Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

God chooses Jeremiah to be a prophet

⁴ The Lord gave me this message: ⁵ ‘I already knew you before I made you inside your mother's body. I chose you to be special before you were born. I chose you to be my prophet, to speak my message to other nations.’

⁶ I answered, ‘Lord God, I do not know how to speak. I am only a child.’

⁷ The Lord said to me, ‘Do not say, “I am only a child.” You must go to everyone that I send you to. You must say whatever I tell you to say. ⁸ Do not be afraid of them. Remember that I will be with you. I will keep you safe.’

⁹ Then the Lord touched my mouth with his hand. He said to me, ‘I am giving you the words that you must speak. ¹⁰ Look! I give you authority to tell nations and kingdoms what will happen to them. You will pull some of them out of the ground, like a plant and its roots. You will knock down and destroy some of them. You will bring an end to their power. But you will build up other nations and make them strong.’

A song for old age

Love is most important

13 I may be able to speak many different languages that people or angels speak. But that is worth nothing if I do not love other people. I would only be making a loud noise, like someone who hits a piece of metal. ² I may be able to speak messages from God. I may understand all God's secret things, and know all the facts. I may have great faith so that I trust God enough to move mountains. But I am nothing if I do not love others. ³ I may give all my things to help poor people. I may let other people take my body to burn it.^[a] But that would not help me if I do not love others.

⁴ If I love people, I will be patient. I will be kind. I will not be jealous of other people. I will not be proud and say that I am great. ⁵ If I love people, I will be polite. I will not just want to please myself. I will not quickly become angry. If someone does a wrong thing against me, I will not keep it in my thoughts. ⁶ If I love people, I will not be happy when bad things happen. Instead, I will be happy when things happen that are right and true. ⁷ If I love people, I will always accept their problems. I will always believe them. I will always hope for what is best. I will always be patient in troubles.

⁸ Love will always continue. The gift to speak messages from God will not always be necessary. The gift to speak in different languages will stop one day. The gift to know special things will not always be necessary. ⁹ At this time, we know only a part of everything. We can only speak a part of God's whole message. ¹⁰ But a time will come when everything becomes complete. When God does that, we will not need the small parts that we have now.

¹¹ When I was a child, I talked like a child. My thoughts were a child's thoughts. I understood things in a way that a child understands. But now that I have become a man, I have stopped being like a child. ¹² At this time, we see things as if we were looking at them in a mirror. What we see now is not clear. But the time will come when we do not need a mirror. We will see everything clearly. Now we know only a part of what is true. But then we will know everything completely. We will understand completely, just as God understands us completely.

¹³ At this time there are three things that continue. We continue to trust God. We continue to hope for his good things. We continue to love other people. But the most important of these things is love.

²¹ Jesus said to them, ‘Today this message has become true. It has happened while you were listening.’

²² Everyone was talking about Jesus. They were surprised at the good way in which he spoke. They said to each other, ‘We know that he is only Joseph's son.’

²³ Jesus then said to them, ‘Now you will tell me the proverb, “Doctor, make yourself well!” You will also say, “We have heard that you did many surprising things in Capernaum. This is your home town, so do the same things here!” ²⁴ I tell you this: People do not accept a prophet of God who comes from their own town.

²⁵ What I tell you is true. There were many widows in the country of Israel when Elijah was alive. At that time, it did not rain for three and a half years. So people were very hungry in all the country. ²⁶ But God did not send Elijah to help a widow in Israel. Instead, God sent Elijah to the country called Sidon. There he helped a widow in a place called Zarephath.^[a]

²⁷ Here is another example: When God's prophet Elisha was alive, there were many people in Israel with a bad disease of the skin. But God did not make any of them well. Instead, he made a man well who was from the country called Syria. That man was called Naaman.’^[b]

²⁸ The people in the meeting place heard what Jesus said.^[c] They became very angry. ²⁹ They stood up and they made him leave the town. They took him to the top of the hill outside the town. They wanted to throw him over the edge to the bottom. ³⁰ But Jesus walked through the middle of the crowd and he went away.