Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

God is good, so thank him^[a]

God makes the earth

1 In the beginning, God made the heavens and the earth. ² The earth was without shape and it was empty. Deep water covered the earth and everywhere was dark. The Spirit of God moved above the water.^[a]

³ God said, ‘There will be light!’

And there was light.

⁴ God saw that the light was good.

He caused the light and the dark to be separate.

⁵ God called the light ‘day’. He called the dark ‘night’.

Evening passed and then it was morning.

That was the first day.^[b]

⁶ Then God said, ‘A wide space will appear between the waters. So the waters will be in two separate places.’

⁷ So God made this wide space. He made the water under the space separate from the water that was above it. What God said happened.

⁸ God called the wide space ‘sky’.

Evening passed and then it was morning.

That was the second day.

⁹ God said, ‘The water that is under the sky will come together in one place. Then dry ground will appear.’

And what God said happened.

¹⁰ God called the dry ground ‘land’. He called the water that had come together ‘sea’.

God looked at what he had made. He saw that it was good.

¹¹ Then God said, ‘The land will cause plants to grow. There will be plants with their seeds and trees with their fruits. Each kind of plant and tree will have its own seeds and fruits.’

And what God said happened.

¹² All kinds of plants and trees began to grow in the ground. The plants made seeds. The trees made fruits with seeds in them. Each plant made its own kind of seeds.

God looked at what he had made. He saw that it was good.

¹³ Evening passed and then it was morning.

That was the third day.

¹⁴ God said, ‘There will be lights all across the sky.^[c] They will make the day different from the night. They will show the seasons, days and years. ¹⁵ The lights in the sky will give light to the earth.’

And what God said happened.

¹⁶ God made two great lights. The brighter light ruled over the day. The less bright light ruled over the night. God also made the stars.

¹⁷ God put all these lights in the sky to shine their light on the earth.

¹⁸ They were to rule over the day and night. They were to make the time of light separate from the time of dark.

God looked at what he had made. He saw that it was good.

¹⁹ Evening passed and then it was morning.

That was the fourth day.

New bodies

³⁵ One of you may ask, ‘How does God raise dead people, to make them alive again? What kind of body will they have?’ ³⁶ Do not think like a fool! When you plant a seed in the ground, it has to die first. Then it can become alive again and grow into a new plant. ³⁷ You put just a seed into the ground. It might be wheat or it might be another kind of seed. You do not put into the ground the whole plant that the seed will become. ³⁸ But God makes that seed become a plant. Each plant has its own special body that God has chosen for it.

³⁹ Also, things that are alive do not have the same kind of body. People have one kind of body. Animals have a different kind of body. Birds and fish also have a different kind of body. ⁴⁰ Also, there are things up in the sky that are different from the things here on the earth. They have different bodies. Also, the things in the sky are beautiful in a different way from the things on the earth. ⁴¹ The sun is beautiful in a special way. The moon is also beautiful in a special way, but it is different from the sun. The stars are beautiful too, and each star is beautiful in its own special way.

⁴² It is like that when God raises a dead person to a new life. We bury the dead person's body in the ground and it becomes spoiled. But when God raises it up, it will live for ever. ⁴³ When we bury the body, it is not beautiful. But when God raises it up, it is very beautiful. When we bury the body, it is weak. But when God raises it, it is strong. ⁴⁴ What we bury in the ground is a human body. But the body that God raises up is a spiritual body. There is a human body that belongs to this earth. So there also has to be a spiritual body that belongs to heaven.

⁴⁵ It says in the Bible, ‘The first man, Adam, became a person who received life.’^[a] But Christ is like the last Adam. He is a spirit who gives life to people.

⁴⁶ The spiritual body does not come first. No, what is human comes first. Then, after that, what is spiritual comes. ⁴⁷ God used soil from the ground to make the first man, Adam. But the second man came from heaven. ⁴⁸ People who live on the earth have bodies like the first man. That is the man that God made from the soil of the earth. People in heaven have bodies like the man who came from heaven. ⁴⁹ Now God has given us bodies that look like the first man. One day we will have bodies that look like the man who belongs in heaven.