Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 106
106 Praise the Lord!
Give thanks to the Lord because he is good,
because his faithful love endures forever.
2 Who could possibly repeat all of the Lord’s mighty acts
or publicly recount all his praise?
3 The people who uphold justice,
who always do what is right, are truly happy!
4 Remember me, Lord, with the favor you show your people.
Visit me with your saving help
5 so I can experience the good things your chosen ones experience,
so I can rejoice in the joy of your nation,
so I can praise along with your possession.
6 We have sinned—right along with our ancestors.
We’ve done what is wrong.
We’ve acted wickedly.
13 But how quickly they forgot what he had done!
They wouldn’t wait for his advice.
14 They were overcome with craving in the desert;
they tested God in the wastelands.
15 God gave them what they asked for;
he sent food[a] to satisfy their appetites.
16 But then they were jealous of Moses in the camp,
jealous too of Aaron, the Lord’s holy one.
17 So the earth opened up, swallowing Dathan,
and covering over Abiram’s crowd.
18 Fire blazed throughout that whole group;
flames burned up the wicked.
19 They made a calf at Horeb,
bowing down to a metal idol.
20 They traded their glorious God[b]
for an image of a bull that eats grass.
21 They forgot the God who saved them—
the one who had done great things in Egypt,
22 wondrous works in the land of Ham,
awesome deeds at the Reed Sea.
23 So God determined that he would destroy them—
except for the fact that Moses, his chosen one,
stood in the way, right in front of him,
and turned God’s destructive anger away.
47 Lord our God, save us!
Gather us back together from among all the nations
so we can give thanks to your holy name
and rejoice in your praise!
48 Bless the Lord, the God of Israel,
from forever ago to forever from now!
And let all the people say, “Amen!”
Praise the Lord!
21 The Lord was angry with me because of your deeds and swore that I couldn’t cross the Jordan River or enter the wonderful land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. 22 I will die here in this land. I won’t cross the Jordan River. But you will, and you will take possession of that wonderful land. 23 So all of you, watch yourselves! Don’t forget the covenant that the Lord your God made with you by making an idol or an image of any kind or anything the Lord your God forbids, 24 because the Lord your God is an all-consuming fire. He is a passionate God.
Warnings and teachings about future disobedience
25 Once you have had children and grandchildren and have grown old on the land, if you ruin things by making an idol, in any form whatsoever, and do what is evil in the eyes of the Lord your God and anger him, 26 I call heaven and earth as my witnesses against you today: You will definitely disappear—and quickly—from the land that you are crossing over the Jordan River to possess. You won’t extend your time there but will instead be totally destroyed. 27 The Lord will scatter you among the nations. Only a very few of you will survive in the countries where the Lord will drag you. 28 There you will worship other[a] gods, made of wood and stone by human hands—gods that cannot see, listen, eat, or smell. 29 You will seek the Lord your God from there, and you will find him[b] if you seek him with all your heart and with all your being. 30 In your distress, when all these things happen to you in the future, you will return to the Lord your God and you will obey his voice, 31 because the Lord your God is a compassionate God. He won’t let you go, he won’t destroy you, and he won’t forget the covenant that he swore to your ancestors.
32 Now look into it: into days long past, before your time—all the way back to the day God first created human beings on earth, from one end of heaven to the other. Has anything this amazing ever happened? Has anything like it ever been heard of before? 33 Has any people ever listened to a god’s voice speaking out of fire, as each of you have, and survived? 34 Or has any god ever tried to take one nation out of another nation using tests, miracles, wonders, war, a strong hand and outstretched arm, or awesome power like all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt while you watched? 35 You were shown these things so that you would know this: The Lord is the only God. There’s no other god except him. 36 From heaven he made you hear his voice in order to discipline you. On earth he showed you his great fire. You heard his words from that very fire. 37 And because he loved your ancestors and chose their descendants after them, God brought you out of Egypt with his own presence, by his own great power, 38 in order to remove larger and stronger nations from before you and bring you into their land, giving it to you as an inheritance. That’s where things stand right now. 39 Know then today and keep in mind that the Lord is the only God in heaven above or on earth below. There is no other. 40 Keep the Lord’s regulations and his commandments. I’m commanding them to you today for your well-being and for the well-being of your children after you, so that you may extend your time on the fertile land that the Lord your God is giving you forever.
9 Jesus continued, “Clearly, you are experts at rejecting God’s commandment in order to establish these rules. 10 Moses said, Honor your father and your mother,[a] and The person who speaks against father or mother will certainly be put to death.[b] 11 But you say, ‘If you tell your father or mother, “Everything I’m expected to contribute to you is corban(that is, a gift I’m giving to God),” 12 then you are no longer required to care for your father or mother.’ 13 In this way you do away with God’s word in favor of the rules handed down to you, which you pass on to others. And you do a lot of other things just like that.”
14 Then Jesus called the crowd again and said, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand. 15 Nothing outside of a person can enter and contaminate a person in God’s sight; rather, the things that come out of a person contaminate the person.”[c]
17 After leaving the crowd, he entered a house where his disciples asked him about that riddle. 18 He said to them, “Don’t you understand either? Don’t you know that nothing from the outside that enters a person has the power to contaminate? 19 That’s because it doesn’t enter into the heart but into the stomach, and it goes out into the sewer.” By saying this, Jesus declared that no food could contaminate a person in God’s sight. 20 “It’s what comes out of a person that contaminates someone in God’s sight,” he said. 21 “It’s from the inside, from the human heart, that evil thoughts come: sexual sins, thefts, murders, 22 adultery, greed, evil actions, deceit, unrestrained immorality, envy, insults, arrogance, and foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from the inside and contaminate a person in God’s sight.”
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible