Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 121

A Song of Ascents.

¹⁴ This day shall be a memorial to you, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord. Throughout your generations you shall keep it a feast by an eternal ordinance. ¹⁵ Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall put away leaven out of your houses, for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. ¹⁶ On the first day there shall be a holy convocation, and on the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation for you. No manner of work shall be done on them; but that which every man must eat—that only may be prepared for you.

¹⁷ You shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For on this very day I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as an ordinance forever. ¹⁸ In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month at evening. ¹⁹ Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses, for whoever eats that which is leavened, that person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a stranger or born in the land. ²⁰ You shall eat nothing leavened. In all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread.

²¹ Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Draw out and take for yourselves a lamb according to your families and kill the Passover lamb. ²² You shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and apply the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the basin, and none of you shall go out from the door of his house until the morning. ²³ For the Lord will pass through to kill the Egyptians. And when He sees the blood upon the lintel and on the two side posts, the Lord will pass over the door and will not permit the destroyer to come to your houses to kill you.

²⁴ “And you shall observe this thing as an ordinance to you and to your sons forever. ²⁵ When you enter the land which the Lord will give you, according as He has promised, that you shall observe this service. ²⁶ And when your children shall say to you, ‘What does this service mean to you?’ ²⁷ that you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s Passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when He smote the Egyptians, and delivered our households.’ ” And the people bowed down and worshipped. ²⁸ Then the children of Israel went and did so. Just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.

Live as Servants of God

¹¹ Dearly beloved, I implore you as aliens and refugees, abstain from fleshly lusts, which wage war against the soul. ¹² Live your lives honorably among the Gentiles, so that though they speak against you as evildoers, they shall see your good works and thereby glorify God in the day of visitation.

¹³ Submit yourselves to every human authority for the Lord’s sake, whether it be to the king, as supreme, ¹⁴ or to governors, as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and to praise those who do right. ¹⁵ For it is the will of God that by doing right you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. ¹⁶ As free people, do not use your liberty as a covering for evil, but live as servants of God. ¹⁷ Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.