Scripture Readings
The Season After Pentecost
Proper 7 (12) in Year A
For the Sunday during 19 through 25 June
Scripture readings are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® NIV® ©1973, 1978, 1984 by the International Bible Society, used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers. All rights reserved.
Alternate One:
Old Testament
Psalm
Alternate Two:
Old Testament
Psalm
Epistle Reading
Gospel Reading
Old Testament (Alternate One)
The child grew and was weaned, and on the
day Isaac was weaned Abraham held a great feast. But Sarah saw that the son
whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking, and she said to Abraham,
“Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that slave woman’s son will never
share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.”
The matter distressed Abraham greatly because it
concerned his son. But God said to him, “Do not be so distressed about the boy
and your maidservant. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through
Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned. I will make the son of the maidservant
into a nation also, because he is your offspring.”
Early the next morning Abraham took some food and
a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He set them on her shoulders and then
sent her off with the boy. She went on her way and wandered in the desert of
Beersheba.
When the water in the skin was gone, she put the
boy under one of the bushes. Then she went off and sat down nearby, about a bowshot
away, for she thought, “I cannot watch the boy die.” And as she sat there nearby,
she began to sob.
God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God
called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What is the matter, Hagar? Do not
be afraid; God has heard the boy crying as he lies there. Lift the boy up and
take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation.”
Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of
water. So she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.
God was with the boy as he grew up. He lived in
the desert and became an archer. While he was living in the Desert of Paran,
his mother got a wife for him from Egypt.
—Genesis 21:8-21, NIV
Go
to the top of this pagePsalm (Alternate One)
Hear, O LORD, and answer me,
for I am poor and needy.
Guard my life, for I am devoted to you.
You are my God; save your servant
who trusts in you.
Have mercy on me, O Lord,
for I call to you all day long.
Bring joy to your servant,
for to you, O Lord,
I lift up my soul.
You are forgiving and good, O Lord,
abounding in love to all who call to you.
Hear my prayer, O LORD;
listen to my cry for mercy.
In the day of my trouble I will call to you,
for you will answer me.
Among the gods there is none like you, O Lord;
no deeds can compare with yours.
All the nations you have made
will come and worship before you, O Lord;
they will bring glory to your name.
For you are great and do marvelous deeds;
you alone are God.
Turn to me and have mercy on me;
grant your strength to your servant
and save the son of your maidservant.
Give me a sign of your goodness,
that my enemies may see it and be put to shame,
for you, O LORD, have helped me and comforted me.
—Psalm 86:1-10, 16-17, NIV
Old Testament (Alternate Two)
O LORD, you deceived me, and I was
deceived;
you overpowered me and prevailed.
I am ridiculed all day long;
everyone mocks me.
Whenever I speak, I cry out
proclaiming violence and destruction.
So the word of the LORD has brought me
insult and reproach all day long.
But if I say, “I will not mention him
or speak any more in his name,”
his word is in my heart like a fire,
a fire shut up in my bones.
I am weary of holding it in;
indeed, I cannot.
I hear many whispering,
“Terror on every side!
Report him! Let’s report him!”
All my friends
are waiting for me to slip, saying,
“Perhaps he will be deceived;
then we will prevail over him
and take our revenge on him.”
But the LORD is with me like a mighty warrior;
so my persecutors will stumble and not prevail.
They will fail and be thoroughly disgraced;
their dishonor will never be forgotten.
O LORD Almighty, you who examine the righteous
and probe the heart and mind,
let me see your vengeance upon them,
for to you I have committed my cause.
Sing to the LORD!
Give praise to the LORD!
He rescues the life of the needy
from the hands of the wicked.
—Jeremiah 20:7-13, NIV
Psalm (Alternate Two)
For I endure scorn for your sake,
and shame covers my face.
I am a stranger to my brothers,
an alien to my own mother’s sons;
for zeal for your house consumes me,
and the insults of those who insult you fall on
me.
When I weep and fast,
I must endure scorn;
[when I put on sackcloth,
people make sport of me.
Those who sit at the gate mock me,
and I am the song of the drunkards.
But I pray to you, O LORD,
in the time of your favor;
in your great love, O God,
answer me with your sure salvation.
Rescue me from the mire,
do not let me sink;
deliver me from those who hate me,
from the deep waters.
Do not let the floodwaters engulf me
or the depths swallow me up
or the pit close its mouth over me.]
Answer me, O LORD, out of the goodness of your love;
in your great mercy turn to me.
Do not hide your face from your servant;
answer me quickly, for I am in trouble.
Come near and rescue me;
redeem me because of my foes.
—Psalm 69:7-10, (11-15), 16-18, NIV
Epistle
Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?
By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you
know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into
his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in
order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the
Father, we too may live a new life.
If we have been united with him like this in his
death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we
know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be
done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who
has died has been freed from sin.
Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we
will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead,
he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died,
he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but
alive to God in Christ Jesus.
—Romans 6:1b-11, NIV
Gospel
“A student is not above his teacher, nor a
servant above his master. It is enough for the student to be like his teacher,
and the servant like his master. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebub,
how much more the members of his household!
“So do not be afraid of them. There is nothing
concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known.
What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your
ear, proclaim from the roofs. Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but
cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul
and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them
will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very
hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than
many sparrows.
“Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also
acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men,
I will disown him before my Father in heaven.
“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace
to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to
turn
“‘a man against his father,
a daughter against her mother,
a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—
a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’
“Anyone who loves his father or mother more than
me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is
not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not
worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life
for my sake will find it.”
—Matthew 10:24-39, NIV
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