Lectionary 21, Year A

¹ “Listen to me, you who follow after righteousness, you who seek the LORD. Look to the rock you were cut from, and to the quarry you were dug from. ² Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you; for when he was but one I called him, I blessed him, and made him many. ³ For the LORD has comforted Zion. He has comforted all her waste places, and has made her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD. Joy and gladness will be found in them, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody. ⁴ “Listen to me, my people; and hear me, my nation, for a law will go out from me, and I will establish my justice for a light to the peoples. ⁵ My righteousness is near. My salvation has gone out, and my arms will judge the peoples. The islands will wait for me, and they will trust my arm. ⁶ Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath; for the heavens will vanish away like smoke, and the earth will wear out like a garment. Its inhabitants will die in the same way, but my salvation will be forever, and my righteousness will not be abolished.

¹ I will give you thanks with my whole heart. Before the gods, I will sing praises to you. ² I will bow down toward your holy temple, and give thanks to your Name for your loving kindness and for your truth; for you have exalted your Name and your Word above all. ³ In the day that I called, you answered me. You encouraged me with strength in my soul. ⁴ All the kings of the earth will give you thanks, O LORD, for they have heard the words of your mouth. ⁵ Yes, they will sing of the ways of the LORD, for the LORD’s glory is great! ⁶ For though the LORD is high, yet he looks after the lowly; but he knows the proud from afar. ⁷ Though I walk in the middle of trouble, you will revive me. You will stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies. Your right hand will save me. ⁸ The LORD will fulfill that which concerns me. Your loving kindness, O LORD, endures forever. Don’t forsake the works of your own hands.

¹ Therefore I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service. ² Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God. ³ For I say through the grace that was given me, to every man who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think reasonably, as God has apportioned to each person a measure of faith. ⁴ For even as we have many members in one body, and all the members don’t have the same function, ⁵ so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another, ⁶ having gifts differing according to the grace that was given to us: if prophecy, let’s prophesy according to the proportion of our faith; ⁷ or service, let’s give ourselves to service; or he who teaches, to his teaching; ⁸ or he who exhorts, to his exhorting; he who gives, let him do it with generosity; he who rules, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.