Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 118

The Creation

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. ² The earth was formless and void,^[a] darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving^[b] over the surface of the water.

³ God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. ⁴ God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. ⁵ God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.

⁶ Then God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” ⁷ So God made the expanse and separated the waters which were under the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse. And it was so. ⁸ God called the expanse Heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day.

⁹ Then God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. ¹⁰ God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. Then God saw that it was good.

¹¹ Then God said, “Let the earth produce vegetation:^[c] plants yielding seed and fruit trees on the earth yielding fruit after their kind with seed in them.” And it was so. ¹² The earth produced vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind and trees yielding fruit with seed in them after their kind. And God saw that it was good. ¹³ So the evening and the morning were the third day.

¹⁴ And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be signs to indicate seasons, and days, and years. ¹⁵ Let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth.” And it was so. ¹⁶ God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. ¹⁷ Then God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, ¹⁸ to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. Then God saw that it was good. ¹⁹ So the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

The Resurrection Body

³⁵ But someone will say, “How are the dead raised up? With what body do they come?” ³⁶ You fool! What you sow is not made alive unless it dies. ³⁷ When you sow, you do not sow the body that shall be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. ³⁸ Then God gives it a body as He pleases, and to each seed its own body. ³⁹ All flesh is not the same flesh. There is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fish, and another of birds. ⁴⁰ There are also celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies. The glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. ⁴¹ There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars. One star differs from another star in glory.

⁴² So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption. ⁴³ It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. ⁴⁴ It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.

There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. ⁴⁵ So it is written, “The first man Adam was made a living soul.”^[a] The last Adam was made a life-giving spirit. ⁴⁶ However, that which is spiritual is not first, but the natural, and then the spiritual. ⁴⁷ The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second man was the Lord from heaven. ⁴⁸ As was the man of dust, so are those who are of dust; and as is the man of heaven, so are those who are of heaven. ⁴⁹ As we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.