Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
The Call of Jeremiah
4 The word of the Lord came to me.
5 Before I formed you in the womb, I knew[a] you,
and before you were born, I set you apart.
I appointed you to be a prophet to the nations.
6 But I said, “Ah, Lord God! I really do not know how to speak! I am only a child!”
7 The Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am only a child.’ You must go to everyone to whom I send you and say whatever I command you. 8 Do not be afraid of them, because I am with you, and I will rescue you, declares the Lord.”
9 Then the Lord stretched out his hand and touched my mouth. The Lord said to me:
There! I have now placed my words in your mouth.
10 Look, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms
to uproot and to tear down,
to destroy and to overthrow,
to build and to plant.
Psalm 71
Do Not Throw Me Away When I Am Old
Opening Prayer
1 In you, Lord, I have taken refuge.
May I not be put to shame forever.
2 In your righteousness rescue me and deliver me.
Turn your ear to me and save me.
3 Be my rock and my refuge to which I can always go.
You give the command to save me,
because you are my high ridge and my stronghold.
4 My God, deliver me from the hand of the wicked,
from the grasp of the unjust and the ruthless.
Remembrance of Past Help
5 For you have been my hope, Lord God,
my confidence since my youth.
6 I have depended on[a] you since I was in the womb.
You separated me from my mother’s body.
My praise to you is continuous.
Love Matters More Than the Other Gifts
13 If I speak in the tongues[a] of men and of angels but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and know all the mysteries and have all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away everything I own, and if I give up my body that I may be burned[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient. Love is kind. Love does not envy. It does not brag. It is not arrogant. 5 It does not behave indecently. It is not selfish. It is not irritable. It does not keep a record of wrongs. 6 It does not rejoice over unrighteousness but rejoices with the truth. 7 It bears[c] all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.[d]
8 Love never comes to an end. But if there are prophetic gifts, they will be done away with; if tongues, they will cease; if knowledge, it will be done away with. 9 For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part, 10 but when that which is complete has come, that which is partial will be done away with. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put away childish things. 12 Now we see indirectly using a mirror, but then we will see face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I was fully known.
13 So now these three remain: faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.
21 He began to tell them, “Today, this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
22 They all spoke well of him and were impressed by the words of grace that came from his mouth. And they kept saying, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?”
23 He told them, “Certainly you will quote this proverb to me, ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ Do here in your hometown everything we heard you did in Capernaum.” 24 And he said, “Amen[a] I tell you: No prophet is accepted in his hometown. 25 But truly I tell you: There were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut for three years and six months, while a great famine came over all the land. 26 Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow of Zarephath, in Sidon. 27 And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was healed except Naaman the Syrian.”
28 All those who were in the synagogue were filled with rage when they heard these things. 29 They got up and drove him out of the town. They led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. 30 But he passed through the middle of them and went on his way.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.