Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

The Day of the Lord

2 Blow a horn in Zion! Give the sound of danger on My holy mountain! Let all the people of the land shake in fear, for the day of the Lord is coming. The day is near. ² It will be a day of darkness, a day of clouds and much darkness. A large and powerful army will come like darkness spreading over the mountains. There has never been anything like it, and there will never be anything like it again for all time to come.

A Call to Turn from Sin

¹² “Yet even now,” says the Lord, “return to Me with all your heart, crying in sorrow and eating no food. ¹³ Tear your heart and not your clothes.” Return to the Lord your God, for He is full of loving-kindness and loving-pity. He is slow to anger, full of love, and ready to keep His punishment from you. ¹⁴ It may be that He will turn and have pity, and leave good behind for you. He may leave you a grain gift and a drink gift for the Lord your God. ¹⁵ Blow a horn in Zion. Set apart a time when no food will be eaten. Call together a holy meeting. ¹⁶ Gather the people and make them holy. Gather together the leaders, the children, and the nursing babies. Let the man to be married come out of his room, and the bride come out of her room. ¹⁷ Let the religious leaders who serve the Lord cry between the porch and the altar. Let them say, “Have pity on Your people, O Lord. Do not put your people to shame. And do not make the nations speak against them. Why should the people of the nations say, ‘Where is their God?’”

Going without Food Pleases God

58 “Cry with a loud voice. Do not hold back. Raise your voice like a horn, and show My people their wrong-doing and the family of Jacob their sins. ² Yet they look for Me day by day, and are happy to know My ways, as a nation that has done what is right and good, and has not turned away from the Law of their God. They ask Me to be fair in what I decide, and they are happy to come near to God. ³ They say, ‘Why have we gone without food, and You do not see it? Why have we put away our pride, and You do not know it?’ See, on the day you do not eat, you do what you want to do, and make it hard for all your workers. ⁴ See, while you go without food you argue and fight and hit with a sinful hand. Going without food as you do today will not help your voice to be heard on high. ⁵ Is it a time without eating like this that I choose, a day for a man to put away his pride? Is it for bowing his head like a piece of grass, and to spread ashes and cloth made from hair for his bed? Will you call this time without eating a day that pleases the Lord? ⁶ Is not the time without eating which I choose, a time to take off the chains of sin, and to take the heavy load of sin off the neck? Is it not a time to let those who suffer under a sinful power go free, and to break every load from their neck? ⁷ Is it not a time to share your food with the hungry, and bring the poor man into your house who has no home of his own? Is it not a time to give clothes to the person you see who has no clothes, and a time not to hide yourself from your own family? ⁸ Then your light will break out like the early morning, and you will soon be healed. Your right and good works will go before you. And the shining-greatness of the Lord will keep watch behind you. ⁹ Then you will call, and the Lord will answer. You will cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’ If you take the weight of sin away, and stop putting the blame on others and stop speaking sinful things, ¹⁰ and if you give what you have to the hungry, and fill the needs of those who suffer, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your darkness will be like the brightest time of day. ¹¹ The Lord will always lead you. He will meet the needs of your soul in the dry times and give strength to your body. You will be like a garden that has enough water, like a well of water that never dries up. ¹² And your cities which were destroyed long ago will be built again. You will set up the stones of the bases of the old buildings. You will be called the one who builds again the broken walls, and who makes the streets on which people live like new.

Prayer of the Sinner

51 O God, favor me because of Your loving-kindness. Take away my wrong-doing because of the greatness of Your loving-pity. ² Wash me inside and out from my wrong-doing and make me clean from my sin. ³ For I know my wrong-doing, and my sin is always in front of me. ⁴ I have sinned against You, and You only. I have done what is sinful in Your eyes. You are always right when You speak, and fair when You judge.

⁵ See, I was born in sin and was in sin from my very beginning. ⁶ See, You want truth deep within the heart. And You will make me know wisdom in the hidden part. ⁷ Take away my sin, and I will be clean. Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. ⁸ Make me hear joy and happiness. Let the bones that You have broken be full of joy. ⁹ Hide Your face from my sins. And take away all my wrong-doing.

¹⁰ Make a clean heart in me, O God. Give me a new spirit that will not be moved. ¹¹ Do not throw me away from where You are. And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. ¹² Let the joy of Your saving power return to me. And give me a willing spirit to obey you. ¹³ Then I will teach wrong-doers Your ways. And sinners will turn to You.

¹⁴ Save me from the guilt of blood, O God. You are the God Who saves me. Then my tongue will sing with joy about how right and good You are. ¹⁵ O Lord, open my lips, so my mouth will praise You. ¹⁶ For You are not happy with a gift given on the altar in worship, or I would give it. You are not pleased with burnt gifts. ¹⁷ The gifts on an altar that God wants are a broken spirit. O God, You will not hate a broken heart and a heart with no pride.

²⁰ We are Christ’s missionaries. God is speaking to you through us. We are speaking for Christ and we ask you from our hearts to turn from your sins and come to God. ²¹ Christ never sinned but God put our sin on Him. Then we are made right with God because of what Christ has done for us.

Our Job to Do

6 We are working together with God. We ask you from our hearts not to receive God’s loving-favor and then waste it. ² The Holy Writings say, “I heard you at the right time. I helped you on that day to be saved from the punishment of sin. Now is the right time! See! Now is the day to be saved.” ^{(A) 3} We do not want to put anything in the way that would keep people from God. We do not want to be blamed. ⁴ Everything we do shows we are God’s servants. We have had to wait and suffer. We have needed things. We have been in many hard places and have had many troubles. ⁵ We have been beaten. We have been put in prison. We have been in fights. We have worked hard. We have stayed awake watching. We have gone without food. ⁶ We have been pure. We have known what to do. We have suffered long. We have been kind. The Holy Spirit has worked in us. We have had true love. ⁷ We have spoken the truth. We have God’s power. We have the sword of being right with God in the right hand and in the left hand. ⁸ Some men respect us and some do not. Some men speak bad against us and some thank us. They say we lie, but we speak the truth. ⁹ Some men act as if they do not know us. And yet we are known by everyone. They act as if we were dead, but we are alive. They try to hurt and destroy us, but they are not able to kill us. ¹⁰ We are full of sorrow and yet we are always happy. We are poor and yet we make many people rich. We have nothing and yet we have everything.

Jesus Teaches on the Mountain about Helping Others

6 “Be sure you do not do good things in front of others just to be seen by them. If you do, you have no reward from your Father in heaven. ² When you give to the poor, do not be as those who pretend to be someone they are not. They blow a horn in the places of worship and in the streets so people may respect them. For sure, I tell you, they have all the reward they are going to get. ³ When you give, do not let your left hand know what your right hand gives. ⁴ Your giving should be in secret. Then your Father Who sees in secret will reward you.

Jesus Teaches about Prayer

⁵ “When you pray, do not be as those who pretend to be someone they are not. They love to stand and pray in the places of worship or in the streets so people can see them. For sure, I tell you, they have all the reward they are going to get. ⁶ When you pray, go into a room by yourself. After you have shut the door, pray to your Father Who is in secret. Then your Father Who sees in secret will reward you.

Jesus Teaches about Not Eating So You Can Pray Better

¹⁶ “When you go without food so you can pray better, do not be as those who pretend to be someone they are not. They make themselves look sad so people will see they are going with out food. For sure, I tell you, they have all the reward they are going to get. ¹⁷ When you go without food so you can pray better, put oil on your head and wash your face. ¹⁸ Then nobody knows you are going without food. Then your Father Who sees in secret will reward you.

Jesus Teaches about Having Riches

¹⁹ “Do not gather together for yourself riches of this earth. They will be eaten by bugs and become rusted. Men can break in and steal them. ²⁰ Gather together riches in heaven where they will not be eaten by bugs or become rusted. Men cannot break in and steal them. ²¹ For wherever your riches are, your heart will be there also.