Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

⁶⁵ You have done good to Your servant, O Lord, because of Your Word. ⁶⁶ Teach me what I should know to be right and fair for I believe in Your Law. ⁶⁷ Before I suffered I went the wrong way, but now I obey Your Word. ⁶⁸ You are good and You do good. Teach me Your Law. ⁶⁹ The proud have put together a lie against me. I will keep Your Law with all my heart. ⁷⁰ Their heart is covered with fat, but I find joy in Your Law. ⁷¹ It is good for me that I was troubled, so that I might learn Your Law. ⁷² The Law of Your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces.

God’s Promise for Help

¹⁴ It will be said, “Build up, build up, make the way ready. Take everything out of the way of My people.” ¹⁵ For the high and honored One Who lives forever, Whose name is Holy, says, “I live in the high and holy place. And I also live with those who are sorry for their sins and have turned from them and are not proud. I give new strength to the spirit of those without pride, and also to those whose hearts are sorry for their sins. ¹⁶ I will keep on fighting against you, and will not always be angry, for then your spirit would become weak before Me, the ones to whom I gave life. ¹⁷ Because of the sin of his desire to get more of everything, I was angry. I punished him and hid My face in anger. He went on sinning, following the way of his own heart. ¹⁸ I have seen his ways and will heal him. I will lead him and give comfort to him and to those who have sorrow for him. ¹⁹ I will make the lips to praise. Peace, peace to him who is far and to him who is near,” says the Lord, “and I will heal him.” ²⁰ But the sinful are like the troubled sea, for it cannot rest. Its waters throw up mud and dirt. ²¹ “There is no peace,” says my God, “for the sinful.”

¹⁵ When one of those eating at the table with Jesus heard this, he said, “Everyone is happy who will eat in the holy nation of God.”

The Picture-Story of the Big Supper ^(A)

¹⁶ Then Jesus said to the leader of the proud religious law-keepers, “There was a man who was giving a big supper. He asked many people to come to eat. ¹⁷ When it was about time to eat, he sent one of the servants he owned to tell those he had asked, saying, ‘Come, everything is ready now.’ ¹⁸ They all gave different reasons why they could not come. The first said, ‘I have bought some land and I must go and see it. Do not expect me to come.’ ¹⁹ Another one said, ‘I have bought ten cows to use for working in my fields. I must go and try them out. Do not expect me to come.’ ²⁰ And another one said, ‘I have just been married and I cannot come.’

²¹ “The servant went back to his owner and told him these things. Then his owner became angry. He said to his servant, ‘Hurry into the streets and narrow roads of the city and bring poor people here. Bring those whose bodies are diseased. Bring those who cannot walk and those who are blind.’ ²² The servant came back and said, ‘Sir, what you told me to do has been done. But there are still some empty places.’ ²³ Then the owner said to his servant, ‘Go out along the roads leading away from the city and into the fields. Tell them they must come. Do this so my house will be filled. ²⁴ I tell you, not one of those I had asked will eat of my supper.’”