Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 118^[a]

Thanksgiving for Salvation

Origin of the World and Humankind^[a]

Creation and the Fall

Chapter 1

Origin of the Universe.^{[b] 1} In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.^{[c] 2} The earth was formless and barren, and darkness covered the abyss while the Spirit of God hovered over the waters.

³ God said, “Let there be light!” And there was light. ⁴ God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. ⁵ And he called the light day, and he called the darkness night. This was the evening and the morning of the first day.

⁶ God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters to separate one set of waters from the other.”^{[d] 7} God separated the firmament from the waters, those waters that are under the firmament from those that are above the firmament. And it was so. ⁸ God called the firmament the heavens. This was the evening and the morning of the second day.

⁹ God said, “Let the waters that are under the heavens be gathered into one place and let a dry place appear.” And it was so. ¹⁰ God called the dry place the land, and the gathered waters he called the sea. And God saw that it was good.

¹¹ God said, “Let the land bring forth plants, those that produce seeds and fruit trees that have seeds inside of the fruit they bear, each according to its own kind. And it was so. ¹² The land brought forth plants, each according to its kind, and trees that have fruit with seeds inside of them, each according to its kind.” God saw that they were good. ¹³ This was the evening and the morning of the third day.

¹⁴ God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to separate the day from the night; let them be markers to separate seasons and days and years, ¹⁵ and let them be lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light to the earth.” And it was so. ¹⁶ God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule over the day and the lesser light to rule over the night, and he also made the stars. ¹⁷ God placed them in the firmament of the heavens to light the earth ¹⁸ and to rule over the day and the night and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. ¹⁹ This was the evening and the morning of the fourth day.

The Mode of the Resurrection

³⁵ The Resurrected Body. Someone may ask, “How are the dead raised? What sort of body will they have when they come back?” ³⁶ This is foolish. What you sow must die before it is given new life, ³⁷ and what you sow is not the body that is to be but a bare grain of wheat or of something else. ³⁸ God gives to it a body that he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own particular body.

³⁹ Not all flesh is alike. There is one kind for human beings, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. ⁴⁰ There are both heavenly bodies and earthly bodies. The splendor of heavenly bodies is of one kind, and that of earthly bodies is another. ⁴¹ The sun has a splendor of its own, the moon another splendor, and the stars still another. Indeed, the stars differ among themselves in splendor.

⁴² So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. ⁴³ What is sown in dishonor is raised as glorious. What is sown in weakness is raised in power. ⁴⁴ What is sown is a physical body; what is raised is a spiritual body.

The Natural and the Spiritual Body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. ⁴⁵ As it is written, the first man, Adam, became a living being; the last Adam has become a lifegiving spirit. ⁴⁶ But the spiritual body did not come first. Rather the natural body came first, and then the spiritual.

⁴⁷ The first man was formed from the dust of the earth; the second man is from heaven. ⁴⁸ The man formed from dust is the pattern for earthly people; the heavenly man is the pattern for those who are of heaven. ⁴⁹ Just as we have borne the image of the man formed from dust, so shall we also bear the likeness of the heavenly one.