Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Chapter 8
Fourth Vision: The Summer Fruit
1 This is what the Lord God showed me: a basket of end-of-summer fruit.[a] 2 He asked, “What do you see, Amos?” And I answered, “A basket of end-of-summer fruit.” And the Lord said to me:
The end has come for my people Israel;
I will forgive them no longer.
3 The temple singers will wail on that day—
oracle of the Lord God.
Many shall be the corpses,
strewn everywhere—Silence!(A)
4 Hear this, you who trample upon the needy
and destroy the poor of the land:
5 “When will the new moon be over,” you ask,
“that we may sell our grain,
And the sabbath,
that we may open the grain-bins?
We will diminish the ephah,[b]
add to the shekel,
and fix our scales for cheating!(B)
6 We will buy the destitute for silver,
and the poor for a pair of sandals;(C)
even the worthless grain we will sell!”
7 The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob:
Never will I forget a thing they have done!
8 Shall not the land tremble because of this,
and all who dwell in it mourn?
It will all rise up and toss like the Nile,
and subside like the river of Egypt.(D)
9 On that day—oracle of the Lord God—
I will make the sun set at midday
and in broad daylight cover the land with darkness.
10 I will turn your feasts into mourning
and all your songs into dirges.
I will cover the loins of all with sackcloth
and make every head bald.
I will make it like the time of mourning for an only child,
and its outcome like a day of bitter weeping.(E)
11 See, days are coming—oracle of the Lord God—
when I will send a famine upon the land:
Not a hunger for bread, or a thirst for water,
but for hearing the word of the Lord.
12 They shall stagger from sea to sea
and wander from north to east
In search of the word of the Lord,
but they shall not find it.(F)
Psalm 52[a]
The Deceitful Tongue
1 For the leader. A maskil of David, 2 when Doeg the Edomite entered and reported to Saul, saying to him: “David has entered the house of Ahimelech.”(A)
I
3 Why do you glory in what is evil, you who are mighty by the mercy of God?
All day long
4 you are thinking up intrigues;
your tongue is like a sharpened razor,
you worker of deceit.(B)
5 You love evil more than good,
lying rather than saying what is right.(C)
Selah
6 You love all the words that create confusion,
you deceitful tongue.(D)
II
7 God too will strike you down forever,
he will lay hold of you and pluck you from your tent,
uproot you from the land of the living.(E)
Selah
8 The righteous will see and they will fear;
but they will laugh at him:(F)
9 “Behold the man! He did not take God as his refuge,
but he trusted in the abundance of his wealth,
and grew powerful through his wickedness.”(G)
III
II. The Preeminence of Christ
His Person and Work
15 [a]He is the image[b] of the invisible God,
the firstborn of all creation.(A)
16 For in him[c] were created all things in heaven and on earth,
the visible and the invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers;
all things were created through him and for him.(B)
17 He is before all things,
and in him all things hold together.
18 He is the head of the body, the church.[d]
He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that in all things he himself might be preeminent.(C)
19 For in him all the fullness[e] was pleased to dwell,
20 and through him to reconcile all things for him,
making peace by the blood of his cross[f]
[through him], whether those on earth or those in heaven.(D)
21 [g]And you who once were alienated and hostile in mind because of evil deeds(E) 22 he has now reconciled in his fleshly body through his death, to present you holy, without blemish, and irreproachable before him, 23 provided that you persevere in the faith, firmly grounded, stable, and not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, am a minister.
Christ in Us.[h] 24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking[i] in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the church, 25 of which I am a minister in accordance with God’s stewardship given to me to bring to completion for you the word of God, 26 the mystery hidden from ages and from generations past. But now it has been manifested to his holy ones,(F) 27 to whom God chose to make known the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; it is Christ in you, the hope for glory.(G) 28 It is he whom we proclaim, admonishing everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone perfect in Christ.(H)
38 (A)As they continued their journey he entered a village where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him. 39 [a]She had a sister named Mary [who] sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak. 40 Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? Tell her to help me.” 41 The Lord said to her in reply, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. 42 [b]There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.”
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.