Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
A psalm
Sing Praise to the King
98 Sing to the Lord a new song,
for he has done awesome deeds!
His right hand and powerful[a] arm[b]
have brought him victory.
2 The Lord has made his deliverance known;
he has disclosed his justice before the nations.
3 He has remembered his gracious love;
his faithfulness toward the house of Israel;
all the ends of the earth saw our God’s deliverance.
4 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
Break forth into joyful songs of praise!
5 Sing praises to the Lord with a lyre—
with a lyre and a melodious song!
6 With trumpets and the sound of a ram’s horn
shout in the presence of the Lord, the king!
7 Let the sea and everything in it shout,[c]
along with the world and its inhabitants;
8 let the rivers clap their hands in unison;
and let the mountains sing for joy
9 in the Lord’s presence, who comes to judge the earth;
He’ll judge the world righteously;
and its people fairly.
The Vision of God’s Throne
10 As I continued to watch, there on the expanse above the heads of the cherubim was a massive[a] sapphire stone that resembled a throne in form and appearance. 2 The Lord[b] spoke to the man who was clothed in white linen, telling him, “Go between the whirling wheels, under the cherubim, and fill your hands with burning coals from among the cherubim. Then scatter them[c] over the city.” So he entered as I watched.[d]
3 Now the cherubim were standing on the south[e] side of the entrance to the Temple, when the man entered and a cloud filled the inner court. 4 The glory of the Lord rose above the cherub and moved to the threshold of the Temple. A cloud filled the Temple and the court was filled with the brilliance of the Lord’s glory. 5 The sound of the wings of the cherubim, reminiscent of the voice of the Sovereign God when he speaks, could be heard as far as the outer court.
6 He issued this order to the man who was clothed in white linen: “Take fire from within the whirling wheels, among the cherubim.” So he went and stood beside the wheels.
Ezekiel’s Vision of the Cherubim
7 Then a cherub stretched out his hand to the fire, which was among the cherubim, took some of the fire, and placed it in the hands of the one clothed in white linen, who took it and left. 8 There appeared to be human hands under the wings of the cherubim.
9 As I continued to watch, I observed four wheels beside the cherubim, one wheel beside each cherub.[f] The wheels resembled beryl stone. 10 In appearance, the four wheels looked like they consisted of a wheel within a wheel. 11 Whenever they moved, they proceeded without turning around as they moved, but they followed in the direction where their head was facing, without looking around as they moved.
12 Their entire bodies, backs, hands, and wings were filled with eyes around, including each of their four wheels. 13 The wheels whose sound I was hearing were called “the whirling wheels”. 14 Each had four faces. The first one was the face of a cherub, the second the face of a man, the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle.
15 The cherubim arose. These were the same beings that I had seen at the Chebar River. 16 When the cherubim moved, the wheels went alongside them. But when the cherubim started to ascend, beating their wings to rise above the earth, the wheels beside them didn’t turn. 17 When they stood still, the wheels stood still. When they rose up, the wheels rose up, too, because they were alive.[g]
18 Then the glory of the Lord moved away from the threshold of the Temple and stood over the cherubim. 19 The cherubim lifted their wings and rose above the earth while I watched. They went out, along with their wheels, and stood at the entrance to the east gate of the Lord’s Temple as the glory of Israel’s God remained above, covering them.
The Coming of the Kingdom(A)
20 Once Jesus[a] was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come. He answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming with a visible display. 21 People[b] won’t be saying, ‘Look! Here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ because now the kingdom of God is among[c] you.”
22 Then Jesus[d] told the disciples, “The time will come during which you will long to see one of these days when the Son of Man is with you,[e] but you won’t see it. 23 People[f] will say to you, ‘Look! There he is!’ or ‘Look! Here he is!’ But don’t go and chase after him. 24 Because just as lightning flashes and shines from one end of the sky to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his time.[g] 25 But first he must suffer a great deal and be rejected by those living today.[h]
26 “Just as it was in Noah’s time, so it will be in the Son of Man’s time. 27 People[i] were eating, drinking, marrying, and being given in marriage right up to the day when Noah went into the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed all of them. 28 So it was in Lot’s time. People[j] were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. 29 But on the very day when Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed all of them. 30 The day when the Son of Man is revealed will be like that.
31 “The person who is on the housetop that day must not come down to get his belongings out of his house. The person in the field, too, must not turn back to what’s left behind. 32 Remember Lot’s wife! 33 Whoever tries to save his life[k] will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve it. 34 I tell you, two will be seated on the same couch[l] that night. The one will be taken, and the other will be left behind. 35 Two women will be grinding grain[m] together. The one will be taken, and the other will be left behind.”[n]
37 Then they asked him, “Where, Lord, will this take place?”[o]
He told them, “Wherever there’s a corpse, that’s where the vultures[p] will gather.”
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