Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Ruth and Boaz

3 One day, Naomi said to Ruth, ‘My daughter, I must find a home for you. There you will have everything that you need. ² You have worked with Boaz's women workers, and he is our relative. Tonight, he will be at the threshing floor where he prepares the barley seeds.^{[a] 3} So wash yourself carefully. Put some perfume on yourself. Put on your best clothes. Then go down to the threshing floor. Do not let Boaz know that you are there. Wait quietly until he has finished his food and drink. ⁴ After that, he will lie down to sleep. Then you will see where he is lying. Go and lift the cloth from over his feet. Lie down there. Then he will tell you what you should do.’

⁵ Ruth said, ‘I will do what you have said to me.’

Ruth gives birth to a son

¹³ So Boaz married Ruth. He lived with her as his wife. The Lord blessed her so that she became pregnant. She gave birth to a son. ¹⁴ The women of Bethlehem said to Naomi, ‘We praise the Lord! Today, he has given to you a relative to take care of you! We pray that the child will become famous everywhere in Israel! ¹⁵ He will help you to feel young again. He will take care of you when you are old. Your son's wife, Ruth, has given birth to this boy. She loves you and she has helped you more than seven sons could ever do.’

¹⁶ Naomi took the child and she held him near to her. She took care of him as if he was her own son. ¹⁷ The women who lived there said, ‘Now Naomi has a son again!’ They called the boy Obed. He became the father of Jesse, who became the father of David.

A song to sing as we climb.

Solomon wrote this song.

Every good thing comes from God^[a]

²⁴ Christ did not go into a holy place that people had made on earth. A place like that is only a picture of the true place in heaven. No, Christ went into heaven itself, where God is. Now he is there with God and he speaks to God on our behalf.

²⁵ The leader of the priests here on earth goes into the Most Holy Place every year. Each time, he takes with him the blood of an animal and he offers it to God. But when Christ went into heaven to offer himself to God, he did not do that again and again. ²⁶ To do that, he would need to die again and again, many times since the world began. No! Christ has appeared just once. He has appeared now, when time is near its end. He came and he died as a sacrifice. In that way, he has removed the power of sin. ²⁷ Every person must die once. After death, God will judge each person. ²⁸ Christ also died only once as a sacrifice. In this way, he took God's punishment for the sins of many people. Christ will return to earth a second time, but that will not be as a sacrifice for sins. That time, he will come to save those people who are waiting patiently for him.

³⁸ As Jesus was teaching the people, he said, ‘Be careful not to do the same as the teachers of God's Law. They want people to think that they are important. So they walk about in beautiful long clothes. They like people to praise them in the market place. ³⁹ They want to sit in the best seats in the meeting places. They choose the most important places at special meals. ⁴⁰ But these men take things away from women after their husbands have died, even their houses. Then they pray for a long time so that other people will praise them. Because they do these things, God will punish those men much more than other people.’

Jesus talks about people who give to God

⁴¹ Many people were giving their gifts for the temple. There was a box for money there. People threw their coins into it. Jesus sat near the box and he watched them. Many rich people put a lot of money into the box. ⁴² But then a woman came there. Her husband had died and she was very poor. She put two small coins that had only a little value into the box.

⁴³ Jesus asked his disciples to come to him. He said to them, ‘I tell you this: This poor woman has put a better gift into the box than all the other people have put in there. ⁴⁴ All those rich people have plenty of money. They only put a small part of that into the box. But this woman has almost nothing. She put in all the money that she had. That was all the money that she needed to live.’