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

²⁰ God said, “Let the waters swarm with living creatures, and let birds and other winged creatures^[a] fly above the earth in the open expanse of the sky.” ²¹ God created the large sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their own kind, and every winged bird according to its own kind. God saw that it was good. ²² God blessed them when he said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the waters of the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” ²³ There was evening and there was morning—the fifth day.

²⁴ God said, “Let the earth produce living creatures according to their own kind, livestock,^[b] creeping things, and wild animals according to their own kind,” and it was so. ²⁵ God made the wild animals according to their own kind, and the livestock according to their own kind, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its own kind. God saw that it was good.

²⁶ God said, “Let us make man^[c] in our image, according to our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that crawls on the earth.”

²⁸ God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” ²⁹ God said, “Look, I have given you every plant that produces seed on the face of the whole earth, and every tree that bears fruit that produces seed. It will be your food. ³⁰ To every animal of the earth, and to every bird of the sky, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.

³¹ God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. There was evening and there was morning—the sixth day.

2 The heavens and the earth were finished, along with everything in them.^{[d] 2} On the seventh day God had finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had been doing. ³ God blessed the seventh day and set it apart as holy, because on it he rested from all his work of creation that he had done.

The Creation of Man and Woman

⁴ This is the account about the development^[e] of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens:

The Change to Immortality on the Last Day

⁵⁰ Now I say this, brothers: Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, and what is perishable is not going to inherit what is imperishable. ⁵¹ Look, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, ⁵² in a moment, in the blink of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. ⁵³ For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality. ⁵⁴ But once this perishable body has put on imperishability, and this mortal body has put on immortality, then what is written will be fulfilled:

⁵⁶ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. ⁵⁷ But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!

⁵⁸ Therefore, my dear brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the Lord’s work, because you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.