Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 98

A psalm.

10 At that moment I saw a form of a throne in the dome above the heads of the winged creatures. It appeared above them, and it looked like lapis lazuli. ² He said to the man clothed in linen: Go in between the wheels under the winged creatures.^[a] Fill your hands with fiery coals from between the winged creatures, and scatter them over the city. As I watched, he went in. ³ Now the winged creatures were standing to the right of the temple when the man went in, and the cloud filled the inner courtyard. ⁴ Then the Lord’s glory rose from above the winged creatures^[b] and moved toward the temple’s threshold. The temple was filled with the cloud, and the courtyard was filled with the brightness of the Lord’s glory. ⁵ The sound of the winged creatures’ wings could be heard as far as the outer courtyard. It was like the sound of God Almighty^[c] when he speaks. ⁶ When he instructed the man clothed in linen to take fire from between the winged creatures and their wheels, the man went and stood next to the wheel. ⁷ Then one of the winged creatures stretched a hand between the winged creatures into the fire that was between them, and he drew out some of it and set it in the palm of the one clothed in linen. He took it and went out. ⁸ It appeared that the winged creatures had the form of a human hand under their wings.

⁹ Suddenly, I saw four wheels next to the winged creatures. There was a wheel next to each winged creature, and the appearance of the wheels was like sparkling topaz. ¹⁰ It appeared that there was one shape for all four of them, as if one wheel were inside another. ¹¹ When they moved in any of the four directions, they moved without swerving. Whichever way the leading one faced, they moved in that direction without swerving. ¹² Their whole body—backs, hands, and wings—as well as their wheels, all four of them, were covered with eyes all around. ¹³ It was these wheels that were called “the wheels” in my hearing. ¹⁴ Each winged creature had four faces. The first face was that of a winged creature, the second face was that of a human being, the third that of a lion, and the fourth that of an eagle. ¹⁵ The winged creatures rose up, the same creatures that I had seen at the Chebar River. ¹⁶ When the winged creatures moved, the wheels moved beside them. When the winged creatures lifted their wings to ascend above the earth, the wheels remained beside them without swerving. ¹⁷ When they stood still, the wheels stood still; when they rose up, they rose up with them, because the spirit^[d] of the living creatures was in them. ¹⁸ Then the Lord’s glory went out from above the temple’s threshold and it stood over the winged creatures. ¹⁹ While I watched, the winged creatures raised their wings and rose from the ground to leave, with their wheels beside them. They stopped at the entrance to the east gate of the temple, and the glory of Israel’s God was up above them.

The kingdom is coming

²⁰ Pharisees asked Jesus when God’s kingdom was coming. He replied, “God’s kingdom isn’t coming with signs that are easily noticed. ²¹ Nor will people say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ Don’t you see? God’s kingdom is already among you.”

²² Then Jesus said to the disciples, “The time will come when you will long to see one of the days of the Human One,^[a] and you won’t see it. ²³ People will say to you, ‘Look there!’ or ‘Look here!’ Don’t leave or go chasing after them. ²⁴ The Human One^[b] will appear on his day in the same way that a flash of lightning lights up the sky from one end to the other. ²⁵ However, first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.

²⁶ “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be during the days of the Human One.^{[c] 27} People were eating, drinking, marrying, and being given in marriage until the day Noah entered the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all. ²⁸ Likewise in the days of Lot, people were eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, and building. ²⁹ But on the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. ³⁰  That’s the way it will be on the day the Human One^[d] is revealed. ³¹ On that day, those on the roof, whose possessions are in the house, shouldn’t come down to grab them. Likewise, those in the field shouldn’t turn back. ³² Remember Lot’s wife! ³³ Whoever tries to preserve their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life will preserve it. ³⁴ I tell you, on that night two people will be in the same bed: one will be taken and the other left. ³⁵ Two women will be grinding grain together: one will be taken and the other left.”^[e]

³⁷ The disciples asked, “Where, Lord?”

Jesus said, “The vultures gather wherever there’s a dead body.”