Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

God chooses Jeremiah to be a prophet

⁴ The Lord gave me this message: ⁵ ‘I already knew you before I made you inside your mother's body. I chose you to be special before you were born. I chose you to be my prophet, to speak my message to other nations.’

⁶ I answered, ‘Lord God, I do not know how to speak. I am only a child.’

⁷ The Lord said to me, ‘Do not say, “I am only a child.” You must go to everyone that I send you to. You must say whatever I tell you to say. ⁸ Do not be afraid of them. Remember that I will be with you. I will keep you safe.’

⁹ Then the Lord touched my mouth with his hand. He said to me, ‘I am giving you the words that you must speak. ¹⁰ Look! I give you authority to tell nations and kingdoms what will happen to them. You will pull some of them out of the ground, like a plant and its roots. You will knock down and destroy some of them. You will bring an end to their power. But you will build up other nations and make them strong.’

A song for old age

A picture of two mountains

¹⁸ You have come near to God. But you have not come to a place that you can touch, like Sinai mountain.^[a] That mountain burned with fire. But where the people stood, it was completely dark. They could not see at all. There was also a very strong wind and a storm. ¹⁹ There was the loud sound of a trumpet. There was a powerful voice that spoke to them. When the people heard that voice, they were very afraid. So they asked that the voice would not speak to them any more. ²⁰ They were very afraid of what God had told them. God had said, ‘If even an animal touches the mountain, you must kill it with stones.’ ²¹ Even Moses was very afraid when he saw God's great power. He said, ‘I am full of fear!’

²² But as believers in Christ, you have not come to God in that way. You have come to Mount Zion.^[b] You have come to the city of the true God who lives. You have come to the city of Jerusalem that is in heaven. There are many thousands of happy angels all together in that place. ²³ All God's people meet together there. They are like his most important sons. They belong in heaven because God has written down their names. You have come to God himself, who will judge all people. You have come to the place where the spirits of God's people are. Those people have become right with God. God has now finished his work in them. ²⁴ You have come to Jesus, who brought the new agreement from God to his people. In that agreement, the blood of Jesus' death makes us clean from our sins. It tells us that God has forgiven us. When Cain killed his brother Abel, Abel's blood brought God's punishment. So we see that Jesus' blood brought us something much better than that.^[c]

²⁵ So be careful! Always be ready to listen when God speaks. God used Moses as his servant on the earth to speak to Israel's people. When they refused to obey, God punished them. They could not get away. As for us, God speaks to us from heaven. So we will certainly not get away from God's punishment if we turn away from him. ²⁶ At Sinai mountain many years ago, God's voice caused the earth to shake. But now God has promised this: ‘Once again I will cause the earth to shake. But this time I will also cause heaven to shake.’ ²⁷ These words, ‘once again,’ show us that God will take away the things that he has made. All things on the earth that he causes to shake will finish. After that, everything that nobody can shake will continue to be there.^[d]

²⁸ But we are receiving a place where we will rule with God. We belong to God's kingdom, and nobody can ever shake that! So we should thank God. We should worship him in a way that makes him happy. He is great, and we should serve him well and respect him. ²⁹ Remember that our God is like a fire. He destroys everything that is not good.

Jesus makes a sick woman well again

¹⁰ One day, Jesus was teaching in a Jewish meeting place. It was the Jewish day of rest.

¹¹ There was a woman there that had a bad spirit inside her. It had lived in her for 18 years and it had made her ill. Her back was bent. She could not stand up straight. ¹² Jesus saw her and he called her to come to him. He said, ‘Woman, you are now better from your illness.’ ¹³ He put his hands on her and immediately she could stand up straight. She praised God.

¹⁴ But the leader of the meeting place was angry because Jesus had made a sick person well on their day of rest. He said to the people there, ‘There are six days each week when we should work. Come on any of those days and get well. But you should not come on our day of rest to get well.’

¹⁵ ‘You are wrong,’ the Lord Jesus said to him. ‘You teach one thing but you do something different yourselves. On the day of rest you will undo the rope on your ox or your donkey and take it outside. You then give it water to drink. Is that not true?^{[a] 16} Now look at this woman. She belongs to the family of Abraham. But a bad spirit from the Devil has made her ill for 18 years. It is like he has tied her up. So it must be right to make her free on our day of rest.’

¹⁷ These words made the leaders of the meeting place feel ashamed. But the other people there were very happy. They were happy because they had seen Jesus do many good and powerful things.