Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 130[a]
Prayer for Pardon and Peace
1 A song of ascents.
Out of the depths[b] I cry to you, O Lord;
2 O Lord, hear my voice.
Let your ears be attentive
to my cries of supplication.[c]
3 If you, O Lord, kept a record of our sins,
O Lord, who could stand[d] upright?
4 But with you there is forgiveness
so that you may be revered.[e]
5 I wait for the Lord[f] in anxious expectation;
I place my hope in his word.
6 My soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen wait for the dawn.
More than watchmen wait for the dawn[g]
7 [h]let Israel wait for the Lord.
For with the Lord there is kindness,
as well as plenteous redemption.
8 He alone will redeem Israel
from all its sins.
Chapter 29
Reforms of Hezekiah.[a] 1 Hezekiah was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem for twenty-nine years. His mother was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah. 2 He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his ancestor David had done.
3 In the first month of the first year of his reign, he opened the doors of the temple of the Lord and repaired them. 4 Next he brought in the priests and the Levites and assembled them in the square on the east. 5 Then he said to them: “Listen to me, you Levites. Sanctify yourselves first. Then sanctify the house of the Lord, the God of your ancestors, and remove the filth from the sanctuary. 6 For our ancestors were unfaithful and did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, our God. They abandoned him, turned away their faces from him, and turned their backs on him. 7 They also shut the doors of the vestibule and extinguished the lamps, and they ceased to burn incense or present any burnt offerings in the sanctuary to the God of Israel.
8 “Therefore, the anger of the Lord fell upon Judah and Jerusalem, and he has made them an object of terror, astonishment, and derision, as you can see with your own eyes. 9 Our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and daughters and our wives have been taken captive as a result. 10 Now I am determined to make a covenant with the God of Israel, in the hope that his fierce anger may turn away from us. 11 Therefore, my sons, do not be negligent any longer, for the Lord has chosen you to sit in his presence and to serve him, to be his ministers, and to offer incense before him.”
12 The Levites immediately set to work: from the sons of the Kohathites: Mahath, son of Amasai, and Joel, son of Azariah; from the sons of Merari: Kish, son of Abdi, and Azariah, son of Jehallel; from the Gershonites: Joah, son of Zimmah, and Eden, son of Joah; 13 from the sons of Elizaphan: Shimri and Jeuel; from the sons of Asaph: Zechariah and Mattaniah; 14 from the sons of Heman: Jehuel and Shimei; from the sons of Jeduthun: Shemaiah and Uzziel. 15 They gathered their brothers together and sanctified themselves; then, in obedience to the king’s order in accordance with the Lord’s command, they proceeded to purify the house of the Lord.
16 The priests entered the inner part of the Lord’s house to cleanse it, and they brought all the unclean things that they found in the temple of the Lord and deposited them in the court of the house of the Lord, where the Levites collected them and carried them out to the Kidron Valley. 17 They began the rites of sanctification on the first day of the first month, and on the eighth day of the month they had arrived at the vestibule of the Lord. Then for eight days they sanctified the Lord’s house, and on the sixteenth day of the first month they had finished.
18 Their work having been completed, they went in to King Hezekiah and said: “We have cleansed the entire house of the Lord, the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the table for setting out the consecrated bread with all its utensils. 19 We have restored and consecrated all the articles that King Ahaz had cast aside during his reign because of his infidelity. They are now in place before the altar of the Lord.”
Chapter 3
The Christian Experience. 1 You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly presented as crucified. 2 I only wish you to tell me this: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the Law or by believing what you heard?
3 How can you be so foolish? After having begun with the Spirit, are you now ending in the flesh? 4 Is everything you have suffered to result in absolutely nothing—if indeed it was for nothing? 5 Does God give you the Spirit and work mighty deeds among you because you have kept the Law or because you believed what you have heard?
The Blessing of Abraham.[a] 6 Thus Abraham believed in God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. 7 You can be assured that those who have faith are children of Abraham. 8 Because Scripture foresaw[b] that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, it declared the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you all the nations will be blessed.” 9 For this reason, those who have faith share the blessing with Abraham, the faithful one.
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