Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
141 (0) A psalm of David:
(1) Adonai, I have called you; come to me quickly!
Listen to my plea when I call to you.
2 Let my prayer be like incense set before you,
my uplifted hands like an evening sacrifice.
3 Set a guard, Adonai, over my mouth;
keep watch at the door of my lips.
4 Don’t let my heart turn to anything evil
or allow me to act wickedly
with men who are evildoers;
keep me from eating their delicacies.
5 Let the righteous strike me, let him correct me;
it will be an act of love.
Let my head not refuse such choice oil,
for I will keep on praying about their wickedness.
6 When their rulers are thrown down from the cliff,
[the wicked] will hear that my words were fitting.
7 As when one plows and breaks the ground into clods,
our bones are strewn at the mouth of Sh’ol.
8 For my eyes, Adonai, Adonai, are on you;
in you I take refuge; don’t pour out my life.
9 Keep me from the trap they have set for me,
from the snares of evildoers.
10 Let the wicked fall into their own nets,
while I pass by in safety.
21 “‘Thus will I display my glory among the nations, so that all the nations will see my judgment when I execute it and my hand when I lay it on them. 22 From that day on, the house of Isra’el will know that I am Adonai their God; 23 while the Goyim will know that the house of Isra’el went into exile because of their guilt, because they broke faith with me; so that I hid my face from them and handed them over to their adversaries; and they fell by the sword, all of them. 24 Yes, I treated them as their uncleanness and crimes deserved; and I hid my face from them.’
25 “Therefore Adonai Elohim says this: ‘Now I will restore the fortunes of Ya‘akov and have compassion on the entire house of Isra’el, and I will be jealous for my holy name. 26 They will bear their shame and all their [guilt from] breaking faith with me, once they are living securely in their land, with no one to make them afraid. 27 This will be after I have brought them back from the peoples and gathered them out of their enemies’ lands, thereby being consecrated through them in the sight of many nations. 28 Then they will know that I am Adonai their God, since it was I who caused them to go into exile among the nations, and it was I who regathered them to their own land. I will leave none of them there any more, 29 and I will no longer hide my face from them, for I have poured out my Spirit on the house of Isra’el,’ says Adonai Elohim.”
40 In the twenty-fifth year of our exile, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth day of the month — this was the fourteenth year after the city [of Yerushalayim] was struck — it was on that very day that the hand of Adonai was on me, and he took me there. 2 In visions God brought me into the land of Isra’el and put me down on a very high mountain; on it, toward the south, it seemed that a city was being built. 3 That is where he took me, and there in front of me was a man whose appearance was like bronze. He had a flax cord and a measuring rod in his hand, and he stood in the gateway. 4 The man said to me, “Human being, look with your eyes, hear with your ears, and pay attention to all the things I am showing you; because the reason you were brought here is so that I could show them to you. Tell everything you see to the house of Isra’el.”
23 “Everything is permitted,” you say? Maybe, but not everything is helpful. “Everything is permitted?” Maybe, but not everything is edifying. 24 No one should be looking out for his own interests, but for those of his fellow. 25 Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience, 26 for the earth and everything in it belong to the Lord.[a] 27 If some unbeliever invites you to a meal, and you want to go, eat whatever is put in front of you without raising questions of conscience. 28 But if someone says to you, “This meat was offered as a sacrifice,” then don’t eat it, out of consideration for the person who pointed it out and also for conscience’s sake — 29 however, I don’t mean your conscience but that of the other person. You say, “Why should my freedom be determined by someone else’s conscience? 30 If I participate with thankfulness, why am I criticized over something for which I myself bless God?” 31 Well, whatever you do, whether it’s eating or drinking or anything else, do it all so as to bring glory to God. 32 Do not be an obstacle to anyone — not to Jews, not to Gentiles, and not to God’s Messianic Community. 33 Just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not looking out for my own interests but for those of the many, so that they may be saved;
11 try to imitate me, even as I myself try to imitate the Messiah.
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.