Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

A song of David written during the time he was running from his son Absalom.

¹² “Look at them! They kill people to build their city and do wicked things to make their walled city strong. ¹³ But the Lord All-Powerful has decided that a fire will destroy everything that those people worked to build. All their work will be for nothing. ¹⁴ Then people everywhere will know about the Glory of the Lord. This news will spread just as water spreads out into the sea. ¹⁵ It will be very bad for those who become angry and make other people suffer. Like an angry drunk, they knock others to the ground and strip them naked, just to see their naked bodies.^[a]

¹⁶ “But they will know the Lord’s anger. It will be like a cup of poison in the Lord’s right hand. They will taste that anger, and then they will fall to the ground like drunks.

“Evil ruler, you will drink from that cup. You will get shame, not honor. ¹⁷ You hurt many people in Lebanon and stole many animals there. So you will be afraid because of the people who died and because of the bad things you did to that country. You will be afraid because of what you did to those cities and to the people who lived there.”

The Message About Idols

¹⁸ Their false god will not help them, because it is only a statue that someone covered with metal. It is only a statue, so whoever made it cannot expect it to help. That statue cannot even speak! ¹⁹ Look at them! They speak to a wooden statue and tell it, “Get up! Rescue me.” They talk to a stone that cannot speak and say, “Wake up!” Don’t you know those things cannot help you? That statue may be covered with gold and silver, but there is no life in it.

²⁰ But the Lord is in his holy temple, so the whole earth should be silent in his presence and show him respect.

Jesus Says a Fig Tree Will Die^(A)

¹² The next day, Jesus was leaving Bethany. He was hungry. ¹³ He saw a fig tree with leaves. So he went to the tree to see if it had any figs growing on it. But he found no figs on the tree. There were only leaves, because it was not the right time for figs to grow. ¹⁴ So Jesus said to the tree, “People will never eat fruit from you again.” His followers heard him say this.

Jesus Shows the Power of Faith^(A)

²⁰ The next morning Jesus was walking with his followers. They saw the fig tree that he spoke to the day before. The tree was dry and dead, even the roots. ²¹ Peter remembered the tree and said to Jesus, “Teacher, look! Yesterday, you told that fig tree to die. Now it is dry and dead!”

²² Jesus answered, “Have faith in God. ²³ The truth is, you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, mountain, fall into the sea.’ And if you have no doubts in your mind and believe that what you say will happen, then God will do it for you. ²⁴ So I tell you to ask for what you want in prayer. And if you believe that you have received those things, then they will be yours.