Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

A Prayer for the Nation's Deliverance^[a]

8 “At that time the bones of the kings and of the officials of Judah, as well as the bones of the priests, of the prophets, and of the other people who lived in Jerusalem, will be taken out of their graves. ² Instead of being gathered and buried, their bones will be like manure lying on the ground. They will be spread out before the sun, the moon, and the stars, which these people have loved and served, and which they have consulted and worshiped. ³ And the people of this evil nation who survive, who live in the places where I have scattered them, will prefer to die rather than to go on living. I, the Lord Almighty, have spoken.”

Sin and Punishment

⁴ The Lord told me to say to his people, “When someone falls down, doesn't he get back up? If someone misses the road, doesn't he turn back? ⁵ Why then, my people, do you turn away from me without ever turning back? You cling to your idols and refuse to return to me. ⁶ I listened carefully, but you did not speak the truth. Not one of you has been sorry for your wickedness; not one of you has asked, ‘What have I done wrong?’ Each of you keep on going your own way, like a horse rushing into battle. ⁷ Even storks know when it is time to return; doves, swallows, and thrushes know when it is time to migrate. But, my people, you do not know the laws by which I rule you. ⁸ How can you say that you are wise and that you know my laws? Look, the laws have been changed by dishonest scribes. ⁹ Your wise men are put to shame; they are confused and trapped. They have rejected my words; what wisdom do they have now? ¹⁰ So I will give their fields to new owners and their wives to other men. Everyone, great and small, tries to make money dishonestly. Even prophets and priests cheat the people. ^11 (A)They act as if my people's wounds were only scratches. ‘All is well,’ they say, when all is not well. ^12 (B)My people, were you ashamed because you did these disgusting things? No, you were not ashamed at all; you don't even know how to blush! And so you will fall as others have fallen; when I punish you, that will be the end of you. I, the Lord, have spoken.

¹³ “I wanted to gather my people, as a farmer gathers a harvest; but they are like a vine with no grapes, like a fig tree with no figs; even the leaves have withered. Therefore, I have allowed outsiders to take over the land.”^[a]

God's Love in Christ Jesus

³¹ In view of all this, what can we say? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³² Certainly not God, who did not even keep back his own Son, but offered him for us all! He gave us his Son—will he not also freely give us all things? ³³ Who will accuse God's chosen people? God himself declares them not guilty! ³⁴ Who, then, will condemn them? Not Christ Jesus, who died, or rather, who was raised to life and is at the right side of God, pleading with him for us! ³⁵ Who, then, can separate us from the love of Christ? Can trouble do it, or hardship or persecution or hunger or poverty or danger or death? ^36 (A)As the scripture says,

³⁷ No, in all these things we have complete victory through him who loved us! ³⁸ For I am certain that nothing can separate us from his love: neither death nor life, neither angels nor other heavenly rulers or powers, neither the present nor the future, ³⁹ neither the world above nor the world below—there is nothing in all creation that will ever be able to separate us from the love of God which is ours through Christ Jesus our Lord.