Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

David Sins with Bathsheba

11 In the spring, when the kings normally went out to war, David sent out Joab, his servants, and all the Israelites. They destroyed the Ammonites and attacked the city of Rabbah. But David stayed in Jerusalem. ² One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof^[a] of his palace. While he was on the roof, he saw a woman bathing. She was very beautiful. ³ So David sent his servants to find out who she was. A servant answered, “That woman is Bathsheba daughter of Eliam. She is the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” ⁴ So David sent messengers to bring Bathsheba to him. When she came to him, he had sexual relations with her. (Now Bathsheba had purified herself from her monthly period.) Then she went back to her house. ⁵ But Bathsheba became pregnant and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.”

⁶ So David sent a message to Joab: “Send Uriah the Hittite to me.” And Joab sent Uriah to David. ⁷ When Uriah came to him, David asked him how Joab was, how the soldiers were, and how the war was going. ⁸ Then David said to Uriah, “Go home and rest.”

So Uriah left the palace, and the king sent a gift to him. ⁹ But Uriah did not go home. Instead, he slept outside the door of the palace as all the king’s officers did.

¹⁰ The officers told David, “Uriah did not go home.”

Then David said to Uriah, “You came from a long trip. Why didn’t you go home?”

¹¹ Uriah said to him, “The Ark and the soldiers of Israel and Judah are staying in tents. My master Joab and his officers are camping out in the fields. It isn’t right for me to go home to eat and drink and have sexual relations with my wife!”

¹² David said to Uriah, “Stay here today. Tomorrow I’ll send you back to the battle.” So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day and the next. ¹³ Then David called Uriah to come to see him, so Uriah ate and drank with David. David made Uriah drunk, but he still did not go home. That evening Uriah again slept with the king’s officers.

¹⁴ The next morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by Uriah. ¹⁵ In the letter David wrote, “Put Uriah on the front lines where the fighting is worst and leave him there alone. Let him be killed in battle.”

The Unbelieving Fool

For the director of music. Of David.

The Love of Christ

¹⁴ So I bow in prayer before the Father ¹⁵ from whom every family in heaven and on earth gets its true name. ¹⁶ I ask the Father in his great glory to give you the power to be strong inwardly through his Spirit. ¹⁷ I pray that Christ will live in your hearts by faith and that your life will be strong in love and be built on love. ¹⁸ And I pray that you and all God’s holy people will have the power to understand the greatness of Christ’s love—how wide and how long and how high and how deep that love is. ¹⁹ Christ’s love is greater than anyone can ever know, but I pray that you will be able to know that love. Then you can be filled with the fullness of God.

²⁰ With God’s power working in us, God can do much, much more than anything we can ask or imagine. ²¹ To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus for all time, forever and ever. Amen.

More than Five Thousand Fed

6 After this, Jesus went across Lake Galilee (or, Lake Tiberias). ² Many people followed him because they saw the miracles he did to heal the sick. ³ Jesus went up on a hill and sat down there with his followers. ⁴ It was almost the time for the Jewish Passover Feast.

⁵ When Jesus looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where can we buy enough bread for all these people to eat?” ⁶ (Jesus asked Philip this question to test him, because Jesus already knew what he planned to do.)

⁷ Philip answered, “Someone would have to work almost a year to buy enough bread for each person to have only a little piece.”

⁸ Another one of his followers, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said, ⁹ “Here is a boy with five loaves of barley bread and two little fish, but that is not enough for so many people.”

¹⁰ Jesus said, “Tell the people to sit down.” There was plenty of grass there, and about five thousand men sat down there. ¹¹ Then Jesus took the loaves of bread, thanked God for them, and gave them to the people who were sitting there. He did the same with the fish, giving as much as the people wanted.

¹² When they had all had enough to eat, Jesus said to his followers, “Gather the leftover pieces of fish and bread so that nothing is wasted.” ¹³ So they gathered up the pieces and filled twelve baskets with the pieces left from the five barley loaves.

¹⁴ When the people saw this miracle that Jesus did, they said, “He must truly be the Prophet^[a] who is coming into the world.”

¹⁵ Jesus knew that the people planned to come and take him by force and make him their king, so he left and went into the hills alone.

Jesus Walks on the Water

¹⁶ That evening Jesus’ followers went down to Lake Galilee. ¹⁷ It was dark now, and Jesus had not yet come to them. The followers got into a boat and started across the lake to Capernaum. ¹⁸ By now a strong wind was blowing, and the waves on the lake were getting bigger. ¹⁹ When they had rowed the boat about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the water, coming toward the boat. The followers were afraid, ²⁰ but Jesus said to them, “It is I. Do not be afraid.” ²¹ Then they were glad to take him into the boat. At once the boat came to land at the place where they wanted to go.