Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
The Lord—Our Helper
146 Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, O my soul! 2 I will praise the Lord as long as I live. I will sing praises to my God as long as I live. 3 Do not put your trust in princes, in a son of a man, who cannot save us. 4 When his spirit leaves, he returns to the earth. His thoughts end on that day. 5 Happy is he whose help is the God of Jacob, and whose hope is in the Lord his God. 6 The Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them. He is faithful forever. 7 He helps those who have a bad power over them. He gives food to the hungry. And He sets those in prison free.
8 The Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord raises up those who are brought down. The Lord loves those who are right and good. 9 The Lord keeps the strangers safe. He takes care of the children who have no father and the woman whose husband has died. But He destroys the way of the sinful. 10 The Lord will rule forever. Your God, O Zion, will rule over all people for all time. Praise the Lord!
The Seventh Year
15 “At the end of every seven years you must do away with debts that are owed. 2 This is the way you are to do it: Every man who has loaned money must forget the debt. He cannot make his neighbor and his brother pay it because the Lord has said that all should be forgotten. 3 You may make a stranger pay what he owes, but not your brother. 4 Yet there will be no poor among you for the Lord will be sure to bring good to you in the land the Lord your God is giving you for your own. 5 But you must listen and obey the voice of the Lord your God. Be careful to do all the Law which I am telling you today. 6 The Lord your God will bring good to you as He has promised. You will let many nations use what belongs to you but you will not use what belongs to them. You will rule over many nations but they will not rule over you.
7 “In any of the towns in your land the Lord your God is giving you, if there is anyone poor among you, do not let your heart be hard and not be willing to help him. 8 Be free to give to him. Let him use what is yours of anything he needs. 9 Be careful that there is no sinful thought in your heart, saying, ‘It is almost the seventh year, the time to do away with the debt owed to me,’ so you look on your brother with hate and give him nothing. Then he may cry to the Lord against you and you may be guilty of sin. 10 Give much to him, without being sorry that you do. Because the Lord your God will bring good to you for this, in all your work and in everything you do. 11 The poor will always be in the land. So I tell you to be free in giving to your brother, to those in need, and to the poor in your land.
15 Christ is the One Who gave us this New Way of Worship. All those who have been called by God may receive life that lasts forever just as He promised them. Christ bought us with His blood when He died for us. This made us free from our sins which we did under the Old Way of Worship.
16 When a man wants to give his money to someone after he dies, he writes it all down on paper. But that paper is worth nothing until the man is dead. 17 That piece of paper means nothing as long as he is alive. It is good only when he dies. 18 The Old Way of Worship had to have a death to make it good. The blood of an animal was used. 19 Moses told the people all the things they had to obey in the Law. Then he took the blood of animals together with water and put it on the Book of the Law and on all the people. He used special branches and red wool as he put it on them. 20 Moses said, “This is the blood of the Way of Worship which God said you must obey.” (A) 21 In the same way, Moses put the blood on the tent and on all the things used in worship. 22 The Law says that almost everything is made clean by blood. Sins are not forgiven unless blood is given.
One Perfect Gift
23 The tent to worship in and the things inside to worship with were like the things in heaven. They were made clean by putting blood on them. But the things in heaven were made clean by a much better gift of worship. 24 For Christ did not go into the Holiest Place of All that was made by men, even if it was like the true one in heaven. He went to heaven itself and He is before God for us.
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