Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
The Lord's Servant
49 Listen to me, you islands.
Listen carefully, you people who live far away.
The Lord called me to serve him
before I was born.
Before my mother gave birth,
he used my name to speak to me.
2 The message that he gave me to speak
was like a sharp sword.
He kept me safe in his hand.
He made me like a sharp arrow
that he keeps safe and ready to use.
3 He said to me, ‘You are my servant, Israel.
Because of you, I will cause people to know that I am great.’
4 I said, ‘My work has been useless.
I have worked hard with no results.’
But the Lord will do what is right for me.
He will give me what I deserve for my work.
5 The Lord chose me to be his servant, even before I was born. He chose me to bring Jacob's descendants back to himself. He chose me to bring Israel's people together to serve him. As a result, the Lord will honour me. He is the one who makes me strong. The Lord, my God, says,
6 ‘As my servant, I have a greater job for you to do.
It will not only be to make Jacob's tribes strong again.
It will not only be to bring back Israel's people that I have kept safe.
It will also be your job
to bring light to the other nations.
You will show people all over the world
that I have the power to save them.’
7 The Lord is Israel's Redeemer, their Holy God. Nations refuse to accept his servant. Their people hate him and their rulers have made him their slave. The Lord says to his servant,
‘Kings will see you and they will rise up to respect you.
Princes will bend down low in front of you.
They will see that the Lord is faithful.
He is Israel's Holy God,
who has chosen you to serve him.’
David wrote this song for the music leader.
God has helped me[a]
40 I was patient while I waited for the Lord to help me.
He turned towards me,
and he heard me when I called to him.
2 He lifted me out of the deep hole of danger.
He picked me up out of the mud.
He put my feet on a rock.
Then I could walk and not slip.
3 He gave me a new song to sing.
It was a song to praise our God.
Many people will see what God has done to help me.
Then they will respect and obey him.
Yes, they will trust in the Lord.
4 If anyone trusts in the Lord
he blesses them!
They do not expect proud people to help them.
They do not join with those people who worship false gods.
5 Lord, my God, you have done many great things.
You have done so many things for us
that we cannot count them!
There is nobody else like you!
I want to talk about the things that you have done,
but there are too many things to speak about!
6 You do not really want sacrifices and offerings.
I understand that!
You do not ask for burnt offerings
or sin offerings.
7 Then I said, ‘Here I am, my God!
The message that is written in the book
tells me what I must do.[b]
8 I want to do what pleases you.
Your law is always in my thoughts.’
9 In the great meeting of your people,
I have told them about your justice.
I cannot keep quiet!
You know that this is true, Lord.
10 I have not hidden the good news about your justice.
I have told everyone that they can trust you,
and that you have the power to save.
I tell the great meeting of your people about your faithful love.
11 You, Lord, will continue to be kind to me.
Please continue to keep me safe,
because of your faithful love.
Paul says ‘Hello’
1 This letter is from me, Paul. God chose me to be an apostle of Christ Jesus. That is what he wanted. Our Christian friend Sosthenes is with me here as I write to you.
2 I am sending this letter to you, the people of God's church in Corinth. God has made you clean because you belong to Christ Jesus. He has chosen you to be his special people. So you join together with all people everywhere who worship our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is their Lord, as he is our Lord.
3 I pray that God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, will continue to help you. I pray that they will give you peace in your minds.
Paul thanks God
4 I always thank God because of you. I thank him because he has been very kind to you. He has helped you like that because you belong to Christ Jesus. 5 As a result, God has given you all the things that you need. You are able to speak everything that he wants you to speak. You are able to understand everything that he wants you to know. 6 In that way, God has shown you that the message we told you about Christ is true. 7 As a result, God has given you every spiritual gift that you need. God has blessed you with those gifts as you wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to return. 8 God will also keep you safe and strong until the end. Then, on the day when our Lord Jesus Christ returns, you will not be guilty of anything wrong. 9 God always does what he has promised to do. He has chosen you to be friends with his Son, Jesus Christ, who is our Lord.
29 The next day, John saw Jesus, who was coming towards him. John said, ‘Look! Here is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of people in the world.[a] 30 This is the man that I told you about. I told you, “He comes after me, but he is greater than I am. He was already there before I was born.” 31 I did not know him. But I had to show Israel's people who he was. That is why I am baptizing people with water.’
32 Then John told them, ‘I saw God's Spirit come down from heaven. He came down like a dove and he stayed on Jesus. 33 I would not have known who Jesus was. But God had sent me to baptize people with water. And God told me, “You will see the Spirit come down. He will stay on someone. That is the person who will baptize people with my Holy Spirit.” 34 Now I have seen this. So I can tell you that this is God's Son.’
Jesus' first disciples
35 John was standing there again the next day, with two of his disciples. 36 He saw Jesus, who was walking past them. John said, ‘Look! Here is the Lamb of God.’ 37 When the two disciples heard this, they followed Jesus. 38 Then Jesus turned round. He saw that they were following him. He asked them, ‘What do you want?’ They said, ‘Rabbi (which means “Teacher”), where are you staying?’ 39 Jesus replied, ‘Come with me and you will see.’ So they went with him. They saw where he was staying. It was about four o'clock in the afternoon. And they stayed with him that day.
40 Andrew was one of the two disciples who had followed Jesus. They had heard what John had said about Jesus. Andrew was Simon Peter's brother. 41 The first thing that Andrew did was to find his brother, Simon. Andrew said to Simon, ‘We have found the Messiah.’ (‘Messiah’ and ‘Christ’ mean the same.) 42 Then he brought Simon to Jesus. Jesus looked at Simon and he said, ‘You are Simon, John's son. Your name will be Cephas.’ This name is the same as Peter, which means ‘rock’.
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