Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Chapter 22

Sacrifice of the Son.^{[a] 1} Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham, Abraham!” He replied, “Here I am!”

² God said, “Take your son, your only son, the one you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah^[b] and offer him as a burnt offering on the mountain that I will show you.”

³ Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled a donkey, and took two servants and his son Isaac with him. He also took the wood for the burnt offering and set out toward the place about which God had spoken. ⁴ On the third day, Abraham looked up and saw that place from a distance. ⁵ Abraham said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey. I and the boy will go over there. We will worship and then we will return to you.” ⁶ Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and loaded it upon his son Isaac. He himself carried the fire and the knife. They then set out together. ⁷ Isaac turned to his father Abraham and said, “My father!”

He answered, “Here I am, my son.”

He continued, “Here are the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”

⁸ Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son!” And the two of them went on together.

⁹ They then arrived at the place of which God had spoken. There Abraham built an altar and piled up the wood. He tied up his son Isaac and placed him upon the altar so that he was lying upon the wood. ¹⁰ Then Abraham reached out and took the knife to kill his son. ¹¹ But the angel of the Lord called out from heaven and said, “Abraham! Abraham!”

He answered, “Here I am.”

¹² The angel said, “Do not reach out your hand against the boy! Do not harm him in any way! Now I know that you fear God and you have not even withheld your son, your only son, from me.”

¹³ Abraham looked up and saw a ram that had its horns caught in a bush. Abraham took the ram and offered it as a burnt offering instead of his son.

¹⁴ Abraham called that place, “The Lord will provide,” for he said, “On the mountain the Lord provided.”

Psalm 13^[a]

Prayer of One in Sorrow

¹ For the director.^[b] A psalm of David.

¹² Therefore, do not allow sin to reign over your mortal body and make you obey its desires. ¹³ Nor should you present any part of your body as an instrument for wickedness leading to sin. Rather, present yourselves to God as having been raised from death to life and the parts of your body to God as instruments for righteousness. ¹⁴ For sin is no longer to have any power over you, since you are not under the Law but under grace.

¹⁵ A Slave of Righteousness. What then? Should we sin because we are not under the Law but under grace? Of course not! ¹⁶ Do you not know that if you offer yourself as an obedient slave, you are the slave of the one you obey—either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?

¹⁷ Once you were slaves of sin, but, thanks be to God, you have become obedient in your heart to that pattern of teaching to which you have been delivered. ¹⁸ Now, having been set free from sin, you have become slaves of righteousness.

¹⁹ I am speaking in human terms because you are still weak human beings. For just as you once offered your bodies as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to greater iniquity, so now present them as slaves to righteousness for sanctification.

²⁰ When you were slaves of sin, you were free from the restraints of righteousness. ²¹ But what advantage did you get then from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. ²² However, now that you have been freed from sin and bound to the service of God, the benefit you receive is sanctification, and the end is eternal life. ²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the gift freely given by God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

⁴⁰ “Whoever receives you receives me; and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me. ⁴¹ Whoever receives a prophet^[a] because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous man because he is righteous will receive a righteous man’s reward. ⁴² And whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is a disciple, amen, I say to you, he will not go unrewarded.”