Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

¹⁴ That is why I kneel down before the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

¹⁵ From him every family in heaven or on earth gets its name.

¹⁶ I ask him to make you very strong in heart by his Spirit. He has great and wonderful blessings and is able to do so because of the fullness of his glory.

¹⁷ And I ask that Christ may live in your hearts because you believe in him. I ask that you may live and grow in love.

¹⁸ I ask that God will give you power to know how wide and long and high and deep the love of Christ is. All Christians should know that.

¹⁹ I ask God that you may know the love of Christ which is more than we can ever know. I ask that you may be filled with everything that God has.

²⁰ God can do much more than we ask him to do, or we even think of. He does it by his power which is working in us.

²¹ So, praise him in the church meeting in Christ Jesus. Praise him for ever and ever! May it be so!

6 Then Jesus crossed over the sea of Galilee. (Another name for this sea was Tiberias.)

² Many people followed him because they saw the big works he had done in healing the sick people.

³ Jesus went up on a hill and sat down with his disciples.

⁴ The time for the Passover Feast of the Jews was near.

⁵ When Jesus looked up, he saw many people coming to him. He said to Philip, `Where shall we buy food for these people to eat?'

⁶ Jesus knew what he himself would do, but he said this to see what Philip would do.

⁷ Philip answered him, `It would take nearly a year's wages to buy enough food for them, even if each one gets only a little.'

⁸ One of Jesus' disciples, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, talked to Jesus.

⁹ He said, `A boy here has five loaves of bread and two small fish. But what can that little bit of food do for so many people?'

¹⁰ Jesus said, `Tell the people to sit down.' Much grass was there. The number of men who sat down was about five thousand.

¹¹ Then Jesus took the bread and thanked God for it. He gave it to the disciples and they divided it among those who were sitting. He did the same thing with the fish. The people had all they wanted.

¹² When they had eaten enough, he said to his disciples, `Gather up all the pieces that are left so that nothing will be lost.'

¹³ They gathered all the pieces of the five loaves. Twelve baskets full were left over after all the people had eaten enough.

¹⁴ When those men saw the big work that Jesus did, they said, `Truly, this is the Prophet that is to come into the world.'

¹⁵ The people wanted to take Jesus by force to make him a king. When he saw this, he left again and went on the hill by himself.

¹⁶ In the evening his disciples went down to the lake [called the sea of Galilee].

¹⁷ They got in a boat and crossed over the sea toward the town of Capernaum. It was dark, but Jesus had not come back to them.

¹⁸ A strong wind was blowing. It made the water very rough.

¹⁹ They rowed the boat into the middle of the lake. Then they saw Jesus walking on the water. He came close to the boat. They were afraid.

²⁰ But Jesus said to them, `It is I. Do not fear.'

²¹ Then they were glad to take him into the boat. Then at once the boat reached the land to which they were going.