Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

⁹ These are Noah’s descendants. In his generation, Noah was a moral and exemplary man; he^[a] walked with God. ¹⁰ Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. ¹¹ In God’s sight, the earth had become corrupt and was filled with violence. ¹² God saw that the earth was corrupt, because all creatures behaved corruptly on the earth.

¹³ God said to Noah, “The end has come for all creatures, since they have filled the earth with violence. I am now about to destroy them along with the earth, ¹⁴ so make a wooden ark.^[b] Make the ark with nesting places and cover it inside and out with tar. ¹⁵ This is how you should make it: four hundred fifty feet long, seventy-five feet wide, and forty-five feet high. ¹⁶ Make a roof^[c] for the ark and complete it one foot from the top.^[d] Put a door in its side. In the hold below, make the second and third decks.

¹⁷ “I am now bringing the floodwaters over the earth to destroy everything under the sky that breathes. Everything on earth is about to take its last breath. ¹⁸ But I will set up my covenant with you. You will go into the ark together with your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives. ¹⁹ From all living things—from all creatures—you are to bring a pair, male and female, into the ark with you to keep them alive. ²⁰ From each kind of bird, from each kind of livestock, and from each kind of everything that crawls on the ground—a pair from each will go in with you to stay alive. ²¹ Take some from every kind of food and stow it as food for you and for the animals.”

²² Noah did everything exactly as God commanded him.

²⁴ The waters rose over the earth for one hundred fifty days.

¹⁴ In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day, the earth was dry.

¹⁵ God spoke to Noah, ¹⁶ “Go out of the ark, you and your wife, your sons, and your sons’ wives with you. ¹⁷ Bring out with you all the animals of every kind—birds, livestock, everything crawling on the ground—so that they may populate the earth, be fertile, and multiply on the earth.” ¹⁸ So Noah went out of the ark with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives. ¹⁹ All the animals, all the livestock,^[a] all the birds, and everything crawling on the ground, came out of the ark by their families.

Psalm 46

For the music leader. Of the Korahites. According to Alamoth.^[a] A song.

¹⁶ I’m not ashamed of the gospel: it is God’s own power for salvation to all who have faith in God, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. ¹⁷ God’s righteousness is being revealed in the gospel, from faithfulness^[a] for faith,^[b] as it is written, The righteous person will live by faith.^[c]

²² God’s righteousness comes through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ for all who have faith in him. There’s no distinction. ²³ All have sinned and fall short of God’s glory, ²⁴ but all are treated as righteous freely by his grace because of a ransom that was paid by Christ Jesus. ²⁵ Through his faithfulness, God displayed Jesus as the place of sacrifice where mercy is found by means of his blood. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness in passing over sins that happened before, ²⁶ during the time of God’s patient tolerance. He also did this to demonstrate that he is righteous in the present time, and to treat the one who has faith in Jesus as righteous.

²⁷ What happens to our bragging? It’s thrown out. With which law? With what we have accomplished under the Law? ²⁸ No, not at all, but through the law of faith. We consider that a person is treated as righteous by faith, apart from what is accomplished under the Law.

²⁹ Or is God the God of Jews only? Isn’t God the God of Gentiles also? Yes, God is also the God of Gentiles. ³⁰ Since God is one, then the one who makes the circumcised righteous by faith will also make the one who isn’t circumcised righteous through faith. ³¹ Do we then cancel the Law through this faith? Absolutely not! Instead, we confirm the Law.

Entrance requirements

²¹ “Not everybody who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will get into the kingdom of heaven. Only those who do the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter. ²² On the Judgment Day, many people will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name and expel demons in your name and do lots of miracles in your name?’ ²³ Then I’ll tell them, ‘I’ve never known you. Get away from me, you people who do wrong.’

Two foundations

²⁴ “Everybody who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise builder who built a house on bedrock. ²⁵ The rain fell, the floods came, and the wind blew and beat against that house. It didn’t fall because it was firmly set on bedrock. ²⁶ But everybody who hears these words of mine and doesn’t put them into practice will be like a fool who built a house on sand. ²⁷ The rain fell, the floods came, and the wind blew and beat against that house. It fell and was completely destroyed.”

Crowd’s response

²⁸ When Jesus finished these words, the crowds were amazed at his teaching ²⁹ because he was teaching them like someone with authority and not like their legal experts.