Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Future Repentance and Restoration of Israel
14 “However, in the future I will allure her;[a]
I will lead[b] her back into the wilderness,
and speak tenderly to her.
15 From there I will give back her vineyards to her,
and turn the ‘Valley of Trouble’[c] into an ‘Opportunity[d] for Hope.’
There she will sing as she did when she was young,[e]
when[f] she came up from the land of Egypt.
16 At that time,”[g] declares the Lord,
“you will call,[h] ‘My husband’;[i]
you will never again call me,[j] ‘My master.’[k]
17 For[l] I will remove the names of the Baal idols[m] from your lips,[n]
so that you will never again utter their names![o]
New Covenant Relationship with Repentant Israel
18 “At that time[p] I will make a covenant for them with the wild animals,
the birds of the air, and the creatures that crawl on the ground.
I will abolish[q] the warrior’s bow and sword—
that is, every weapon of warfare[r]—from the land,
and I will allow them to live securely.[s]
19 I will commit myself to you[t] forever;
I will commit myself to you in[u] righteousness and justice,
in steadfast love and tender compassion.
20 I will commit myself to you in faithfulness;
then[v] you will acknowledge[w] the Lord.[x]
Psalm 103[a]
By David.
103 Praise the Lord, O my soul.
With all that is within me, praise[b] his holy name.
2 Praise the Lord, O my soul.
Do not forget all his kind deeds.[c]
3 He is the one who forgives all your sins,
who heals all your diseases,[d]
4 who delivers[e] your life from the Pit,[f]
who crowns you with his loyal love and compassion,
5 who satisfies your life with good things,[g]
so your youth is renewed like an eagle’s.[h]
6 The Lord does what is fair,
and executes justice for all the oppressed.[i]
7 The Lord revealed his faithful acts[j] to Moses,
his deeds to the Israelites.
8 The Lord is compassionate and merciful;
he is patient[k] and demonstrates great loyal love.[l]
9 He does not always accuse,
and does not stay angry.[m]
10 He does not deal with us as our sins deserve;[n]
he does not repay us as our misdeeds deserve.[o]
11 For as the skies are high above the earth,
so his loyal love towers[p] over his faithful followers.[q]
12 As far as the eastern horizon[r] is from the west,[s]
so he removes the guilt of our rebellious actions[t] from us.
13 As a father has compassion on his children,[u]
so the Lord has compassion on his faithful followers.[v]
A Living Letter
3 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? We don’t need letters of recommendation to you or from you as some other people do, do we?[a] 2 You yourselves are our letter,[b] written on our hearts, known and read by everyone, 3 revealing[c] that you are a letter of Christ, delivered by us,[d] written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on stone tablets[e] but on tablets of human hearts.
4 Now we have such confidence in God through Christ. 5 Not that we are adequate[f] in ourselves to consider anything as if it were coming from ourselves, but our adequacy[g] is from God, 6 who made us adequate[h] to be servants of a new covenant[i] not based on the letter but on the Spirit, for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
The Call of Levi; Eating with Sinners
13 Jesus[a] went out again by the sea. The whole crowd came to him, and he taught them. 14 As he went along, he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the tax booth.[b] “Follow me,” he said to him. And he got up and followed him. 15 As Jesus[c] was having a meal[d] in Levi’s[e] home, many tax collectors[f] and sinners were eating with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. 16 When the experts in the law[g] and the Pharisees[h] saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”[i] 17 When Jesus heard this he said to them, “Those who are healthy don’t need a physician, but those who are sick do.[j] I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
The Superiority of the New
18 Now[k] John’s[l] disciples and the Pharisees[m] were fasting.[n] So[o] they came to Jesus[p] and said, “Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples don’t fast?” 19 Jesus[q] said to them, “The wedding guests[r] cannot fast while the bridegroom[s] is with them, can they?[t] As long as they have the bridegroom with them they do not fast. 20 But the days are coming when the bridegroom will be taken from them,[u] and at that time[v] they will fast. 21 No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and the tear becomes worse. 22 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins;[w] otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins will be destroyed. Instead new wine is poured into new wineskins.”[x]
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