Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Ezra reads God's Law to the people

8 All the people met together in the open place near the Water Gate. They asked Ezra to bring the book of the Law of Moses. The Lord had given those laws to the Israelites so that they would obey them. ² On the first day of the seventh month, Ezra brought the book of the Law to the people. In the crowd, there were men and women, as well as children who were old enough to understand. ³ Ezra read aloud while he stood there, in the open place near the Water Gate. He read to all the men, women and children from dawn until noon. Everyone listened carefully to Ezra while he read the book of the Law.

⁵ Ezra opened the book. All the people could see him because he was high above them. When he opened the book, the crowd all stood up. ⁶ Ezra praised the Lord, the great God. All the people lifted their hands and they shouted, ‘Amen! Amen!’ They bent their heads to the ground and they worshipped the Lord.

⁸ They read the book of the Law and they explained it to the people.^[a] They helped the people to understand what Ezra read to them.

⁹ Then Ezra (the priest who studied God's Law), Nehemiah (the ruler) and the Levites who were teaching the people said to all the people, ‘Do not cry or weep. Today is a special holy day for the Lord your God.’

They said this because the people were weeping. The words of the Law had made them sad. ¹⁰ Nehemiah said to the people, ‘Go to your homes and eat some good food. Drink sweet drinks. Share your food and your drink with people who do not have enough for themselves. This is a holy day for our Lord, so do not be sad. The Lord will give you joy so that you can be strong.’

This is a song that David wrote for the music leader.

God teaches us about himself

One body with many parts

¹² Each person has only one body, but that body has many parts. All those different parts make only one body. It is like that with Christ too. ¹³ When they baptized us, we all became parts of one body. It was the one Spirit who brought us together. It made no difference whether we were Jews or Gentiles. It made no difference whether we were slaves or free people. God poured his one Spirit into all of us.

¹⁴ A person's body does not have only one part. It has many parts. ¹⁵ If the foot could speak, it might say, ‘I am not a hand, so I do not belong to this body.’ But what it says makes no difference. It is still a part of the body. ¹⁶ If the ear could speak, it might say, ‘I am not an eye, so I do not belong to this body.’ But what it says makes no difference. It still belongs to the body. ¹⁷ If the whole body was an eye, the body would not hear anything. If the whole body was an ear, it would not recognize different smells. ¹⁸ But God has decided where each different part of our body should be.

¹⁹ If our body was all the same part, it would not be a proper body. ²⁰ But as it is, a body has many parts. It is still only one whole body. ²¹ For that reason, the eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I do not need you.’ And the head cannot say to the feet, ‘I do not need you.’ ²² No. Even the parts of a body that seem to be weaker are very necessary. ²³ Think about the parts of our body that are not very special. We dress them carefully! And we take special care of those parts that we do not want people to see. ²⁴ But we do not need to do this with the beautiful parts of our body.

God has put all these parts together in one body. Some parts seem to be not very special. But God has shown that those parts are very valuable. ²⁵ He has done that to bring all the parts together as one body. All the parts work together to help each other. ²⁶ Then if one part of the body hurts, every other part also hurts. If people praise one part, every part of the body is also happy.

²⁷ All of you together are Christ's body. And each of you is a part of that body. ²⁸ Like the parts of a body, God has put people in different places in his church. First, there are apostles. Second, there are people who speak messages from God. Third, there are teachers. After that, there are people who do miracles. There are people who have gifts to make sick people well. There are people who help others in special ways. There are people who can lead others. And there are people who can speak different kinds of languages.

²⁹ Not everyone in the church is an apostle. Not everyone speaks messages from God. Not everyone is a teacher. Not everyone can do miracles. ³⁰ Not everyone has the gifts to make sick people well. Not everyone can speak in different kinds of languages. Nor can everyone explain what messages in those languages mean. You know that. ³¹ But it is good if you really want the more valuable gifts from God.

Now I will show you a way that is better than anything else.

Jesus goes to Nazareth

¹⁴ Then Jesus returned to Galilee. The Holy Spirit continued to give him power. Everyone who lived near there heard the news about him. ¹⁵ He taught people in the Jewish meeting places.^[a] Everyone said good things about him.

¹⁶ Jesus went to Nazareth, the town where he had grown up. On the Jewish day of rest, he went to their meeting place.^[b] This was what he usually did. He stood up to read aloud from the Bible.^[c]

¹⁷ They gave him the scroll that had the messages of God's prophet Isaiah. Jesus opened the scroll. He found the place where Isaiah wrote:

¹⁸ ‘The Spirit of the Lord God is on me.

He has chosen me to tell good news to poor people.

He has sent me to tell people who are in prison, “You can go free!”

I must say to people that cannot see, “See again!”

I must cause people that are like slaves to become free.

¹⁹ I must tell everyone, “This is the year when God will be kind to his people.” ’^[d]

²⁰ When Jesus had read this to the people, he closed the scroll. He gave it back to an officer of the meeting place. Then he sat down to teach the people. Everyone in the meeting place was looking carefully at him.

²¹ Jesus said to them, ‘Today this message has become true. It has happened while you were listening.’