Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
22 It is better to receive honour from people than to be very rich.
If people respect you, that is better than silver or gold.
2 This is true about rich people and poor people:
The Lord created them all.
8 If you plant evil things,
your harvest will be trouble.
If you are angry and you hurt people,
it will never help you.
9 If you are kind to poor people and you share your food with them,
God will bless you.
22 1. Do not cheat poor people just because they are poor. Do not attack helpless people in court.
23 The Lord will speak on their behalf. He will punish anyone who cheats them.
A song to sing as we climb.
125 People who trust in the Lord are strong,
like Mount Zion.[a]
Nothing can shake it. It will always be there.
2 The Lord is always near to his people,
like the mountains round Jerusalem.
He keeps his people safe, now and for ever.[b]
3 Wicked people will not rule over God's own people.
They will not rule the land where righteous people live.
If they did, the righteous people might also do bad things.
4 Lord, please do good things to good, honest people.
Be kind to those who follow your good ways.
5 But as for people who follow their own bad ways,
Lord, please remove them!
Take them away, along with people who do evil things.
May Israel have peace!
Every person has equal value
2 My Christian friends, you must be kind to everyone. You trust the Lord Jesus Christ, who is great in heaven. So do not think that anyone is more valuable than any other person.
2 When you are meeting together as believers, maybe two men will come to join with you. One of them is wearing beautiful clothes, and he has gold rings on his hands. The other man is poor, and he is wearing old clothes that are dirty. 3 You are kind to the man who is wearing beautiful clothes. You say to him, ‘Please sit here in this good place.’ But you say to the poor man, ‘Go and stand over there.’ Or you may say to him, ‘Sit on the floor near my feet.’ 4 If you do that, you are thinking bad thoughts. You have decided that one person among you is better than another person. You must not do that.
5 My Christian friends, listen to me. God has chosen to bless people who are poor in this world. He has helped them to trust him. So really they are rich. God will give to them a place in his kingdom. He has promised to do that for all people who love him. 6 But you have not been kind to people who are poor. You have caused them to feel ashamed. Who causes you to have troubles? It is the rich people! They are the people who want the judges to punish you. 7 It is the rich people who say bad things against the good name of Jesus Christ. And you are called Christians because you belong to him.
8 But the message of God's kingdom is this: ‘Love other people as much as you love yourself.’ That is what the Bible says. If you really do that, you do well. 9 But if you are kind to some people and you are not kind to others, then you are doing a bad thing. God's Law shows that you are wrong. 10 Even if you fail to obey only one rule in God's Law, it means that you are guilty. It is the same as if you fail to obey all God's Law.
11 For example, God has said in his Law, ‘You must not have sex with anyone who is not your husband or your wife.’ But God has also said, ‘Do not kill another person.’ Perhaps you do not have sex in a wrong way like that. But if you then murder someone, God's Law shows that you are still wrong.
12 Remember that God will judge you one day. When he does that, he will use a law which makes us free. So remember this in everything that you say and in everything that you do. 13 God will not forgive anyone who has not forgiven other people. But God is kind! He judges us, but even more than that, he forgives us!
Believe God and do good things
14 My Christian brothers, you say that you believe in God. Then you must show this in the things that you do. If not, your faith will not help you. It will not save you. 15 For example, maybe a believer does not have enough clothes to wear or enough food to eat. 16 Then one of you may say to them, ‘Go with God's peace! I pray that you will be warm. I pray that you will eat well.’ But if you do not give to them what they need, that does not help them at all. 17 How we believe in God is also like that. If our faith does not lead us to do good things, then it is not worth anything. It is dead!
Jesus travels out of Israel
24 Jesus left that place. He went away to the region around Tyre. He went into a house. He did not want anyone to know that he was there. But it was not possible to keep this a secret. 25 Immediately, a certain woman heard that he was there. This woman had a daughter who had a bad spirit in her. The woman came to Jesus and she went down on her knees by his feet. 26 She was not a Jew. Her family was from Phoenicia in the country of Syria. She asked Jesus to make the bad spirit go out of her daughter.
27 Jesus said to the woman, ‘First, the children must eat all that they want. It is not right to take food from the children and then throw it to the dogs.’
28 The woman replied, ‘Yes, sir. That is true. But small pieces of food drop while the children eat. And the dogs under the table eat those pieces.’
29 ‘That is a good answer,’ Jesus replied. ‘Now the bad spirit has left your daughter. You may go.’
30 The woman went to her home. She saw her child, who was lying on the bed. The bad spirit had left the girl.
Jesus makes a man well again
31 Then Jesus went away from Tyre. He travelled through the city of Sidon. Then he went towards Lake Galilee. He was in the region called ‘The ten cities’.
32 Some people brought a man to Jesus. This man could not hear anything and he could not speak clearly. The people asked Jesus to put his hand on the man.
33 Jesus led the man away from the crowd. He put his fingers into the man's ears. Then he spat on his hands and touched the man's tongue. 34 Jesus looked up towards heaven. He cried with a low, sad sound. Then he said to the man, ‘Ephphatha!’ That means, ‘Become open!’ 35 When Jesus said this, the man started to hear. Also, his tongue was able to move properly so that he could speak clearly.
36 Jesus told the people that they must not tell anyone about this. But every time Jesus asked them not to say anything, they spoke even more about it. 37 The people were very surprised about everything that Jesus did. They said, ‘Jesus has done everything well. If people cannot hear, Jesus makes them able to hear. If people cannot speak, Jesus makes them able to speak.’
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