Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 125
Israel’s Stability
A song of ascents.
1 Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion.
It cannot be shaken; it remains forever.(A)
2 The mountains surround Jerusalem
and the Lord surrounds his people,
both now and forever.(B)
3 The scepter of the wicked will not remain
over the land allotted to the righteous,
so that the righteous will not apply their hands to injustice.(C)
4 Do what is good, Lord, to the good,
to those whose hearts are upright.(D)
5 But as for those who turn aside to crooked ways,
the Lord will banish them with the evildoers.(E)
Peace be with Israel.(F)
The Sin of Favoritism
2 My brothers and sisters, do not show favoritism as you hold on to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.(A) 2 For if someone comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and a poor person dressed in filthy clothes also comes in, 3 if you look with favor on the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Sit here in a good place,” and yet you say to the poor person, “Stand over there,” or “Sit here on the floor by my footstool,” 4 haven’t you made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
5 Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Didn’t God choose the poor in this world(B) to be rich in faith(C) and heirs(D) of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? 6 Yet you have dishonored the poor.(E) Don’t the rich oppress you and drag(F) you into court? 7 Don’t they blaspheme the good name that was invoked over you?(G)
8 Indeed, if you fulfill the royal law prescribed in the Scripture, Love your neighbor as yourself,[a](H) you are doing well. 9 If, however, you show favoritism,(I) you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 10 For whoever keeps the entire law, and yet stumbles at one point, is guilty of breaking it all.(J)
11 For he who said, Do not commit adultery,[a] also said, Do not murder.[b](A) So if you do not commit adultery, but you murder, you are a lawbreaker.
12 Speak and act as those who are to be judged by the law of freedom.(B) 13 For judgment is without mercy to the one who has not shown mercy.(C) Mercy triumphs over judgment.
Faith and Works
14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Can such faith save him?
15 If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, stay warm, and be well fed,” but you don’t give them what the body needs, what good is it?(A) 17 In the same way faith, if it does not have works, is dead by itself.
A Gentile Mother’s Faith
24 He got up and departed from(A) there to the region of Tyre.[a](B) He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it, but he could not escape notice. 25 Instead, immediately after hearing about him, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit(C) came and fell at his feet.(D) 26 The woman was a Gentile,[b](E) a Syrophoenician by birth, and she was asking him to cast the demon(F) out of her daughter. 27 He said to her, “Let the children be fed first, because it isn’t right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”(G)
28 But she replied to him, “Lord,(H) even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”
29 Then he told her, “Because of this reply, you may go. The demon has left your daughter.” 30 When she went back to her home, she found her child lying on the bed, and the demon was gone.
Jesus Does Everything Well
31 Again, leaving the region of Tyre,(I) he went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee,(J) through[c] the region of the Decapolis.(K) 32 They brought to him a deaf(L) man who had difficulty speaking(M) and begged Jesus to lay his hand on(N) him. 33 So he took him away from the crowd in private. After putting his fingers in the man’s ears and spitting,(O) he touched his tongue. 34 Looking up to heaven,(P) he sighed deeply and said to him, “Ephphatha!”[d] (that is, “Be opened!”). 35 Immediately his ears were opened,(Q) his tongue was loosened, and he began to speak clearly.(R) 36 He ordered them to tell no one,(S) but the more he ordered them, the more they proclaimed it.(T)
37 They were extremely astonished and said, “He has done everything well.(U) He even makes the deaf(V) hear and the mute speak.”(W)
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