Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

The Tower of Babel

11 Now^[a] the whole earth had one language and the same words. ² And as people migrated^[b] from the east they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. ³ And they said to each other,^[c] “Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly.”^[d] And they had brick for stone and they had tar for mortar. ⁴ And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower whose top reaches to the heavens. And let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

⁵ Then^[e] Yahweh came down to see the city and the tower that humankind^[f] was building. ⁶ And Yahweh said, “Behold, they are one people with one language,^[g] and this is only the beginning of what they will do.^[h] So^[i] now nothing that they intend to do will be impossible for them. ⁷ Come, let us go down and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand each other’s language.”^{[j] 8} So Yahweh scattered them from there over the face of the whole earth, and they stopped building the city. ⁹ Therefore its name was called Babel, for there Yahweh confused the language of the whole earth, and there Yahweh scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

Unity in the Midst of Diversity

¹² For just as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of the body, although they^[a] are many, are one body, thus also Christ. ¹³ For by^[b] one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free persons, and all were made to drink one Spirit. ¹⁴ For the body is not one member, but many. ¹⁵ If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body,” not because of this is it not a part of the body. ¹⁶ And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body, not because of this is it not a part of the body. ¹⁷ If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? ¹⁸ But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body just as he wanted. ¹⁹ And if they all were one member, where would the body be? ²⁰ But now there are many members, but one body.

²¹ Now the eye is not able to say to the hand, “I do not have need of you,” or again, the head to the feet, “I do not have need of you.” ²² But by much more the members of the body which are thought to be weaker are necessary, ²³ and the parts of the body which we think to be less honorable, these we clothe with more abundant honor, and our unpresentable parts come to have more abundant presentability, ²⁴ but our presentable parts do not have need of this. Yet God composed the body by giving more abundant honor to the part which lacked it, ²⁵ in order that there not be a division in the body, but the members would have the same concern for one another. ²⁶ And if one member suffers, all the members suffer together; if a member^[c] is honored, all the members rejoice with it.

²⁷ Now you are the body of Christ, and members of it individually^[d],