Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Tell the music leader to use flutes.

This is a song that David wrote.

Pray about your enemies^[a]

Nehemiah prays

1 These are the words of Nehemiah, Hacaliah's son.

It was the month Kislev. This was when King Artaxerxes had ruled for 20 years. I was in the big city of Susa. ² Hanani, my brother, and some other men arrived from Judah. I asked them for news of the Jews who had returned there from exile in Babylon. I asked them for news about Jerusalem. ³ They told me, ‘The Jews who returned to Judah are in much trouble. The walls of the city still have lots of holes in them. Fire has burned the city's gates down to the ground. So the people are very ashamed.’

⁴ After they told me this, I sat down and I wept. I was very sad for many days. I did not eat or drink anything and I prayed to God.

⁵ I prayed, ‘Lord, God of heaven, you are great and powerful.^[a] You always continue to love your people, as you have promised to do. You are kind to those people who love you and obey your commands. ⁶ Please listen to my prayer. I am your servant. I am praying in the day and in the night on behalf of your servants, the Israelites. I agree that we have all done wrong things. That includes me and my family. We have not obeyed you. ⁷ We have done wicked things against you. We have not obeyed the commands, the laws and the rules that you gave to your servant Moses.^[b]

⁸ Remember what you told your servant, Moses. You told him, “If the Israelites turn away from me, I will make them live among foreign people in many different places. ⁹ But if they return to me and they obey my commands, I will be kind to them. I will bring them back together again from all the different places where they are living. Even if they live far away, I will find them. I will bring them to the place that I have chosen to give honour to my name.”

¹⁰ Lord, these are your people and your servants. You used your great power and strength to rescue them. ¹¹ Please listen to my prayer, my Lord. Hear the prayers of your people who love to respect your name. Please cause the king to be kind to me. May he give me what I ask for.’

I was the king's cupbearer.^[c]

A man walks again!

3 One day, Peter and John went to the temple in Jerusalem. It was three o'clock in the afternoon. This was the time that everyone went there to pray. ² There was a man who could not walk. He had never been able to walk. Every day, his friends put him at the gate of the temple. It was called the Beautiful Gate. As people were going in through the gate, the man asked them for money. His friends were carrying him there when Peter and John arrived. ³ The man saw Peter and John as they were coming through the gate. So he asked them to give him some money. ⁴ Peter looked carefully at the man and so did John. Peter said to him, ‘Look at us!’ ⁵ So the man looked at Peter and John. He thought that they would give him some money.

⁶ Then Peter said to the man, ‘I do not have any money. But I do have something else that I will give to you. Jesus Christ from Nazareth gave me authority to do this. So now I tell you to walk!’ ⁷ Peter held the man's right hand and he helped him to stand up. Immediately the man's feet and ankles became strong. ⁸ The man jumped up and he stood on his feet. Then he began to walk about. He went into the temple with Peter and John. He was walking and jumping and he was praising God. ⁹ A large crowd of people were there. They saw the man walking. They heard him praising God. ¹⁰ ‘Look!’ they said. ‘We know this man. He usually sits at the Beautiful Gate of the temple and he asks people for money. What has happened to him?’ They were all very surprised.