Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

God promises a son to Abraham

18 The Lord appeared to Abraham near the special oak trees of Mamre. It was the hot time of day and Abraham was sitting by the door of his tent. ² Abraham looked up and he saw three men. He ran in a hurry to meet them. He bent down to the ground to respect them.^[a]

³ Abraham said, ‘Please sir, stop here and let me serve you. That would make me very happy. ⁴ Let us bring some water so that you can all wash your feet. Then you can rest under this tree. ⁵ Let me also bring some food for you to eat. Now that you have come to my home, you should rest and become strong again. Then you will be ready to continue with your journey.’ The men replied, ‘That is good. Please do what you have said.’

⁶ Abraham went quickly to the tent. He said to Sarah, ‘Be quick! Get plenty of good flour and make bread with it.’ ⁷ Then Abraham ran to his cows. He chose a very nice young cow. He gave it to his servant. The servant quickly prepared it for the men to eat. ⁸ Then Abraham also brought some cream and some milk, as well as the meat from the cow. He put all the food in front of the men. While they ate it, Abraham stood near them, under a tree.

⁹ Then the men asked Abraham, ‘Where is Sarah, your wife?’ Abraham replied, ‘She is there in the tent.’

¹⁰ Then one of the men said, ‘I will certainly return to you at about this time next year. At that time Sarah, your wife, will have a son!’

Sarah was listening to all this. She was at the door of the tent, near to where they were talking.

David wrote this song.

How may we worship God?

Who God's Son, Jesus Christ, is

¹⁵ We cannot see God. But Jesus Christ shows us completely who God is. Even before God made anything, Jesus was already there as God's Son who rules everything. ¹⁶ When God created everything, it was his Son who did it. His Son made everything that is on earth and in heaven. He created everything that we can see, as well as the things that we cannot see. He made rulers and leaders. He made everything that has power and authority. God gave his Son the authority to create everything, so that his Son would receive praise. ¹⁷ God's Son was there before anything else was there. And now he causes everything to continue in its proper place. ¹⁸ The church is like Christ's body and he is its head.^[a] He is where it all begins. As God's special Son, he was the first person who became alive again after death.^[b] As a result, Christ is first and most important in all things.

¹⁹ God chose to put his nature in Christ completely. ²⁰ He decided that Christ would die on the cross as a sacrifice. In that way, God would bring all things back to himself. Then everything could live in peace with God. That includes everything on the earth and everything in heaven.

²¹ As for you, you were far away from God at one time. You thought bad things and you did bad things. As a result, you were God's enemies. ²² But now you have become God's friends. This happened because Christ's human body died on the cross. As a result, God has brought you to himself. As you stand in front of him, you are completely good and clean inside. He sees nothing in you that is bad.

²³ But you must continue to believe God's true message. Do not turn away from it. Continue to trust God, as you did when you first heard the good news. People have told this good news to everyone all over the world. And God has chosen me, Paul, as his servant to tell this good news.

Paul's work for Christ's people

²⁴ At this time, I am suffering on your behalf, but I am still happy. Christ himself suffered on behalf of his people, the church. Now, while I live in my human body, I also suffer. I continue to receive the pain that Christ received, so that it may be complete.^[c] In that way, I help the church, which is like Christ's own body.

²⁵ I have become God's servant, so that I can help the church. God chose me to do that. He chose me to explain his message to you completely. ²⁶ That message is a secret that God hid from everyone before now. He hid it from all the people who lived in past times. But now he has shown this secret to his people. ²⁷ God wanted them to understand how great this secret is. It shows that God will bless people who live in all countries of the world. This secret message is that Christ lives in you. And because of that, you know that you will live with God in heaven one day.

²⁸ That is why we tell everyone the message about Christ. God helps us to be very wise as we warn people and we teach them. We want every person who belongs to Christ to become complete, as God sees them.

Jesus visits the home of Martha and Mary

³⁸ Jesus and his disciples continued their journey. They arrived at a certain village. There, a woman called Martha asked Jesus to come into her home.^{[a] 39} Martha had a sister called Mary. Mary sat down near Jesus. She was listening to the things that he was teaching. ⁴⁰ But Martha was thinking to herself, ‘I cannot do all this work alone.’ So she went to Jesus. She said, ‘Master, my sister is not helping me with the work. She has left me to do it alone. You surely do not think that this is right! Tell her that she should help me!’

⁴¹ The Lord Jesus replied, ‘Martha, Martha, you have troubles in your mind about many things. ⁴² But only one thing is really important. That is what Mary has chosen to do. Nobody will take it away from her.’^[b]