Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 81[a]
Exhortation To Worship Worthily
1 For the director.[b] “Upon the gittith.” Of Asaph.
2 Sing out your joy to God our strength;
shout aloud to the God of Jacob.[c]
3 Raise the chant and sound the tambourine;
play the pleasant harp and the lyre.
4 Sound the trumpet at the new moon,
and also at the full moon on the day of our Feast.[d]
5 For this is a law in Israel,
a decree of the God of Jacob.
6 He imposed this testimony on Joseph[e]
when he departed from the land of Egypt.
I now hear an unfamiliar voice:
7 “I lifted the burden from their shoulders;
their hands put aside the laborer’s basket.[f]
8 When you cried out to me in distress, I rescued you;[g]
from the thunderclouds I answered you;
I tested you at the waters of Meribah: Selah
9 “ ‘Listen to me, O my people, while I warn you.
O Israel, if only you would listen to me!
10 You must not accept a foreign god in your presence;
you must not bow down to an alien deity.
12 The Sabbath.[a] The Lord said to Moses, 13 “Say to the children of Israel, ‘You shall observe my Sabbaths, for the Sabbath is a sign between me and you for all your generations, so that you may know that I am the Lord, who makes you holy.
14 “ ‘Therefore, you shall observe the Sabbath, for it is holy to you. Whoever profanes it shall be put to death. Whoever works on that day shall be cut off from his people. 15 Six days you shall work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of sacred rest for you, holy to the Lord. Whoever works on the Sabbath shall be put to death. 16 The children of Israel shall observe the Sabbath, celebrating the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. 17 This is a perpetual sign between me and the children of Israel, for the Lord made the heavens and the earth in six days, but on the seventh he ceased and rested.’ ”
18 Moses Receives the Tablets of the Law. When the Lord had finished speaking with Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tablets of Testimony, the stone tablets, written with the finger of God.
Chapter 25
Paul’s Third Trial—before Festus.[a] 1 Three days after his arrival in the province, Festus went up from Caesarea to Jerusalem, 2 where the chief priests and the leaders of the Jews informed him about Paul. They urged him 3 as a favor to send for Paul to bring him to Jerusalem. They were going to kill him in an ambush along the way.
4 Festus replied that Paul was in custody in Caesarea, and that he himself would be returning there shortly. 5 He said, “Let your authorities come down with me, and if this man has done something improper, they can bring a charge against him.”
6 After staying with them for eight to ten days, Festus went down to Caesarea. On the next day, he took his seat on the tribunal and ordered Paul to be summoned. 7 When he appeared, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem surrounded him, and they leveled many serious charges against him that they were unable to prove.
8 Paul said in his defense, “I have committed no offense against the Jewish Law, or against the temple, or against the Emperor.” 9 Festus, anxious to ingratiate himself with the Jews, asked Paul, “Do you wish to go up to Jerusalem and stand trial there before me on these charges?”
10 Paul replied, “I am standing before the tribunal of Caesar, and this is where I should be tried. I have committed no crime against the Jews, as you yourself well know. 11 If I am guilty of any capital crime, I do not ask to be spared death. However, if there is no substance to the charges they are bringing against me, then no one has the right to turn me over to them. I appeal to Caesar.”[b] 12 Then, after Festus had conferred with his advisors, he said, “You have appealed to Caesar. To Caesar you shall go.”
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