Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 125^[a]

A song of ascents.^[b]

Prejudice and the Law of Love

2 My brothers and sisters,^[a] do not show prejudice^[b] if you possess faith^[c] in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.^{[d] 2} For if someone^[e] comes into your assembly^[f] wearing a gold ring and fine clothing, and a poor person enters in filthy clothes, ³ do you pay attention to the one who is finely dressed and say,^[g] “You sit here in a good place,”^[h] and to the poor person, “You stand over there,” or “Sit on the floor”?^{[i] 4} If so, have you not made distinctions^[j] among yourselves and become judges with evil motives?^{[k] 5} Listen, my dear brothers and sisters!^[l] Did not God choose the poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he promised to those who love him? ⁶ But you have dishonored the poor!^[m] Are not the rich oppressing you and dragging you into the courts? ⁷ Do they not blaspheme the good name of the one you belong to?^{[n] 8} But if you fulfill the royal law as expressed in this scripture,^[o] “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,”^[p] you are doing well. ⁹ But if you show prejudice, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as violators.^{[q] 10} For the one who obeys the whole law but fails^[r] in one point has become guilty of all of it.^[s]

¹¹ For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,”^[a] also said, “Do not murder.”^[b] Now if you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a violator of the law. ¹² Speak and act as those who will be judged by a law that gives freedom.^{[c] 13} For judgment is merciless for the one who has shown no mercy. But mercy triumphs over^[d] judgment.

Faith and Works Together

¹⁴ What good is it, my brothers and sisters,^[a] if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Can this kind of faith^[b] save him?^{[c] 15} If a brother or sister^[d] is poorly clothed and lacks daily food, ¹⁶ and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, keep warm and eat well,” but you do not give them what the body needs,^[e] what good is it? ¹⁷ So also faith, if it does not have works, is dead being by itself.

A Syrophoenician Woman’s Faith

²⁴ After Jesus^[a] left there, he went to the region of Tyre.^[b] When he went into a house, he did not want anyone to know, but^[c] he was not able to escape notice. ²⁵ Instead, a woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit^[d] immediately heard about him and came and fell at his feet. ²⁶ The woman was a Greek, of Syrophoenician origin. She^[e] asked him to cast the demon out of her daughter. ²⁷ He said to her, “Let the children be satisfied first, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and to throw it to the dogs.”^{[f] 28} She answered, “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” ²⁹ Then^[g] he said to her, “Because you said this, you may go. The demon has left your daughter.” ³⁰ She went home and found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

Healing a Deaf Mute

³¹ Then^[h] Jesus^[i] went out again from the region of Tyre and came through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee in the region of the Decapolis.^{[j] 32} They brought to him a deaf man who had difficulty speaking, and they asked him to place his hands on him. ³³ After Jesus^[k] took him aside privately, away from the crowd, he put his fingers in the man’s^[l] ears, and after spitting, he touched his tongue.^{[m] 34} Then^[n] he looked up to heaven and said with a sigh, “Ephphatha” (that is, “Be opened”).^{[o] 35} And immediately the man’s^[p] ears were opened, his tongue loosened, and he spoke plainly. ³⁶ Jesus ordered them not to tell anyone. But as much as he ordered them not to do this, they proclaimed it all the more.^{[q] 37} People were completely astounded and said, “He has done everything well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”