Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 118

The Stone the Builders Rejected

Introduction

The Messiah’s Joy in Victory

The Joy in Victory of Messiah’s Followers

The Creation of the World

1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. ² The earth was undeveloped^[a] and empty. Darkness covered the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.

³ God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. ⁴ God saw that the light was good. He separated the light from the darkness. ⁵ God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” There was evening and there was morning—the first day.

⁶ God said, “Let there be an expanse^[b] between the waters, and let it separate the water from the water.” ⁷ God made the expanse, and he separated the water that was below the expanse from the water that was above the expanse, and it was so. ⁸ God called the expanse “sky.” ^[c]There was evening and there was morning—the second day.

⁹ God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together to one place, and let the dry land appear,” and it was so. ⎣The waters under the sky gathered to their own places, and the dry land appeared.⎦^{[d] 10} God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathering places of the waters he called “seas.” God saw that it was good. ¹¹ God said, “Let the earth produce plants—vegetation that produces seed, and trees that bear fruit with its seed in it—each according to its own kind on the earth,” and it was so. ¹² The earth brought forth plants, vegetation that produces seed according to its own kind, and trees that bear fruit with its seed in it, each according to its own kind, and God saw that it was good. ¹³ There was evening and there was morning—the third day.

¹⁴ God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to divide the day from the night, and let them serve as markers to indicate seasons, days, and years. ¹⁵ Let them serve as lights in the expanse of the sky to give light to the earth,” and it was so. ¹⁶ God made the two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He also made the stars. ¹⁷ God set these lights in place in the expanse of the sky to provide light for the earth, ¹⁸ to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. God saw that it was good. ¹⁹ There was evening and there was morning—the fourth day.

The Resurrection Body

³⁵ But someone will object, “How can it be that the dead are raised? With what kind of body are they going to come?”

³⁶ You are being foolish. What you sow is not made alive unless it dies. ³⁷ And what you sow is not the body that will be, but a bare seed, perhaps of wheat or some other grain. ³⁸ But God gives it a body of the kind he wanted it to have, and to each of the seeds he gives its own body.

³⁹ Flesh is not all the same kind. Instead, people have one kind of flesh, animals have another kind, birds another, and fish yet another. ⁴⁰ There are also celestial bodies and bodies on earth, but the glory of the celestial bodies differs from that of the bodies on earth. ⁴¹ There is one glory of the sun, another of the moon, and another of the stars; in fact, one star differs from another in glory.

⁴² That is the way the resurrection of the dead will be. What is sown is perishable; it is raised imperishable. ⁴³ It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. ⁴⁴ It is sown as a natural^[a] body; it is raised as a spiritual^[b] body.

If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. ⁴⁵ So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living natural being.”^[c] The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. ⁴⁶ However, that which is spiritual is not first; rather, first comes the natural, then the spiritual. ⁴⁷ The first man is of the earth, made of dust. The second man is the Lord^[d] from heaven. ⁴⁸ As was the man made of dust, so are the people who are made of dust, and as is the heavenly man, so the heavenly people will be. ⁴⁹ And just as we have borne the image of the man made of dust, let us^[e] also bear the image of the heavenly man.