Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

In Praise of the Lord's Goodness

The Evil That People Do

⁸ You are doomed! You buy more houses and fields to add to those you already have. Soon there will be no place for anyone else to live, and you alone will live in the land. ⁹ I have heard the Lord Almighty say, “All these big, fine houses will be empty ruins. ¹⁰ The grapevines growing on five acres of land will yield only five gallons of wine. Ten bushels of seed will produce only one bushel of grain.”

^11 (A)You are doomed! You get up early in the morning to start drinking, and you spend long evenings getting drunk. ¹² At your feasts you have harps and tambourines and flutes—and wine. But you don't understand what the Lord is doing, ¹³ and so you will be carried away as prisoners. Your leaders will starve to death, and the common people will die of thirst. ¹⁴ The world of the dead is hungry for them, and it opens its mouth wide. It gulps down the nobles of Jerusalem along with the noisy crowd of common people.

¹⁵ Everyone will be disgraced, and all who are proud will be humbled. ¹⁶ But the Lord Almighty shows his greatness by doing what is right, and he reveals his holiness by judging his people. ¹⁷ In the ruins of the cities lambs will eat grass and young goats will find pasture.^[a]

¹⁸ You are doomed! You are unable to break free from your sins. ¹⁹ You say, “Let the Lord hurry up and do what he says he will, so that we can see it. Let Israel's holy God carry out his plans; let's see what he has in mind.”

²⁰ You are doomed! You call evil good and call good evil. You turn darkness into light and light into darkness. You make what is bitter sweet, and what is sweet you make bitter.

²¹ You are doomed! You think you are wise, so very clever.

²² You are doomed! Heroes of the wine bottle! Brave and fearless when it comes to mixing drinks! ²³ But for just a bribe you let the guilty go free, and you keep the innocent from getting justice.

The Widow's Offering^(A)

⁴¹ As Jesus sat near the Temple treasury, he watched the people as they dropped in their money. Many rich men dropped in a lot of money; ⁴² then a poor widow came along and dropped in two little copper coins, worth about a penny. ⁴³ He called his disciples together and said to them, “I tell you that this poor widow put more in the offering box than all the others. ⁴⁴ For the others put in what they had to spare of their riches; but she, poor as she is, put in all she had—she gave all she had to live on.”