Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

71 Lord, you are my refuge! Don’t let me down! ² Save me from my enemies, for you are just! Rescue me! Bend down your ear and listen to my plea and save me. ³ Be to me a great protecting Rock, where I am always welcome, safe from all attacks. For you have issued the order to save me. ⁴ Rescue me, O God, from these unjust and cruel men. ⁵ O Lord, you alone are my hope; I’ve trusted you from childhood. ⁶ Yes, you have been with me from birth and have helped me constantly—no wonder I am always praising you!

1 ^1-2 These are God’s messages to Jeremiah the priest (the son of Hilkiah) who lived in the town of Anathoth in the land of Benjamin. The first of these messages came to him in the thirteenth year of the reign of Amon’s son Josiah, king of Judah. ³ Others came during the reign of Josiah’s son Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and at various other times until July of the eleventh year of the reign of Josiah’s son Zedekiah, king of Judah, when Jerusalem was captured and the people were taken away as slaves.

¹¹ Then the Lord said to me, “Look, Jeremiah! What do you see?”

And I replied, “I see a whip made from the branch of an almond tree.”

¹² And the Lord replied, “That’s right, and it means that I will surely carry out my threats of punishment.”^[a]

¹³ Then the Lord asked me, “What do you see now?”

And I replied, “I see a pot of boiling water, tipping southward, spilling over Judah.”^[b]

¹⁴ “Yes,” he said, “for terror from the north will boil out upon all the people of this land. ¹⁵ I am calling the armies of the kingdoms of the north to come to Jerusalem and set their thrones at the gates of the city and all along its walls, and in all the other cities of Judah. ¹⁶ This is the way I will punish my people for deserting me and for worshiping other gods—yes, idols they themselves have made! ¹⁷ Get up and dress and go out and tell them whatever I tell you to say. Don’t be afraid of them, or else I will make a fool of you in front of them. ¹⁸ For see, today I have made you impervious to their attacks. They cannot harm you. You are strong like a fortified city that cannot be captured, like an iron pillar and heavy gates of brass. All the kings of Judah, its officers, priests, and people will not be able to prevail against you. ¹⁹ They will try, but they will fail. For I am with you,” says the Lord. “I will deliver you.”

6 One Sabbath as Jesus and his disciples were walking through some grainfields, they were breaking off the heads of wheat, rubbing off the husks in their hands and eating the grains.

² But some Pharisees said, “That’s illegal! Your disciples are harvesting grain, and it’s against the Jewish law to work on the Sabbath.”

³ Jesus replied, “Don’t you read the Scriptures? Haven’t you ever read what King David did when he and his men were hungry? ⁴ He went into the Temple and took the shewbread, the special bread that was placed before the Lord, and ate it—illegal as this was—and shared it with others.” ⁵ And Jesus added, “I am^[a] master even of the Sabbath.”