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.
11 I am the Lord, your God,
who brought you up from the land of Egypt;
open your mouth[h] wide so that I may fill it.’
12 “But my people did not listen to my voice;
Israel refused to obey me.[i]
13 So I abandoned them to their stubborn hearts[j]
and let them follow their own devices.
14 [k]“If only my people would listen to me,
if only Israel would walk in my ways,[l]
15 I would quickly subdue their enemies
and raise my hand[m] against their foes.
16 “Then those who hate the Lord[n] would tremble before him,
for their doom would last forever.
17 But Israel he would feed with the finest of wheat[o]
and fill them with honey from the rock.”
Stories of Elijah and Ahab
Chapter 17
Elijah Predicts a Drought.[a] 1 Now Elijah the Tishbite from Tishbe in Gilead said to Ahab, “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives before whom I stand, there shall be no dew or rain these years except at my word.”
2 Then the word of the Lord came to him saying, 3 “Go forth from here and go eastward to the Wadi Kerith near the Jordan and hide there. 4 You can drink from the brook there, and I have commanded the ravens there to feed you.” 5 So he went and did what the Lord had said, and he dwelt in the Wadi Kerith near the Jordan. 6 The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the wadi.
7 After some time the wadi dried up because there had been no rain in the land. 8 The word of the Lord came to him, saying, 9 “Arise and go to Zarephath[b] which belongs to Sidon and live there. I have commanded a woman there who is a widow to take care of you.”
10 So he arose and went to Zarephath. When he arrived at the gate to the city, there was a woman there who was a widow. She was gathering sticks, and he called out to her and said, “Bring me a little water in a jar so that I can have something to drink.”
11 As she went to get it for him, he called out to her and said, “Please also bring me a bit of bread in your hand.” 12 But she said to him, “As the Lord, your God, lives, I do not have any bread. I only have a handful of flour in a jar and a little bit of oil in a jug. I am gathering two sticks so that I can prepare it for myself and my son so that we can eat it and die.”
13 Elijah said to her, “Do not be afraid. Go and do what you have said, but first make a small piece of bread and bring it to me. Afterwards, you can make some for yourself and your son. 14 For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘The jar of flour will not be used up, the jug of oil will not go dry, up until the day that the Lord sends rain upon the earth.’ ”
15 She went and did what Elijah had told her to do. She, and he, and her household ate for a long time. 16 The jar of flour was not used up, and the jug of oil did not go dry, just as the word of the Lord had foretold through Elijah.
Chapter 5
1 Hence, be imitators of God, as beloved children, 2 and walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a sacrificial offering whose fragrance is pleasing to God.
Sins To Avoid. 3 Indeed, fornication and impurity of any kind, as well as greed, should not even be mentioned among you. Such talk is not fitting for saints. 4 You should never engage in any obscene or foolish or suggestive conversation. All this is completely out of place. Instead, you should rather be engaged in offering thanks to God.
5 You can be absolutely certain that no immoral or impure person or one who is greedy—that is, an idolater—will have any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
6 Let no one deceive you with worthless arguments. These are the very things that bring down the wrath of God on those who are disobedient. 7 Do not associate with them.
Christians Are Children of Light. 8 Once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light, 9 for light produces all goodness and righteousness and truth. 10 Discern what the Lord finds pleasing. 11 Take no part in the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather seek to expose them.
12 For it is shameful even to speak of what deeds people do in secret. 13 However, everything that is exposed by the light is made visible, 14 and whatever is made visible is light. Therefore, it is said,[a]
“Awake, O sleeper!
Rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”
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