Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

15 After these things the word of Jehovah came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, ^[a]and thy exceeding great reward. ² And Abram said, O Lord Jehovah, what wilt thou give me, seeing I ^[b]go childless, and he that shall be possessor of my house is Eliezer of Damascus? ³ And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir. ⁴ And, behold, the word of Jehovah came unto him, saying, This man shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. ⁵ And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and number the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. ⁶ And he believed in Jehovah; and he reckoned it to him for righteousness.

11 Now faith is ^[a]assurance of things hoped for, a ^[b]conviction of things not seen. ² For therein the elders had witness borne to them. ³ By faith we understand that the ^[c]worlds have been framed by the word of God, so that what is seen hath not been made out of things which appear.

⁸ By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed to go out unto a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. ⁹ By faith he became a sojourner in the land of promise, as in a land not his own, ^[a]dwelling in tents, with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: ¹⁰ for he looked for the city which hath the foundations, whose ^[b]builder and maker is God. ¹¹ By faith even Sarah herself received power to conceive seed when she was past age, since she counted him faithful who had promised: ¹² wherefore also there sprang of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of heaven in multitude, and as the sand, which is by the sea-shore, innumerable. ¹³ These all died ^[c]in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. ¹⁴ For they that say such things make it manifest that they are seeking after a country of their own. ¹⁵ And if indeed they had been mindful of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. ¹⁶ But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed of them, to be called their God; for he hath prepared for them a city.

³² Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. ³³ Sell that which ye have, and give alms; make for yourselves purses which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief draweth near, neither moth destroyeth. ³⁴ For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

³⁵ Let your loins be girded about, and your lamps burning; ³⁶ and be ye yourselves like unto men looking for their lord, when he shall return from the marriage feast; that, when he cometh and knocketh, they may straightway open unto him. ³⁷ Blessed are those ^[a]servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them sit down to meat, and shall come and serve them. ³⁸ And if he shall come in the second watch, and if in the third, and find them so, blessed are those servants. ^39 [b]But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what hour the thief was coming, he would have watched, and not have left his house to be ^[c]broken through. ⁴⁰ Be ye also ready: for in an hour that ye think not the Son of man cometh.