Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Wise and Foolish Behaviors

Psalm 125

Mount Zion Cannot Be Shaken

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A song of the ascents.

Those Who Trust in the Lord Cannot Be Shaken

Warning Against Partiality

2 My brothers, have faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ without showing favoritism. ² For example, suppose a man enters your worship assembly^[a] wearing gold rings and fine clothing, and a poor man also enters wearing filthy clothing. ³ If you look with favor on the man wearing fine clothing and say, “Sit here in this good place,” but you tell the poor man, “Stand over there” or “Sit down here^[b] at my feet,” ⁴ have you not made a distinction among yourselves and become judges with evil opinions? ⁵ Listen, my dear brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom, which he promised to those who love him? ⁶ But you dishonored the poor man. Don’t the rich oppress you, and don’t they drag you into court? ⁷ Aren’t they the ones who blaspheme the noble name that was pronounced over you? ⁸ However, if you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,”^[c] you are doing well. ⁹ But if you show favoritism, you are committing a sin, since you are convicted by this law as transgressors.

Keep the Whole Law

¹⁰ In fact, whoever keeps the whole law but stumbles in one point has become guilty of breaking all of it.

¹¹ For the one who said, “Do not commit adultery,”^[a] also said, “Do not commit murder.”^[b] Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do commit murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. ¹² So speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law of freedom. ¹³ For there will be judgment without mercy on the one who has not shown mercy. Mercy triumphs^[c] over judgment.

Faith Is Active

¹⁴ What good is it, my brothers, if someone says that he has faith but has no works? Such “faith” cannot save him, can it? ¹⁵ If a brother or sister needs clothes and lacks daily food ¹⁶ and one of you tells them, “Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well,” but does not give them what their body needs, what good is it? ¹⁷ So also, such “faith,” if it is alone and has no works, is dead.

The Faith of a Gentile Woman

²⁴ Jesus got up and went from there to the region of Tyre and Sidon. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it, but he could not remain hidden. ²⁵ Instead, when a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him, she immediately came and fell down at his feet. ²⁶ This woman was a Greek, of Syro-Phoenician origin. She asked him to drive the demon out of her daughter.

²⁷ Jesus said to her, “Let the children be fed first, because it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to their little dogs.”

²⁸ “Lord,” she answered, “their little dogs under the table also eat some of the children’s crumbs.”

²⁹ Then he said to her, “Because of this statement, go! The demon has gone out of your daughter.”

³⁰ She went home, found the child lying on the bed and the demon gone.

³¹ Jesus left the region of Tyre again and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, within the region of the Decapolis.

“Ephphatha! Be Opened!”

³² They brought a man to him who was deaf and had a speech impediment. They pleaded with Jesus to place his hand on him. ³³ Jesus took him aside in private, away from the crowd. He put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue. ³⁴ After he looked up to heaven, he sighed and said, “Ephphatha!” (which means “Be opened!”) ³⁵ Immediately the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was set free, and he began to speak plainly. ³⁶ Jesus gave the people strict orders to tell no one, but the more he did so, the more they kept proclaiming it. ³⁷ They were amazed beyond measure and said, “He has done everything well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak!”