Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 106[a]
Israel’s Confession of Sin and God’s Mercy
1 Alleluia.
Give thanks[b] to the Lord, for he is good;
his kindness endures forever.
2 Who can possibly recount the mighty acts of the Lord
and fully proclaim his praise?[c]
3 Blessed[d] are those who do what is right
and practice justice constantly.
4 Remember me, O Lord, out of the love you have for your people;
come to me with your salvation.[e]
5 Let me delight in the success of your chosen ones,
share in the joy of your nation,
and glory in your heritage.
6 [f]Like our ancestors, we[g] have sinned;
we have gone astray and done evil.
13 [a]But they soon forgot what he had done
and had no confidence in his plan.
14 In the wilderness they yielded to their cravings;
in the wasteland they put God to the test.
15 He gave them everything they wanted
but struck them with a consuming disease.
16 [b]In the camp they grew envious of Moses
and of Aaron, who was consecrated to the Lord.
17 The earth parted and swallowed Dathan
and closed over the company of Abiram.
18 Fire blazed all through them,
and the wicked were consumed in flames.
19 [c]They constructed a calf at Horeb
and worshiped this molten image.
20 They exchanged their Glory[d]
for an image of a bull that eats grass.
21 They forgot the God who had saved them,
who had done great things in Egypt,
22 wonders in the land of Ham,[e]
and awesome deeds at the Red Sea.
23 He was contemplating their destruction,
but Moses, his chosen one,
stood in the breach[f] before him
to keep his wrath from destroying them.
21 The Lord was angry with me because of you and he swore that I would not cross over the Jordan nor enter the fertile land that the Lord, your God, has given to you as an inheritance. 22 I must die in this land; I will not cross over the Jordan. But you will cross over and take possession of this fertile land. 23 Therefore, keep guard over yourselves, lest you forget the covenant that the Lord, your God, has made with you and you make an idol in the form of anything that the Lord, your God, has prohibited. 24 The Lord, your God, is a consuming fire and a jealous God.
25 When you have borne children and grandchildren and have dwelt in the land for a long time, if you then become corrupt and make any kind of idol, doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord, your God, and provoking him to anger, 26 I will call upon the heavens and the earth to give witness against you on that day so that you might be utterly obliterated from the land that you are crossing over the Jordan to possess. You will not remain there long, but you will be totally wiped out.
27 The Lord will scatter you among the nations and only a few of you will survive among the foreign peoples where the Lord has led you. 28 There you will serve gods, the work of human hands, made of wood and stone, which cannot see nor hear nor eat nor smell.
The Lord Is God.29 But if you seek the Lord, your God, and you strive with all your heart and your soul, you will find him there. 30 When you are in distress and all of these things happen to you in the future, you are to return to the Lord,[a] your God, and obey his voice, 31 and he will not abandon you, nor destroy you nor forget the covenant that he made with your fathers, confirming it to them by oath, for the Lord, your God, is a merciful God.
32 Ask now about the days of old, the former times. From the day that God created humans upon the earth, inquire from one end of the heavens to the other, has anything so great ever happened or has anything like it been heard of? 33 Has any other people heard the voice of God speak from the midst of the flame, as you heard, and still live? 34 Did God ever go and lead one nation from the midst of another nation by trials, signs, wonders, and battle, with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great and wondrous deeds, all things that the Lord, your God, did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?
35 You were shown these things so that you might come to know that the Lord is God; there is no other besides him. 36 He had you hear his voice from out of the heavens so that he might instruct you. He showed you his great fire upon the earth so that you might hear his voice from the midst of the flames. 37 It was because he loved your fathers and had chosen their descendants after them that he brought you out of Egypt before him by his great strength. 38 He drove out greater and more powerful nations before you so that he might bring you into their land to give it to you as an inheritance, just as it is today.
39 So today acknowledge it and take it to heart that the Lord is God in the heavens above and on the earth below. There is no other. 40 You shall obey his statutes and the commandments that I give you today, so that all may go well with you and your children after you, and that you may live long in the land that the Lord, your God, has given you for all time.
9 Then he said to them, “How cleverly you have set aside the commandment of God to preserve your own tradition! 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and ‘Whoever curses father or mother will be put to death.’ 11 But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or mother: “Anything I might have used for your support is Corban” ’[a] (that is, dedicated to God), 12 then he is forbidden by you from that very moment to do anything for his father or mother. 13 You nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many other things just like that.”
14 Clean and Unclean.[b] Then he called the people to him and said to them: “Listen to me, all of you, and understand. 15 There is nothing that goes into a person from outside that can defile him. The things that come out of a person are what defile him. [ 16 If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear!]”[c]
17 When he had gone into the house, away from the crowds, his disciples questioned him about the parable. 18 He said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not realize that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, 19 since it enters not into the heart but into the stomach and is discharged into the sewer?” Thus, he pronounced all foods clean.
20 Then he went on, “It is what comes out of a person that defiles. 21 For from within, from the human heart, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, 22 adultery, avarice, malice, deceit, indecency, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly. 23 All these evils come from within, and they defile a person.”
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