Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Jeremiah’s Call as a Prophet

⁴ This message from the Lord came to me:

⁶ I replied, “Ah, Lord God! Look, I don’t know how to speak, because I’m only^[a] a young man.”

⁷ Then the Lord told me, “Don’t say, ‘I’m only^[b] a young man,’ for you will go everywhere I send you, and you will speak everything I command you. ⁸ Don’t be afraid of them, because I am with you to deliver you,” declares the Lord.

⁹ The Lord stretched out his hand, touched my mouth, and then told me, “Look, I’ve put my words in your mouth. ¹⁰ See, today I’ve appointed you to prophesy about nations and kingdoms, to pull up and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.”

A Prayer for Deliverance

¹⁸ You have not come to something^[a] that can be touched, to a blazing fire, to darkness, to gloom, ¹⁹ to a trumpet’s blast, or to a voice that made the hearers beg that not another word be spoken to them. ²⁰ For they could not endure the command that was given: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death.”^{[b] 21} Indeed, the sight was so terrifying that Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.”^{[c] 22} Instead, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, to the heavenly Jerusalem, to tens of thousands of angels joyfully gathered together, ²³ to the assembly^[d] of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, to a judge who is the God of all, to the spirits of righteous people who have been made perfect, ²⁴ to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better message than Abel’s.

²⁵ See to it that you do not ignore the one who is speaking. For if the hearers^[e] did not escape when they ignored the one who warned them on earth, how much less will we escape^[f] if we turn away from the one who is from heaven! ²⁶ At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also heaven.”^{[g] 27} The expression “once more”^[h] signifies the removal of what can be shaken, that is, what he has made, so that what cannot be shaken may remain. ²⁸ Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful and worship God in reverence and fear in a way that pleases him. ²⁹ For “our God is an all-consuming fire.”^[i]

Jesus Heals a Woman on the Sabbath

¹⁰ Jesus^[a] was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. ¹¹ A woman was there who had a spirit that had disabled her for eighteen years. She was hunched over and completely unable to stand up straight. ¹² When Jesus saw her, he called to her and said, “Woman, you are free from your illness.” ¹³ Then he placed his hands on her, and immediately she stood up straight and began praising God.

¹⁴ But the synagogue leader, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, told the crowd, “There are six days when work is to be done. So come on those days to be healed, and not on the Sabbath day.”

¹⁵ The Lord replied to him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey and lead it out of its stall to give it some water? ¹⁶ Shouldn’t this woman, a descendant of Abraham whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the Sabbath day?” ¹⁷ Even as he was saying this, all of his opponents were blushing with shame. But the rest of the crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things he was doing.