Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

130 O Lord, from the depths of despair I cry for your help: ² “Hear me! Answer! Help me!”

^3-4 Lord, if you keep in mind our sins, then who can ever get an answer to his prayers? But you forgive! What an awesome thing this is! ⁵ That is why I wait expectantly, trusting God to help, for he has promised. ⁶ I long for him more than sentinels long for the dawn.

⁷ O Israel, hope in the Lord; for he is loving and kind and comes to us with armloads of salvation. ⁸ He himself shall ransom Israel from her slavery to sin.

⁴ Here is a summary of the events in the creation of the heavens and earth when the Lord God made them.

⁵ There were no plants or grain sprouting up across the earth at first, for the Lord God hadn’t sent any rain; nor was there anyone to farm the soil. ⁶ (However, water welled up from the ground at certain places and flowed across the land.)

⁷ The time came when the Lord God formed a man’s body from the dust of the ground^[a] and breathed into it the breath of life. And man became a living person.

⁸ Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, to the east, and placed in the garden the man he had formed. ⁹ The Lord God planted all sorts of beautiful trees there in the garden, trees producing the choicest of fruit. At the center of the garden he placed the Tree of Life, and also the Tree of Conscience, giving knowledge of Good and Bad. ¹⁰ A river from the land of Eden flowed through the garden to water it; afterwards the river divided into four branches. ^11-12 One of these was named the Pishon; it winds across the entire length of the land of Havilah,^[b] where nuggets of pure gold are found, also beautiful bdellium and even lapis lazuli. ¹³ The second branch is called the Gihon, crossing the entire length of the land of Cush. ¹⁴ The third branch is the Tigris, which flows to the east of the city of Asher. And the fourth is the Euphrates.

⁴ One day he gave this illustration to a large crowd that was gathering to hear him—while many others were still on the way, coming from other towns.

⁵ “A farmer went out to his field to sow grain. As he scattered the seed on the ground, some of it fell on a footpath and was trampled on; and the birds came and ate it as it lay exposed. ⁶ Other seed fell on shallow soil with rock beneath. This seed began to grow, but soon withered and died for lack of moisture. ⁷ Other seed landed in thistle patches, and the young grain stalks were soon choked out. ⁸ Still other fell on fertile soil; this seed grew and produced a crop one hundred times as large as he had planted.” (As he was giving this illustration he said, “If anyone has listening ears, use them now!”)

⁹ His apostles asked him what the story meant.

¹⁰ He replied, “God has granted you to know the meaning of these parables, for they tell a great deal about the Kingdom of God. But these crowds hear the words and do not understand, just as the ancient prophets predicted.

¹¹ “This is its meaning: The seed is God’s message to men. ¹² The hard path where some seed fell represents the hard hearts of those who hear the words of God, but then the devil comes and steals the words away and prevents people from believing and being saved. ¹³ The stony ground represents those who enjoy listening to sermons, but somehow the message never really gets through to them and doesn’t take root and grow. They know the message is true, and sort of believe for a while; but when the hot winds of persecution blow, they lose interest. ¹⁴ The seed among the thorns represents those who listen and believe God’s words but whose faith afterwards is choked out by worry and riches and the responsibilities and pleasures of life. And so they are never able to help anyone else to believe the Good News.

¹⁵ “But the good soil represents honest, good-hearted people. They listen to God’s words and cling to them and steadily spread them to others who also soon believe.”