Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
A song for going up to the Temple.
134 Praise the Lord, all his servants
who serve in the Temple at night.
2 Lift your hands toward the Temple,
and praise the Lord.
3 May the Lord, who made heaven and earth,
bless you from Zion.
The Three Visitors
18 Later, the Lord again appeared to Abraham near the oak trees of Mamre. It was the hottest part of the day, and Abraham was sitting at the door of his tent. 2 He looked up and saw three men standing in front of him. When he saw the men, he ran to them and bowed before them. 3 Abraham said, “Sirs,[a] please stay a while with me, your servant. 4 I will bring some water to wash your feet. You can rest under the trees. 5 I will get some food for you, and you can eat as much as you want. Then you can continue your journey.”
The three men said, “Do as you wish.”
6 Abraham hurried to the tent. He said to Sarah, “Quickly, prepare enough flour for three loaves of bread.” 7 Then Abraham ran to his cattle. He took his best young calf and gave it to the servant there. He told the servant to quickly kill the calf and prepare it for food. 8 Abraham brought the meat and some milk and cheese and set them down in front of the three men. Then he stood near the men, ready to serve them while they sat under the tree and ate.
9 Then the men said to Abraham, “Where is your wife Sarah?”
Abraham said, “She is there, in the tent.”
10 Then one of them said, “I will come again in the spring. At that time your wife Sarah will have a son.”
Sarah was listening in the tent and heard these things. 11 Abraham and Sarah were very old. Sarah was past the right age for women to have children. 12 So she laughed to herself and said, “I am old, and my husband is old. I am too old to have a baby.”
13 Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Sarah laughed and said she was too old to have a baby. 14 But is anything too hard for the Lord? I will come again in the spring, just as I said I would, and your wife Sarah will have a son.”
23 You have been born again. This new life did not come from something that dies. It came from something that cannot die. You were born again through God’s life-giving message that lasts forever. 24 The Scriptures say,
“Our lives are like the grass of spring,
and any glory we enjoy is like the beauty of a wildflower.
The grass dries up and dies,
and the flower falls to the ground.
25 But the word of the Lord lasts forever.” (A)
And that word is the Good News that was told to you.
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International