Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Isaac’s Family

¹⁹ This is the story of Isaac. Abraham had a son named Isaac. ²⁰ When Isaac was 40 years old, he married Rebekah. Rebekah was from Paddan Aram. She was Bethuel’s daughter and the sister of Laban the Aramean. ²¹ Isaac’s wife could not have children. So Isaac prayed to the Lord for her. The Lord heard Isaac’s prayer, and he allowed Rebekah to become pregnant.

²² While Rebekah was pregnant, the babies inside her struggled with one another. She prayed to the Lord and said, “What is happening to me?” ²³ The Lord said to her,

²⁴ When the right time came, Rebekah gave birth to twins. ²⁵ The first baby was red. His skin was like a hairy robe. So he was named Esau.^{[a] 26} When the second baby was born, he was holding tightly to Esau’s heel. So that baby was named Jacob.^[b] Isaac was 60 years old when Jacob and Esau were born.

²⁷ The boys grew up. Esau became a skilled hunter, who loved to be out in the fields. But Jacob was a quiet man, who stayed at home. ²⁸ Isaac loved Esau. He liked to eat the animals Esau killed. But Rebekah loved Jacob.

²⁹ One day Esau came back from hunting. He was tired and weak from hunger. Jacob was boiling a pot of beans. ³⁰ So Esau said to Jacob, “I am weak with hunger. Let me have some of that red soup.” (That is why people call him “Red.”^[c])

³¹ But Jacob said, “You must sell me your rights as the firstborn son.”

³² Esau said, “I am almost dead with hunger, so what good are these rights to me now?”

³³ But Jacob said, “First, promise me that you will give them to me.” So Esau made an oath to him and sold his rights as the firstborn son to Jacob. ³⁴ Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil^[d] soup. Esau ate the food, had something to drink, and then left. So Esau showed that he did not care about his rights as the firstborn son.

Nun

Life in the Spirit

8 So now anyone who is in Christ Jesus is not judged guilty. ² That is because in Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit that brings life made you^[a] free. It made you free from the law that brings sin and death. ³ The law was without power because it was made weak by our sinful selves. But God did what the law could not do: He sent his own Son to earth with the same human life that everyone else uses for sin. God sent him to be an offering to pay for sin. So God used a human life to destroy sin. ⁴ He did this so that we could be right just as the law said we must be. Now we don’t live following our sinful selves. We live following the Spirit.

⁵ People who live following their sinful selves think only about what they want. But those who live following the Spirit are thinking about what the Spirit wants them to do. ⁶ If your thinking is controlled by your sinful self, there is spiritual death. But if your thinking is controlled by the Spirit, there is life and peace. ⁷ Why is this true? Because anyone whose thinking is controlled by their sinful self is against God. They refuse to obey God’s law. And really they are not able to obey it. ⁸ Those who are ruled by their sinful selves cannot please God.

⁹ But you are not ruled by your sinful selves. You are ruled by the Spirit, if that Spirit of God really lives in you. But whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Christ. ¹⁰ Your body will always be dead because of sin. But if Christ is in you, then the Spirit gives you life, because Christ made you right with God. ¹¹ God raised Jesus from death. And if God’s Spirit lives in you, he will also give life to your bodies that die. Yes, God is the one who raised Christ from death, and he will raise you to life through his Spirit living in you.

A Story About a Farmer Sowing Seed^(A)

13 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. ² A large crowd gathered around him. So he got into a boat and sat down. All the people stayed on the shore. ³ Then Jesus used stories to teach them many things. He told them this story:

“A farmer went out to sow seed. ⁴ While he was scattering the seed, some of it fell by the road. The birds came and ate all that seed. ⁵ Other seed fell on rocky ground, where there was not enough dirt. It grew very fast there, because the soil was not deep. ⁶ But when the sun rose, it burned the plants. The plants died because they did not have deep roots. ⁷ Some other seed fell among thorny weeds. The weeds grew and stopped the good plants from growing. ⁸ But some of the seed fell on good ground. There it grew and made grain. Some plants made 100 times more grain, some 60 times more, and some 30 times more. ⁹ You people who hear me, listen!”

Jesus Explains the Story About Seed^(A)

¹⁸ “So listen to the meaning of that story about the farmer:

¹⁹ “What about the seed that fell by the path? That is like the people who hear the teaching about God’s kingdom but do not understand it. The Evil One comes and takes away what was planted in their hearts.

²⁰ “And what about the seed that fell on rocky ground? That is like the people who hear the teaching and quickly and gladly accept it. ²¹ But they do not let the teaching go deep into their lives. They keep it only a short time. As soon as trouble or persecution comes because of the teaching they accepted, they give up.

²² “And what about the seed that fell among the thorny weeds? That is like the people who hear the teaching but let worries about this life and love for money stop it from growing. So it does not produce a crop in their lives.

²³ “But what about the seed that fell on the good ground? That is like the people who hear the teaching and understand it. They grow and produce a good crop, sometimes 100 times more, sometimes 60 times more, and sometimes 30 times more.”