Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

141 Quick, Lord, answer me—for I have prayed. Listen when I cry to you for help! ² Regard my prayer as my evening sacrifice and as incense wafting up to you.

³ Help me, Lord, to keep my mouth shut and my lips sealed. ⁴ Take away my lust for evil things; don’t let me want to be with sinners, doing what they do, sharing their delicacies. ⁵ Let the godly smite me! It will be a kindness! If they reprove me, it is medicine! Don’t let me refuse it. But I am in constant prayer against the wicked and their deeds. ^6-7 When their leaders are condemned, and their bones are strewn across the ground,^[a] then these men will finally listen to me and know that I am trying to help them.

⁸ I look to you for help, O Lord God. You are my refuge. Don’t let them slay me. ⁹ Keep me out of their traps. ¹⁰ Let them fall into their own snares, while I escape.

43 Afterward he brought me out again to the passageway through the outer wall leading to the east. ² And suddenly the glory of the God of Israel appeared from the east. The sound of his coming was like the roar of rushing waters, and the whole landscape lighted up with his glory. ³ It was just as I had seen it in the other visions, first by the Chebar Canal, and then later at Jerusalem^[a] when he came to destroy the city. And I fell down before him with my face in the dust. ⁴ And the glory of the Lord came into the Temple through the eastern passageway.

⁵ Then the Spirit took me up and brought me into the inner court; and the glory of the Lord filled the Temple. ⁶ And I heard the Lord speaking to me from within the Temple (the man who had been measuring was still standing beside me).

⁷ And the Lord said to me:

“Son of dust, this is the place of my throne and my footstool, where I shall remain, living among the people of Israel forever. They and their kings will not defile my holy name any longer through the adulterous worship of other gods or by worshiping the totem poles erected by their kings. ⁸ They built their idol temples beside mine, with only a wall between, and worshiped their idols. Because they sullied my holy name by such wickedness, I consumed them in my anger. ⁹ Now let them put away their idols and the totem poles^[b] erected by their kings, and I will live among them forever.

¹⁰ “Son of dust, describe the Temple I have shown you to the people of Israel. Tell them its appearance and its plan so they will be ashamed of all their sins. ¹¹ And if they are truly ashamed of what they have done, then explain to them the details of its construction—its doors and entrances—and everything about it. Write out all the directions and the rules for them to keep. ¹² And this is the basic law of the Temple: Holiness! The entire top of the hill where the Temple is built is holy. Yes, this is the primary law concerning it.

³⁷ “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones all those God sends to her! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn’t let me. ³⁸ And now your house is left to you, desolate. ³⁹ For I tell you this, you will never see me again until you are ready to welcome the one sent to you from God.”^[a]

24 As Jesus was leaving the Temple grounds, his disciples came along and wanted to take him on a tour of the various Temple buildings.

² But he told them, “All these buildings will be knocked down, with not one stone left on top of another!”

³ “When will this happen?” the disciples asked him later, as he sat on the slopes of the Mount of Olives. “What events will signal your return and the end of the world?”^[b]

⁴ Jesus told them, “Don’t let anyone fool you. ⁵ For many will come claiming to be the Messiah and will lead many astray. ⁶ When you hear of wars beginning, this does not signal my return; these must come, but the end is not yet. ⁷ The nations and kingdoms of the earth will rise against each other, and there will be famines and earthquakes in many places. ⁸ But all this will be only the beginning of the horrors to come.

⁹ “Then you will be tortured and killed and hated all over the world because you are mine, ¹⁰ and many of you shall fall back into sin and betray and hate each other. ¹¹ And many false prophets will appear and lead many astray. ¹² Sin will be rampant everywhere and will cool the love of many. ¹³ But those enduring to the end shall be saved.

¹⁴ “And the Good News about the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, so that all nations will hear it, and then, finally, the end will come.