Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
The Ten Commandments
(Deuteronomy 5.1-21)
20 God said to the people of Israel:
2 I am the Lord your God, the one who brought you out of Egypt where you were slaves.
3 Do not worship any god except me.
4 (A) Do not make idols that look like anything in the sky or on earth or in the ocean under the earth. 5 (B) Don't bow down and worship idols. I am the Lord your God, and I demand all your love. If you reject me, I will punish your families for three or four generations. 6 But if you love me and obey my laws, I will be kind to your families for thousands of generations.
7 (C) Do not misuse my name.[a] I am the Lord your God, and I will punish anyone who misuses my name.
8 (D) Remember that the Sabbath Day belongs to me. 9 (E) You have six days when you can do your work, 10 but the seventh day of each week belongs to me, your God. No one is to work on that day—not you, your children, your slaves, your animals, or the foreigners who live in your towns. 11 (F) In six days I made the sky, the earth, the oceans, and everything in them, but on the seventh day I rested. That's why I made the Sabbath a special day that belongs to me.
12 (G) Respect your father and your mother, and you will live a long time in the land I am giving you.
13 (H) Do not murder.
14 (I) Be faithful in marriage.
15 (J) Do not steal.
16 (K) Do not tell lies about others.
17 (L) Do not desire to possess anything that belongs to another person—not a house, a wife, a husband, a slave, an ox, a donkey, or anything else.
(A psalm by David for the music leader.)
The Wonders of God and the Goodness of His Law
1 The heavens keep telling
the wonders of God,
and the skies declare
what he has done.
2 Each day informs
the following day;
each night announces
to the next.
3 They don't speak a word,
and there is never
the sound of a voice.
4 (A) Yet their message reaches
all the earth,
and it travels
around the world.
In the heavens a tent
is set up for the sun.
5 It rises like a bridegroom
and gets ready like a hero
eager to run a race.
6 It travels all the way
across the sky.
Nothing hides from its heat.
7 (B) The Law of the Lord is perfect;
it gives us new life.
His teachings last forever,
and they give wisdom
to ordinary people.
8 The Lord's instruction is right;
it makes our hearts glad.
His commands shine brightly,
and they give us light.
9 Worshiping the Lord is sacred;
he will always be worshiped.
All his decisions
are correct and fair.
10 They are worth more
than the finest gold
and are sweeter than honey
from a honeycomb.
11 By your teachings, Lord,
I am warned;
by obeying them,
I am greatly rewarded.
12 None of us know our faults.
Forgive me when I sin
without knowing it.
13 Don't let me do wrong
on purpose, Lord,
or let sin have control
over my life.
Then I will be innocent,
and not guilty
of some terrible fault.
14 Let my words and my thoughts
be pleasing to you, Lord,
because you are my mighty rock[a]
and my protector.
Christ Is God's Power and Wisdom
18 The message about the cross doesn't make any sense to lost people. But for those of us who are being saved, it is God's power at work. 19 (A) As God says in the Scriptures,
“I will destroy the wisdom
of all who claim
to be wise.
I will confuse those
who think they know
so much.”
20 (B) What happened to those wise people? What happened to those experts in the Scriptures? What happened to the ones who think they have all the answers? Didn't God show that the wisdom of this world is foolish? 21 (C) God was wise and decided not to let the people of this world use their wisdom to learn about him.
Instead, God chose to save only those who believe the foolish message we preach. 22 Jews ask for miracles, and Greeks want something that sounds wise. 23 But we preach that Christ was nailed to a cross. Most Jews have problems with this, and most Gentiles think it is foolish. 24 Our message is God's power and wisdom for the Jews and the Greeks that he has chosen. 25 Even when God is foolish, he is wiser than everyone else, and even when God is weak, he is stronger than everyone else.
Jesus in the Temple
(Matthew 21.12,13; Mark 11.15-17; Luke 19.45,46)
13 (A) Not long before the Jewish festival of Passover, Jesus went to Jerusalem. 14 There he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves in the temple. He also saw moneychangers sitting at their tables. 15 So he took some rope and made a whip. Then he chased everyone out of the temple, together with their sheep and cattle. He turned over the tables of the moneychangers and scattered their coins.
16 Jesus said to the people who had been selling doves, “Get those doves out of here! Don't make my Father's house a marketplace.”
17 (B) The disciples then remembered that the Scriptures say, “My love for your house burns in me like a fire.”
18 The Jewish leaders asked Jesus, “What miracle[a] will you work to show us why you have done this?”
19 (C) “Destroy this temple,” Jesus answered, “and in three days I will build it again!”
20 The leaders replied, “It took 46 years to build this temple. What makes you think you can rebuild it in three days?”
21 But Jesus was talking about his body as a temple. 22 And when he was raised from death, his disciples remembered what he had told them. Then they believed the Scriptures and the words of Jesus.
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