Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

A song to sing as we climb.

A happy family

²² So you must say to Israel's people, “This is what the Almighty Lord says: I will help you, Israel's people. But it is not because you deserve it. I will do it so that people give honour to my holy name. You brought me shame among the nations where you went. ²³ Now I will show them that my name is great and holy. You brought shame to my name. But I will help you so that the nations can see that I am great. When I do that, they will know that I am the Lord. That is what I, the Almighty Lord, say.

²⁴ I will take you out from the nations and all the foreign countries where you have been living. I will bring you back to your own land. ²⁵ You will become pure, as if I splash you with clean water. I will remove all the things that make you unclean. I will take away the idols that you worship. ²⁶ I will give you new thoughts. I will put a new spirit in you. You will no longer refuse to obey me. Instead, you will want to please me. ²⁷ I will put my Spirit in you, so that you obey my commands. You will be careful to obey my laws.

²⁸ At that time, you will live in the land that I gave to your ancestors. You will be my people and I will be your God. ²⁹ I will save you from all the things that made you unclean. I will cause the land to give you plenty of grain to eat. You will no longer have any famines. ³⁰ The trees will provide plenty of fruit. And crops will grow well in the fields. Other nations will no longer make you feel ashamed because you have no food to eat. ³¹ Then you will remember the evil way that you lived. You will remember the bad things that you did. You will be ashamed of yourselves because of the sins and the disgusting things that you did. ³² I want you to know that I am not doing this because you deserve it. You should be ashamed, Israel's people. You should feel sorry for the things that you have done. That is what the Almighty Lord says.

⁵³ [Then everyone went to his own home.]^[a]

8 ^[b][But Jesus went to the hill which is called the Mount of Olives.

The Pharisees bring a woman to Jesus

² Early the next morning, Jesus returned to the temple in Jerusalem. All the people came to him. He sat down and he began to teach them. ³ The Pharisees and the teachers of God's Law brought a woman to him. They had found her with another man. She was having sex with a man who was not her husband. They made her stand in front of all the people there. ⁴ They said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, we found this woman. She was having sex with a man who was not her husband. ⁵ In God's Law Moses says that we should throw stones at this kind of woman, to kill her. What do you say about this?’ ⁶ They asked this question for a reason. They wanted Jesus to say something wrong, so that they could punish him. But Jesus bent himself down. He started to write on the ground with his finger.

⁷ The Pharisees and the teachers of God's Law continued to ask Jesus questions. So he stood up and he said to them, ‘Any person among you who is not guilty of any sin may throw the first stone to kill her.’ ⁸ Then he bent himself down again and he wrote on the ground. ⁹ When they heard what Jesus said, the people began to go away. They went one by one. The older people went first. After some time, only Jesus remained with the woman. She was still standing there. ¹⁰ Jesus stood up. He said to her, ‘Woman, where are they? Is there nobody still here who wants to punish you?’ ¹¹ She said, ‘There is nobody, sir.’ So Jesus said, ‘I also do not want to punish you. Go away now and change the way you live. Do not do wrong things again.’]