Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

²⁰ So Ahab sent men to take that message to all the Israelites. He brought the prophets to meet together at Mount Carmel. ²¹ Elijah stood up in front of the people and he said, ‘You must now decide who to worship! If the Lord is the true God, worship him. But if Baal is God, worship him.’ But the people said nothing.

²² Then Elijah said to them, ‘I am the only prophet of the Lord who is still here. Baal has 450 prophets here.^{[a] 23} Now fetch two bulls for us. Baal's prophets can choose one bull for themselves. Then they must cut it into pieces. They must put the pieces on the wood on the altar. But they must not light the fire. After that, I will prepare the other bull and I will put it on the wood. But I will not light the fire. ²⁴ Then, you pray to your god, and I will pray to the Lord. The god who answers and who sends fire to light the wood, he is the true God!’ All the people agreed that this was a good idea.

²⁵ Elijah said to Baal's prophets, ‘There are many of you, so choose one of the bulls and prepare it first. Pray to your god, but do not light the fire.’ ²⁶ So Baal's prophets took a bull as Elijah had told them. They prepared it and they put it on the altar that they had made. Then they prayed to Baal all the time, from morning until noon. They shouted, ‘Baal, answer us!’ But there was no voice that answered them. They jumped and they danced around the altar. ²⁷ At noon, Elijah began to laugh at them. ‘Shout louder!’ he said. ‘He is a god, isn't he? Maybe he is thinking about something else! Or has he left the room for a moment? Maybe he has gone away from home on a journey. Or perhaps he is asleep and you need to wake him up!’

²⁸ So Baal's prophets shouted louder. They cut themselves with swords and knives, as their customs taught them to do. Soon, there was blood all over them. ²⁹ They continued to shout and dance all the afternoon, until the time of the evening offering. But there was no voice to reply. There was no answer at all.

³⁰ Then Elijah said to all the people, ‘Come nearer to me.’ When they came, Elijah mended the Lord's altar that had broken into pieces. ³¹ Elijah picked up 12 stones, one for each of the tribes that were Jacob's descendants. Jacob was the man that the Lord had given the new name ‘Israel’. ³² Elijah used the 12 stones to build an altar that would give honour to the Lord. He dug a hole in the ground all around it. The hole was big enough to contain 15 litres of seeds. ³³ Then he put wood on the altar. He cut the bull into pieces and he put the pieces on top of the wood. Then he said to the people, ‘Fill four large jars with water. Pour the water all over the offering and the wood.’ ³⁴ After they did that, Elijah told them, ‘Do it again!’ So they did it again. Then he told them, ‘Do it a third time!’ So they did it for the third time. ³⁵ The water poured down all the sides of the altar. It filled the hole that was around the altar.

³⁶ The time came for the evening offering. Then God's prophet Elijah came to the front of the altar. He prayed, ‘Lord, you are the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel. Show people clearly today that you are the God who rules over Israel. Show that I am your servant. Show that I have done all these things because you commanded me to do them. ³⁷ Please answer me, Lord! Answer me so that these people will know that you, Lord, are the true God. They will know that you have caused them to turn back to serve you again.’

³⁸ Then the Lord sent fire down from above. It burned the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the dirt. It made all the water in the hole around the altar disappear! ³⁹ When all the people saw this, they threw themselves down on the ground. They shouted, ‘The Lord is the true God! Yes, the Lord is God!’

Sing a new song!^[a]

Paul says ‘hello’

1 This letter is from me, Paul. I am an apostle of Jesus Christ. It is not any group of people or any one person that has given that authority to me. It is Jesus Christ himself who has chosen me to serve him. And God our Father, who raised Jesus to become alive again after his death, has also sent me. ² All the believers who are here say ‘hello’ to you. We all send this letter to you.

I am writing to you, the people of the churches that are in Galatia.

³ I pray that God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ will continue to help you. I pray that they will give you peace in your minds. ⁴ Jesus offered himself as a sacrifice because of all the wrong things that we have done. He did that to save us from all the bad things of this world in which we live now. This is what God, our Father, wanted him to do. ⁵ God is great and we should praise him for ever. Amen. This is true.

The true message of good news

⁶ I am very surprised that you are turning away so soon from God. He is the one who chose you to come to him. He did that because Christ is very kind to you. But now you want to accept a different message which some people call good news. ⁷ But really, there is no other message from God which is good news. Some people are confusing you. They are trying to change the good news about Christ and make it something different. ⁸ Nobody should ever teach a message that is different from the good news that we taught you. Neither we ourselves, nor even an angel from heaven, should ever teach a different message. If anyone does that, I pray that God would curse him. ⁹ We have already said this, but now I will say it again. Do not accept any message that is different from the message that we taught you. If anyone teaches a different message, I pray that God will curse him very strongly.

¹⁰ When I say these things, I am not trying to please people. No, it is God that I want to please. If I only wanted to make people happy, then I would not be a servant of Christ.

Paul's message is from God

¹¹ The good news that I tell people did not come from any person on earth. I want you to know that, my friends. ¹² Nobody on earth gave it to me. Nobody taught it to me. No, it was Jesus Christ himself who showed it to me clearly.

A Roman officer believes that Jesus can help him

7 After Jesus had finished speaking to the people, he went to Capernaum.^{[a] 2} A Roman officer there had a servant that he liked very much. The servant was very ill and he was dying.

³ The officer heard about Jesus, so he sent some important Jews to speak to him. ‘Please go to Jesus,’ he said to them. ‘I would like him to make my servant well. Ask him if he would come to do that.’ ⁴ The Jewish leaders went to Jesus. They asked him, ‘Please would you do something to help this Roman officer. ⁵ He loves the Jewish people. He himself built a meeting place for us.’

⁶ So Jesus went with them. When he was not very far away from the house, the officer sent some friends to talk to him. He told them to say to Jesus, ‘Sir, I do not want to be a trouble to you. I am not good enough for you to come into my house. ⁷ That is why I did not come to talk to you myself. Instead, just say that my servant will get better. I know that he will then be well again. ⁸ In my work, someone has authority over me. I also have authority over other soldiers. I say to one soldier, “Go!” and he goes. I say to another one, “Come!” and he comes. I say to my servant, “Do this!” and he does it.’

⁹ When Jesus heard this message from the officer, he was very surprised. He turned towards the crowd that was following him. He said to them, ‘I tell you, I have not found anyone like this man in all of Israel. Nobody else believes in me as well as he does.’

¹⁰ The friends of the officer then returned to his house. When they arrived there, they saw that the servant was well again.