Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

A Davidic Song of Ascents

God is for Us

The Waters Recede

8 God kept Noah in mind, along with all the wildlife^[a] and livestock that were with him in the ark. God’s Spirit^[b] moved throughout the earth, causing the flood waters to subside. ² The water sources from the ocean depths were blocked and the floodgates of the heavens were closed. ³ Then the flood waters steadily receded,^[c] diminishing completely by the end of the 150 days. ⁴ The ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat^[d] on the seventeenth day of the seventh month. ⁵ The flood water continued to recede until the tenth month, when, on the first of that month, the tops of the mountains could be seen.

⁶ After 40 days, Noah opened the window of the ark that he had built ⁷ and sent out a raven. It went back and forth as the flood water continued to evaporate throughout the earth. ⁸ Later, he sent a dove out from the ark^[e] to see whether the water that covered the land’s surface had completely^[f] receded, ⁹ but the dove could not yet find a place to rest,^[g] so it returned to Noah^[h] on the ark, since water still covered the land. Noah reached out his hand and took the dove back^[i] into the ark with him.

¹⁰ Noah^[j] waited another seven days and sent the dove out from the ark again. ¹¹ The dove returned to him in the evening, but in its beak there was an olive leaf that it had plucked! So Noah knew that the flood waters had decreased on the land. ¹² He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but it did not return to him anymore.

¹³ In the six hundred and first year of Noah’s life,^[k] during the first month, the flood water began to evaporate from the land. Noah then removed the ark’s cover and saw that the surface of the land was drying. ¹⁴ By the twenty-seventh day of the second month, the ground was dry.

The Lord’s Covenant

¹⁵ God spoke to Noah, ¹⁶ “It’s time for you, your wife, your sons, and your sons’ wives who are with you to leave the ark. ¹⁷ Bring out with you every living creature—including the flying creatures, animals, and everything that crawls on the ground—so they may disperse throughout the land, be fruitful, and multiply throughout the earth.” ¹⁸ So Noah, his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives emerged. ¹⁹ Every animal, every crawling thing, every flying creature, and everything that moves on the earth emerged from the ark by groups.^[l]

No Longer Sin’s Slaves, but God’s Slaves

6 What should we say, then? Should we go on sinning so that grace may increase? ² Of course not! How can we who died as far as sin is concerned go on living in it?

³ Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into union with the Messiah^[a] Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴ Therefore, through baptism we were buried with him into his death so that, just as the Messiah^[b] was raised from the dead by the Father’s glory, we too may live an entirely new life. ⁵ For if we have become united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. ⁶ We know that our old natures were crucified with him so that our sin-laden bodies might be rendered powerless and we might no longer be slaves to sin. ⁷ For the person who has died has been freed from sin.

⁸ Now if we have died with the Messiah,^[c] we believe that we will also live with him, ⁹ for we know that the Messiah,^[d] who was raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has mastery over him. ¹⁰ For when he died, he died once and for all as far as sin is concerned. But now that he is alive, he lives for God. ¹¹ In the same way, you too must continuously consider yourselves dead as far as sin is concerned, but living for God through the Messiah^[e] Jesus.^[f]