Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

A Song of Praise

101 I will sing of loving-kindness and of what is right and fair. I will sing praises to You, O Lord. ² I will be careful to live a life without blame. When will You come to me? I will walk within my house with a right and good heart. ³ I will set no sinful thing in front of my eyes. I hate the work of those who are not faithful. It will not get hold of me. ⁴ A sinful heart will be far from me. I will have nothing to do with sin. ⁵ I will stop whoever talks against his neighbor in secret. I will not listen to anyone who has a proud look and a proud heart.

⁶ My eyes will look with favor on the faithful in the land, so they may serve me. He who walks without blame will help me. ⁷ He whose ways are false will not live in my house. He who tells lies will not stand in front of me. ⁸ I will destroy all the sinful in the land every morning. I will cut off all those who do wrong from the city of the Lord.

Solomon’s Wisdom

¹⁶ Then two women who sold the use of their bodies came to the king and stood in front of him. ¹⁷ One of the women said, “O my lord, this woman and I live in the same house. And I gave birth to a child while she was in the house. ¹⁸ On the third day after I gave birth, this woman gave birth to a child also. And we were alone. There was no one else with us in the house. There were only the two of us. ¹⁹ This woman’s son died during the night, because she lay on him. ²⁰ So she got up in the night and took my son from my side while I was asleep. She laid him in her arms, and her dead son in my arms. ²¹ When I got up in the morning to nurse my son, I saw that he was dead. But when I came nearer and looked, I saw that he was not my son who was born to me.” ²² Then the other woman said, “No! The living one is my son, and the dead one is your son.” But the first woman said, “No! The dead one is your son and the living one is my son.” They spoke this way in front of the king.

²³ Then the king said, “The one says, ‘This is my son who is living, and your son is the dead one.’ The other says, ‘No! Your son is the dead one. My son is the living one.’” ²⁴ And the king said, “Bring me a sword.” So they brought a sword to the king. ²⁵ And the king said, “Divide the living child in two. Give half to the one woman and half to the other.” ²⁶ Then the mother of the living child had much pity for her son and said to the king, “O, my lord, give her the living child. Do not kill him.” But the other woman said, “He will not be mine or yours. Divide him.” ²⁷ Then the king answered and said, “Give the first woman the living child. Do not kill him. She is his mother.” ²⁸ When all Israel heard how the king had decided, they were afraid of him. For they saw that the wisdom of God was in him, to do what is right and fair.

Church Leaders Are Chosen

6 In those days the group of followers was getting larger. Greek-speaking Jews in the group complained against the Jews living in the country around Jerusalem. The Greek-speaking Jews said that their women whose husbands had died were not taken care of when the food was given out each day. ² So the twelve missionaries called a meeting of the many followers and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the Word of God to hand out food. ³ Brothers, choose from among you seven men who are respected and who are full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom. We will have them take care of this work. ⁴ Then we will use all of our time to pray and to teach the Word of God.”

⁵ These words pleased all of them. They chose Stephen who was a man full of faith and full of the Holy Spirit. They also chose Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas and Nicholas of Antioch who had become a Jew. ⁶ These men were taken to the missionaries. After praying, the missionaries laid their hands on them.

⁷ The Word of God spread further. The group of followers became much larger in Jerusalem. Many of the religious leaders believed in the faith of the Christians.