Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

⁸ The word of the Lord came to him, saying, ⁹ “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and live there. I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.” ¹⁰ So he got up and went to Zarephath, and when he came to the gate of the city, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and said, “Please get a small cup of water for me to drink.” ¹¹ As she was going to get it, he called to her and said, “Please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.”

¹² She said, “As the Lord your God lives, I do not have bread, but only a handful of meal in a barrel and a little oil in a jar. I am gathering two sticks, that I can go in and make it for me and my son, so we may eat it and die.”

¹³ Elijah said to her, “Do not fear; go and do as you have said, but make a little cake for me first, and bring it to me, and afterward, make some for your son and you, ¹⁴ for thus says the Lord God of Israel: The barrel of meal will not run out, nor will the jar of oil empty, until the day that the Lord sends rain upon the earth.”

¹⁵ She went and did what Elijah told her to do, and she, he, and her household ate many days. ¹⁶ The barrel of meal did not run out, nor did the jar of oil empty, according to the word of the Lord, which He spoke by Elijah.

Psalm 146

²⁴ For Christ did not enter holy places made with hands, which are patterned after the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. ²⁵ Nor did He enter to offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. ²⁶ For then He would have had to suffer repeatedly since the world was created, but now He has appeared once at the end of the ages to put away sin by sacrificing Himself. ²⁷ As it is appointed for men to die once, but after this comes the judgment, ²⁸ so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many, and He will appear a second time, not to bear sin but to save those who eagerly wait for Him.

The Denouncing of the Scribes^(A)

³⁸ He said to them in His teaching, “Beware of the scribes, who love to go about in long robes and love greetings in the marketplaces, ³⁹ and the prominent seats in the synagogues, and the places of honor at banquets, ⁴⁰ who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive greater condemnation.”

The Widow’s Offering^(B)

⁴¹ Jesus sat opposite the treasury and saw how the people put money into the treasury. Many who were rich put in much. ⁴² But a certain poor widow came and put in two mites, which make a farthing.^[a]

⁴³ He called His disciples to Him and said to them, “Truly I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. ⁴⁴ They all contributed out of their abundance. But she, out of her poverty, put in all that she had, her entire livelihood.”