerusalem to the country of Gaza. It goes through the desert.” ²⁷ Philip got up and went. A man from the country of Ethiopia had come to Jerusalem to worship. He had been made so he could not have children. He cared for all the riches that belonged to Candace who was Queen of Ethiopia. ²⁸ As he was going back home, he was sitting in his wagon reading about the early preacher Isaiah. ²⁹ The Holy Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to that wagon and get on it.” ³⁰ Philip ran up to him. He saw that the man from Ethiopia was reading from the writings of the early preacher Isaiah and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?” ³¹ The man from Ethiopia said, “How can I, unless someone teaches me?” Then he asked Philip to come up and sit beside him.

³² He was reading the part in the Holy Writings which says He was taken like a lamb to be put to death. A sheep does not make a sound while its wool is cut. So He made no sound. ³³ No one listened to Him because of His shame. Who will tell the story of His day? For His life was taken away from the earth. ^(A)

³⁴ The man from Ethiopia said to Philip, “Who is the early preacher talking about, himself, or someone else?” ³⁵ So Philip started with this part of the Holy Writings and preached the Good News of Jesus to him.

³⁶ As they went on their way, they came to some water. The man from Ethiopia said, “See! Here is water. What is to stop me from being baptized?” ³⁷ (*Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” The man said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”) ³⁸ He stopped the wagon. Then both Philip and the man from Ethiopia went down into the water and Philip baptized him.

³⁹ When they came up out of the water, the Holy Spirit took Philip away. The man from Ethiopia did not see Philip again. He went on his way full of joy. ⁴⁰ Philip found himself at the city of Azotus. Then Philip went through all the towns as far as the city of Caesarea preaching the Good News at each place.