Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Noah and the Flood

⁹ These are the generations of Noah.

Noah was a just man and blameless among his contemporaries. Noah walked with God. ¹⁰ Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

¹¹ The earth was corrupt before God and filled with violence. ¹² God looked on the earth and saw it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. ¹³ So God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh is come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. Now I will destroy them with the earth. ¹⁴ Make an ark of cypress wood for yourself. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. ¹⁵ And this is how you must make it: The length of the ark will be three hundred cubits, the width of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits.^{[a] 16} Make an opening^[b] one cubit^[c] below the top of the ark all around; and you must set the door of the ark on the side. Make it with a lower, a second, and a third story. ¹⁷ I will bring a flood of waters on the earth to destroy all flesh, wherever there is the breath of life under heaven, and everything that is on the earth will die. ¹⁸ But I will establish My covenant with you; you must go into the ark—you, and your sons, and your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. ¹⁹ Bring every living thing of all flesh, two of every kind, into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female. ²⁰ Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal, and of every kind of creeping thing of the earth will come to you to be kept alive. ²¹ Also, take with you of every kind of food that is eaten and gather it to yourself, and it will be for food for you and for them.”

²² Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.

²⁴ The waters prevailed on the earth for one hundred and fifty days.

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

¹⁵ Then God spoke to Noah, saying, ¹⁶ “Go out of the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. ¹⁷ Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you, birds and animals, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, so that they may breed abundantly on the earth and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.”

¹⁸ So Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives went out. ¹⁹ Every beast, every creeping thing, every bird, and everything that moves on the earth, according to their families, went out of the ark.

Psalm 46

For the Music Director. A Psalm of the sons of Korah. According to Alamoth. A Song.

The Definition of the Gospel

¹⁶ For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. For it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. ¹⁷ For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”^[a]

²² This righteousness of God comes through faith in Jesus Christ^[a] to all and upon all who believe, for there is no distinction. ²³ For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, ²⁴ being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, ²⁵ whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith, in His blood, for a demonstration of His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins previously committed, ²⁶ to prove His righteousness at this present time so that He might be just and be the justifier of him who has faith in Jesus.

²⁷ Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith. ²⁸ Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the works of the law.

²⁹ Is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, ³⁰ seeing it is one God, who shall justify the circumcised by faith, and the uncircumcised through faith. ³¹ Do we then make the law void through faith? God forbid! Instead, we establish the law.

I Never Knew You^(A)

²¹ “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. ²² Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonderful works in Your name?’ ²³ But then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from Me, you who practice evil.’^[a]

The Two Housebuilders^(B)

²⁴ “Whoever hears these sayings of Mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on a rock. ²⁵ And the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house. And it did not fall, for it was founded a rock. ²⁶ And every one who hears these sayings of Mine and does not do them will be likened to a foolish man who built his house on the sand. ²⁷ And the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house. And it fell. And its fall was great.”

²⁸ When Jesus finished these sayings, the people were astonished at His teaching, ²⁹ for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.