Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
A Call to Praise the Lord
98 Sing a new song to the Lord. For He has done great things. His right hand and His holy arm have won the fight for Him. 2 The Lord has made His saving power known. He has shown to the nations how right and good He is. 3 He has shown His loving-kindness and how beautiful He is to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the saving power of our God.
4 Call out for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Sing out loud songs of joy and sing praises. 5 Sing praises to the Lord with harps, with harps and the voice of singing. 6 Call out for joy with the sound of horns before the King, the Lord.
7 Let the sea and all that is in it make a loud noise, and the world and all who live in it. 8 Let the rivers clap their hands. Let the mountains sing together for joy 9 before the Lord. For He is coming to say who is guilty or not on the earth. He will be right in what He decides about the world. And He will be fair to the people.
God’s Shining-Greatness Leaves the House of God
10 Then I looked and saw something like a sapphire stone in the open space that was over the cherubim’s heads. It looked like a throne above them. 2 And the Lord said to the man dressed in linen, “Go in between the wheels under the cherubim. Fill your hands with coals of fire from between the cherubim and throw them over the city.” And as I watched, he went in.
3 Now the cherubim were standing on the right side of the house of the Lord when the man went in. And the cloud filled the open space inside. 4 Then the shining-greatness of the Lord went up from above the cherubim to the door of the Lord’s house. The house of the Lord was filled with the cloud. And the open space was filled with the bright and shining-greatness of the Lord. 5 The sound of the wings of the cherubim was heard as far as the outside open space. It was like the voice of God All-powerful when He speaks.
6 When He told the man dressed in linen, “Take fire from between the wheels, from between the cherubim,” the man went in and stood beside a wheel. 7 Then one of the cherubim put out his hand to the fire which was among them. He took some and put it into the hands of the one dressed in linen, who took it and went out. 8 (The cherubim had what looked like a man’s hands under their wings.)
9 Then I looked and saw four wheels beside the cherubim, one wheel beside each cherub. The wheels looked like they were made of shining chrysolite stone. 10 All four of them looked the same. Each looked like they had one wheel inside another wheel. 11 When they moved, they went in any of their four ways without turning as they went, but followed the way the head was facing without turning as they went. 12 And their whole body, their backs, their hands, their wings, and the wheels were full of eyes all around, the wheels belonging to all four of them. 13 The wheels were called in my hearing, “the turning wheels.” 14 Each one of the cherubim had four faces. The first face was the face of a cherub. The second face was the face of a man. The third was the face of a lion. And the fourth was the face of an eagle.
15 Then the cherubim rose up. They were the living beings that I saw by the Chebar River. 16 Now when the cherubim moved, the wheels went beside them. And when the cherubim lifted up their wings to rise from the ground, the wheels did not leave their side. 17 When the cherubim stood still, the wheels stood still. When they rose up, the wheels rose with them. For the spirit of the living beings was in them.
18 Then the shining-greatness of the Lord left the door of the Lord’s house and stood over the cherubim. 19 When the cherubim left, they lifted their wings and rose up from the earth in front of my eyes, with the wheels beside them. And they stood still at the door of the east gate of the Lord’s house. The shining-greatness of the God of Israel was over them.
Jesus Teaches about the Holy Nation of God
20 The proud religious law-keepers asked when the holy nation of God would come. Jesus said to them, “The holy nation of God is not coming in such a way that can be seen with the eyes. 21 It will not be said, ‘See, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!’ For the holy nation of God is in you.”
Jesus Tells of His Second Coming
22 Jesus said to His followers, “The time will come when you will wish you could see the Son of Man for one day. But you will not be able to. 23 They will say to you, ‘He is here,’ or, ‘He is there,’ but do not follow them. 24 When the Son of Man comes, He will be as lightning that shines from one part of the sky to the other. 25 But before that, He must suffer many hard things. The people of this day will have nothing to do with Him.
26 “As it was in the time of Noah, so will it be when the Son of Man comes back. 27 People ate and drank. They married and were given in marriage. They did these things until the day Noah went into the large boat. Then the flood came and killed all the people on earth. 28 It was the same in the time of Lot. People ate and drank. They bought and sold. They planted and built. 29 But the day Lot left the city of Sodom, fire and sulphur came down from heaven like rain. It killed all the people of Sodom.
30 “It will be the same on the day when the Son of Man comes again. 31 In that day the man who is on top of a house should not come down to take his things out of the house. In the same way, the man who is in the field should not go back to his house. 32 Remember Lot’s wife!
33 “He who wants to keep his life will have it taken away from him. He who loses his life will have it given back to him. 34 I tell you, on that night there will be two men in the same bed. One of them will be taken. The other will be left. 35 Two women will be grinding grain together. One of them will be taken. The other will be left. 36 *Two men will be working in a field. One will be taken. The other will be left.”
37 Then they asked Jesus, “Where will this happen?” He said to them, “Birds also gather where there is a dead body.”
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