Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 94[a]
94 O Lord, the God who avenges!
O God who avenges, reveal your splendor.[b]
2 Rise up, O judge of the earth.
Pay back the proud.
3 O Lord, how long will the wicked,
how long will the wicked celebrate?[c]
4 They spew out threats[d] and speak defiantly;
all the evildoers boast.[e]
5 O Lord, they crush your people;
they oppress the nation that belongs to you.[f]
6 They kill the widow and the resident foreigner,
and they murder the fatherless.[g]
7 Then they say, “The Lord does not see this;
the God of Jacob does not take notice of it.”[h]
8 Take notice of this,[i] you ignorant people.[j]
You fools, when will you ever understand?
9 Does the one who makes the human ear not hear?
Does the one who forms the human eye not see?[k]
10 Does the one who disciplines the nations not punish?
He is the one who imparts knowledge to human beings!
11 The Lord knows that peoples’ thoughts
are morally bankrupt.[l]
12 How blessed is the one[m] whom you instruct, O Lord,
the one whom you teach from your law,
13 in order to protect him from times of trouble,[n]
until the wicked are destroyed.[o]
14 Certainly[p] the Lord does not forsake his people;
he does not abandon the nation that belongs to him.[q]
15 For justice will prevail,[r]
and all the morally upright[s] will be vindicated.[t]
16 Who will rise up to defend me[u] against the wicked?
Who will stand up for me against the evildoers?[v]
17 If the Lord had not helped me,
I would soon have dwelt in the silence of death.[w]
18 If I say, “My foot is slipping,”
your loyal love, O Lord, supports me.
19 When worries threaten to overwhelm me,[x]
your soothing touch makes me happy.[y]
20 Cruel rulers[z] are not your allies,
those who make oppressive laws.[aa]
21 They conspire against[ab] the blameless,[ac]
and condemn to death the innocent.[ad]
22 But the Lord will protect me,[ae]
and my God will shelter me.[af]
23 He will pay them back for their sin.[ag]
He will destroy them because of[ah] their evil;
the Lord our God will destroy them.
A Lament over the Ravages of Drought[a]
14 This was[b] the Lord’s message to Jeremiah about the drought.[c]
2 “The people of Judah are in mourning.
The people in her cities are pining away.
They lie on the ground expressing their sorrow.[d]
Cries of distress come up to me[e] from Jerusalem.
3 The leading men of the cities send their servants for water.
They go to the cisterns,[f] but they do not find any water there.
They return with their containers[g] empty.
Disappointed and dismayed, they bury their faces in their hands.[h]
4 They are dismayed because the ground is cracked[i]
because there has been no rain in the land.
The farmers, too, are dismayed
and bury their faces in their hands.
5 Even the doe abandons her newborn fawn[j] in the field
because there is no grass.
6 Wild donkeys stand on the hilltops
and pant for breath like jackals.
Their eyes are strained looking for food,
because there is none to be found.”[k]
7 Then I said,[l]
“O Lord, intervene for the honor of your name[m]
even though our sins speak out against us.[n]
Indeed,[o] we have turned away from you many times.
We have sinned against you.
8 You have been the object of Israel’s hopes.
You have saved them when they were in trouble.
Why have you become like a resident foreigner[p] in the land?
Why have you become like a traveler who only stops in to spend the night?
9 Why should you be like someone who is helpless,[q]
like a champion[r] who cannot save anyone?
You are indeed with us,[s]
and we belong to you.[t]
Do not abandon us!”
10 Then the Lord spoke about these people.[u]
Lament over Present Destruction and Threat of More to Come
17 “Tell these people this, Jeremiah:[a]
‘My eyes overflow with tears
day and night without ceasing.[b]
For my people, my dear children,[c] have suffered a crushing blow.
They have suffered a serious wound.[d]
18 If I go out into the countryside,
I see those who have been killed in battle.
If I go into the city,
I see those who are sick because of starvation.[e]
For both prophet and priest—
they go peddling in the land
but they are not humbled.’”[f]
19 Then I said,
“Lord,[g] have you completely rejected the nation of Judah?
Do you despise[h] the city of Zion?
Why have you struck us with such force
that we are beyond recovery?[i]
We hope for peace, but nothing good has come of it.
We hope for a time of relief from our troubles, but experience terror.[j]
20 Lord, we confess that we have been wicked.
We confess that our ancestors have done wrong.[k]
We have indeed[l] sinned against you.
21 For the honor of your name,[m] do not treat Jerusalem with contempt.
Do not treat with disdain the place where your glorious throne sits.[n]
Be mindful of your covenant with us. Do not break it.[o]
22 Do any of the worthless idols[p] of the nations cause rain to fall?
Do the skies themselves send showers?
Is it not you, O Lord our God, who does this?[q]
So we put our hopes in you[r]
because you alone do all this.”
31 “Simon,[a] Simon, pay attention![b] Satan has demanded to have you all,[c] to sift you like wheat,[d] 32 but I have prayed for you, Simon,[e] that your faith may not fail.[f] When[g] you have turned back,[h] strengthen[i] your brothers.” 33 But Peter[j] said to him, “Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death!”[k]
Jesus’ Condemnation and Peter’s Denials
54 Then[a] they arrested[b] Jesus,[c] led him away, and brought him into the high priest’s house.[d] But Peter was following at a distance. 55 When they had made a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat down among them. 56 Then a slave girl,[e] seeing him as he sat in the firelight, stared at him and said, “This man was with him too!” 57 But Peter[f] denied it: “Woman,[g] I don’t know[h] him!” 58 Then[i] a little later someone else[j] saw him and said, “You are one of them too.” But Peter said, “Man,[k] I am not!” 59 And after about an hour still another insisted,[l] “Certainly this man was with him, because he too is a Galilean.”[m] 60 But Peter said, “Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” At that moment,[n] while he was still speaking, a rooster crowed.[o] 61 Then[p] the Lord turned and looked straight at Peter, and Peter remembered the word of the Lord,[q] how he had said to him, “Before a rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.” 62 And he went outside and wept bitterly.[r]
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