Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

²⁶ Uriah's wife heard the news that her husband was dead. She was very sad and she wept because of his death. ²⁷ The time for Uriah's wife to weep for her husband came to an end. Then David sent some of his men to bring her to his palace. She became David's wife. Later, she gave birth to a son. But the Lord was not pleased with David because of the bad things that David had done.

Nathan warns David

12 The Lord sent Nathan to go and speak to David.^[a] Nathan told this story to David, ‘There were two men who lived in the same town. One man was rich and the other man was poor. ² The rich man had very many sheep, goats and cows. ³ But the poor man had only one little female lamb. He had bought it and he had taken care of it. It had grown up with his own children. It ate his bits of food and it drank water from his cup. It even slept while he held it. It was like a daughter for him.

⁴ One day, the rich man had a visitor to his home. The rich man needed to make a meal for his visitor. But he did not want to kill one of his own animals. Instead, he took the poor man's lamb away from him. He cooked the lamb to feed his visitor.’

⁵ When David heard what the rich man had done, he became very angry. He said to Nathan, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, that man deserves to die. ⁶ He did that cruel thing and he was not sorry for the poor man. So he must pay the poor man enough money to buy four lambs.’

⁷ Then Nathan said to David, ‘You are that man! This is what the Lord, Israel's God, says: “I chose you as king to rule over Israel. I saved you from Saul's power. ⁸ I gave your master's palace to you, and his wives as well. I gave the kingdoms of Israel and Judah to you. And if that was not enough for you, I would have given you even more than that. ⁹ But now you have not respected the Lord's command. You have done an evil thing. You caused Uriah the Hittite to die in a battle. You used the Ammonite soldiers to kill Uriah. ¹⁰ So now your family will always have people who die in battle. When you took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own wife, you showed that you did not respect me.”

¹¹ This is what the Lord says, “I will cause someone from your own family to bring trouble to you. You yourself will see it happen! I will take your wives from you and I will give them to someone else. He will have sex with them in the daytime, for everyone to see. ¹² What you did, you did secretly. But I will cause this to happen in the light of day, so that all Israel can see it.” ’

¹³ Then David said to Nathan, ‘I have sinned against the Lord.’

Nathan replied, ‘The Lord has forgiven your sin. He will not punish you with death.

David wrote this psalm for the music leader.

It was when the prophet Nathan came to him, after David had sex with Bathsheba.

Please forgive me, Lord^[a]

God's people are like one body

4 Because I serve the Lord, I am here in prison. I really want you to live as God's own people should live. God has called you to come to him. He has chosen you to be his own people. ² Do not think that you are better than other people. Always be kind and patient with each other. Love one another, so that you do not quickly become angry with each other. ³ Do your best to let God's Spirit keep you united. You belong together so live in peace with each other. ⁴ As God's people, you are like one body. There is one Spirit that gives you life. God has chosen you to be his own people. So you all expect to receive the same great things from God. ⁵ There is one Lord. There is one true message that we must believe. There is one baptism.^{[a] 6} There is one God, who is the Father of all of us. He has authority over all of us. He works through all of us. He is in all of us.

⁷ But God has been kind to all of us. Each of us has received a special gift, just as Christ has decided to give us. ⁸ This is what it says about him:

⁹ It says: ‘He went up.’ That must mean that Christ had also come down. He came down to a lower place, the earth. ¹⁰ So the man who came down is also the man who went up, high above all the heavens. He did that so that he would fill everything everywhere.

¹¹ It was Christ who chose to give different gifts to his people. He chose some to be apostles. He chose some to speak messages from God. He chose some to tell God's good news to many people. He chose some to take care of his people, and to teach them. ¹² He gave all these gifts to help God's people to serve him in different ways. As a result, the church, which is like Christ's body, would become strong. ¹³ In that way, all of us will become united, like one person. We will all believe in Jesus as the Son of God. We will all know him. We will become like a man who has grown up well. We will be completely as God wants us to be, just like Christ himself.

¹⁴ So then we will not be like children any more. Our minds will not become confused by strange ideas. We will not change what we believe, from one thing to another. Some people teach things that are not true. They do clever things to deceive people. But we will not agree with their false message. ¹⁵ Instead, we will love each other and we will speak God's true message. As a result, we will become more and more like Christ in every way. He is the head of his body, which is the church. ¹⁶ As its head, he helps the whole body to grow well. Each part joins with the other parts so that the whole body becomes strong. As each separate part does its proper work, we love each other more and more.

²⁴ The crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were still there. So they got into the boats and they went to Capernaum. They went there to look for Jesus.

Jesus is the bread that gives us life with God

²⁵ The people found Jesus on the other side of the lake. They asked him, ‘Teacher, when did you arrive here?’ ²⁶ Jesus answered, ‘I tell you this: You saw me do miracles that show God's power. But you are not looking for me because of that. No, you are looking for me because you ate the loaves. I gave you all the food that you needed. ²⁷ Do not work only for that kind of food. It soon becomes spoiled. Instead, work to get the food that continues for ever. That kind of food gives you life with God. The Son of Man will give this food to you. God, the Father, has given the Son authority to do this.’

²⁸ Then the people asked him, ‘How can we do the work that God wants us to do?’ ²⁹ Jesus answered, ‘You should believe in the one that God has sent to you. That is the work that God wants you to do.’ ³⁰ So then the people asked him, ‘What miracle will you do? Do one that shows that God has sent you. If we see that, we will believe in you. What will you do? ³¹ Our ancestors ate manna in the wilderness. We know that it says in the Bible, “God gave bread to them from heaven for them to eat.” ’^[a]

³² Jesus said to them, ‘I tell you this: It was not Moses who gave bread to you from heaven. No. It is my Father who gives to you the true bread from heaven. ³³ God's bread is the one who comes down from heaven. He is the one who gives life to people in the world.’ ³⁴ So they said to him, ‘Sir, please give this bread to us now and always.’

³⁵ Then Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread that gives life to people. Anyone who comes to me will never be hungry. Anyone who believes in me will never be thirsty.