Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 123[a]
Reliance on the Lord
1 A song of ascents.
To you I raise my eyes,
to you enthroned in heaven.(A)
2 Yes, like the eyes of servants
on the hand of their masters,
Like the eyes of a maid
on the hand of her mistress,
So our eyes are on the Lord our God,
till we are shown favor.
3 Show us favor, Lord, show us favor,
for we have our fill of contempt.(B)
4 Our souls are more than sated
with mockery from the insolent,
with contempt from the arrogant.
II. Oracles Primarily from the Days of Jehoiakim
Chapter 7
The Temple Sermon.[a] 1 The word came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 Stand at the gate of the house of the Lord and proclaim this message there: Hear the word of the Lord, all you of Judah who enter these gates to worship the Lord! 3 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Reform your ways and your deeds so that I may dwell with you in this place.(A) 4 Do not put your trust in these deceptive words: “The temple of the Lord! The temple of the Lord! The temple of the Lord!”(B) 5 Only if you thoroughly reform your ways and your deeds; if each of you deals justly with your neighbor; 6 if you no longer oppress the alien,[b] the orphan, and the widow; if you no longer shed innocent blood in this place or follow after other gods to your own harm,(C) 7 only then will I let you continue to dwell in this place, in the land I gave your ancestors long ago and forever.(D)
8 But look at you! You put your trust in deceptive words to your own loss! 9 Do you think you can steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, sacrifice to Baal, follow other gods that you do not know,(E) 10 and then come and stand in my presence in this house, which bears my name, and say: “We are safe! We can commit all these abominations again!”?(F) 11 Has this house which bears my name become in your eyes a den of thieves? I have seen it for myself!—oracle of the Lord.(G) 12 Go to my place at Shiloh,[c] where I made my name dwell in the beginning. See what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel.(H) 13 And now, because you have committed all these deeds—oracle of the Lord—because you did not listen, though I spoke to you untiringly, and because you did not answer, though I called you, 14 I will do to this house, which bears my name, in which you trust, and to the place which I gave you and your ancestors, exactly what I did to Shiloh.(I) 15 I will cast you out of my sight, as I cast away all your kindred, all the offspring of Ephraim.(J)
8 You are already satisfied; you have already grown rich; you have become kings[a] without us! Indeed, I wish that you had become kings, so that we also might become kings with you.
9 [b]For as I see it, God has exhibited us apostles as the last of all, like people sentenced to death, since we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and human beings alike.(A) 10 We are fools on Christ’s account, but you are wise in Christ; we are weak, but you are strong; you are held in honor, but we in disrepute.(B) 11 To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are poorly clad and roughly treated, we wander about homeless(C) 12 and we toil, working with our own hands. When ridiculed, we bless; when persecuted, we endure;(D) 13 when slandered, we respond gently. We have become like the world’s rubbish, the scum of all, to this very moment.
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.