Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Jerusalem Will Be Great
60 “Jerusalem, get up and shine, because your light has come,
and the glory of the Lord shines on you.
2 Darkness now covers the earth;
deep darkness covers her people.
But the Lord shines on you,
and people see his glory around you.
3 Nations will come to your light;
kings will come to the brightness of your sunrise.
4 “Look around you.
People are gathering and coming to you.
Your sons are coming from far away,
and your daughters are coming with them.
5 When you see them, you will shine with happiness;
you will be excited and full of joy,
because the wealth of the nations across the seas will be given to you;
the riches of the nations will come to you.
6 Herds of camels will cover your land,
young camels from Midian and Ephah.
People will come from Sheba
bringing gold and incense,
and they will sing praises to the Lord.
A Prayer for the King
Of Solomon.
72 God, give the king your good judgment
and the king’s son your goodness.
2 Help him judge your people fairly
and decide what is right for the poor.
3 Let there be peace on the mountains
and goodness on the hills for the people.
4 Help him be fair to the poor
and save the needy
and punish those who hurt them.
5 May they respect you as long as the sun shines
and as long as the moon glows.
6 Let him be like rain on the grass,
like showers that water the earth.
7 Let goodness be plentiful while he lives.
Let peace continue as long as there is a moon.
10 Let the kings of Tarshish and the faraway lands
bring him gifts.
Let the kings of Sheba and Seba
bring their presents to him.
11 Let all kings bow down to him
and all nations serve him.
12 He will help the poor when they cry out
and will save the needy when no one else will help.
13 He will be kind to the weak and poor,
and he will save their lives.
14 He will save them from cruel people who try to hurt them,
because their lives are precious to him.
Paul’s Work in Telling the Good News
3 So I, Paul, am a prisoner of Christ Jesus for you who are not Jews. 2 Surely you have heard that God gave me this work to tell you about his grace. 3 He let me know his secret by showing it to me. I have already written a little about this. 4 If you read what I wrote then, you can see that I truly understand the secret about the Christ. 5 People who lived in other times were not told that secret. But now, through the Spirit, God has shown that secret to his holy apostles and prophets. 6 This is that secret: that through the Good News those who are not Jews will share with the Jews in God’s blessing. They belong to the same body, and they share together in the promise that God made in Christ Jesus.
7 By God’s special gift of grace given to me through his power, I became a servant to tell that Good News. 8 I am the least important of all God’s people, but God gave me this gift—to tell those who are not Jews the Good News about the riches of Christ, which are too great to understand fully. 9 And God gave me the work of telling all people about the plan for his secret, which has been hidden in him since the beginning of time. He is the One who created everything. 10 His purpose was that through the church all the rulers and powers in the heavenly world will now know God’s wisdom, which has so many forms. 11 This agrees with the purpose God had since the beginning of time, and he carried out his plan through Christ Jesus our Lord. 12 In Christ we can come before God with freedom and without fear. We can do this through faith in Christ.
Wise Men Come to Visit Jesus
2 Jesus was born in the town of Bethlehem in Judea during the time when Herod was king. When Jesus was born, some wise men from the east came to Jerusalem. 2 They asked, “Where is the baby who was born to be the king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.”
3 When King Herod heard this, he was troubled, as were all the people in Jerusalem. 4 Herod called a meeting of all the leading priests and teachers of the law and asked them where the Christ would be born. 5 They answered, “In the town of Bethlehem in Judea. The prophet wrote about this in the Scriptures:
6 ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are not just an insignificant village in Judah.
A ruler will come from you
who will be like a shepherd for my people Israel.’” Micah 5:2
7 Then Herod had a secret meeting with the wise men and learned from them the exact time they first saw the star. 8 He sent the wise men to Bethlehem, saying, “Look carefully for the child. When you find him, come tell me so I can worship him too.”
9 After the wise men heard the king, they left. The star that they had seen in the east went before them until it stopped above the place where the child was. 10 When the wise men saw the star, they were filled with joy. 11 They came to the house where the child was and saw him with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. They opened their gifts and gave him treasures of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 12 But God warned the wise men in a dream not to go back to Herod, so they returned to their own country by a different way.
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.