Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

106 Hallelujah! Thank you, Lord! How good you are! Your love for us continues on forever. ² Who can ever list the glorious miracles of God? Who can ever praise him half enough?

³ Happiness comes to those who are fair to others and are always just and good.

⁴ Remember me too, O Lord, while you are blessing and saving your people. ⁵ Let me share in your chosen ones’ prosperity and rejoice in all their joys, and receive the glory you give to them.

⁶ Both we and our fathers have sinned so much.

^19-20 For they preferred a statue of an ox that eats grass to the glorious presence of God himself. ^21-22 Thus they despised their Savior who had done such mighty miracles in Egypt and at the Red Sea. ²³ So the Lord declared he would destroy them. But Moses, his chosen one, stepped into the breach between the people and their God and begged him to turn from his wrath and not destroy them.

24 The Lord now instructed Moses, “Come up here with Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel. All of you except Moses are to worship at a distance. ² Moses alone shall come near to the Lord; and remember, none of the ordinary people are permitted to come up into the mountain at all.”

³ Then Moses announced to the people all the laws and regulations God had given him; and the people answered in unison, “We will obey them all.”

⁴ Moses wrote down the laws; and early the next morning he built an altar at the foot of the mountain, with twelve pillars around the altar because there were twelve tribes of Israel. ⁵ Then he sent some of the young men to sacrifice the burnt offerings and peace offerings to the Lord. ⁶ Moses took half of the blood of these animals and drew it off into basins. The other half he splashed against the altar.

⁷ And he read to the people the Book he had written—the Book of the Covenant—containing God’s directions and laws. And the people said again, “We solemnly promise to obey every one of these rules.”

⁸ Then Moses threw the blood from the basins toward the people and said, “This blood confirms and seals the covenant the Lord has made with you in giving you these laws.”

5 And now, a word to you elders of the church. I, too, am an elder; with my own eyes I saw Christ dying on the cross; and I, too, will share his glory and his honor when he returns. Fellow elders, this is my plea to you: ² Feed the flock of God; care for it willingly, not grudgingly; not for what you will get out of it but because you are eager to serve the Lord. ³ Don’t be tyrants, but lead them by your good example, ⁴ and when the Head Shepherd comes, your reward will be a never-ending share in his glory and honor.

⁵ You younger men, follow the leadership of those who are older. And all of you serve each other with humble spirits, for God gives special blessings to those who are humble, but sets himself against those who are proud.

¹² I am sending this note to you through the courtesy of Silvanus who is, in my opinion, a very faithful brother. I hope I have encouraged you by this letter, for I have given you a true statement of the way God blesses. What I have told you here should help you to stand firmly in his love.

¹³ The church here in Rome^[a]—she is your sister in the Lord—sends you her greetings; so does my son Mark. ¹⁴ Give each other the handshake of Christian love. Peace be to all of you who are in Christ.

Peter