Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
God’s love, God’s power—in us
14 Because of this, I am kneeling down before the father, 15 the one who gives the name of “family” to every family that there is, in heaven and on earth. 16 My prayer is this: that he will lay out all the riches of his glory to give you strength and power, through his spirit, in your inner being; 17 that the Messiah may make his home in your hearts, through faith; that love may be your root, your firm foundation; 18 and that you may be strong enough (with all God’s holy ones) to grasp the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the Messiah’s love—though actually it’s so deep that nobody can really know it! So may God fill you with all his fullness.
20 So: to the one who is capable of doing far, far more than we can ask or imagine, granted the power which is working in us— 21 to him be glory, in the church, and in Messiah Jesus, to all generations, and to the ages of ages! Amen!
Feeding the five thousand
6 After this Jesus went away beside the sea of Galilee, that is, the sea of Tiberias. 2 A large crowd followed him, because they saw the signs he was doing in healing the sick. 3 Jesus went up into the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. 4 It was nearly time for the Passover, a Jewish festival.
5 Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming to him.
“Where are we going to buy bread,” he said to Philip, “so that they can have something to eat?” 6 (He said this to test him. He himself knew what he intended to do.)
7 “Even with six months’ pay,” replied Philip, “you wouldn’t be able to buy enough bread for each of them to have just a little!”
8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, joined in.
9 “There’s a lad here,” he said, “who’s got five barley loaves and two fish. But what use are they with this many people?”
10 “Make the men sit down,” said Jesus.
There was a lot of grass where they were, so the men sat down, about five thousand in all. 11 So Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks and gave them to the people sitting down, and then did the same with the fish, as much as they wanted.
12 When they were satisfied, he called the disciples.
“Collect up the bits and pieces left over,” he said, “so that we don’t lose anything.”
13 So they collected it up, and filled twelve baskets with broken pieces of the five barley loaves left behind by the people who had eaten.
14 When the people saw the sign that Jesus had done, they said, “This really is the Prophet, the one who is to come into the world.” 15 So when Jesus realized that they were intending to come and seize him to make him king, he withdrew again, by himself, up the mountain.
Jesus walking on the water
16 When it was evening, Jesus’ disciples went down to the seashore. 17 They got into a boat, and went across the sea towards Capernaum. It was already getting dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. 18 A strong wind blew up, and the sea began to get rough. 19 They had been rowing for about three or four miles when they saw Jesus walking on the sea, coming towards the boat. They were terrified.
20 But he spoke to them.
“It’s me!” he said. “Don’t be afraid!”
21 Then they were eager to take him into the boat; and at once the boat arrived at the land they had been making for.
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.