Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
God chooses Isaiah to be a prophet
6 In the year when King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord God. He was sitting high up, on a throne. The ends of his long coat filled the temple. 2 Above him there were seraphs. Each one had six wings. Two wings covered the seraphs' faces. Two wings covered their feet. With the other two wings they were flying.
3 The seraphs called out to one another. They said, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty! The whole earth is full of his great glory.’
4 When the seraphs spoke, the foundation of the temple shook. And the temple became full of smoke.
5 Then I said, ‘It is bad for me! My life is at an end! I have lips that are unclean. I live among people with lips that are unclean. With my own eyes I have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.’
6 Then one of the seraphs flew towards me. In his hand was a piece of burning coal. He had used a tool to take it from the altar. 7 He touched my mouth with the piece of coal. He said to me, ‘Look! This has touched your lips. It has taken away your sin. You are no longer guilty.’
8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord God. He said, ‘Is there anyone that I can send with my message? Who will go on our behalf?’ I said, ‘I am here. Send me!’
9 The Lord said, ‘Go! Tell my message to those people:[a]
“You will continue to listen,
but you will never understand!
You will continue to look,
but you will not see anything!”
10 Make them refuse to understand. Cause their ears to be deaf and their eyes to be blind. If you do not do that, they might use their eyes to see. They might use their ears to listen. They might use their minds to understand. Then they might turn back to me so that I would make them well again.’
11 Then I asked the Lord, ‘For how long will this be, Lord God?’
He replied,
‘It must continue until enemies destroy their cities.
Their houses will become a heap of stones
and nobody will live in them.
Their land will become useless
and nothing will remain there.
12 I will send all the people far away.
The whole land will be empty and useless.
13 Even if only one tenth part of the people remain in the land, enemies will continue to destroy it. It will be like they are cutting down a great oak tree. But the base of the tree with its roots will still be there. From the part that remains, a holy branch will grow.’
David wrote this song.
Thank God for who he is
138 I will thank you, Lord, with my whole being.
I will sing and praise you in front of the gods.[a]
2 I look towards your holy temple,
and I bend down to worship you.
I thank you for who you are.
You love your people and they can always trust you.
You are more famous than anyone,
because you always do what you promise.
3 When I prayed to you, you answered me.
You made me brave and strong.
4 All the kings in the world will thank you, Lord,
when they hear the promises that you have made.
5 They will sing about the things that you have done,
because they see that you are great, Lord.
6 Yes, the Lord is high above the earth.
But he takes care of humble people.
He also knows what proud people are doing,
even if they try to hide.[b]
7 When there is danger all round me,
you help me to be strong.
When my enemy is angry, you fight against him.
You save me with your strong right hand.[c]
8 The Lord stands with me to do what he has promised.
Yes, Lord, your faithful love will always continue.
You have made us who we are,
so do not leave us now!
Christ became alive again after he died
15 My Christian friends, I want you to remember the good news that I taught to you. You received it from me and you continue to believe it as a true message. 2 Because of the message that I spoke to you, God will save you. He will save you if you continue to trust that same good news. If you do not, you have believed it for nothing.
3 I received the good news from Christ, and I told that message to you. I told you the most important things:
Christ died as a sacrifice for our sins. The Bible already said how that would happen. 4 People buried his dead body. On the third day after that God raised him up to live again. The Bible already spoke about that too.
5 After that, Christ appeared to Peter. Later, he appeared to his 12 disciples. 6 And after that, he appeared to more than 500 believers at the same time. Most of those 500 people are still alive, but some of them have died. 7 Then Christ appeared to James. Later he appeared to all the apostles.
8 After all these people had seen him, Christ also appeared to me. I was like someone who was born at the wrong time. 9 Among all the apostles, I am the least important. I caused so much trouble for God's church that people should not really call me an apostle. 10 But God was very kind to me. He helped me to become a different person. And because God has been so kind to me, the result has been great. I have worked more than all the other apostles. But it was not really I myself who could do that work. No, I could do it because God was so kind to me. 11 So then, all of us apostles teach the same good news about Christ. That is the message that you have believed. It does not matter which of us told it to you, whether it was me or someone else.
Jesus asks some men to go with him
5 One day, Jesus was standing on the shore of Lake Gennesaret.[a] A crowd was pushing to get near to him. They were listening to him. He was speaking God's message to them.
2 Jesus saw two fishing boats at the edge of the lake. The fishermen had left the boats there and they were now washing their nets.[b]
3 One of the boats belonged to Simon. Jesus climbed into it. He asked Simon to push it away from the shore. Jesus sat in the boat and he started to teach the people.[c]
4 When Jesus had finished teaching, he said to Simon, ‘Now take the boat out into deep water. Then put the nets into the water to catch some fish.’
5 Simon replied, ‘Teacher, we worked all last night and we did not catch anything. But because you say it, I will put the nets into the water again.’ 6 So they went in their boats and they put the nets down into the water. When they did that, they caught many fish. There were so many fish that the nets began to break. 7 So they made signs to the fishermen in the other boat. They told the other fishermen to come and help. So the other men came in their boat. They filled both boats with the fish. There were so many fish that the boats began to go down under the water. 8 When Simon saw all the fish, he went down on his knees in front of Jesus. ‘Sir,’ he said, ‘I am a bad man. So please go away from me.’[d]
9 Simon and his friends were very surprised. They were all surprised because they had caught so many fish. 10 Zebedee's sons, James and John, were fishermen who worked with Simon. They were also surprised. Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid. You have been catching fish. From now on you will catch people!’[e]
11 After that, they went and they pulled their boats up on the shore. Then they left everything behind and they went with Jesus.
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