Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

⁸ Then the Lord told Elijah, ⁹ ‘Go now to Zarephath in the region of Sidon. Go and live there. I have told a widow who lives there that she must give you food to eat.’

¹⁰ So Elijah went to Zarephath. When he arrived at the town gate, he met a widow.^[a] She was picking up some sticks. Elijah asked her, ‘Please bring me some water in a jar, so that I can drink it.’ ¹¹ While she went to get it, he said, ‘Please bring me a piece of bread too.’ ¹² She replied, ‘As surely as the Lord your God lives, I do not have any bread. I have only a small amount of flour in a bowl and some olive oil in a small jar. I am now picking up a few sticks to take home. Then I will cook a meal for myself and for my son. We will eat it. Then we will die because there is nothing else to eat.’

¹³ Elijah said to her, ‘Do not be afraid. Go home and do what you have said. But first, use some of your flour to make a small piece of bread for me. Then bring it to me. After that, you should make something for yourself and for your son. ¹⁴ This is what the Lord, Israel's God, says: “You will not use all the flour in your bowl. You will not use all the oil in your jar. They will not become empty until the day when the Lord causes rain to fall on the ground again.” ’

¹⁵ Then the widow went home. She did what Elijah had told her to do. After that, there was enough food every day for Elijah and for the widow and her family. ¹⁶ The flour in the bowl and the olive oil in the jar never finished. The Lord had promised Elijah that this would happen.

¹⁷ Some time after that, the widow's son became ill. He became very ill until he could no longer breathe. ¹⁸ The woman said to Elijah, ‘Servant of God, why have you come to hurt me like this? Did you come to kill my son so that I would remember all my sins?’ ¹⁹ Elijah replied, ‘Give your son to me.’ He took her son from her arms. He carried the boy upstairs, to the room where he was staying. He put the boy down to lie on his bed. ²⁰ Then Elijah prayed to the Lord, ‘Lord, my God! Why have you caused such bad trouble to happen to this kind widow? I came to stay with her and now you have killed her son!’ ²¹ Then Elijah lay with his body across the boy. He did that three times. He prayed to the Lord, ‘Lord, my God, please cause this boy's life to return to him!’ ²² The Lord answered Elijah's prayer. The boy started to breathe again. He was alive! ²³ Elijah picked up the boy. He carried him down from his room into the house. He gave the boy to his mother and he said, ‘Look! Your son is alive!’ ²⁴ Then the woman said to Elijah, ‘Now I know that you are a servant of God. The words that you speak are truly a message from the Lord.’

The 1st Hallelujah Psalm^[a]

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.

¹³ You know about the things that I did before, when I obeyed the Jewish rules. I caused very much trouble against God's church. I tried to destroy those people completely. ¹⁴ I obeyed the Jewish rules better than many other Jews who were my friends. I tried very much to obey the ideas that our Jewish ancestors taught. ¹⁵ But God had chosen me to serve him even before I was born. He chose me to be his servant because he is very kind. ¹⁶ He decided to show his Son clearly to me, so that I could tell the Gentiles about him.^[a] When God chose me to do that, I did not talk about it with any person. ¹⁷ Nor did I go to Jerusalem to see Christ's apostles there. Those men were already his apostles before I was. But I did not go to talk to them. Instead, I went immediately to the region of Arabia.^[b] Later, I went back to the city of Damascus.

¹⁸ Then, three years later, I did go to Jerusalem. I stayed there with Christ's apostle Peter for 15 days, so that he could teach me. ¹⁹ I did not see any other apostles, except James, who is the Lord's brother. ²⁰ God knows that what I am writing to you is completely true! ²¹ Later, I went to different places in Syria and Cilicia.^{[c] 22} The Christians in the churches in Judea had never met me.^{[d] 23} They had only heard people say this about me: ‘This man caused bad trouble against us Christians before. He tried to destroy God's message about Jesus. But now he himself is telling people the good news about Jesus, so that they believe.’ ²⁴ When the believers in Judea heard that, they praised God because of me.

Jesus makes a dead man alive again

¹¹ The next day, Jesus went to a town called Nain. His disciples and a large group of other people went with him. ¹² When he had almost reached the gate of the town, lots of people were coming out. They were carrying a dead man on a wooden board. They were taking him to bury him. His mother had no other sons and her husband was also dead. A large crowd of people from the town was going with her.

¹³ When the Lord Jesus saw her, he felt very sorry for her. He said to her, ‘Do not cry.’ ¹⁴ He went to the board and he touched it. The people who were carrying the dead man stopped. Jesus said, ‘Young man, I am telling you, get up!’ ¹⁵ Immediately, the dead man sat up and he began to talk. Jesus then gave him back to his mother.

¹⁶ Everyone there was very afraid. They praised God and said, ‘A great prophet of God has appeared among us. God has come to save his people!’

¹⁷ This news about Jesus went everywhere in Judea. The people in the places that were near there also heard about it.