Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

¹⁰ God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way. God relented of the disaster which he said he would do to them, and he didn’t do it.

4 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. ² He prayed to Yahweh, and said, “Please, Yahweh, wasn’t this what I said when I was still in my own country? Therefore I hurried to flee to Tarshish, for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and you relent of doing harm. ³ Therefore now, Yahweh, take, I beg you, my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

⁴ Yahweh said, “Is it right for you to be angry?”

⁵ Then Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city, and there made himself a booth and sat under it in the shade, until he might see what would become of the city. ⁶ Yahweh God prepared a vine and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head to deliver him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the vine. ⁷ But God prepared a worm at dawn the next day, and it chewed on the vine so that it withered. ⁸ When the sun arose, God prepared a sultry east wind; and the sun beat on Jonah’s head, so that he was faint and requested for himself that he might die. He said, “It is better for me to die than to live.”

⁹ God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the vine?”

He said, “I am right to be angry, even to death.”

¹⁰ Yahweh said, “You have been concerned for the vine, for which you have not labored, neither made it grow; which came up in a night and perished in a night. ¹¹ Shouldn’t I be concerned for Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred twenty thousand persons who can’t discern between their right hand and their left hand, and also many animals?”

A praise psalm by David.^[a]

²¹ For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. ²² But if I live on in the flesh, this will bring fruit from my work; yet I don’t know what I will choose. ²³ But I am hard pressed between the two, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. ²⁴ Yet to remain in the flesh is more needful for your sake. ²⁵ Having this confidence, I know that I will remain, yes, and remain with you all for your progress and joy in the faith, ²⁶ that your boasting^[a] may abound in Christ Jesus in me through my presence with you again.

²⁷ Only let your way of life be worthy of the Good News of Christ, that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your state, that you stand firm in one spirit, with one soul striving for the faith of the Good News; ²⁸ and in nothing frightened by the adversaries, which is for them a proof of destruction, but to you of salvation, and that from God. ²⁹ Because it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer on his behalf, ³⁰ having the same conflict which you saw in me and now hear is in me.

20 “For the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who was the master of a household, who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. ² When he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius^[a] a day, he sent them into his vineyard. ³ He went out about the third hour,^[b] and saw others standing idle in the marketplace. ⁴ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went their way. ⁵ Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour,^[c] and did likewise. ⁶ About the eleventh hour^[d] he went out and found others standing idle. He said to them, ‘Why do you stand here all day idle?’

⁷ “They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’

“He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and you will receive whatever is right.’

⁸ “When evening had come, the lord of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning from the last to the first.’ ⁹ “When those who were hired at about the eleventh hour came, they each received a denarius. ¹⁰ When the first came, they supposed that they would receive more; and they likewise each received a denarius. ¹¹ When they received it, they murmured against the master of the household, ¹² saying, ‘These last have spent one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat!’

¹³ “But he answered one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Didn’t you agree with me for a denarius? ¹⁴ Take that which is yours, and go your way. It is my desire to give to this last just as much as to you. ¹⁵ Isn’t it lawful for me to do what I want to with what I own? Or is your eye evil, because I am good?’ ¹⁶ So the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few are chosen.”