Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
12 Teach us to realize how short our lives are.
Then our hearts will become wise.
13 Lord, please stop punishing us!
How long will you keep it up?
Be kind to us.
14 Satisfy us with your faithful love every morning.
Then we can sing for joy and be glad all our days.
15 Make us glad for as many days as you have made us suffer.
Give us joy for as many years as we’ve had trouble.
16 Show us your mighty acts.
Let our children see your glorious power.
17 May the Lord our God always be pleased with us.
Lord, make what we do succeed.
Please make what we do succeed.
13 “Listen to me,” announces the Lord. “Be a witness against the people of Jacob,” says the Lord God who rules over all.
14 “I will punish Israel for their sins.
When I do, I will destroy their altars at Bethel.
The horns that stick out from the upper corners
of their main altar will be cut off.
They will fall to the ground.
15 I will tear down their winter houses.
I will also pull down their summer houses.
The houses they have decorated with ivory will be destroyed.
And their princely houses will be torn down,”
announces the Lord.
Israel Has Not Returned to the Lord
4 Listen to the Lord’s message,
you women who live on the hill of Samaria.
You treat poor people badly.
You crush those who are in need.
You say to your husbands,
“Bring us some drinks!”
But you are already as fat
as the cows in Bashan.
2 The Lord and King has made a promise
by his own holy name.
He says, “You can be sure
that the time will come
when your enemies will put hooks in your faces.
They will lead every one of you away with fishhooks.
3 Each of you will go straight out
through gaps made in the wall.
You will be thrown out toward Harmon,”
announces the Lord.
4 “People of Samaria, go to Bethel and sin!
Go to Gilgal! Sin there even more!
Bring your sacrifices every morning.
Every third year, bring a tenth
of everything you produce.
5 Bake some bread with yeast.
Burn it as a thank offering.
Brag about the offerings you freely give.
This is what you Israelites love to do,”
announces the Lord and King.
What Makes People “Unclean”?
15 Some Pharisees and some teachers of the law came from Jerusalem to see Jesus. They asked, 2 “Why don’t your disciples obey what the elders teach? Your disciples don’t wash their hands before they eat!”
3 Jesus replied, “And why don’t you obey God’s command? You would rather follow your own teachings! 4 God said, ‘Honor your father and mother.’ (Exodus 20:12; Deuteronomy 5:16) He also said, ‘Anyone who asks for bad things to happen to their father or mother must be put to death.’ (Exodus 21:17; Leviticus 20:9) 5 But suppose people have something that might be used to help their parents. You allow them to say it is instead ‘a gift set apart for God.’ 6 So they do not need to honor their father or mother with their gift. You make the word of God useless in order to follow your own teachings. 7 You pretenders! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you. He said,
8 “ ‘These people honor me by what they say.
But their hearts are far away from me.
9 Their worship doesn’t mean anything to me.
They teach nothing but human rules.’ ” (Isaiah 29:13)
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