Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
4 Say to the cowardly:
“Be strong; do not fear!
Here is your God; vengeance is coming.(A)
God’s retribution is coming; He will save you.”(B)
5 Then the eyes of the blind will be opened,
and the ears of the deaf unstopped.(C)
6 Then the lame will leap like a deer,(D)
and the tongue of the mute will sing for joy,(E)
for water will gush in the wilderness,
and streams in the desert;(F)
7 the parched ground will become a pool of water,
and the thirsty land springs of water.(G)
In the haunt of jackals,(H) in their lairs,
there will be grass, reeds, and papyrus.
Psalm 146
The God of Compassion
1 Hallelujah!
My soul, praise the Lord.(A)
2 I will praise the Lord all my life;
I will sing to my God as long as I live.(B)
3 Do not trust in nobles,
in man, who cannot save.(C)
4 When his breath[a] leaves him,
he returns to the ground;
on that day his plans die.(D)
5 Happy is the one whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord his God,(E)
6 the Maker of heaven and earth,
the sea and everything in them.(F)
He remains faithful forever,(G)
7 executing justice for the exploited
and giving food to the hungry.(H)
The Lord frees prisoners.(I)
8 The Lord opens the eyes of the blind.(J)
The Lord raises up those who are oppressed.[b](K)
The Lord loves the righteous.(L)
9 The Lord protects foreigners
and helps the fatherless and the widow,(M)
but He frustrates the ways of the wicked.(N)
10 The Lord reigns forever;
Zion, your God reigns for all generations.(O)
Hallelujah!
The Sin of Favoritism
2 My brothers, do not show favoritism as you hold on to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.(A) 2 For example, a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and a poor man dressed in dirty clothes also comes in. 3 If you look with favor on the man wearing the fine clothes and say, “Sit here in a good place,” and yet you say to the poor man, “Stand over there,” or, “Sit here on the floor by my footstool,” 4 haven’t you discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
5 Listen, my dear brothers: Didn’t God choose the poor in this world(B) to be rich in faith(C) and heirs(D) of the kingdom that He has promised to those who love Him? 6 Yet you dishonored that poor man.(E) Don’t the rich oppress you and drag(F) you into the courts? 7 Don’t they blaspheme the noble name that was pronounced over you at your baptism?(G)
8 Indeed, if you keep the royal law prescribed in the Scripture, Love your neighbor as yourself,(H)[a] you are doing well. 9 But if you show favoritism,(I) you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 10 For whoever keeps the entire law, yet fails in one point, is guilty of breaking it all.(J)
11 For He who said, Do not commit adultery,[a] also said, Do not murder.(A)[b] So if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you are a lawbreaker.
12 Speak and act as those who will be judged by the law of freedom.(B) 13 For judgment is without mercy to the one who hasn’t shown mercy.(C) Mercy triumphs over judgment.
Faith and Works
14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can his faith[a] save him?
15 If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well,” but you don’t give them what the body needs, what good is it?(A) 17 In the same way faith, if it doesn’t have works, is dead by itself.
A Gentile Mother’s Faith
24 He got up and departed from(A) there to the region of Tyre(B) and Sidon.[a](C) He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it, but He could not escape notice. 25 Instead, immediately after hearing about Him, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit(D) came and fell at His feet.(E) 26 Now the woman was Greek,(F) a Syrophoenician by birth, and she kept asking Him to drive the demon(G) out of her daughter. 27 He said to her, “Allow the children to be satisfied first, because it isn’t right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”(H)
28 But she replied to Him, “Lord,(I) even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”
29 Then He told her, “Because of this reply, you may go. The demon has gone out of your daughter.” 30 When she went back to her home, she found her child lying on the bed, and the demon was gone.
Jesus Does Everything Well
31 Again, leaving the region of Tyre,(J) He went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee,(K) through[b] the region of the Decapolis.(L) 32 They brought to Him a deaf(M) man who also had a speech difficulty,(N) and begged Jesus to lay His hand on(O) him. 33 So He took him away from the crowd privately. After putting His fingers in the man’s ears and spitting,(P) He touched his tongue. 34 Then, looking up to heaven,(Q) He sighed deeply and said to him, “Ephphatha!”[c] (that is, “Be opened!”). 35 Immediately his ears were opened,(R) his speech difficulty was removed,[d] and he began to speak clearly.(S) 36 Then He ordered them to tell no one,(T) but the more He would order them, the more they would proclaim(U) it.
37 They were extremely astonished and said, “He has done everything well!(V) He even makes deaf(W) people hear, and people unable to speak,(X) talk!”
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