Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
The Fourth Vision: The Basket of Summer Fruit
8 This is what the Lord God showed me: I saw a basket of ripe summer fruit. 2 Then he asked, “What do you see, Amos?”
I said, “A basket of ripe summer fruit.”
Then the Lord said to me, “The end is coming upon my people Israel.[a] I will no longer overlook their sin. 3 The singing women of the palace[b] will wail on that day, declares the Lord God. Many corpses—all over! Silence!”
Fraud and Hypocrisy on Holy Days
4 Listen to this, you who trample on the needy
to wipe out the oppressed from the land,
5 who say, “When will the New Moon be over so that we can sell grain?
When will the Sabbath end so that we can open the grain bins?
Then we will make the bushel[c] smaller and make the shekel weight heavier.[d]
We will cheat with dishonest scales.
6 We will buy the poor for silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals.
We will sell the chaff with the grain.”
A Famine of the Lord’s Word
7 The Lord swears by the Pride of Jacob,
“I will never forget any of their deeds!”
8 Because of this, the land will shake,
and everyone living in it will mourn.
The whole land will rise up like the Nile.
It will surge and sink down again like the Nile of Egypt.
9 Here is what will happen on that day, declares the Lord God:
I will make the sun set at noon,
and I will bring darkness on the earth when it should be light.
10 I will turn your festivals into mourning
and all of your songs into a lamentation.
I will put sackcloth on all your waists
and baldness on every head.
I will make that day like the mourning for an only son,
and it will end like a bitter day.
11 Look, the days are coming, declares the Lord God,
when I will send a famine into the land—
not a famine of bread
nor a thirst for water,
but rather a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.
12 People will stumble from sea to sea
and from north to east.
They will roam back and forth seeking the word of the Lord,
but they will not find it.
Psalm 52
Your Tongue Is a Razor
Heading
For the choir director. A maskil[a] by David.
When Doeg the Edomite went and informed Saul
and said to him, “David has gone to the house of Ahimelek.”[b]
Doeg’s Sin
1 Why do you boast about evil, you hero?
The mercy of God endures all day long.
2 Your tongue plans destruction.
It is like a sharpened razor, you scheming liar.
3 You love evil rather than good. Interlude
You love lying rather than speaking what is right.
4 You lying tongue, you love every word that devours!
Doeg’s Judgment
5 But God will tear you down forever.
He will grab you and pull you out of your tent. Interlude
He will uproot you from the land of the living.
6 Then the righteous will see and fear.
Then they will laugh at him:
7 “Look, here is the man who did not make God his stronghold,
but trusted in the greatness of his wealth.
He grew strong by his destructive deeds!”
David’s Delivery
8 But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God.
I trust in the mercy of God forever and ever.
9 I will thank you forever because you have done this.
I will hope in your name in the presence of your favored ones
because it is good.
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation, 16 for in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, things seen and unseen, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and all things hold together in him.
18 He is also the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that in all things he might have the highest rank. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile all things to himself (whether things on earth or in heaven) by making peace through the blood of his cross.
Reconciled Through Christ’s Death
21 At one time, you were alienated from God and hostile in your thinking as expressed through your evil deeds. 22 But now Christ reconciled you in his body of flesh through death, in order to present you holy, blameless, and faultless before him— 23 if you continue steadfast and firm in faith, without being moved away from the hope of the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a minister.
Paul’s Service in Preaching the Gospel
24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings on your behalf, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the church. 25 I became a minister of the church for your benefit when God gave me the task of fully proclaiming the word of God, 26 namely, the mystery that was hidden for past ages and generations, but now has been revealed to his saints. 27 God wanted to make known to them what is the wealth of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles—this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
28 We proclaim him as we admonish and teach everyone with all wisdom, so that we might present everyone perfect in Christ.
Mary and Martha
38 As they went on their way, Jesus came into a village, and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. 39 She had a sister named Mary, who was sitting at the Lord’s feet and was listening to his word. 40 But Martha was distracted with all her serving. She came over and said, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her to help me.”
41 The Lord answered and told her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but one thing is needed. In fact, Mary has chosen that better part, which will not be taken away from her.”
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.