Lectionary 21, Year C

⁹ Then you will call, and the LORD will answer. You will cry for help, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’ “If you take away from among you the yoke, finger pointing, and speaking wickedly; ¹⁰ and if you pour out your soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light will rise in darkness, and your obscurity will be as the noonday; ¹¹ and the LORD will guide you continually, satisfy your soul in dry places, and make your bones strong. You will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters don’t fail. ¹² Those who will be of you will build the old waste places. You will raise up the foundations of many generations. You will be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of Paths with Dwellings. ¹³ “If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, and the holy of the LORD honorable; and honor it, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, ¹⁴ then you will delight yourself in the LORD, and I will make you to ride on the high places of the earth, and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father;” for the LORD’s mouth has spoken it.

¹ Praise the LORD, my soul! All that is within me, praise his holy name! ² Praise the LORD, my soul, and don’t forget all his benefits, ³ who forgives all your sins, who heals all your diseases, ⁴ who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies, ⁵ who satisfies your desire with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. ⁶ The LORD executes righteous acts, and justice for all who are oppressed. ⁷ He made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the children of Israel. ⁸ The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness.

¹⁸ For you have not come to a mountain that might be touched, and that burned with fire, and to blackness, darkness, storm, ¹⁹ the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which those who heard it begged that not one more word should be spoken to them, ²⁰ for they could not stand that which was commanded, “If even an animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned”. ²¹ So fearful was the appearance that Moses said, “I am terrified and trembling.” ²² But you have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable multitudes of angels, ²³ to the festal gathering and assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, ²⁴ to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better than that of Abel. ²⁵ See that you don’t refuse him who speaks. For if they didn’t escape when they refused him who warned on the earth, how much more will we not escape who turn away from him who warns from heaven, ²⁶ whose voice shook the earth then, but now he has promised, saying, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens.” ²⁷ This phrase, “Yet once more” signifies the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that have been made, that those things which are not shaken may remain. ²⁸ Therefore, receiving a Kingdom that can’t be shaken, let’s have grace, through which we serve God acceptably, with reverence and awe, ²⁹ for our God is a consuming fire.