Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

The Call of Jeremiah

⁴ The Lord said to me, ⁵ “I chose you before I gave you life, and before you were born I selected you to be a prophet to the nations.”

⁶ I answered, “Sovereign Lord, I don't know how to speak; I am too young.”

⁷ But the Lord said to me, “Do not say that you are too young, but go to the people I send you to, and tell them everything I command you to say. ⁸ Do not be afraid of them, for I will be with you to protect you. I, the Lord, have spoken!”

⁹ Then the Lord reached out, touched my lips, and said to me, “Listen, I am giving you the words you must speak. ¹⁰ Today I give you authority over nations and kingdoms to uproot and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.”

The Prayer of an Elderly Person

Love

13 I may be able to speak the languages of human beings and even of angels, but if I have no love, my speech is no more than a noisy gong or a clanging bell. ^2 (A)I may have the gift of inspired preaching; I may have all knowledge and understand all secrets; I may have all the faith needed to move mountains—but if I have no love, I am nothing. ³ I may give away everything I have, and even give up my body to be burned^[a]—but if I have no love, this does me no good.

⁴ Love is patient and kind; it is not jealous or conceited or proud; ⁵ love is not ill-mannered or selfish or irritable; love does not keep a record of wrongs; ⁶ love is not happy with evil, but is happy with the truth. ⁷ Love never gives up; and its faith, hope, and patience never fail.

⁸ Love is eternal. There are inspired messages, but they are temporary; there are gifts of speaking in strange tongues, but they will cease; there is knowledge, but it will pass. ⁹ For our gifts of knowledge and of inspired messages are only partial; ¹⁰ but when what is perfect comes, then what is partial will disappear.

¹¹ When I was a child, my speech, feelings, and thinking were all those of a child; now that I am an adult, I have no more use for childish ways. ¹² What we see now is like a dim image in a mirror; then we shall see face-to-face. What I know now is only partial; then it will be complete—as complete as God's knowledge of me.

¹³ Meanwhile these three remain: faith, hope, and love; and the greatest of these is love.

²¹ as he said to them, “This passage of scripture has come true today, as you heard it being read.”

²² They were all well impressed with him and marveled at the eloquent words that he spoke. They said, “Isn't he the son of Joseph?”

²³ He said to them, “I am sure that you will quote this proverb to me, ‘Doctor, heal yourself.’ You will also tell me to do here in my hometown the same things you heard were done in Capernaum. ^24 (A)I tell you this,” Jesus added, “prophets are never welcomed in their hometown. ^25 (B)Listen to me: it is true that there were many widows in Israel during the time of Elijah, when there was no rain for three and a half years and a severe famine spread throughout the whole land. ^26 (C)Yet Elijah was not sent to anyone in Israel, but only to a widow living in Zarephath in the territory of Sidon. ^27 (D)And there were many people suffering from a dreaded skin disease who lived in Israel during the time of the prophet Elisha; yet not one of them was healed, but only Naaman the Syrian.”

²⁸ When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were filled with anger. ²⁹ They rose up, dragged Jesus out of town, and took him to the top of the hill on which their town was built. They meant to throw him over the cliff, ³⁰ but he walked through the middle of the crowd and went his way.