Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Jeremiah’s Life Is Threatened

¹⁸ The Lord revealed their plot to me so that I would understand. He showed me what they were doing. ¹⁹ I was like a trusting lamb brought to the slaughter. I didn’t know that they were plotting against me. They were saying, “Let’s destroy the tree with its fruit. Let’s cut Jeremiah off from this world of the living so that we won’t be reminded of him anymore.”

For the choir director; on stringed instruments; a maskil by David when people from the city of Ziph told Saul that David was hiding among them.

Live Wisely

¹³ Do any of you have wisdom and insight? Show this by living the right way with the humility that comes from wisdom. ¹⁴ But if you are bitterly jealous and filled with self-centered ambition, don’t brag. Don’t say that you are wise when it isn’t true. ¹⁵ That kind of wisdom doesn’t come from above. It belongs to this world. It is self-centered and demonic. ¹⁶ Wherever there is jealousy and rivalry, there is disorder and every kind of evil.

¹⁷ However, the wisdom that comes from above is first of all pure. Then it is peaceful, gentle, obedient, filled with mercy and good deeds, impartial, and sincere. ¹⁸ A harvest that has God’s approval comes from the peace planted by peacemakers.

Stop Fighting with Each Other

4 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Aren’t they caused by the selfish desires that fight to control you? ² You want what you don’t have, so you commit murder. You’re determined to have things, but you can’t get what you want. You quarrel and fight. You don’t have the things you want, because you don’t pray for them. ³ When you pray for things, you don’t get them because you want them for the wrong reason—for your own pleasure.

⁷ So place yourselves under God’s authority. Resist the devil, and he will run away from you. ⁸ Come close to God, and he will come close to you. Clean up your lives, you sinners, and clear your minds, you doubters.

Jesus Again Foretells That He Will Die and Come Back to Life^(A)

³⁰ They left that place and were passing through Galilee. Jesus did not want anyone to know where he was ³¹ because he was teaching his disciples. He taught them, “The Son of Man will be betrayed and handed over to people. They will kill him, but on the third day he will come back to life.”

³² The disciples didn’t understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him.

Greatness in the Kingdom^(B)

³³ Then they came to Capernaum. While Jesus was at home, he asked the disciples, “What were you arguing about on the road?” ³⁴ They were silent. On the road they had argued about who was the greatest.

³⁵ He sat down and called the twelve apostles. He told them, “Whoever wants to be the most important person must take the last place and be a servant to everyone else.” ³⁶ Then he took a little child and had him stand among them. He put his arms around the child and said to them, ³⁷ “Whoever welcomes a child like this in my name welcomes me. Whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.”