Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
A song for going up to worship.
128 Blessed are all who fear the Lord
and live his way.
2 You will certainly eat what your own hands have provided.
Blessings to you!
May things go well for you!
3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine inside your home.
Your children will be like young olive trees around your table.
4 This is how the Lord will bless the person who fears him.
5 May the Lord bless you from Zion
so that you may see Jerusalem prospering
all the days of your life.
6 May you live to see your children’s children.
Let there be peace in Israel!
22 “So tell the people of Israel, ‘This is what the Almighty Lord says: I am about to do something, people of Israel. I will not do this for your sake but for the sake of my holy name, which you have dishonored among the nations wherever you have gone. 23 I will reveal the holiness of my great name, which has been dishonored by the nations, ⌞the name⌟ that you have dishonored among them. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord, because I will reveal my holiness among you as they watch, declares the Almighty Lord.
24 “ ‘I will take you from the nations and gather you from every country. I will bring you back to your own land. 25 I will sprinkle clean water on you and make you clean [a] instead of unclean. Then I will cleanse you from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove your stubborn hearts and give you obedient hearts. 27 I will put my Spirit in you. I will enable you to live by my laws, and you will obey my rules. 28 Then you will live in the land that I gave your ancestors. You will be my people, and I will be your God. 29 I will rescue you from all your uncleanness. I will make the grain grow so that you will never again have famines. 30 I will make fruit grow on the trees and crops grow in the fields so that you will no longer suffer disgrace among the nations because of famines. 31 Then you will remember your evil ways and the bad things that you did, and you will hate yourselves for all these wicked and disgusting things. 32 I want you to know that I’m not doing this for your sake, declares the Almighty Lord. Be ashamed and disgraced because of your ways, people of Israel.
53 Then each of them went home.
A Woman Caught in Adultery
8 Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 Early the next morning he returned to the temple courtyard. All the people went to him, so he sat down and began to teach them.
3 The experts in Moses’ Teachings and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught committing adultery. They made her stand in front of everyone 4 and asked Jesus, “Teacher, we caught this woman in the act of adultery. 5 In his teachings, Moses ordered us to stone women like this to death. What do you say?” 6 They asked this to test him. They wanted to find a reason to bring charges against him.
Jesus bent down and used his finger to write on the ground. 7 When they persisted in asking him questions, he straightened up and said, “The person who is sinless should be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Then he bent down again and continued writing on the ground.
9 One by one, beginning with the older men, the experts in Moses’ Teachings and Pharisees left. Jesus was left alone with the woman. 10 Then Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Where did they go? Has anyone condemned you?”
11 The woman answered, “No one, sir.”
Jesus said, “I don’t condemn you either. Go! From now on don’t sin.”
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