Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
11 Teach me your way, O Lord,
so that I may live in your truth.
Focus my heart on fearing you.
12 I will give thanks to you with all my heart, O Lord my God.
I will honor you forever
13 because your mercy toward me is great.
You have rescued me from the depths of hell.
14 O God, arrogant people attack me,
and a mob of ruthless people seeks my life.
They think nothing of you.
15 But you, O Lord, are a compassionate and merciful God.
You are patient, always faithful and ready to forgive.
16 Turn toward me, and have pity on me.
Give me your strength because I am your servant.
Save me because I am the son of your female servant.
17 Grant me some proof of your goodness
so that those who hate me may see it and be put to shame.
You, O Lord, have helped me and comforted me.
Abram and Hagar
16 Sarai, Abram’s wife, was not able to have children. She owned an Egyptian slave named Hagar. 2 So Sarai said to Abram, “The Lord has kept me from having children. Why don’t you sleep with my slave? Maybe I can build a family through her.” Abram agreed with Sarai.
3 After Abram had lived in Canaan for ten years, Abram’s wife Sarai took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife. 4 He slept with Hagar, and she became pregnant. When Hagar realized that she was pregnant, she began to be disrespectful to Sarai, her owner.
5 So Sarai complained to Abram, “I’m being treated unfairly! And it’s your fault! I know that I gave my slave to you, but now that she’s pregnant, she’s being disrespectful to me. May the Lord decide who is right—you or me.”
6 Abram answered Sarai, “Here, she’s your slave. Do what you like with her.” Then Sarai mistreated Hagar so much that she ran away.
7 The Messenger of the Lord found her by a spring in the desert, the spring on the way to Shur. 8 He said, “Hagar, Sarai’s slave, where have you come from, and where are you going?”
She answered, “I’m running away from my owner Sarai.” 9 The Messenger of the Lord said to her, “Go back to your owner, and place yourself under her authority.” 10 The Messenger of the Lord also said to her, “I will give you many descendants. No one will be able to count them because there will be so many.” 11 Then the Messenger of the Lord said to her,
“You are pregnant,
and you will give birth to a son.
You will name him Ishmael [God Hears],
because the Lord has heard your cry of distress.
12 He will be as free and wild as an untamed donkey.
He will fight with everyone, and everyone will fight with him.
He will have conflicts with all his relatives.”
13 Hagar named the Lord, who had been speaking to her, “You Are the God Who Watches Over Me.” She said, “This is the place where I watched ⌞the one⌟ who watches over me.” 14 This is why the well is named Beer Lahai Roi [Well of the Living One Who Watches Over Me]. It is still there between Kadesh and Bered.
15 Hagar gave birth to Abram’s son. Abram named him Ishmael.
A Letter to the Church in Ephesus
2 “To the messenger of the church in Ephesus, write:
The one who holds the seven stars in his right hand, the one who walks among the seven gold lamp stands, says: 2 I know what you have done—how hard you have worked and how you have endured. I also know that you cannot tolerate wicked people. You have tested those who call themselves apostles but are not apostles. You have discovered that they are liars. 3 You have endured, suffered trouble because of my name, and have not grown weary. 4 However, I have this against you: The love you had at first is gone. 5 Remember how far you have fallen. Return to me and change the way you think and act, and do what you did at first. I will come to you and take your lamp stand from its place if you don’t change. 6 But you have this in your favor—you hate what the Nicolaitans are doing. I also hate what they’re doing.
7 “Let the person who has ears listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. I will give the privilege of eating from the tree of life, which stands in the paradise of God, to everyone who wins the victory.
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